New Statement ring

If you’ve been following me at all, you may recall that I said that I liek to make new work and try out something new at least once a year. This year I have a few things in process, including a project to try and produce alot of wax carvings. BUT, more about that later!

I have several rings that I cast many years ago when I was first learning. I carved them in such a way that they were meant to be a base for a more complex design. Well, my moons later, and they’re mostly still sitting in my box. However, sometime in the summer, I dug one of them out and started thinking about what I wanted to do with it.

For a long time it was at this stage where I’d constructed the wire crochet/beadcomponent, and pre-finished the base ring:

base ring pre-finished with its crocheted wire and sea bamboo/pearl hat sitting on top (me, looking for inspiration!)

I had decided on the basic design, but I wanted to incorporate some enamel, and I was dithering about how the final form should look. Then I got busier with custom work and other things I needed to do, so it sat again.

When the New Year hit, I decided I better take advantage of my January lull (since all my instructing was put off), and finish up! So, I pulled my enamels out of the reaches of my locker and did some experimenting with torch firing some enamels on some test copper bits.

random bits of copper and enamel testing, and a small wee disk that gives you an idea of my target piece!

That went pretty well, so I progressed onto doing my tiny cups:

In case you were wondering, that’s actually a pretty small paint brush!

Success! I was pretty pleased with how they worked out. I’m a bit organic when it comes to these things, and enameling on silver can be trickier, but I find that I’m liking using the torch, it allows me alot of control over how much and how long I precisely heat the metal and enamel. All that remained was to put it all together!

So…. I’m pleased to present to you: “Spillage”, the idea behind it is the cascade of blood cells from a blood vessel.