More

Vertebra
(was going to call it Phylum Chordata the taxonomic class that animals with backbones belong to, but that would be showing off wouldn't it?)
Look - rustic, edgy assembly of tin, copper and curly bits of torch fired enamel and some handmade chain.
Lookit the back 

A skully to go with the bone/vertebra thingy!

Then some sweet tweets

 And trying to figure out the optimal operation of a new 2nd hand camera.

Some earrings made with my unglazed ceramic bells. And a little surprise inside.

Nice glowing gold leaf.

Can you see it? What have I done? Yep gold! Gleaming Glinting Gold. A delicious plum enamel element, aquamarine frosted recycled glass beads and gold ringie-thingies. Tempted to keep this one.

Nailed It!

In my previous post I outlined the harrowing journey to take a tacky-placky hanging half mannequin to my idea of visual perfection.
This was where I got to. . . 

 A grey coating of paint. Then I proceded to sand the daylights out of it in order to banish the dreaded shine.

Better but still not matte enough.

What I really need is a matte finish paint.
A trip to our local hardware store and a can of blackboard (chalkboard to you) paint later.
So splooged in (yes it is a word) some light wall paint to make it grey and started to mix. That's odd, I thought and mixed harder. Then the slow glowing light of realisation began to dawn in the dark and chaotic recesses of my mind. Checked the tin, and yep the old bird had added water based paint to a tin of solvent based paint. (Write out 100 times I must check the labels before proceeding).

Well, that was that or so I thought. 
Then I remembered that squirreled away somewhere was a tin of rust effect paint. The base coat was a mix of very fine ferrous particles. Tore a storage shelf apart and there it was, right behind the rusting liquid right behind the powdered borax, right behind - oh you get the picture!
Stirred the pot thoroughly to mix the particles, and that was another whole to-do, as it had been there so long that I think creatures had died and drifted into the sediment layers and were now fossilised. Applied a couple of coats to the dummy. Next morning it was still tacky, but after an hour or so in the baking Queensland sun it was dry. A little sanding to expose the particles and by Golly Miss Molly think I've nailed it!

What do ya think????

Now if anyone else is think of taking this exciting journey - glue the paper, forget all the other steps and go straight for the rust effect paint, that is unless you want your dummy to go from size 10 to size 14 like mine. In that case follow all the steps.

 

My Manky Model Makeover

I really, truely want one of these . . .

Any one of these would do - really.
But unless I was prepared to take on the national debt, these beauties (if you can find them here) are waaaaaaaaaaaaay outa my budget. 
So I got one of these beautifully crafted blow molded plastic flesh coloured half thingies complete with hanger.

With a bit of judicious draping and selected camera angles it did the job - just.
Problem was, hanging on the wall, wearing the little shirt that did not quite cover the lady parts, the dummy succeeded in offended me so, a date with the 4 inch grinder equipped with a metal cutting blade solved the problem.
Then UV light stepped in and the flesh tone slowly morphed into a billious yellow like terminal liver failure. 
I spray painted it off white, which only served to accent the tiny texture of the surface and made it even shinier. This resulted in ages in Photoshop and that was another whole other to do.
Arrrgh!
A bit of internet trawling and perhaps covering it in tissue paper appeared to be the answer. No wait, if I was really clever, I could make two forms, one dark and one light, 
Now if I wrapped the form in cling wrap and covered it with tissue paper that could be form 1. I could cover the dummy with tissue paper and that could be form 2.
Should work right?
Wrapped the form in cling wrap with bits of duct tape to hold stuff in place. Next started gluing. Didn't have sheets of tissue paper so tried Kleenex which refused to stick to the cling wrap and instead clung lovingly to my brush and fingers. Painted all the cling wrap with glue and let it dry. Then tried again with Kleenex, same result. Then tried using strips of toilet paper. This turned into a pulpy mess that stuck in places, and bubbled in others resulting in a surface that hinted at developing malignant growths.

Tore everything off and stuffed cling wrap and pulpy mess, garbage bags,into the bin and spent ages washing the stick concoction off my hands.

Clearly some recovery time sulking under the table sucking my thumb was called for.

As luck would have it, while rummaging around in the back of the shed, came across a roll of lightweight wrapping paper that had been there since we moved. The paper had aged to a soft buff and should be strong enough to take the glue and manipulation. 
Torn strips, watered down PVA glue and the first layer is drying in the sun.

Another layer and although better than the white plastic surface it lacked visual guts. (In my mind's eye I envisaged something akin the surface colouration of my battered frypan and baking tray.

A bit of metalic gold added to the PVA glue followed by a sploodging of black - yeah sploodging is too a word!  
Better but not quite right.

 More dark stuff added to the PVA but the surface was too visually busy.

 Went with a coat of dark grey which is closeish the to background I shoot on.
Sprayed it with matt clear, and my idea of matt is clearly not the same as the manufacturer's idea of matt. Didn't even slow the shine down.

 Got into it with some fine sandpaper which did improve it. Will work on matting the surface further and see how I like it.
If I hate it too much there is always a coat of lovely dead matt potters plaster.     
 

Up and Hanging

I thought, that since my first exhibition opened last Saturday and it did include jewelry I could bore you spitless with images of my paintings before coming to the jewelry.

 

A couple of pen and ink sketches on paper

Anticipation - acrylic on canvas 

Open Late - acrylic on canvas

 November Cane - acrylic on canvas

Easily Emused - acrylic on canvas

Sticky End - acrylic on canvas

Saltbush and Sand - soft pastel

The Watcher - soft pastel

Under the Mango Tree - water colour

Singers of the Rain - water colour and ink

Yes there was jewelry, my challenge was how to hang the necklaces in a small group that did not cost a fortune.

I found a tutorial by Ginger of The Bluebottle Tree, and it immediately sparked a lightbulb moment. My necklaces were more complex than the pendant Ginger displayed, but the materials certainly did the trick.

 I cut a half circle from the foam core board and glued it to the front. The necklace is attached with black glass head pins. I used nylon fishing line from the back to a slim piece of timber with attachments to take the gallery hanging system. Worked well looks good and didn't require a 2nd morgtage. 

Was going to hang them in a straight row, but ended up hanging at an angle making a much more interesting display.

Oh and I managed a bracelet.

Am quite addicted to the rough piercing enamelled copper domes. They have a slightly sinister air that pleases me.

 

Is That It?

Seriously?
Is that all there is?
Fair dinkum! you mean to tell me that after nearly 3 months all you have you show is 
ONE pair of earrings? 
 

OK I admit that they are interesting and I love the enameled focal and clearly the soldering is beautiful, but really only one pair?
Boy, you better have a good excuse.

Well, I think I have a good excuse. . . 
Way back in November last year, in a moment of madness, I agreed to do a joint exhibition at our local gallery in December this year. Paintings and jewelry.
No worries, I have heaps of time, it's not for a whole year. I'll start in June, July, August, September, Oh my God I've only got 2 and a half months!

Doing a series of paintings in my increasingly crowded studio was a challenge, so I started on the front verandah. Good light, but I was at risk of a nervous breakdown over the worry of spilling paint on the timber deck. Then I had a brilliant idea.
The old caravan and glass annexe that we first lived in, was sitting there, basicaly a junk storage. A few alterations, some tables and storage and da-daaaaaaaaaaaaaa Studio 2.
Here I can sharpen my pencils on the floor and slosh paint with gay abandon and walk out the door at the end of the day.
So to cut a long story short I now have 12 paintings ready to hang. No spoilers will show them next post.

Decided to display 5 necklaces and came up with a nifty way of hanging them. (read cost effective thanks to Ginger of Bluebottle Tree)  Needed to make one more necklace.

Then someone bought one of the necklaces and I had to make another.

  
Then I decided that I needed to upgrade my display in the gallery gift shop, so made 3 new bracelets.

  

  

 
Then I decided that the whole display needed revamping to a more cohesive look including new earring cards and swing tags. Made and stained all the components and they are all now installed at the gallery waiting the Exhibition/Christmas shoppers.

Phew, I'm done. 
Just don't look at my 2 studios! 
Just-don't-look!    

Tears of Bitter Price

Summed up in two phrases – it seemed like a good idea and how hard can it be.

Introducing Kuchi buttons. Cute and just the right size for earrings.

Good Idea?

Come in 2 flavours.

Little flat ones an easy target.

 Nip the little loops off the back, bung in a coupla holes, hang stuff and there ya go, and if the junk from the nipped off loop bothers you, can all be solved with a disc of some metal or such.Done n Dusted!

Now the ones I really liked are the high domed variety.

Nice central detailing on the right hand one and the other, that resemble pert young mammary glands.

(Now I've said that can’t look at them without imagining a mature aged lady rocking the buxom bosoms on her lobes - oh wait, that'll be me)

A quick look on the internet revealed these kuchi buttons were uncommon in earrings.

Bewdy an obviously unexploited niche, but let me tell you why.

Wanted a really cool and innovative method of attaching the buttons to the earwires and other elements. Much sketching, contorting of wire, scrabbling through various boxes for inspiration/easy solutions, in dispersed with wandering around, thinking, coffee, more thinking, more coffee, pee stops. Woah squirrel brain!
Finally in desperation tried jump rings. 
Had I done that first woulda saved half a day. Then began working the second earring and ran straight into the Universal Truth of Kuchi Buttons – Variation. And these little buggers have variation in spades!

The little loops on the back are bigger, smaller, offset, squished, twisted, flattened. No two alike.

Jump ring again – how hard can it be?
Then I began making jump rings just the right size so that all the elements were more or less equal.

It is now the end of the day and finally nailed them and I consider the name most appropriate, Tears of Bitter Price

OH
In addition, I can offer you a huge range of graduated sets of hand made jump rings measured in increments of gnat knees.