Some exciting news :-)

This post will be quite hectic, but I start travelling again tomorrow, and still have a lot of things to do before leaving. It was just too long without writing :-).

First of all - that piece from the previous post - "Natura abhorret a vacuo" - actually won that competition it was made for. I am really happy, especially that I got the most wonderful prize - some free classes in Wytwórnia Antidotum jewellery making school! I will "collect" my prize this Autumn - I am super excited. I am sure this will be very beneficial for me.










Second of all (or maybe I should have made it "first of all", because I am just over the Moon about it ;-) ) my piece "Startled" was published on the cover of "Handmade Business", issue August 2015. You can even find a  post about its making here, on my blog :-). It was such a great surprise. Inside there is also a wonderful article about metal clays, written by Jeannette Froese LeBlanc.








Third of all (I wonder if this expression goes beyond this number ;-) ) I started  an exciting journey with preparing pieces for my permanent collection, using lost wax casting method. Finally! I was thinking about it for a year or more. I found a very reasonable caster, made a few models using metal clay and they made the molds. For that first time I prepared a flowery pendant, three of my twig rings, and some tiny items meant mostly for stud earrings. I was quite impressed with the result. Of course there were some issues, but the caster is willing to work on the molds a little bit more, to make sure they work perfectly.It actually seemed that they had a little bit of fun too, because they hadn't worked with this type of design before.

It's a long story, and I will surely write a separate post about it. For now I am just showing you photos of two of my casted pieces. In the pendant above  I left the place for the stone without a setting, so it can vary in size, type etc. and I can make each piece unique in a way :-). And the earrings are actually super tiny :-). I learned so much through this experience, and this is another thing I will continue this Autumn, when I come back. I have a lot of doubts and various thoughts about the whole idea. I am also preparing a presentation about the whole process for Metal Clay Mojo retreat in Chester CT - I will show some interesting things on example of a tiny owl, which started as a metal clay prototype






Conferences, classes and stuff ;-).
Another exciting thing are all the journeys which start tomorrow. First I go to Japan - mostly for vacation, but I will also visit Aida Chemical Industries' studio in Tokio. I will have there a little presentation of my work. So - if you just happen to be in Tokio on August the 10th - let me know, I will give you some details :-). Of course I am very stressed :-) - my whole jewellery making life I have somewhere in my head, this little voice,  whispering "when they (whoever they are at a moment) see my work in person, they all will think - 'yeah... we thought it was better'" :-). Having this meeting in mind I made a few new pieces with Art Clay Silver - this tree among them. It's a good example of one of the techniques I use. Of course I am freaking out about the finish, "askewness" etc. but I try to think that all my jewellery is Nature inspired, and you know what? There is no such thing as "perfection" in Nature. At least if we define perfection in our weird, human way.

Classes - Yes. When I come back from Japan, I will have four days to prepare for my trip to USA. In one of the previous posts I wrote about my schedule of classes there. I will visit three states - Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Illinois. I am hoping to see some familiar faces and meet new people :-). I will teach my "Herbarium pendant" class in all the studios I visit. When I come back, I will fly to UK, to teach in Metal Clay Ltd. And then I'll be back for good :-). I also prepared quite a lot of things made of PMC Sterling and other materials, to be able to show some new work, wherever I go.


Ok, so I guess that's all. I am just leaving a few more pictures of  my recent work, and come back to packing!

Natura abhorret a vacuo

This piece, called "Nature abhors vacuum", was made for a competition organized by one of Polish jewellery making schools. The theme was vacuum/emptiness (Polish word "pustka" actually can be interpreted in a lot of ways). It felt really inspiring and it made me think about the idea that vacuum is like the priciest jewel - so rare, with a life so short - immediately "destroyed" by Nature. I wanted to catch this feeling of temporariness, constant movement, that hostility and greediness of Nature. Beautiful, but blind, thus scary. And this little jewel of emptiness, in the very centre, just for a blink of an eye. When I look at it, it also makes me think that sometimes emptiness is even more precious, because it's a reminder of something that was there. And filling this empty space, which is inevitable, is like loosing something again. So why not to freeze that moment - even if only like this.

This piece feels quite sad  actually, on some level it's simply about death, or maybe I am just in a little bit dark place right now. Anyway, funny feeling - I think it's the very first piece in my life I am truly in peace with. I am deliberately not saying "happy with". It's a different feeling. I just wouldn't change anything.

Enough of serious talking ;-). Let me show you a few photos I took while making this pendant. First, as usually, I made a sketch which later led me through the whole process. My sketches are not super detailed. I just want to catch a feeling, general idea etc. I just need to know what I meant.

I wanted the pendant to have a lot of volume, to create really sculptural look, but obviously, because I decided to work with silver (PMC Sterling in this case) I didn't want to use too much of the material. That's why main elements are openwork or empty inside. By the way - I took this photo also because I liked the way how I accidentally positioned these three "worms" - it made me think about an idea for another piece.

I attached my three, empty "worms" to the backgroud and started working on building the whole composition, details etc. It's not so clearly visible in this photo, because there is only a slight difference in colour, but sometimes, when I want to see how something will look like, I make it from polymer clay first, and place it where I want it to go (these three fangs), just to test the idea. Sometimes it's convenient to put an element made of wet clay in the right place quite quickly, while it's still elastic. That's why it's nice to know beforehand what I really want to do with it ;-).

First textures and some new elements... And of course my very favourite tool - scalpel blade. No, the flowers are for something different ;-).

Some carving, slip painting, drilling, filing, forming wet clay... I just use whatever technique I need to use, to get the look I want.

More and more details. I wanted to create totally different textures on each element, to get this feeling of abundance in Nature. But I didn't want to end up with any kind of a sweet-cute-Nature-flowers&peace look, rather something more primordial, predacious, but still with this kind of a flow which makes you think of an inward movement.

Then I moved to the center of the composition. I thought about colonisation, uncontrolled growth, Nature filling every possible space. And the thing is that I even don't mean Nature only in terms of biology and the Earth. Do you know how difficult it is to find perfect vacuum? Well, it's actually impossible. This is how rare this "gem" is.








And here is the pendant ready for firing. Because it was made of  PMC Sterling, and I still have some problems with distortion in case of rings, I was afraid that something so complex might change its shape really badly in firing. I took a piece of ceramic paper and cut out an opening inside it, so when I placed the pendant on it, the bail fitted into the opening (and to the carbon beneath paper) and the pendant lied perfectly flat. I also stuck little bits of ceramic fiber inside empty elements and supported some raised parts that could droop. Stainless steel mesh cage went on top, to prevent pieces of activated carbon from getting in between parts of my pendant. Then of course more activated carbon, and the whole thing went into the kiln. It sounds more complicated than it was ;-).

Honestly I was even a little bit surprised how well it fired. There was no distortion at all. At least I didn't see anything aparent - the "flow" was still there. I was super happy when I saw it. Then some oxidation and finishing, and it was done. This time it was pure metal clay technique piece. Nothing else.








So, here are a few more photos :-). The results of the competition weren't announced yet, but honestly, this was just an excuse to make this piece. I guess this is what all competitions are about ;-).

Some news :-)

Ok, so I guess it's time to say that I am so happy and proud to announce that I am a finalist in Saul Bell Design Award competition again :-). This time with a necklace. Thank you very much!








This necklace is called "Midsummer night" and was inspired by a celebration of the shortest night of the year in Slavic culture - Kupala Night. It's a festival of fire, water, joy, fertility and love. People gather around bonfires to dance and maidens plait flower wreaths, which are later thrown into rivers or lakes to tell the future or to be caught be a beloved man. It is said to be dangerous to swim though, because especially during this magical night you might encounter rusalkas - female water spirits. If they saw handsome men, they would fascinate them with songs and dancing, mesmerize them, then lead them away to the river bottom to their death. You can see three of these water spirits in my necklace, peeking out of the lake, surrounded by water plants and fireflies.
The necklace is made of fine silver clay, 18K green gold clay, sterling silver, labradorites and silk.







It's the third time I am one of the five finalists in metal clay category in this competition. My first lucky entry was my "Flower storm" bracelet (SBDA 2013). It was one of my first pieces made with Goldie bronze, and right now it's owned by Goldie's creator - Waldo Iłowiecki :-).

My second finalist piece (SBDA 2014) was inspired by Slavic folklore. It was Leshy - keeper of the forest. At the end it placed second and I was lucky enough to attend the award ceremony in Albuquerque, and The Santa Fe Symposium, which was really very interesting and truly inspiring. The whole thing was a wonderful experience and I can recommend it to anyone :-).

So, this year, my "Midsummer Night" necklace is in the final five, but of course I won't tell you how it placed, yet :-). I don't want to ruin fun of guessing for anyone ;-). It's also very mysterious this year, with no announcement of the finalists.  Even I don't know who else is in the final five in my category - besides Janet Alexander with her wonderful "Mom's Jewelry Box", who already announced her achievement on her website. I always love looking at the finalist pieces - there is so much eye candy there every year :-).

EDIT :-) So now , a few more people decided to share their great news, so I can congratulate again Janet Alexander, but also Terry Kovalcik, Holly Gage and Ivy Solomon! I have to say that it's a huge pleasure to be a finalist with so talented and accomplished people.

Missed deadline and jewellery recycling ;)

What good can come from missed deadline and jewellery recycling? Well... This pendant was a result of these two things :). Once upon a time, there was this "Tales of the heart" PMC contest (again huge congratulations to the wonderful winners! :) ). I'm always very eager to take part in all contests I hear about. Of course I immediately have SO brillant ideas ;), and of course I usually don't meet contests' deadlines... (I guess that a good shrink would make me think about subconscious self-doubting and self-sabotaging ;) or maybe just about laziness and lack of organization ;D ). In this case I had an idea of Art Nouveau stylized pendant with a discreet heart motif intervined with some subtle, organic lines. Long story short - I had a lot of work with Valentine's Day custom orders, started making this pendant a day before the deadline, and (not a surprise), didn't finish it on time.

Feeling free from the deadline and this heart theme, I changed a bit the original design and finished the pendant a few weeks later. But if you look closely, you can still notice one small heart there :).
Below you can find a few photos I took while making this piece. Ah, and of course this "recycling" thing explained ;).

Everything began with a stone - lovely, slender lapis lazuli cabochon. I just drew a general sketch around it. I used it later as an actual reference, so I made sure it was accurately sized and symmetrical.

And here is the piece ready for firing. I stuck some ceramic fiber in a few places, to support the pendant and prevent distortion in firing. This time I used PMC3. I really like it.

After firing I soldered a stone setting and two small jump rings (Actually I had to do this two times... During first soldering I overheated my bezel wire and it became totally brittle, so I had to "undo" all the soldering, clean the piece, prepare new bezel and solder it again - this time more carefully...).
I also gilded all tiny balls and flower centers using Art Clay 22K gold paste. I decided that yellow gold would look nice combined with the colour of my lapis lazuli cabochon and gold pyrite flecks on its surface. In this photo the piece is oxidized, but still mat and dirty, waiting for finishing touches.


 And what about all that recycling?;)

For almost a week I couldn't decide what to do with these four flat, empty spaces. Originally I thought - more gold! But then I decided that something lapis lazuli coloured would be better. It was too late for glass enamel (the cab was already set and all soldering done), so I tried UV resin. I had primary colours dyes so I thought I would be able to create lapis lazuli shade, but it turned out to be more difficult than I expected.
Then I recalled a pair of earrings with lapis lazuli intarsia I bought many years ago at a mineral fair. I lost one of these earrings, and what can you do with just one earring? I pulled it to pieces, took all the stones out and made my own lapis lazuli inlay. Lapis lazuli is quite a soft stone (5-5.5 in Mohs scale), so I was able to slowely shape it with my rotary tool and some files. This way I got four thin, tiny pieces of lapis lazuli that fitted well into those four empty spaces :). I secured them in place with special resin.


And that's the whole story ;).

Saul Bell Design Award Competition and flowerology ;)

 I wanted to wait with this till the photos of finalist pieces are published, but the names were announced a while ago and the photos still aren't there... And my wonderful news is definitely not fresh anymore ;)... So...

I'm SO proud and happy to announce that my "Flower Storm" bangle is one of the five finalists in Saul Bell Design Award Competition (metal clay category). This is a huge thing for me :). I'm also very thrilled and honoured to be a finalist among wonderfully talented people I like, admire and respect - Wanaree Tanner,  Liz Hall (both from Etsy Metal Clay Team! :) ), Cindy Silas and Christi Anderson. Seriously girls, I feel like an ugly duckling :). Whatever the final result is - I'm already happy!

This piece is a part of my latest "Twigs" collection. I came up with it when I was working for the first time with Goldie Bronze™. It also features flowery ornamentation - very dear to me. I love and make a lot of different types of ornaments, but flowers were the first :). I know it's quite typical, but I can't help it - I think that majority of jewellery makers have a little romance with flowers at some point. Let me show you a short (well, not so short ;D ) photo story of my flowery romance ;). It begins with this very first flowery medallion I've ever made :).