Emily Lucie Designs: Contemporary Jewellery and Metal Designs

Bloglovin'

2011-05-09T11:47:00.002+01:00

Hey guys, not been around much on here, though I have plans for a comeback.

Hope you're all well!

Em x

Silver Peacocks...

2010-10-08T12:16:00.003+01:00

Something little for my friend Bex. In fact it's for my friend to give to her friend as a wedding present and this is a prototype which I stupidly managed to chop the bottom off of, forgetting that it would lose its rigidity. Dim sometimes aren't I?

I know it doesn't seem much, it's just a little peacock charm, but at least it's making something.

Typically anything I've been making I've either not quite finished yet or I have forgotten to photograph as it's been a tad rushed, but again, at least I'm making a little again.

I hate that I've been abandoning this blog, mostly because every time I look at it I remember that I'm not making and the fact that that's making me feel even worst about it. But at least I'm blogging on my other blog more frequently, keeps my toe in.

On one of the blogs I follow, the author asked the followers to comment on why they create. And it's got me thinking about it all.

I create because that's what comes naturally. When I sit down in front of a book or to write an essay, it's difficult, it's uncomfortable and while I did find some enjoyment about writing essay/dissertations for uni, it never felt right. Making things with my hands feels right and this is partly down to the dyslexia but I've never tried to use that as an excuse or reason for anything. I just...I always remember being elbow deep in paint or paper mache or sewing, making perfume from rose petals and my own handmade paper from when I was tiny. When I was little, I always made things and that's how my brain works. Hand me a DIY set of shelves I'll make it up without looking at the instructions, get me to set something up which requires a manual and I'll end up hours later with nothing made.

I guess that's why I always found learning techniques in the workshop fun and so much easier than lectures, because if you show me how to do it, I'll get.

I create because creating makes sense. Which only makes the lack of creativity even more distressing I suppose.

Right now, I'm back to making paper mache mushrooms for the window display at work. It's probably our last one on the run up to Christmas at which point all my knitting obsessiveness will be explained. And hopefully Christmas's ever looming presence will give me a boost to make things for the practice.

Shall post the other pieces I've made once they're finished - something I will force myself to do sooner rather than later.

Hope everyone's well!

Love, Em x

Poetry Corner

2010-07-04T13:08:00.000+01:00

Scar city is the brief: the null slogan

that underwrites the ad men

Who've put up huge billboards

by the side of the expressway,

screening off the derelict houses

and patches of waste ground from view.

Near the industrial district, half

a street's worth of wire fences

surrounds a building site: trenches

and wooden crosses in the mud.

The contractor's logo on a red sign

declares the enterprise: MEND-A-

Saving Face - Joel Lane

I've been contemplating inspiration of late...well, not of late, more like for the past few months whilst trying to drive myself barmy. Not that that actually takes a lot. However I realised the other day that I've stopped reading poetry. Which in the past has been one of my main sources of inspiration. I think other than the designers block I've been struggling with poetry because I've been re-reading poems which I love to death rather than new ones which could lead to new ideas.

So, what I'd like is suggestions of pieces of poetry, old or modern, short or long, hiaku or epically long. I don't mind. But I would love it if anyone who reads this post would take a moment to think of their favourite piece of poetry and post it's name.

I don't mind if you never return to my blog, but I would be grateful for the inspiration!

y u m :: y u m :: y u m

2010-07-02T00:10:00.005+01:00

Made my first ever batch of elderflower cordial this year. It's really tasty, and I've posted my recipe over on my other blog. Been really excited about the idea of making this since the flower heads began appearing and I've been waiting (almost) patiently for them to bloom. I've clambered through undergrowth, been covered in seeds and twigs and have been stung repeatedly by stinging nettles, but it's been worth it. It really tastes like the shop bought, but less synthetic (obviously) and much cheaper! Gotta love that!

Elderflower Cordial Recipe

Graduation...

2010-06-28T12:48:00.001+01:00

On Thursday I should have been graduating with my Masters of Design. The fact is I made the decision not to go to the ceremony because when I filled in the forms at the start of the year, I foresaw myself being a busy bee, making & selling by June. Hasn't quite worked out that way, but I received my diploma in the post a few months ago, so since my name was in the Courier and my compatriots had their graduation ceremony on Thursday, I am officially a Master of Design.

There are other more personal reasons, but the point is, I am now a graduate again. Scary.

Congratulations to all the graduates from DoJ's Master of Design, Ethnography, Fine Art and Media Arts & Imagining and all the Undergraduates, in particularly Jewellery & Metalwork.

Good luck with all that comes next.

Fragments of Family

2010-06-27T12:56:00.000+01:00

On Monday afternoon I went round to my grandparents house so my gran could teach me how to make pillow/bobbin lace. It's important to me to learn how to make traditional bobbin lace because it's a craft which has been being handed down through my family and is deeply rooted in the Belgian flank of my ancestry, so for it to stop seems ridiculous considering the applications I could use it in.

Gran has also, very kindly, honoured me with a Belgian Lace Pillow & Continental Bobbins which were made by my great, great grandfather & was used by my great gran until she was in her 90's. It still has her last piece on it which makes it even more poignant. Though one in the photos above are actually of my grans lace pillow, which is similar to granny grans but was made by her father (N.B.: I may be getting my greats and great great grandparents muddled in relation to who made the pillows, but you get the jist - they're old, handmade & full of history).

Anyway, for the past week I've been trying to master the basic stitches which are used to make more ornate designs and from the above picture I took on Monday, I've made a 15cm piece of lace using: cloth stitch, cloth stitch & twist and half stitch. Which I unpinned a couple of nights ago to start a new piece - hand winding the bobbins being a complete pain - and gran thinks I'm doing really well when I showed her it.

I've turned back into an excited child with doing this and keep making my mum come and look at what I've done! But it is exciting because it's part of our heritage, plus it's suitably handsy/fiddly for my liking and has stopped me knitting for a few days - knitting post to come at some point.

My lack of making since Christmas has made my brain stagnate a bit, well, a lot. Though I reassured to hear from one of my friends, a wonderful artist & fellow blogger that she's been feeling equally despairing and lost since finishing university. This in itself isn't a good thing, in fact it's down right bad because I don't want my friend feeling that way, however, it does make me feel less ridiculous for my designers block.

The lace however, I think has started to give my designer self a bit of a jump start and my friend pointed out that a blog should be about sharing the whole process, not just the final pieces. That's what my portfolio site is for. So I'm going to try and be a better blogger.

"Honest to blog!"

Score!

2010-05-20T13:00:00.006+01:00

I am so, incredibly, mind-numbingly dumb sometimes. I few posts ago I asked if anyone knew where I could get a scoring tool. Truth is, you can't. The one we were taught to use at uni was made by the technician Brian. However, this isn't why I'm dumb. I'm dumb because the answer has been staring me in the face for months! And almost worst is the answer is held within one of my favourite jewellery books, Tim McCreight's Boxes and Lockets: Metalsmithing Techniques.

Because of the forms I have a tendency to make for my chess set & hollow forms, it's always the first book I turn to if I need help with techniques. However, with the scoring question, I didn't even think to look in it! But there it is, on page 14 "Scraping a Groove" how to make a scraping/scoring tool.

It's a simple process of heating an old file (which I do not have unfortunately), bending the tang at 90°, quenching and then filing & sanding the end into the desired angle, which for my purposes is about 45°. I just need to get some hardened steel and a handle...oh yeah and do a process I haven't done since week one of jewellery and metalsmithing. Not scared about that at all given my temperamental torch and shaky hands.

Tim McCreight's, Boxes and Lockets: Metalsmithing Techniques, is one of the best books I've found, and I really do go back to it time and again. Which is why I stumbled upon this today. I wholeheartedly recommend going out and buying it. It's available from Amazon for about £20.

Degree Show 2010: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design

2010-05-20T11:26:00.000+01:00

A bit of well deserved advertisement for the old alma mater and the wonderful young women I know within the jewellery and metal design class. They are an incredibly bunch of young women and I'm sure I will feel every bit the useless designer when I see their work! So I urge anyone who can go to go!

Congratulations Ladies! xxx

Too Soft!

2010-05-01T21:06:00.005+01:00

Got around to doing some resin samples this morning, but didn't clock the fact that I had miss-measured one of the batches of hardener until a couple of hours ago. So, half have set, half haven't...and none of them want to come out of the new moulds I bought. Typically one horrific chain of supermarkets silicon ice cube trays are indeed superior to another.

Fortunately however, I know that the thing I was trying to set will work and look good and I can get on with a few idea! Hurrah!

I'm quite enjoying making resin samples of colours and different pigmenting agents. Or in other words working out what I can (a) buy on the cheap or (b) find in the house and given my hardener has started to become increasingly more yellow (it must be two years old by now!) I may as well use it up experimenting or on opaque work. I did the above samples at Christmas using mostly soft artists pastels ground up using a pestle and mortar and glitter. What can I say? I'm a girl and I like glitter! Anyway, today's experiments included loose tea after being inspired by designer Claire Lowe, and gel food colouring as an alternative to transparent resin pigments. The main samples I'll keep secret until I can work them into a design because they go with a particular piece of poetry etc. But on the others, the gel colouring works really well as an alternative to the expensive dyes and I only used the tip of a straw and this over pigmented my samples. They cost about £15 from Lakeland and that's less than most of the dyes I found for resin - plus you get to make yummy things like this:

Not resin, obviously, and I wouldn't recommend using them for baking if you're re-dipping your resin sticks, but if you aren't, these are yummy. I'm slightly obsessed with making proper French Macarons at the moment, these aren't todays attempt, they're the last ones and I just prefer the colour combination even if the new batch look more like macarons.

Anyway, instead of whinging about the resin not working, I'm going to put it back on my shelf out of harms way, give it until the morning to see if it'll set and go have a nice treat and enjoy that something did go right today!

Don't Step on the Floral Army!

2010-04-26T00:01:00.000+01:00

A year-ish ago I posted pictures of my Floral Army Draught Set. It's one of those pieces I love for its little bit of kitschness which I think is more personality peeking through, making a made break for freedom and then hiding again. I always wanted to make necklaces and earrings out of them as some of my simple pieces but I never did because the MDes got in the way. Until Thursday.

Now normally I'd go for the Douglas Adams rule of "I never could get the hang of Thursdays", but on this particular one, I needed to make a birthday present for my friends little girl, Kirsten, who turned 4 on Saturday. I made her most of her present a couple of weeks ago, a knitted momerath after she saw the Alice in Wonderland window my sister and I had made for work.

Now is it just me or does this photo make him look like he's in a line up?

It was lucky I was depressed for a few days really because knotting all the hair on took me about a day and a half alone and I could sit and glaze over as I watched the West Wing.

Anyway, these are the first things I've made for a while and I'm just praying that she'll like them, because I'm rubbish for buying presents for kids and being able to make things comes in really handy. Now what the hell to I make my friends son, Mikey, for his birthday!

Extra! Extra!

2010-04-25T22:56:00.000+01:00

Strange how you keep some random things. Jen stuck this on my work bench in uni in 4th year after finding it in the paper, and when I packed everything up I very carefully put it away and then pinned it back up in the spare room and then my workshop. However I've decided to move it to right in front of my bench where I can see it everyday.

My posting this is fairly self explanatory I hope, I'm forcing myself back to the workbench and I'm going to get myself sorted out. Might take a while, but it's a start.

And I have a question for all jewellers who may follow my blog (lovely people that you are!) where can I get my hands on a scoring tool for scoring 45degree lines in silver. My latest ideas kind of rely on it and I have googled every version of "scoring tool" I can think of and I have had no luck. Am I just being really dumb and they're not really called scoring tools or is this some sort of magical tool which Brian the ex-technician at DoJ came up with?

I'd go borrows there, but this close to the degree show I'll just get in the way.

So, any ideas?

Thank You!

2010-04-21T23:06:00.000+01:00

My friend asked a random question on her blog and I answered it correctly. So as a reward I got this picture and a plug too.

Thank you Ali, I love it :) xxx

Downed Tools...

2010-04-12T10:49:00.000+01:00

1. designer's block

When any form of a designer can't come up with creative ideas.

Similar to writer's block in the sense that nothing gets done.

I can't think, I have terrible designer's block!!

Once again a big gap has formed between my posts, in my drafts box there's three which were supposed to proceed this one, but I thought better of posting them. I've got to admit I'm in a bit of a slump at the moment. Before Christmas, I left uni feeling so enthusiastic about getting back to making jewellery properly, but after the Christmas commissions, I've just stopped. The last week has probably been the worst, at least before I'd been trying making a few pieces and I organised my workshop, getting everything into a place where it really flows when you work and everything's at hand, but also has a place to be put away. But this last week I've just looked at everything I've done, everything I've designed over the last few months and everything I've made previously and I've thought, "god that's useless!"

The honest answer is I've been depressed about a lot of things recently, but especially the terror of the future. I turn 25 in a few months and the idea of still not really knowing what to do with my life is scaring me. I know I want to do jewellery, but I've got no confidence in my design work and if I want to consider teaching, I'll need to do a PhD and that terrifies me more! I just don't think I would cope doing a PhD! (I'm not pandering for praise or anything by writing this, I'm just saying that this is the reason I've not been posting much.)

Another thing which has got to me is a lot of my friends from uni have been setting up Facebook fan pages. A lot of them have a year on me making wise because of me doing the Masters, but I look at them and I can't subscribe even though I want to because I'm (a) a bit jealous and (b) terrified because they seem to have a very defined style and I don't think I do. I still feel kind of all over the place.

This is the piece I was working on most recently and I got so excited about it and worked out a load of other designs to go with it, but within about a day the slump set in and it's still sitting waiting to be finished. At which point I started avoiding it by trying other things, like knitting my friends daughter a momerath for her birthday, working out new window displays for work and making buttons out of the repetitive textile prints I've been playing with:

I'm a little all over the place as you can see, though it has led to a revamp of the old blog which I'm really pleased with. I think I'm going to try and take my dad's advice and just sit down and make some stuff, good or bad, old or new, just to get making. I think being stuck at home all the time and not being in touch with my friends anywhere other than the aforementioned social networking site hasn't helped me going in on myself. If anything it was inevitable going from seeing people every day or not seeing anyone ever.

The perils of living in a town where none of your old friends now life and none of your uni friends would ever come and visit. :(

Least for now I have a backlog of Adam and Joe podcasts to keep me going :)

SAVE 6MUSIC!

Bambuseae...

2010-02-12T21:11:00.000Z

These are the pieces I'm really enjoying making at the moment other than the Fidget bracelets. Bambuseae means bamboo and when I made my first squares I had done the print to represent Normal MacCaig's poems 'Adrift' and 'Moorings' which talk about boats just kind of floating quietly on water. But, everyone said that the print looked like leaves - in particular bamboo leaves - so I started trying to find a more interesting name that "Bamboo Print Pieces". So I found out that it was from the Bambuseae family, and I liked how it was spelled - though I can never remember!

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Though every time I see the name I get a Regina Spektor song called Baobab in my head and Baobab (Bottle Trees) are actually these bizarre trees with hugely thick trunks and branches only at the top making them look kind of like Disney's interpretation of Mome Raths or Beaker from the Muppets. Which is unimportant but just shows the weirdness of my mind that I can go from Bamboo to Muppets in three steps.

So, anyway, here are the pieces I made using roller pressed Stirling Silver.

So that's pretty much everything from Christmas, so now to get one with some new stuff!

Enjoy!

Peridot Tri-Corner Bracelet

2010-02-08T10:21:00.001Z

(Stirling Silver with 3 Princess Cut Peridot)

Another in my tri-corner series, which normally have fidgets on them moving around the bracelet. But in this case I've used princess cut Peridots. It was a commission from my Grandpa for part of my Gran's Christmas present and Peridots are one of her favourite stones, so I chose the princess cut to match a ring she had made by one of my tutors/ex-boss a few years ago.

I'm still working on my sizing formula to make these bracelets, it's a little complicated, but I think I've got it more or less solved so long as I don't put my bracelet sizer to the wrong size to begin with. I did that at Christmas and ended up having to make two completely new bracelets. Which was time consuming, however it does mean that I have spares now to sell once I put on the fidgets.

Always a bright side!

(Need to take a better picture - benefit of it being Gran's is I still can!)

Moorings...

2010-02-08T10:08:00.000Z

In a salt ring of moonlight

The dinghy nods at nothing.

It paws the bright water

And scatters its own shadow

In a false net of light.

- Moorings, Norman MacCaig

(Commission 2009 - Stirling Silver, Resin and Rubber)

Slate Tile Brooch

2010-02-04T10:30:00.000Z

Stirling silver and slate resin brooch.

I love this material combination. The powdered slate in the resin gives this great dark but soft surface you just want to touch and any bubbles or grooves from sanding - in the right piece - can actually make it look more natural.

However...anyone else thinking a range of Dominoes is in my future?

Resin Cufflinks '09

2010-02-03T23:22:00.000Z

I got commissioned to make presents for the staff at work again this year, which is always fun, until it comes to working out what to do for the gents. Last year I made slate resin cufflinks, very simple pieces, one of which I really liked and was really proud of, the other I still feel needs tweaked. It happened again this year.

I admit I'm slightly stumped when it comes to what men wear as jewellery - it's something I really have to do some more research into as I don't have brothers and my dad and grandfather don't wear jewellery. I've also never had to buy any for a guy. So I went with cufflinks again and I decided to make them a bit colourful.

Anyway, I love the blue ones, they're a little reminiscent of Star Trek, but I worked exactly as they were in my head - which barely ever happens. I think they go with my style a little more than the yellow, but that's mostly because I couldn't quite get the colour I wanted (until after I'd filled them typically) and I managed to miss align one dot, so it's still driving me mad! I also completely polished them after I took these photos, as I'd not done the edges yet - thank God this was before my ultra sonic cleaner, pickle and quenching pot froze solid in the -14 degree weather!

Anyway, I just hope they recipients liked them!

(More on the way, just editing the pictures!)

Visa Versa Fidgets

2010-02-03T12:42:00.000Z

As promised, some of the pieces I made over Christmas. Visa Versa Fidget Bracelets are made of Stirling silver, with either the fidget elements or the bracelet being polished and the other frosted. Thus visa versa. I made six of them as part of a commission with round, oval and tri-corner fidgets on either a round or flattened tri-corner bracelet. They're really light and I've been working on my own formula for sizing - it's a little complicated. I'm wanting to do a lot more with this kind of design, I've designed a load of versions on Rhino3D, just need to purchase the silver to make them!

Enjoy!

A cheap Juno reference...

2010-02-01T00:44:00.000Z

So my last proper posting was way back in July and that's just plain pathetic! The last piece I therefore posted was my mum's wedding ring.

A few things have happened since, but I'll start with a picture of the Eternity ring I made her for Christmas, which my dad asked to match the other as use the same type of stones which were in her engagement ring: diamonds and sapphires.

It was actually a really busy Christmas, which given I'd had a pretty busy few months prior is pretty weird.

My Masters finished in September and so I am now a Master of Design - I'm not sure why but every time I say that I feel as though I need to type MWHAHAHAHAHAHA! - and I'm not going to lie and say I'm not slightly relieved it's over, but I am going to say that I am missing my friends dreadfully and seeing people every day. However, I felt exactly the same when when I finished my Undergraduate degree.

I actually came up with some designs I'm really proud of, but still need fine tuning. My plan is to order some silver this week and get enough for a few new versions of these pieces which if I never take it forward with their given purpose I will take them forward just as jewellery. I even got an offer of someone who would take them on in their gallery just as pieces. Which was great.

The degree show was mad actually. We had two opening nights, the first with a couple of great lectures on design, which Mike Press used the photo of people in my glasses as a picture of the class...shame that not everyone in the class was in it and two undergrads were. I wasn't even in it! I really wish it had been all of us. It would have been a wonderful image to have to remember the year.

It's so weird being done with uni for good. I am genuinely terrified by the fact.

Since September I've been having some down time. Dad and I have made me a workshop at home, so I've now got my own private working space in which I can work away to my hearts content. It took us the best part of Sept-November to do it all, and it still needs tweaked but I am so grateful just to have been given the space. I love my parents for doing it!

December has mostly been taken up with trying to make things and doing commissions. I had 16 pieces to make on commission this Christmas, mostly for work and family but hey, work and money is always welcome wherever it comes from.

I've spent a lot of time researching and designing new ranges too, so I have lots of ideas. I discovered very late on in my Masters that I actually love using Rhino3D (a computer aided design program) to design pieces of jewellery. A lot of people use it to get things rapid prototyped prior to casting, but I really love it just as a sketching tool. I'm not brilliant at it, and I really despised it when we were taught it in 3rd year, but now I can voluntarily spend hours on it! Usually the hours between 11 and 3 in the morning!

God I sound like a geek!

Anyway, since Christmas I've been taking a little bit of down time. Partly because I was literally having a bit of a down period, the fact that I really am finished uni and not having seem my friends in months kinda making me feel a little blue. But, it is February today in about 5 minutes time and it's time to follow the advice of a scrap of paper my friend Jen left on my bench at uni at the end of 4th year:

GET BACK ON THE BENCH BOYD!

Last bit of new. I've decided to start a new Blog called Snow in a Teapot - don't ask me why I called it that, I don't have a good answer. Anyway, because this blog is about my personal work I never talk about the things that inspire me and those are the blogs I love to read. The ones which talk about design and craft and the things people are inspired by and are passionate about. So far I've just been formatting it and I've written my introduction, but haven't posted yet. I may disband the designeresearch blog, but haven't made a decision. Shall post in the next day or two, so if you read this, check it out:

Now to keep this post down in size I've posted Thumbnail pictures of a bunch of pieces I've made. However, I promise - honest to blog - that I will post the bigger pictures once I've posted this but most of them are already on my deviantArt page or my portfolio website.

So, ta ta for now, now that I'm producing more, I'll post more frequently.

Honest to blog!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T02:05:00.000Z

Okay, so my blog has fallen dormant again for a good long while, however I promise in the New Year - how can we be about to go into 2010?!? - I shall have a host of new designs, news to tell of my new workshop and my intentions from my blog in the future...

...but for now...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

with Love, Emily x

It's Degree Show Time Again!

2009-09-07T11:34:00.002+01:00

That time again for Dundee University to open its doors to the public and showcase the latest batch of students to finish their degree.

This is my second and so come one, come all to the Dalhousie Building as of the 12th to have a look at the Masters of Design students work and then head over to the DCA and Duncan of Jordanstone to see the Fine Art, Media Arts and Imaging, Forensic and Medical Arts Masters.

All our welcome and it's free entry!

Good luck to all the students who are currenly having their assessments, I'm sure we'll all do fine!

World Wide Web...sort of...

2009-08-19T23:08:00.000+01:00

Okay, so this time last year I promised myself I would have my web page all sorted out, but instead ended up back at good old DofJ doing my Masters, which meant I haven't quite got the web page done yet, despite having a design I'm relatively happy with. However, through another site I'm affiliated with, I've made a folio site as a stop gap, as I am almost finished uni again and looking forward to getting my teeth sunk back into some serious jewellery work and will need something a little more formal than my blog.

So for all my jewellery and metalwork set out a little more formally go to:

http://emilyluciedesigns.daportfolio.com/

The Thirtiest Year...

2009-07-06T10:50:00.001+01:00

Some new jewellery at last! And a very very special piece for me.

A new wedding ring designed for my mum. My dad commissioned me to make a new wedding band for my mum for their 30th Wedding Anniversary today, so this is what I made.

Traditionally the 30th wedding anniversary's gem of choice is a pearl. My mum's not keen on cultured pearls and I have to admit I'm not either, so I was very happy to find out that the modern equivelant has become diamond jewellery...though the modern equivelant for most anniversary stones has become diamond therefore rendering the diamond wedding anniverary a bit of a let down.

Anyway, the band is made of 1.5 mm Stirling silver, 18 carat gold and a diamond which I forget the specifications for...but it was more or less colourless, had few inclusions (flaws) and was the first diamond I've ever bought or set. So I'm really chuffed with the outcome and the fact that not only does my mum love it, but it fits perfectly...and I never got to size it properly!

For my friends...

2009-07-01T09:23:00.000+01:00

...because I think they'd like this picture.

(Another one I can't find the URL to link too!!! I must be more organised!)

A Floral Theme...

2009-06-15T00:13:00.000+01:00

I find myself going floral these days.

A New Look...

2009-06-01T08:56:00.000+01:00

I turned 24 yesterday and I thought given I am a year older, I would give my personal blog a revamp especially after I revamped my Research Blog.

I've been playing around with a design for my website (which has yet to be brought into existence) and this is part of what I've been toying with. What do people think? I want to keep it simple and clean - my favourite term being K.I.S.S. meaning Keep It Simple Stupid!

Floral Jacks

2009-04-26T11:44:00.001+01:00

I've been experimenting with these little flowers for a few years now, I keep making them and not knowing what to make from them. I've left them empty, put silver leaf on them and filled them with silicone and now I've started with resin. But I'm still clueless about what to do with them!

The first thing my family said when I popped the resin ones out of their acetates was that they looked like Jacks - the game where you scatter them on the floor, bounce a bouncy ball and pick them up between bounces. Given my game theme last year I'm considering giving it a whirl.

However, I prototyped these to see if the printed colour would come off onto the resin successfully, it did, though not as successfully as I hoped as as soon as they get wet the ink runs.

Progress...

2009-04-22T12:22:00.000+01:00

Okay so anyone reading this probably has no idea what I'm doing for my Masters - honestly I'm not sure I know what I'm doing either but hey, I guess that's why we do so much research.

These are the glasses I've been designing...fetching no? Although to be fair Jumi and Sun* (the Korean girls in my class) both look far too cool in them. They were supposed to make people feel a little silly and instead they've both requested pairs! The glasses are part of my cultural probe which I should get back soon, I'm hoping that they will have gained me the information I've been looking for - the importance of appearance, image and how glasses with coloured lenses for the treatement of visual stress disorders intrupts the flow and stops people wanting to wear them...

...I guess that's the gist of my masters actually.

Anyway, I love this photo of Jumi and I thought I'd share it. She looks like an evil genius!

Bamboo Adrift...

2009-04-21T11:55:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in forever...I haven't posted on my Masters blog either but that's because I've lost momentum...but finally I have something new. Something I want to do more of.

I've been trying to work out some way of doing my Shoal pattern without etching as it's often quite unreliable and expensive to send away. So I tried roller printing, which if I want to do outwith uni would mean an investment in a £300ish piece of machinery, however it's still cheaper and quicker. Anyway, this was the result. I'd wanted it to be quite fishy, but it looks more like bamboo leaves or little boats adrift in the sea.

The little boats obviously fit a little better with my previous work. These however were me giving myself a little time off. My masters is driving me mad because I'm not making anything but all I can think about is jewellery and making and soldering and polishing and enamelling and developing my style as a jeweller...

*sigh* I hope to get back soon. But right now the 3rd years are the only people really keeping me sane - though often driving me insane too! - but Friday is my favourite day of the week and its about to come to an end, which is really sad.

So, if I don't post again before the end of the undergrad term (mine runs right up until September if I pass this term) and you have your assessments...

Good Luck!

Fidget...

2009-01-21T11:12:00.000Z

Silver Bracelet with 9ct Gold Fidgets

Now, this was for my granny Betty. My dad wanted to give her something special and she's been threatening to steal my poetry bracelet since she first saw it, so I designed something brand new for her based on it.

If you knew my gran you'd know how obsessed she is with bracelets. She has them wrist to elbow some days and you can always hear her before you see her. The funniest part of making this was actually sizing it. Gran may where bracelets all the time, but if I asked to borrow one she'd have been suspicious. So dad and mum tricked her into trying on mine and then giving me an excuse to get out my bracelet sizer...the bracelet is tinier than all her others, but is still a little big. These are both easy and a complete bugger to size! I want to make a series of things based on this now, I just need the time and the money to buy the materials.

Flora Necklace Series.

2009-01-20T13:58:00.000Z

Flora Series: Saw pierced Silver on Snake Chain

Finally I've actually made something floral. For years I did floral patterns and then always ended up with really architectural jewellery...is this because of an inability to see part metal being something quite cold and formal or the fact that everyone seems to do floral designs and I didn't really want to be like everyone else in my work?

Who knows?

Commissioned pieces for my father for the girls at work, it was intended to show a kind of progressional growth of a plant, but a couple don't really sit in the sequence. My favourites are the first second and third from the left and I'm happy because Pat, Pauline, Anne and Jean have all been wearing them and Aileen said that it was exactly the sort of thing she would buy for herself from a shop. Hopefully will make some other designs & shapes for this series as the year goes on.

Slate Cufflinks...

2009-01-20T13:51:00.001Z

Silver and Slate Resin Cufflinks

Commissioned pieces by my father for his business partner and his son as staff Christmas presents. They're hollow forms filled with slate powder suspended in resin and then really finely sanded with 1000 grade for a smooth matt finish.

They went down really well, so given this is the first time I've ever made cufflinks other than at work I'm really happy.

Have spend my Christmas working on commissions so I'm really happy to finally put something new up here, it's been too long!

Frustration...

2008-10-18T11:31:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I really need to find something to add to this blog which I appear to be neglecting...I need to make a decision seeing I'm not currently making very much at all and all my work is in the form of mind maps...do I just update this blog on the rare occassion that I make something new or do I redirect people to my new one perminantely? Of course I could double up the information...

Anyway, I'm keeping blog 2 very up to date with lecture notes and research things and the only piece of jewellery I have to offer you is these earrings which I made for my parents to give Pauline for her birthday. I hope they gave her something to wear as her something new too as she surprised everyone by marrying her partner the same day. So congratulations to them and enjoy to anyone who wants to see the earrings.

Strathearn Gallery

2008-10-05T18:52:00.000+01:00

STRATHEARN GALLERY

Coastlines & Horizons

( plus Graduates of 2008)

04th October - 08th November 2008

Once again...

2008-10-05T18:38:00.001+01:00

Once again, I have to apologise for not posting in a while, I've not have a chance or anything much to write, but here's a catch-up:

First proper week of my Masters I had to take most of the week off after discovering that I had half an inch of steel dress makers pin in my foot. Yep, I did say half an inch, I finally went to the doctors after I stopped being able to walk on my foot properly and had a sneaking suspision there was something lucking just under my big toe. What happened was, I moved my room around, I dropped a box of pins, I picked all of them up - or so I thought - and then I slam my foot into something sharp and painful...then it snapped and I didn't realise.

I had to have a minor operation to remove it and wasn't allowed to walk on it...plus the antibiotics made me a little dopey and I kept falling asleep.

Anyway, the first week - despite that - was really interesting as has this week, which I had to spend running between Blair, the uni, lectures, the laser cutter and Crieff. Why the latter two? Because I am currently part of an exhibition in the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff and the owner wanted my small draught sets, which I was lacking boards for...so I laser cut them. I love that machine! (Here's a fun YouTube clip which is an industrial laser cutter...ours isn't nearly as funky!)

The exhibition opened on the 4th of October (yesterday) and runs until the 8th of November. Which is exciting and I have the two chess sets and three draught sets being shown...plus, I found out today that a lot of my friends are in it to, which is nice. So goodluck to all of them!

To be honest there's not much to report as I've obviously - because of uni - not been making much jewellery, I do however have a new blog for people to follow & comment on my Masters research . Enjoy.

Really Freaking Out...

2008-09-15T00:13:00.000+01:00

It's official. I'm freaking out. Tomorrow I begin the process of Matriculation and meeting my tutors/fellow students and I didn't realise it. I haven't checked my email in the last few days and hadn't seen the timetable, so although I knew I was matriculating on Tuesday, I wasn't aware I had anything on Monday. So now, of course, I have that horrible queasy feeling in my stomach, which will no doubt result in me being unable to sleep or think or function without babbling or snapping.

I am not prepared for doing a Masters. I've had a grand total of about a month to come to terms with the fact that I've just let myself in for another year of university!

The only saving grace is I got funding! I don't have to find the £3000+ for my tuition fees.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, to take my mind of things I've got a few photos to upload onto here of recent work, including:

Button Draughts Set (Stirling Silver, Buttons & Neodydium Magnets)

The set is infact finished. Except for the board. I'm having problems with the board. It was easy to work those out when your pieces were of a normal size, but when it's got to fit into a 13X15cm space without looking crampt or scruffy is hard. I suppose I can at least beg a go on the Laser Cutter at uni now and try and run off some perspex ones.

Floral Army: Button Draughts (Sterling Silver, coverable buttons & floral material)

I'm obsessed, I know, but this is half of my textiles army. It's based on the idea of travel and is made from old floral material - in a very Laura Ashley moment - which has had a history and a life and moved between places. Or at least that's the theory. Floral fabric and Stirling Silver. I've just gotten some more fabric for the opposing side, however I haven't decided what one I shall be using.

And now for a little bit of randomness. This is how I spent a ridiculous number of hours during the week doing for work. Making hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of origami cranes for my dad's opticians window display. Louise and I spent two days making all of these birdies and this is the result of evening one. So there are none of my giant, flamingo-like, pink cranes or the giant pink swans or the army of chinguins (a bizarre half breed of chickens and penguins who seems intent on attacking me in order to hold the golden crane hostage - don't ask)...I can now make them by heart and one day I shall get my wish by making 1000 of the little blighters.

Now I'm going to sign off and go and panic quietly for the rest of the night and subsequent day.

(PS: I apologise if anyone has emailed me and I've yet to respond. I've been busy with the application onto the Masters and then the ridiculous mess that was the PSAS funding application and then working on these pieces and everything else...I know I sound as though I'm making excuses, but my mind has been else were. Sorry. I will get back to you.)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

2008-08-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

I took the road less travelled by,

And that made all the difference.

Robert Frost

I have a little bit of news, I've been accepted onto the Masters of Design course at Duncan of Jordanstone for this September, so I shall be returning to the old university for another year. I'm excited, scared beyond belief and hopeful that it will be very valuable along with doing the Artist in Residency. It was all a bit of a rush and I think most of my friends assumed I’d decided not to make an application, but I think this is right.

Anyway I’ve been working on a few new design using quite chunky hollow forms on different earring fittings as well as playing with the draughts idea again...

Hollow Form Earrings (White Precious Metal)

Found Object Draughts Set (Buttons on Ceramic Tile)

Obviously this isn’t a finished piece – if it was I think I might be certified – but ideas come in all shapes and forms, in this case me scribbling on one of the tiles on my workbench in permanent marker and emptying a pencil case full of buttons all over my workrooms floor (I seriously keep finding them everywhere, I think they’re breeding!). I just really like the idea of using buttons for some of the travelling pieces, mostly because I just like buttons when they’re set like a traditional cabochon, but also because it does fit in with the travelling theme.

Think about it this way. How many buttons have you lost while you’ve been out? They wouldn’t give spare buttons on shirts/trousers/coats or give you sewing kits when you’re on holiday if I was seriously the only person ever to have done that. You go off on holiday and you drop things and you think bugger, I actually needed that. You always see buttons and coins and things dropped by people as they go about their lives and I love that.

It’s like seed dispersal but in button form.

Work in Progress...

2008-08-08T19:24:00.000+01:00

On the Lochs Eye... (Hammered Silver - Sketch & Started Piece)

On the Lochs Eye Earrings (Silver, hammered and left fire stained)

On the loch's eye a cataract is forming.
Fistfuls of white make the telephone wires
loop after loop of snow bunting.

Extract: Notes on a Winters Journey with a Footnote by Norman MacCaig.

How beautiful is that image? I've tried so may times to design something around that stanza and for once I've come up with something I like...now I've said that I'll probably hate it by the morning or not go the way I wanted, but it still doesn't change that for now I have an idea.

Plus, I know the snow bunting is also a bird! How cute is the little fella?

Moorings Brooch (Sketchbook + extract from Norman MacCaig's Moorings)

Just an idea...

Miss Shepherd...

2008-08-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

Shoal #1 and Shoal #2 - Miss Shepherd (Photoetched silver and handmade chain)

I thought I'd put an image of my Chained Shoal necklace on before, but apparently not. The second incarnation of this necklace was part of a commission with engraved text and a slightly altered link off of where the pendant hangs, allowing it to hang more centrally. #2 also has a polished and rough sanded finish to it as apposed to the matt and dipleted one on #1.

Shoal Earrings #2

2008-08-03T19:15:00.000+01:00

Shoal Earrings #1 (Photoetched Silver)

These are the earrings I wear all the time, they're the first piece of jewellery I've really made for myself. They're really,comfortable and although (as you may be able to see) they've tarnished a little, I actually quike the discolouration - jewellery's meant to be worn, not hidden in boxes. It's quite sad thinking of things you've made just sitting in their little boxes all alone.

Shoal Earrings #2 (Photoetched silver)

These earrings were part of a commission along with a matching necklace, I admit. I didn't want to sell them. I'd have quite happily worn these down in London. Anyone who knows me well will know that I rarely go anywhere without earrings on, plus, despite us not really being encouraged to make earrings at university, they always sell really well.

Travelling Draughts Set

2008-08-03T19:10:00.000+01:00

Travelling Draughts Set: Silver and Stone Resins

As I have spent the past few months making my larger scale Chess sets, before I went to New Designers I thought it would be interesting to play around with scale and so I came up with this simple Drafts design. My intent is to make this design like a travel game and have it magnetized and possibly use either found objects or enamel in order to have have a more colourful and playful game.

When I was in London I talked to another designer who chose to approach his final year by making toys and a chess set. He made this amazingly fun and colourful design based on children cheating in the very formalised game. Chess Boy's approach (as referred to by my friends, his actual name is Thomas) and the number of children who I talked too during the two shows have made me want to make a set which is not only more affordable, but also more playful and childish. Even I admit my Parliament set is quite severe.

Catch Up...

2008-08-03T18:40:00.000+01:00

So, my four years are over...the Degree Show has been and gone...

Opening night was madness, I could barely move out of the area I was displaying in, but luckily Jinju was close by for a little friendly support. I was barely even able to get out when my family came to visit and didn’t know how to get up to the Degree Show space. During the week, okay, so I was a tad sad and was there 9 ‘til late most nights, however, it was a great, but totally surreal experience as I met old friends who I genuinely didn’t expect to see ever again, I saw my school art teacher Mr Maxwell who tried to steal one of my chess pieces and Mr Henderson who walked straight past me and looked at the wrong Emily’s work. I saw my tutors from college and David said my sketchbooks were no longer splodgy...charming...then, five minutes after closing the doors on our Degree Show, I made my second sale!

...my 23rd birthday has been and gone...

Yes, on the 31st of May I turned 23, so a few days before I had a lovely picnic with my friends on Balgay Hill in the middle of a lovely clearing where Fe insisted on trying to tempt every passing dog over. Claire made me this amazing birthday cake with black and white check on it (very attractively enjoyed by Fe and Jen – mmm, nice). Then I had a nice day with my family on the actual day – okay actually we went to Ikea, but I got to drive back from Glasgow – I hate motorways, but love dual carriageways – which meant getting to drive faster than normal and getting to overtake my dad. Hehe.

...Graduation has been and gone...

I now officially have my Bachelors of Design (with Honours) in Jewellery and Metalwork. YIPPY!

...New Designers has been and gone...

New Designers was mad...not only a week in London but the actual show was so big. I really enjoyed myself and one SDC Gallery in London are going to exhibit some of my work as of January so I’ve got to get cracking and make some new stuff given that Claire (of the wonder birthday cake making) is selling some of my degree show work in her new shop in Stirling. It was just nice being part of that sort of exhibition.

...since then...

Since London lots of things have happened and in turn very few things. Just before I went one of my best friends, Yvonne, had her second child the gorgeous Michael who I’ve yet to go and see (I know, bad friend – but hopefully she brings with her good gifts). I sold my Labradorite necklace. I was commissioned and sold a chain necklace and a pair of earrings to Pat from work. I’m trying to make the decision as to whether I forgo my Masters for a year and make a go of just selling or I take a chance at a late entry onto the course at Dundee – a decision I’ve been desperately trying to make and haven’t yet managed. I’ve been hobbling around with Sciatic, caused by a mixture of the joyous way a jeweller works and standing up for days on end at the degree show and new designers....basically, I’ve duffed up my back and I’m sore. And finally and very sadly, we lost two of our four cats the week I was in London. Pepper and Gillespie are, obviously after 14 years as part of our family are very deeply missed. They were absolutely adored and are irreplaceable.

...and next...

Well, hopefully I will be making more and making decisions about the future, but I promise I will keep this more up to date.

(My uncle has been nagging me through my mum to update my blog, which since leaving uni I’ve been neglecting. This was down to a lack of broadband and none of pictures loading up. We have however gotten it and I shall now be keeping things more up to date.)

Suspension Brooch

2008-05-13T15:27:00.000+01:00

Kinetic Series: Poetry Brooch with Suspension Movement

Okay, so as Jo has kindly reminded me just now, I shall have my Degree Classification results in just under and hour. So as of about fifteen minutes ago I was officially (but ever so quietly) freaking out. Anyone fancy a little bit of dutch courage in a cocktail glass?

Research for Kinetic Series

2008-05-12T15:22:00.000+01:00

London Eye (May 2005): Source Drawing

Kinetic Bracelet (Shoal Series)

2008-05-08T15:40:00.000+01:00

Shoal Bracelet: Photoetched Silver with Kinetic Elements

Although the pattern looks more like some sort of animal print, it is in fact the same shoals of fish I have photoetched on other pieces of work, however I have added the same kinetic element as the Poetry series.

(As you can probably tell, I'm wasting time before my next meetings with tutors, which I am going to go to now...so I'll probably have even more doubts in my head as of fifteen minutes from now. Wish me Luck!)

Kinetic Series

2008-05-08T15:36:00.000+01:00

Poetry & Motion: Textured Silver Kinetic wire bracelet

This piece is actually based on designs I made as a little 2nd year jeweller (which currently feel like such a long time ago because I'm sitting freaking out about my assessments which are currently occuring). Anyway, the bracelets in this series are based on the poetry I was looking at, Scottish architecture and movement/travel. In this incidence the piece of architecture is the Fourth Road Suspension Bridge in Edinburgh.

Kinetic Rings

2008-05-08T15:32:00.000+01:00

Kinetic Rings - Textured Silver rings

I like kinetic things, I think it might be because I'm a fidget.

Poetry and Motion

2008-04-29T10:25:00.000+01:00

Poetry and Motion #1 - Etched Silver Bracelet with kinetic element.

Okay, wanky title - I admit that, but I haven't given this piece a name yet...in fact naming pieces is a process I really don't enjoy that much, but still I feel compelled to do it.

Assynt Chess Set - Goldsmiths Bursary

2008-04-22T09:29:00.001+01:00

Assynt Chess Set - Goldsmiths Bursary Award

Given that I didn't want to finish this design, I am glad I did. I love the combination of the wood and the silver - even though it's a complete pain in the bum to work with.

Let's just hope that the bursary people at Goldsmiths actually think it's worth the money they gave me.

Quite honestly I'm a little - okay a lot - stressed at the moment. I'm not sure I'm going to finish all my jewellery and I'm struggling to see it all together. Teaches me to ever talk to Teena about my work. But ce la vie, it'll all be over in a couple of weeks, so, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading back to the workshop.

Parliment Chess Board

2008-03-25T14:23:00.000Z

Parliment Chess Set - photoetched silver filled with slate and marble resins

Based on Norman MacCaig's poem The Man in Assynt and the skylights of the Scottish Parliment Building in Edinburgh.

2008-03-24T16:18:00.001Z

Shoal: Photoetched Silver and Labradorite Necklace

Shoal

2008-03-24T16:18:00.000Z

Shoal: Photoetched Silver and Labradorite Necklace

2008-03-24T13:51:00.000Z

Shoal: Photoetched Silver and Labradorite Necklace
(Broughty Ferry Sea Front)

Welcome...

2008-03-24T10:30:00.000Z

"Who owns this landscape? Has owning anything to do with love?"

As part of my final year at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art an Design in Dundee, I have been designing a collection of jewellery for my degree show, based on Scottish poetry.

My main design contrasts the influx of tourists from the bustle of the city to the tranquility of the seaside community. This I have translated into the form of a silver, photoetched chess board, filled with slate and marble resins to depict the dark and the light of the different communities. Each piece creates the same sihouette, with a continuous image flowing across the next and then these pieces each sit neatly interlocked together.

My jewellery designs are all based on this theme, using the same photoetched designs and stylistic shapes from the chess set to create elegant jewellery