Evolution of a Brooch

1. Found bright pink rope. Thought I'll use that one day. Liked the colour, it was cheap, good texture, and was in great condition.

2. Experimented with melting the rope. Plan was to melt pieces of it completely.

3. While melting realised the texture was great and worth keeping. Liked it looking like rope. Kept experimenting and found a way to make it stiff, while keeping the appearance of rope.

4. Made some samples. Wanted to make a chain.

5. Worked on making the pieces look more finished.

6. Needed a few pieces to exhibit (will talk about this in the next post) so thought a few samples would be good to show.

7. Started layering pieces and realised they would make great brooches. Plus three of these would look good as a group.

8. Made three finished brooches as shown above.

9. Will now keep experimenting with other types rope, and other forms of jewellery.

10. Want to finish that chain.

Commission Piece FOR LK

When LK (aka Leanne Kelly) asked me to make a necklace for her I felt in two minds about it. I don't really like to make commission pieces. Unless they are a simple variation of a current design, like a different size or colour. That sort of thing. But on the other hand I do like a challenge, and I do like Leanne. She is a fan of my designs and my designs suit her, absolutely they do. Anyway when she found two pairs of fabulous thick knitting needles in Melbourne (one of her favourite places, and mine!) in just the colours she wanted, it was all systems go.

As much as I was reluctant I feel the piece turned out well. She loves it, and so do I. I realised through this process, that my problem with commissions was more about a fear of not making exactly what the client wanted. But I realised that when someone comes to you they are probably coming to you for a reason. They like what you do and they want a version of that. Now that I understand that I welcome commissions with arms a little more open.

New Brooches!

Here are the first pics of my new brooch design. I do seem to have a bit of a thing for a flower brooch, as I have designed a few over the years. These are currently my favourite. I wanted to make some brooches that could be worn as a single, or as a group, and still look great. I think these do.

The brooches are made from some lovely plastic material scrap. After some experimentation with shaping the material to retain a petal shape, they seem to have really come together.

I'm a bit excited with my new design, but I'm even more excited because I am playing with some other new materials, with more new designs coming soon!

Oh Blogging!

Oh I haven't been blogging much lately! Why? Hmmmmm Just busy I guess. Well, that is true, but it certainly isn't the only reason, because that sure isn't anything new. Hmmmm I think the core of it is that I've been spending much of my online time on Facebook.

Being always interested in how these online things work, particularly for business, I just tend to become a bit obsessed until I come to some kind of understanding about it all. I don't try to do that, it just happens. Also honestly it can be a little tricky juggling all those balls in the air - Facebook, website, etsy, blog, MySpace, and Twitter (haven't really started with that yet - but I will!).

Anyway I've decided Facebook is certainly excellent for networking, and networking is central to business success. Since one of my favourite things is meeting new people I find this aspect enjoyable. Also it has helped me get over my shyness. Maybe I don't appear shy but it really wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't have my photograph taken, less alone put one online for all the world to see! Being shy certainly isn't good for business. You have to put yourself out there, again and again! You just do.

Now that I've come to some understanding about the Facebook thing I think I'll move on to something else. I haven't really worked out how to make MySpace work fully for me and that Twitter thing? Or maybe I'll just get into blogging again more regularly. Sometimes I want to go on a bit, and let's face it, Facebook just isn't the place for that!