telling tales:in the garden wire and fibre ring

in the garden wire and fibre ring, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

This wire and fibre ring is from my "into the garden" series, inspired mostly by my parents' lush scottish back yard and with more than a slight finger poke at the Etsy-hipster terrarium fad.

Thus, the terrarium you an wear on your hand - a little garden for your fingers!

needlefelted fibres with metal and plastic elements on wire crochet base

telling tales: fine silver maple leaf pendant

featured!, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

This piece is a happy marriage of parenting with crafting. My other blog deals with my daily life, trying to fit in some crafty moments in, around and in spite of family life. Making these fine silver pendants actually fits in with family life without too much disruption.

Autumn walks with my Wee Guy usually generate a large number of 'found' objects coming home. He collects rocks, twigs, pinecones and I select maple leaves from the ornamental trees near our home. Once collected they are vaselined to an old margarine tub lid to prevent them drying out then painted with art clay silver slurry.

Once a few layers are on and dried I can continue the painting at a more leisurely pace. My studio for this project is up on an old bookcase with all my tools at hand. Whenever I pass I paint on another layer then go and fold laundry or whatever.

Once enough layers have built up the leaves can be fired and polished leaving a 99.9% pure silver 'cast' of the original leaf.

Each one is truly a one-of-a-kind and cannot be repeated since the original leaf burns away in the firing process.

wordless wednesday: on display

thinking about green gallery exhibit, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

telling tales: purity wire crochet cuff

purity cuff front, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

One of the very first wire crochet cuffs I made was for a competition. The bead sets were pre-chosen and competitors had to use them in a piece of jewelry. My entry was a cuff, earrings and necklace set, all featuring wire crochet. I think I used some kind of craft wire, possibly tinned copper.
Although my favourite wire of choice is the copper-core Artistic Wire for sheer ease of handle, colour spectrum and spooling (it doesn't fly off the drum at you when tension is released) I do also work in precious metals.
This Purity cuff is worked in fine, aka 99.9%, silver with a lovely collection of freshwater pearls and white gemstone beads. After working with some pretty eclectic mixes of bead soups for my cuffs I sought sanctuary in a pure white selection.
Thus "purity".

PS: my entry for the bead challenge won second place btw!

telling tales: fine silver daisy ring

daisy ring side, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

continuing the story behind the pieces for the Blackberry Artist's Society featured artist display this month.

When I first started making jewelry all my connections were 'cold' ie. I didn't solder or use heat to join pieces together. There's an amazing amount of work that can be accomplished just using this type of process and there's also the comfort from not playing around with fire.

...... but then the call of the fire becomes too strong!

The flower ring above was made in two stages. The flower itself is almost pure silver (sterling silver is only 92.5% pure in comparison) and was made by pressing art clay silver into a mould while still damp. Once dry, the flower can be gently tapped out then fired (encounter with fire #1) to temperature for two minutes, burning off the organic binder and leaving the pure metal.



It is mounted on a sterling silver ring shank which I cut, formed and soldered (encounter with fire #2) myself.

The mould itself is an amazingly intricate work of art in itself. After some late night chat in the Etsy forums I found that Lisa (seaurchin - yes, she is an Aardman model maker IRL!) was looking for people to test out her handmade ceramic moulds. I sent her a message and before long two beautiful moulds arrived, one fired and one plaster, all the way from England. My part of the bargain was to catalogue the steps I took testing them out with art clay silver.

Both moulds worked excellently. The plaster one is less robust and will make a very limited run of pieces but the fired daisy flower should go on and on, fitting right in with the garden inspiration for a lot of my work.


inverno fine silver pendant

telling tales: simplicity lace

It's May and my work is being featured in the Blackberry Gift Shop at the Port Moody Arts Centre so each day I'm going to tell the story behind a piece on display.
Today it's the turn of the very simple lace wire cuffs as shown above.
A conversation with a buyer at a craft fair last year inspired my move into simpler pieces to wear. She was talking to me initially about some of my more ornate necklaces and suggested that I make some simpler pieces of jewelry to make up the set. Rather than go out decked like a christmas tree with wire and beads on every appendage, some women have the style savvy to carry off one statement piece with simpler dress, make up and accessories. I'd also bought a copy of the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet stitches, and was dying to translate some of the lace patterns into wire crochet.Using a very simple shell pattern and no beads I came up with a cuff which has texture and pattern but can be worn very casually or to balance the more ornate or statement piece. Usually I crochet in 26G wire, but changing to 28G instead produced a much softer fabric with drape. The cuffs became more delicate and spider webbish. Crocheted in 26G they possess body and presence.
As usual I mix it up, so the cuffs on display in the giftshop are a mix of wire gauges and metals. They are available in tinned copper, silver, gold, argentium sterling silver and black wires.

telling tales: Is It Spring Yet?

This month I'm the featured artist in the local artist cooperative giftshop which I sell thru. It's an incredible honour and means that my work is showcased in a beautiful display for all visitors to see.
There are wire crochet cuffs, wire and fibre brooches and my new needle felted rings on view in a gorgeous setting (thanks Val and Alina).
So for May I thought I would try to tell the story behind some of  the pieces on display.
I should admit straight up that I've already blogged about the Is It Spring Yet? theme, but it's a story worth telling again IMO!
Each piece features white beads on silver wire but with three green beads hiding in the mix. I usually make an Is It Spring Yet? piece at the end of the winter when I'm longing to see new growth and am totally fed up with snow, grey weather and rain (it being Vancouver BC and all). The three green beads represent that green growth, the new shoots of spring. Totally white pieces on silver generally get called 'inverno' or winter, so adding the green breaks the monotony. I usually only make one Is It Spring Yet? piece per year so it is something of a limited edition. This year's project was a three stranded wire crochet bracelet in argentium sterling silver with glass, white agate, white howlite and pearls. The tiny green beads are green glass.