Cells, cells, cells

I’ve been working on making more of these teeny-tiny wax blood cell clusters- keep an eye out for the new jewellery I’m excited to make with them! Including something for myself (for once!).

Fancy something of your very own? Email me, and ask me about it!

New Ring - Help me name it!

So, I can’t remember if I posted anything about this one, but I’ve finished (finally!) a new ring. It’s super fancy in 14kt rose gold with a star sapphire and a lab created diamond. It’s embellished with some tiny new elements I’m starting to use in a new series of jewellery, modelled after red blood cells. They’re sculpted, and put together to give the impression of flow and subtle differences in shape, but still with that characteristic “donut” look to them.

I love the hexagonal shape of the sapphire, even though the star is not very discernible with ths kind of cut, and I think it looks amazing with the colour of the rose gold!

I envisioned it as my interpretation of a “Toi et Moi” ring (which seem to be pretty popular at the minute, and is usually two stones together to represent you and your partner), so it could be worn as an unconventional engagement ring (and there’s cleverly space for a wedding band to snug up against it from either side!). However, it doesn’t have to be an engagement ring, I just hope it will eventually go to someone who loves it as much as I do!

Here’s how it looks on my finger - don’t you want to see it gracing yours?? ;)

I made it with a created diamond, rather than a natural one. Apart from the price difference, created diamonds don’t have the same ethical issues, and so I’ve decided that, as a goldsmith, the work I make for my own personal designs are going to be made with re-claimed diamonds or from lab created diamonds. The interesting thing about lab created diamonds is that because of the process that is used, you still get different grades of stones, so the “C’s” (cut, clarity, carat, colour) still apply!

So, I like to give everything names, but I haven’t quite landed on one for this ring, yet—any snappy ideas come to mind? Hit the button below, and let me know!! Or, if you just want to tell me how much you love this ring, that would be awesome too!!

Networks, Immunity, and Vaccination, oh my!

You may remember that I exhibited last year at Science Rendezvous, at University of Toronto, as part of their SciArt Gallery. I had a blast! It was so fun meeting loads of the public, and talking about my work, and finding new people to geek out with about science and immunology, it was awesome. I also met a load of other fascinating sciartists and enjoyed their art. So, I am excited about exhibiting again this year, on May 11th, in a slightly new venue.

You might already know about this, but if not, Science Rendezvous is a fun, familty-friendly day out with lots of STEAM-related activities and exhibitions, including a Science Fair, a Science Chase (a science experiment obstacle course, how cool is that), something called SR Hacks (a coding and engineering competition), and, of course, the SciArt Gallery - which is where you'll find me! 

Whenever I do an exhibition or a show, I try to have new and fresh work. This year, I’m hoping to share the collaboration I did with Carolina Reis last year (you can read about it in the blog I wrote), along with the artisti writeup about the piece, called IMMUNITY, and the story of how it came about. Alongside the art piece, I made a series of mixed media jewellery. I hope that mahy will see it and experience it. If you miss it next Saturday, it will take up residence in the windows along Roncevalles at the Jewel Envy Studio for a while.

New Rings are almost here!

Stacking Pearl Rings

I’m a bit obsessed with stacking rings - I think it relates to my love of all things Wendy Ramshaw (I’ve written about here before, you can follow the link to find out more about this iconic British woman goldsmith). This is my latest iteration of elegant stacking rings in sterling silver - with pearl. You can see some of these in person at the Craft Ontario Shop, but I’ve been working on some new ones that are coming to Jewel Envy soon!

In the spirit of waste not, want not, I use the cutouts from my M cells to form the pearl cups on the rings, so I like to think of them as my “nuclei rings” :). It’s a little secret story that you don’t know about unless you know about it! Yes, it makes my little geeky science heart happy! And each one is different from the next one!

Yellow gold brooch to White Gold Bling!

I love interesting custom re-designs of jewellery. This is one I did recently. The client brought in this sentimental brooch, with the intention of making it into two new pieces, this is one of them.

Original brooch

Now, she’s not particularly fond of yellow gold, and she’s not really what I would call very traditional, which is always fun! So, the brief was that she wanted a white gold ring, re-working the sapphire and diamond cluster. She said that she liked negative space, and I knew from previously that she liked architecture. She also liked the Diana-esque esthetic, and wanted something that would nod at the Princess Diana engagement ring. The sapphire was also particularly lovely in colour, but wasn’t very lively, partly because of the setting it was in, so I tried to do something about that as well.

trying out a wax element

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Trying out the wax some more!

Finished ring before setting

Finished Ring

Finished Ring - Side view

So, the final ring, with an exploded halo on levels, which allows some light around the stone, with a modern feel to a classic!

Have something hanging around your jewellery box that you’re not sure what to do with now? Let’s start a conversation!

New custom T bar pendant

I love it when people buy my stuff (seriously, the validation of someone actually wanting to own something that I made really never gets old— thank you so much to all the people out there that own a little piece of my creativity!). But, as I’ve said before, I like to do custom work too. I had a recent order that sort of combined both — a piece that I designed as part of my ongoing obsession with all things immunity, but in a bespoke combination!

Here it is: my sterling silver T bar pendant on a string of beautiful garnet beads with garnet needled felt, with a special flower motif.

Kilt and jewellery crossover!

I love being a one-stop-shop for all things kilty related! I had the fun of outfitting a gentleman with a kilt, and fly plaid, as well as an original fly plaid pin and kilt pin before Christmas. I love the zen of stitching, and I get such a kick out of helping someone realize the perfect outfit!

The MacKay Modern tartan, with garter flashes

Sterling silver fly plaid brooch and kilt pin. These were both based on the clan crest, which features an upheld dagger, with the motto “with a strong fist” and the kilt pin was don'e deliberately to match the fly plaid brooch. Both have been subtly oxidised in selected locations to highlight the texture and levels in both pieces.

Since the client hadn’t worn full dress before, we had a bit of a fashion show before he departed (yes, I work at home!). He looks pretty spiffy in all the trimmings!

An outfit to last for ages! I love it when a plan comes together! Want your very own kilt? Or clan jewellery to add to an existing outfit?

Exciting pop up Maker's Market!

I'm quite excited about doing a pop up next week!  You may not know this about me, but I curl.  It's amazing.  I only started about four years ago, and I wish I'd started 20 years ago, I love it that much!  Anyway, I curl with the Women's League at the Royal Canadian Curling Club, and this holiday season, we're doing a little market on Wednesday December 6th, 6:30-9:30 pm, featuring Curling Themed crafts, Hand-Crafted Jewellery, Kids' Gifts and Snacks.  Stop by the club and see what the creative ladies of curling can do!  As a wee incentive, I'll have new pieces, hot off my bench that are priced nicely for holiday presents, that NO ONE has had access to yet! If you're looking for contemporary and Science Art jewellery gifts, you know I've got you covered! (And, if you can't make the popup, you can always visit my shop page, or email me for some options!)

:Sterling silver, hammered texture with high cut lapis lazuli beads, pendant and earrings

I made a thing-- with a friend!

I was sad to miss the Living Room Show and Sale (I ended up having the dreaded Covid and couldn’t attend).  My friend and colleague Carolina and I unveiled an art collaboration that weekend that we have been working on for a number of months, and I’m sharing a bit about it here .

I first met Carolina over a year ago, and one of the things that I noticed about her work, and our conversations was an interest in networks and I thought, hey!  immunology is all about networks.  I'd been wanting to do a collaboration for a while. Carolina’s sensibilities appealed to me, and I really admire what she does with thread.  A lot of my work is based on the systems, cells and concepts of the immune system, and with the pandemic, it seemed rather timely to work out some ideas about the pandemic through a nice collaborative project.  So we did. The final result came out of conversations, and some experimentation with some ideas about some new jewellery work I wanted to undertake.  So, I present to you ImmUnity.  I hope that if you haven't seen it in person yet, at some point you will be able to!

My contributions explore three different elements: some of the major player cells of the immune system,  how some processes within the immune system work, and some explorations of the way in which people behaved during the pandemic in various situations, and how that relates to our perceptions of public health in general. Overall, we are all interconnected, whether we wish to be or not, despite our differences.

Carolina created crocheted cellular shapes that representf the concept of herd immunity from an intuitive approach. We're constantly in contact with invisible-to-the-eye organisms and our bodies work relentlessly to neutralise them, to keep us healthy. The dynamics of cell populations in the body mirrors what happens at a large scale in human populations. Each unit neutralises the pathogen and with the knowledge of this process, works towards protecting the community whether they are made of cells or humans.
 
Binding the shapes into a cohesive whole simultaneously shows the strength and the fragility of coming together.

I feel tremendously privileged to have been able to work with Carolina on this project, and it really fed something creative in me this year, as well as helping to process some of my thoughts and feelings about what happened with the pandemic over the last few years.

I made the fabric discs using different quilting and embroidery techniques, and it needs to be seen in person to really appreciate the 3-dimensional nature of the panels and the crocheted elements!

Macrophage/monocyte infected with fluorescent bacteria, B cells and their antibodies (which can be secreted from the cell, T cells with their unique receptors, Blood cells(Left bottom, left top, right top, right bottom).  The brooches are 5cm in diameter.

In parallel with the art collaboration, I had started working on a new series of work, which I am calling the Portholes on Immunity.  They follow a similar theme, in that they are all about cells and systems in the immune system, but in a smaller, wearable format.  I've started with four brooches.  They're 5 cm in diameter, with sterling silver frames and a handmade brooch back, with quilted, embroidered, and trapunto'd aspects (trapunto is a quilting technique where you stuff extra layers of batting in small areas to create a more raised effect-- it's quite fun!). I used plain oakshott cotton for the base, quite deliberately. Shot cottons are formed of two colours- 1 in the warp, and 1 in the weft, giving them a characteristic sheen, and appearing, sometimes quite startlingly, different colours depending on how the light hits them.  This really is congruous for me with the way that the immune system has many different facets, and you get different results depending on the situation.

I love a good story!

I love doing custom work with a good story behind it. It’s indescribable the joy I can get from helping someone realize a vision (even one they didn’t have), while salvaging sentimental bits. The client for this project came in with a broken engagement ring, that had been sitting in a drawer for many years (it had cracked down the sizing join). She decided it was high time to have it re-done. She also had a number of different rings from her parents and grandparents, including a number of other diamonds, in addition to the lovely trillion garnet in the original ring. After some back and forth, we settled on a spectacular statement ring, incorporating all the diamonds and the trillion garnet, as well as bits of gold from all the rings that were very sentimental for her (including the original engagement ring!). The rest of the gold was refined from broken bits that she had rolling around her jewellery box.

All the rings that contributed old gold to the new ring! It was a bit of a mishmash of different karat weights!

We settled eventually on a design of a Faerie Leaf Crown, of oak and ivy leaves— this totally suits the client’s pagan sensibitilites!

Once the carving was done, I cast the ring in two pieces - the base ring and the crown.

Here they are, fresh out of the casting flask!

Then it was just clean up, joining the two, and getting the stones set. The final ring was amazing, and the client loved it!

Here it is on her finger :)

Here’s a closer view, there are some small diamonds nestled into the leaves at the sides!

Got stuff rolling around the bottom of your jewellery box that you can’t part with, but wish you wanted to wear more? Send me an email and let’s talk about what can be done! this ring was almost entirely paid for with the sale of old metal that the client had hanging around.