Sydney/Perth Workshop Examples

These are some different colours and finishes I've been playing around with as examples for the upcoming workshops I'm teaching in Perth and Sydney. I've also used silver leaf instead of gold for a change. The spirals (made from scraps left on the table) and pillow beads are finished with fimo gloss and the pendants and tiles are finished with Lisa Pavelkas Magic Glos which is more like a resin.

"Praying for Nature" wheel beads

Inspired by the beautiful BVLGARI tubogas technique and those fabulous tibetan prayer wheels... the middle ring moves around freely. I love the deeply etched stamps and home made textures I used to create these beads and couldn't resist the play on words...nature needs all the help we can give it if the planet is to survive...
Strung on magnetic clasped steel cable threaded with softglass and pewter daisy-like beads. These are keepers!

Aussie Hearts

Called aussie hearts because these colours are so aussie, they mimic the colours of the traditional aboriginal paintings with those delicious rich hues...
Using Premo polymer clay and Kathi's fabulous brain cane tutorial (three cheers to Kathi!). That tute is a little ripper!
What I like about the brain cane is that it's great for heart and other shapes because it doesn't mind being distorted like a geometric pattern would, in fact, a little tweeking here and there makes it even more interesting. Go on, try it! You know you want to...:)
It's been a real 'heart' focus for me this month. Our jewellery collective Hammer and Hand, is holding a 'hearts and witches' night and exhibition for friday the 13th of Feb, the evening before Valentines day. We're all making pieces to suit the theme. These (and the pmc hearts of the previous post) are my heart contribution, they will be for sale on the night. For the 'witches' side of the theme, I'm attempting a broomstick in silver metal clay. A very talented Lisa Moody from SA made one a few years back and I just loved it. I'm halfway making one of my own, am using a gnarly stick for the handle, yet to work out the brush part...

Heartscapes

Lets start the new year off with hearts. I'm calling these silver clay hearts "Heartscapes". They mimic my own heart, patterned with life's ouchies, big and small, in fact, made more beautiful for it all, so long as one stays open.........