A Sassy Conspiracy

look look look! yeah, i totally made that.

Also, reposting the poster because the venue info has changed and, well, the show is in one week. Apt613 posted about the venue debacle (as well as some very lovely things about the SO) here if you’re interested. Anyone who’s free should come to the show to support Apt613 and cheer us on! :)

So I did what I said I wouldn’t and went on craftster last night to see if there were any jewelry submissions for the challenge. There was one, yes, and boy, did it set the bar high. I sat there for a few minutes, totally demoralized and sulking until the boy threatened to throw something at my head. He also (very kindly) told me “he didn’t think the submission was all that great anyway”. Sweet of him to fib for me ;)
While still convinced I have no chance in hell of winning, at least my motivation has resurfaced. That little competitive part of me (its there, just buried way way down there) is not only awake now, but is keeping ME awake at night too. How awesome. The octopus concept finally managed to crawl out of my head and onto paper at 1am last night. I have to say, I like it. I have to figure out what size to make it (and if I even have enough silver to do it) but I think it’s going to be a great focal piece for the design.

Craftster is having its first jewelry challenge and I’m dying to make something for it. I love working with a theme - this one is “colours of the sea”. I’ve done ocean-themed pieces in the past, so I’ve got lots of left over materials hanging about that I could use and, despite my affinity for reds, oranges and blacks, I have a surprising amount of blue, green and cream beads (in fact, I think these make up the vast majority of my collection). Every time I sit down to start though, I’m stumped. Its one of those cases of being overstimulated… I have an idea, and before I can even start I have a new idea, and then another… then I try to edit, confuse myself and am filled with doubt :) I’ve been toying with the idea of doing an octopus pendant for a while and this seems like a good opportunity - it would make a fun focal piece. I wonder how many other octopi will show up in the challenge submissions? The challenge opened yesterday and runs until February 10, so I’ve still got time, I just need to START and then I know I’ll figure it out. For now, I’ll avoid the submission thread in case someone else posts an octopus and totally discourages me ;)

I hate posting without photos. Frankly, that’s my favorite part of reading blogs - checking out the cool images. But alas, I’ve got nothing for you today. Désolé!

Figured I might as well give the Overtones a little plug here (since I’m now an official member, yay me!). The Sexual Overtones are a very cool non-profit burlesque troupe in Ottawa: check them out at www.sexualovertones.ca. Our group will be performing our silent film act at this event, which should be lots of fun :) We’ll also be performing the same act at the Snowblower closing party on February 20, 2010 with LADYTRON! How cool is that? Very cool, I says.
And just so this post isn’t entirely un-craft-related, I made the poster! woo woo! I’m [not so] secretly excited to see them up around town!. :)

The very last of the Christmas present posts, I promise. Well, actually, that’s not true… now I have a bunch of awesome handmade goodies that were gifted to me by my talented friends, so I’ll be posting photos of those soon. But at least its the end of the Christmas crafts made by ME :)

Aeramel really liked the family pendent I made for the boy’s mom, so I decided to do something similar, with the names of her own new family. The cherry blossom is about 1.25″ wide, and is hand cut from sterling silver. I forgot to lubricate my bit before starting the holes and the damn thing seized in the silver, nearly taking my fingernail off. Won’t make that mistake again! I added a small green Swarovski crystal to the baby’s leaf, just to help emphasize that they’re leaves, not petals. Overall I think the design turned out quite well, and it hangs very nicely. Its not the most flattering shot of the leaves - you’ll just have to trust me that they are shiny :)

Here is a series of paintings I made as Christmas gifts for some of the girls. The cherry blossom branch and goldfish were drawn on printed paper (apparently a Japanese children’s story), then inked, painted with acrylics and cut out with an exacto knife. The wood canvases (6″x6″) were treated with acrylic washes and different textures, then the images were sealed on with gel medium and finished with a thick coat of resin. The moon was painted on a sheet of Nick Cave lyrics (whom the recipients are huuuge fans of), then cut out and sealed onto the canvas with gel medium. The tree, owl, rabbit and hill silhouettes were painted with black acrylics (each of the recipients associate with one of the animals). The canvas (8″x10″) is finished with a thick coat of resin.

Goldfish

Cherry Blossoms

By the light of the pale moon

Pretty happy with how they all turned out - just enough of the text shows through the paintings that I think it adds a neat texture to it. I also added a touch of metallic paint to each (gold on the fish’s scales, bronze on the cherry blossom branch, and sliver highlights on the tree) that I’m really happy still show through the resin. I really love how the resin makes all the colours seem to pop more :D

Gift for Erika’s birthday. Hand cut, hammered and polished sterling silver goldfish, with removable “bubble” accents (rhodium-plated Swarovski crystal chain, and apatite/sterling chain). The goldfish is approx. 2″ wide.

So here’s my pride and joy - the gift I made for my guy for Christmas. This took no less than 14 hours to do, and even then I was rushing it by the end (hehe yes I know, I double struck a few of the letters, but I still think its a cute effect!) I’m reeeaally pleased with how it turned out. Both dog tags are cut from 22 gauge sterling silver, and the heart pieces from 20 gauge sterling. I was pretty nervous about making him jewelry since I haven’t really done mens jewelry before and was rather overwhelmed by the whole thing. I decided to only polish the heart on the front dog tag and left the background distressed. I like the sort of water stain look the patina has around the heart though, and i think it helped make it look a little more grungy. The back tag is very shiny and has a love poem stamped into it. Alas, I did not compose the poem myself (and cannot credit it as it’s anonymous), but I though it was really touching and suited the piece perfectly. I used my super awesome new flex shaft to polish this piece and wow.  it’s AMAZING. The tags are hung on an 18″ sterling ball chain.

I made these as Christmas gifts for Erika last year, but never got photos before they were packed away for the year.  They’re ornaments made from 3″ watchmaker’s tins. The little presents and teddy bear I made with sculpy.

This was made for a previous jewelry sale and somehow never made it on to my website. It’s a water themed bracelet featuring sterling silver seashell charms and beads, Swarovski crystals, fresh water pearls, semi-precious stones, and glass beads. It is constructed on a base of Tiffany-style sterling silver chain and fastens with a sterling toggle clasp. All headpins are hand made from sterling silver. Approximate length is 8.5″.