Niky Sayers Artisan Jewellery: art elements

Showing posts with label art elements. Show all posts

31.7.18

July Art Elements Challenge

July's Art Elements Theme Challenge was chosen by our wonderful and talented Jen Cameron and was seed pods.
As soon as I learnt of the theme I started to collected all the different seed pods that I came across, but I had no idea what I was going to make and found it hard to get started.

I decided to try some thing easy to begin with and made this copper fold formed seed pod with Jen's beautiful lamp work head pins bursting out....

Then once I saw Claire's fantastic polymer clay tutorial on the Art Elements Blog I decided that I needed to try making some of those, I did not unfortunately get to Finnish these as I am very easily distracted and they need a few more coats of paint....

The polymer clay got me thinking, oh how about moulding tiny seed pods and recreating them in silver metal clay?!?

I looked for the smallest I could get my hands on but with the best textures and heres what I came up with....

I started to add gems and beads to see what I could create with the metal clay pods but in the end they just looked much better on there own so I made them into simple earrings, the studs have a wonderful star type pattern.

Then I wanted to try some art work, I really like the idea of painting and drawing but always find it hard to get started! So on these ones I used parts of the seed pods and either stuck them on to the page or used them and some acrylic paint to print on the page, these were experiments and need a bit more work but as I was making the "helicopter" seed pod piece I was distracted by how much they looked like dragonfly wings so then I made this....

Not seed pods but seed pod inspired, I made a water cooler background (I had much too much fun doing this and may have made 50 or so water colours splats) and used the helicopter pods and some acrylic paints to print the wings and drew a very simple dragonfly and added some more water colour, I rather like this one!

Thank you Jen for inspiring us all this month, I can't wait to see what everyone else has created...

Guest Artists:

Tammy

Raven

Alysen

Anita

Cat

Kimberly

Rozantia

Art Elements Team:

Jen

31.5.18

May Art Elements Blog Hop - Tide Pools

Yet another month over in the blink of an eye!
May's theme was chosen by the wonderful and very talented Lesley Watt and was Tide Pools or Rock Pools as we call them over here.
When I think of rock pools I always think of sea anemones, I have never seen any in the wild, only ever in the sea life centre, but thats where my mind heads straight to.
While searching through my stash (as often I do while looking for inspiration) our wonderful Jen's Lampwork headpins kept screaming out "I look like a sea anemone caught in a water bubble what more do you want?" the original idea was a wide band ring with the head pin at the middle surrounded with silver rocks, but some how I got distracted and the idea transformed into a pendent....

I tend to be easily distracted! The main stone has a hole drilled through the centre and the headpin (which is set in a 9ct gold bezel) and "rocks" (which are all soldered together as one piece) have been set as you would set a stone on stone. The actual stone has then been set in a very thick sterling silver prong setting.
I then had another idea I wanted to make a rock pool, not an actual rock pool but a tiny little metal ring dish inspired by rock pools....

I started off by gathering some of my sea stones, shells and sea glass that had interesting patterns on it and then I added in a few tiny fossils (I'm thinking rock pool in the Jurassic Coast, in Devon a place that is on my bucket list to visit) I then made a fimo texture plate with these pieces and tested it on the fimo before breaking open the metal clay.

Unfortunately I have not gotten around to firing the metal clay pieces yet, but I did experiment more with the fimo pieces (why dose spell check keep correcting fimo to limo? what even is limo?) pieces and I was really pleased with how they came out....

These are the little cabs I had made, these have each had several layers of water colour paint and one of them has even had a layer of resin, which I plan to do to all of them, but I ran out as I used the last of my resin on my little ring dish....

I really love this piece and it turned out much better then I expected, again it is coloured with many layers of water colour paint that pooled into the recesses, a few coats of matt varnish and then a thick coat of resin.

I love how much it looks like ceramic and am planing to make a little metal stand for it, possibly out of a domed coin with three soldered rocks for legs!

I had so much fun this month, Thank you Leslie for inspiring us!

I hope you will all join me in hopping around the other blogs....

Guests

Raven

Kelly

Cat

Kathy

Tammy

Alyson

Elaine

Mischelle

Deborah

Anita

Sarajo

AE Team Members:

Lesley

Sue

31.10.17

October Art Elements COM

October was my turn to host the Art Elements component of the month and due to my first idea not quite panning out I decided to send out hare coin clasps.

The clasps are made by doming old Irish 3d coins and soldering a hook clasp on the back, I have always been fascinated with old, unusual or just beautifully designed coins and love that they are so easy to use in jewellery, and here is what I created with mine....

A simple bracelet made with thick sterling silver chain, a couple of lampwork beads (with a dicro core so they sparkle beautifully), a couple of lampwork headpins by Earthshine beads and a beautiful moon and star by our very wonderful Lesley Watt.

This was a complete pain in the backside to photo due to every thing being shiny and reflective (the moon and star are a silvery glaze on one side and a beautiful deep blue on the other adding just a touch of colour), but I really love it, my very own moon gazing hare!

Thank you to everyone that joined in and I can't wait to see what everyone else has created and I hope you will join me

Guest Designers

Art Element Team

30.9.17

September AJ COM

Septembers component of the month was provided by the wonderful Laney Mead and were these adorable Zom-bees (photo of course stolen off the AE Blog, as I always forget to photo first).

Now for some time I was quiet flummoxed as to what to do with mine, see the hole goes through his mouth and if I was to string him you would get a side view but he has the most adorable little face so I wanted him facing forward!

Then there was the lightbulb moment, I would make a little halloween scene for him....

I wanted to find a small rustic wooden type of box for my scene but I could not find one so I had to improvise and use what I had!

A few coats of acrylic paint later and it was looking much better and it was time to bring out the fimo....

The first and only thought I had was a zombie crawling out of a grave, I had no real idea of what I was doing as I don't use fimo often but figured I would have a play and see what happens.

lots of coats of paint later and I rather like it, plus look at how cute his little face is.....

Thank you Laney for such a wonderful challenge!

I hope everyone will join me to see what all the others have created....

Guests

http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.co.uk/ – Linda

http://www.beadsforbusygals.com/ – Elisabeth Auld

Team

http://www.lesleywatt.com/ – Lesley Watt

http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog – Jennifer Cameron

http://dianaptaszynski.indiemade.com/blog – Diana Ptaszynski

https://jdaviesreazor.com/blog/ – Jenny Davis-Reazor

http://suebeads.blogspot.co.uk/ – Susan Kennedy

http://blueberribeads.co.uk/ – Caroline Dewison

http://phantasmcreation.blogspot.co.uk/ – Lindsay Starr

http://cmendola.blogspot.co.uk/– Cathy Spiey Mendola

http://saraccino.blogspot.co.uk/ – Claire Fabian

http://silverniknats.blogspot.co.uk/ – Niky Sayers

http://laneymead.co.uk/ – Laney Mead

31.8.17

August AE COM

The Art Element component of the month for August has been provided by the amazingly talented Caroline of BlueBerri Beads, and this time I remembered to photo them before I started....

Arn't they stunning!

As soon as I saw these beads I started singing "fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...." and I just could not get the song out of my head and then I started playing with my stash and out came this beautiful Raven cab by our very lovely Jenny Davies-Reazor and then this....

I made a part bezel part prong setting for the lovely Raven and then hung the beautiful star bead on some really thick silver wire with a couple of melted silver bead caps.

I intend to hang this off a really thick silver snake chain, there is even a little surprise on the back....

A cute little hare gazing longingly up at the stars!

Thank you so much Caroline I have throughly enjoyed emerging myself in making this little treasure! I hope everyone will join me hopping around the rest of the participants

Guests

Art Elements Team

30.7.17

Component of the Month Reveal – July

It's time for the Art Elements July COM reveal and this months amazing design was created by the fab Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads and were these beyond beautiful scarab beads....

This is the beautiful bead I received and I could not wait to get started.

I had just purchased a new wire tutorial from Lisa Barth for a celtic knot bail and I thought that the lines of the wire would complement the lines in the bead so I made up this piece (please excuse the ribbon I was thinking a beautiful hand dyed ribbon with turquoise and light brown with lots of loose edges would look beautiful but I just did not have any)....

But it just did not work for me (I think I need to practice making the knot a few more times so it is neater or try making it with three wires or thicker wires or something) the feather is a beautiful creation of Laura Mears, but I decided to rip it apart and try again....

This time I used two Egyptian Digg beads and lots of chain mail

But still it dose not feel finished, I'm thinking it needs a little something else. Maybe a rustic chunky spacer in-between the scarab and the Egyptian beads? and I don't like the way the bead moves despite me trying to tighten it as much as possible so I will work on trying to stop that too!

So mine is very much a work in progress but I can't wait to see what everyone else has created.

Thank you so much Sue for the amazing bead!

Guests

AE Team

Sue

29.6.17

June COM

I'm not sure how, but it is time again for our monthly Art Elements Insect COM Reveal! This months challenge was hosted by the very talented Diana Ptaszynski and oh I had so many ideas! First off I was going to needle felt this little ancient fairy/moth guy....

But it turns out this was a lot header then I thought it would be! But no problem, instead I would go on a bug hunt for some inspiration and I managed to find and photo these little beauties.

Really cute little jewel coloured beetle that lucky for me landed on my daughters beautiful golden hair.

And I got really lucky and stumbled upon this amazing stag beetle. I only ever see one, maybe two of these a year at most but this one had amazing timing!

Finding and photographing insects is surprisingly difficult, on the beautiful sunny days there were so many stunning dragonflies, busy bee's and fluttering butterflies around the local ponds but oh my they were uncooperative and hard to photo (much respect to all those wonderful nature photographers out there) but this little guy, well he was an utter star! the dark parts of his wings were a shimmery gold and the white had a stunning mother of pearl sheen plus he stayed still long enough for a rather artsy shot!

My next idea was to paint a very abstract butterfly a lot like my mixed media mandalas but with a butterfly focal, but try as I might I could just not get the colours right (so instead I sulked). Oh and then there were all those beautiful lampwork insect beads that I intended to wire wrap, yeah that did not happen either! So with time running out I got out my trusty cabs and started playing!

Something that not many people know about me is that I am scared stiff of butterflies! Yes they are beautiful stunning creatures but they really have it in for me and they just dive bomb me! So this one time when I was ~~accidentally~~ purposely lead into the butterfly tent at London Zoo (by my mean other half who likes to push me out of my comfort zone for his own entertainment) I got chatting to the insect keeper on the way out that had noticed my discomfort and explained that the butterflies were probably attracted to the salt in my sweat so it's a no win situation, I see one, it makes me sweat and then they try to lick me!

Still with butterflies in mind I looked through my cab stash and came across a stunning ammolite cab that my wonderful and kind friend Kathryn had sent me and it was just perfect! The colours reminded me of the blue morpho butterfly as it has the same kind of sheen, and here is what I made....

I kept the design very simple, it has a hidden tube bail on the back and the stone (and ball) is set in 18ct gold for a little contrast....

It is not quiet finished as I plan to hang it on a 2mm sterling chocker with a few tiny butterflies fluttering up the side and maybe a little more gold?