Bellisimo! Ponte Vechio + Cinque Terra

La luna and the Ponte Vecchio

During the first week I was in Florence I was graced with a full moon which glowed like a delightful peach in the summery sky. To enjoy the balmy evenings we packed a picnic and ate dinner on the bridge. Ponte Vecchio means 'old bridge', built in 1335 each side of the street are shops selling jewellery, art and souvenirs. 

As promised, here are some pictures of the finished objects I was working on last week.

Brass ring

Silver leaf pendant : front

Silver leaf pendant : reverse

Whilst in Italy I couldn't resist a trip to the Cinque Terra, (five villages) that are connected by walking paths. Because the terrain is so steep some of the villages are still not connected by road, with rail and boat as the only mode of transport. If you are really energetic you could walk all five in one day, but with the current hot summer days, I wouldn't recommend it! We ended up walking one of the three trails that were open and by the end of it a swim was very necessary.

The scenery between Levanto and Montarosso on the hike

Picnic on the rocks in Riomagiore

Back at school for week 2 I couldn't help but admire the beauty of the jewellers block which bears witness to the many hands that learn jewellery at the Accademia Riaci.

I commenced a pair of traditional Florentine design earrings which have been cut out in silver. 

I also made a Florentine Seal ring, which is quite complicated and technically challenging (for me anyway!) 

The class is incredibly small, with only two students, which makes it more like private lessons. I feel incredibly lucky to have such an amazing opportunity to learn traditional technical skills as most of what we do is by hand (no additional tools or machinery with the exception of the polishing wheels). We have an interpreter to explain what our teacher says, although I can understand most of what he is saying by watching his demonstrations. I wonder what I will make next?

Ciao! x

Limited production pieces

Our last assignment for Jewellery 2 was to create a limited production line of jewellery. 

The intention for this project is to give us an idea of what it is like to create production pieces, starting with  designing a prototype - and then once the design had been tweaked - we then had to make 9 versions of the design.

Prototype of my pendant design

One of the great things about our Professor, Pam Ritchie, is that she encourages us to use materials not always associated with jewellery. So, inspired by my current love of lichen, I designed a pendant that incorporated found wood and copper discs that were covered with a green patina.

I was a little apprehensive at having to make 9 identical pieces, however once I got into the swing of things, I realised that there was a method to making on a larger scale. And I really enjoyed it.

Along with developing the prototype I also had to undertake some experiments on how to seal in the green patina so that it didn't rub off on the wearer. I started off with a clear matt enamel spray on the domes, but I felt that they needed to be shiny so I then experimented with a clear enamel.

I was having so much fun with the design that I also created matching earrings.

Here are the pendants all lined up waiting to be attached to handmade copper chain. They turned into an army of stick insects!

I totally forgot to take a picture of the pendant attached to the chain before I handed them in, so Ill have to share that with you in the new year when I get the marked pieces back. 

Enamelling: Collaborative Assignment Stage 3

This week we selected a piece of paper which had a number written on it. Then working backwards, from the highest number to the lowest, each person in the class had the opportunity to select an enamelled piece to work on.

I drew number one, which meant that I was lucky last. This worked well for me, because I truly don't know which object I would've selected had I the choice. And I ended up with Tamika's piece, that had recently been worked on by Candy.

Candy's rational for her enamelled colours was that the shape reminded her of flames, so she re-enamelled it from yellow through to red.

Funnily enough, this piece caused me many sleepless nights, as I pondered on how I was going to create some changes acknowledging the work done by Candy, but also make it sympathetic to Tamika and her personality and design aesthetic.

I found that the strong almost primary colours were too much for the delicate nature of the piece. In addition the enamel was starting to chip off some of the smaller areas.

So I removed all the enamel using a sand blaster. I had forgotten that there was texture on the original piece (Tamika had enamelled it using transparent colours which allowed the texture to come through)

Tamika's artwork back to copper

Because of the fragile nature of one of the joins, I decided to cut it up into three pieces. I turned two pieces into an asymmetrical pair of earrings. 

The shape and patterning of Tamika's original design always made me think of water, so I wanted to use enamels that had those qualities. I combined transparent turquoise with copper green to get depth in colour, and used the pull though technique with opaque white. 

Detail of the opaque white pull through

Tiny bits of torn sterling silver foil was also added to give extra depth and reflective qualities.

Another detail of the earrings. 

The third piece I turned into a necklace.

Detail of necklace

When we had to present our changes to the class, I was really nervous. I didn't want to offend Candy.

But thankfully she was ok with my changes. Phew!

I have found this project to be incredibly enlightening. It has taught me that I am more concerned about working on another person's artwork, than I am on my own pieces. This is an outcome I find fascinating, since the concept of the project was to let go of ownership of your artwork and creativity.

Next week we get our original designs back for the original creator to finish. I wonder what mine will look like....

Material Matters: Steel String + Wood

Continuing my exploration using wood as an alternative material to creating jewellery I found a stick covered with lichen. Its shape was delightful and I didn't want to cut it up like I had done with previous experiments. 

Wanting to keep the delicate lichen intact, I dipped the stick in resin which gave it a slightly shiny sheen. And looking to work with other metals, I chose to work with steel wire, string and slices of wood to assemble the necklace. 

Also continuing my work with sticks, at the eleventh hour I thought of this fun idea using sticks to create earrings. 

These earrings can be found on my online store. 

Material Matters: Foraging for wood

I got such great results from slicing into found pieces of wood (see last weeks post about wood and resin) that I decided to continue working with this method of using wood collected in the bush.

I found a great piece that measured about 8cm in diameter with weathered, sun bleached bark that I thought could be interesting to work with. To my delight, when I started slicing it on the band saw, the interior was just, if not more, interesting combining beautiful wood grain with interesting patterns eaten out of the wood by insects.

I was interested to see what would happen if I combined the sliced wood with precious metals such as sterling silver chain. The chain began to represent all sorts of things, like the thick heavy chains that are used to keep the cars of the old bush tracks. And through using such fine chain, it also started to talk about the delicate balance of nature. 

A Stitch in Time

A stitch in time (detail)

I created a needle by soldering a length of sterling silver wire to the chain to assist with threading the chain through the slices of wood. Following on from my thoughts about time and the environment, this became a conceptual piece called 'a stitch in time'. I decided to leave the needle attached as part of the finished piece.

Hanging on by a Thread

Hanging on by a Thread (detail)

I also finely sliced and re-threaded a selection. They move nicely when worn and made a lovely soft rattle when moved.

I experimented and made some large brooches. 

And also some earrings. These are the beginnings of a new line of jewellery and can be bought in my online store.