rings

Since the last post, I've finished the ring that was shown in the previous post. So here is a picture of it after being set and polished.

When that was finished, I made another ring. I used reticulation for the first time. This is when you try to heat the silver so that it melts a little bit and creates an interesting texture but doesn't melt completely. The little beads were made by melting small bits of silver. I created another texture on the ring shank, which is the bit that is on your finger by hammering it with a raising hammer.

At the moment I'm doing an evening class, one day a week. I'm working on a wax ring at the moment. I will post pictures when it is finished. I will probably get it cast in silver. This is the first time that I've made anything using wax so it is interesting to see what processes are the same as using silver and what processes are different. 

Mackintosh necklace

This is my latest jewellery creation. I did a tour last month of the Glasgow School of Art and then I went to the Willow Tea Rooms, both of these were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The flower on this pendant was inspired by some of the flower designs used by Mackintosh in his work. 

I have started a ring as well. It still needs to be cleaned and polished and the stone needs to be set. Here is what it looks like at the moment.

Sketches - January to March

Here are some sketches from the last few months.

The sketch on the left is one done at the Botanic Gardens. I was finishing a sketchbook that I have been using for the last few years so I did a google search relating to goodbyes and endings. The middle sketch was drawn from one of the images that came up. For the third picture, I didn't have any plan but just started to draw and a girl smelling some flowers was the result. Italy is a place that I have never been to but I would like to visit at some stage. There are certain cities I want to travel to in Italy and its probably not the most original list- Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan and Naples although I would also like to see some of the less well known places. For the image below, I did another google search- this time for Venice. One of the images that caught my eye was a painting of Venice and this was a continuous line drawing that I drew while looking at the painting.

There is a novel called The Language of Flowers that I read recently and the protagonist was a girl who used the victorian language of flowers to the people around her. This image was inspired by that idea. I drew flowers that are supposed to have certain meanings such as health and happiness and drew these. I had people in mind when drawing the flowers so it was kind of a wish for them done through a drawing- I hope that makes sense and it doesn't make me sound weird. 

These two pictures were drawn in Edinburgh. The brochure for the National Portrait Gallery for the start of the year had  a picture of Annie Lennox on the front. This was because they were going to be  doing a temporary exhibition of photographs of Annie Lennox. The first sketch was done while looking at the photo on the brochure. The second picture above was something I drew on part of the bus journey from Edinburgh city centre to the airport.

The following sketches were all done while out with the Dublin Sketchers. 

The above sketches are from paintings at Chester Beatty.

 These are from the National Gallery. The middle image was from a painting while the other two sketches are of statues in the gallery.

These are from the grounds of the Imma.  

This last picture is from Costa Coffee. I went there before one of the days at the National gallery. Italy has made another appearance as the photos on the wall are all of Italy.

Dr Sketchys

Dr Sketchys had two sessions this month and I was at both of them. Here are some drawings from the first session. The theme was an exercise class. 

Dr Sketchys like to do competitions where they ask for the best caption or to add something to the drawing. At this session they asked people to put in junk food. On the first drawing, I started to draw a pizza and then changed to a cake so I'm not really sure what it looks like. 

The second competition was for the best title for a workout dvd so my title was Dr. Sketchys Shape Sessions.

Etched necklace

This was a necklace made over 2 weekends. Most of the weekend just gone was spent filing and sanding it with emery paper. I hope you like it. I also spent some time messing around with wax which was fun and the next weekend that I attend at the Irish design shop I will try to make something from wax that would then be cast in silver. I think that I must have been in a world of my own for part of the weekend because it was only when I had this polished that I saw the amount of work that everyone else did. 

First few sketches of 2013

This sketch was the first of the year and it was done on the 1st of January.

Two random ones...

Today was my first outing of the year with the Dublin sketchers. We went to the National Art Gallery so here is the sketches from today. The one on the left is a statue- Girl reading by Patrick Macdowell. The one on the right is one of the walls in the cafe of the gallery.

 


















The next sketch is from a painting- Le Corsage Noir (the black corsage) by Berthe Merisot.

The Gallery is going to be doing some refurbishments over the next 3 years. They have a room at the poster with posters explaining what they are hoping to do. There is also a wooden model of the gallery. Here is a drawing of the model- the perspective is a bit off though. 

Dog pin

Today I attended a jewellery workshop at the Irish Design Shop. The two teachers Claire and Laura have a book that has lots of different outlines of things like animals, trees, leaves, cars and people. It comes with a cd so you can print out a particular image. They use these templates to give to people for their first project to get people used to piercing and also an introduction to soldering. I chose the dog above. I cut the shape with a piercing saw, filed and cleaned it, soldered a pin to the back then spray-painted it blue.