Exciting Times...

Well here we are on a bright and sunny Autumn Saturday morning and I find myself with a little time to catch up with some blogging. My posts have been a bit few and far between of late for which I apologise...I have so much on my to do list at the moment it's hard to fit everything in but, I must try.

It's almost 4 months since I moved into the new studio and I can safely say getting that done has proved to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's just so liberating to have the space to work on different projects and in different mediums concurrently. I have a low boredom threshold so I'm much more productive when I have several things on the go and there is so much cross pollination that my head is buzzing with ideas. I'm even thinking of abandoning my note book and using one of the big blank walls for writing my ideas down...creative graffiti if you like!

My studio Manager Cleo at her work station...

 If you follow me on Facebook or the Art Jewelry Elements blog you might have seen my debut ceramic pieces earlier this week. I've wanted to have a go at this for ages but was limited by space and so I thought, a low temperature kiln. But my AJE team mates put me right on this and persuaded me to give it a go and I'm so glad I did - it's just so much fun and I'm completely hooked and now want to try so many things in this medium...

First firing of ceramic beads...

Because my kiln limits me to low fire clays I went a bit mad and splurged on a new higher temperature one that will allow me to work with porcelain and stoneware and so I've been told, get some really exciting glaze effects. Even better - it comes with an enameling collar so that's another technique I can do more with. Only problem is I have to wait 2 weeks for it to ship from the US which is going to drive me nuts!

Paragon Caldera A

I've also been doing a bit more traditional metalwork lately, practising my long neglected soldering skills and trying out some fold forming...

Fold formed earrings available in my ETSY shop

You'll probably have seen that I got myself set up for etching a few months ago too and that's also so much fun with so many possibilities.

Etched copper vintage illustration pendants

So what you may ask, am I going to do with all these new found skills. Well as I mentioned I get bored easily and need variety to keep me focused so I'd really like to do more original and one off work with less reliance on commercial tools. I will of course be continuing with my metal clay work but will be selling other mediums alongside it and am hoping to come up with some combined offerings too. And of course, I want this to feed through to my jewellery design...I've not done a lot of that lately either but it would great to have mixed media pieces with everything made by me.

Recent bronze component work...

It's very early days yet but I'm very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and I'm looking forward to having something to share with you here.

For now though I hope you have a great weekend in the offing with lots of creativity in the mix...

See you soon,

Lesley