Tag: artwork

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Meet the Maker

Hi, my name is Deborah and I am the owner and maker at Silver Wave Jewellery and based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

My love of creating really began many years ago without me realising when I started to watch my mother make my and my sister’s clothes – they were gorgeous pieces – and I wanted to copy her and make my own. I continued making clothes into adulthood and when I worked in the City you could often find me at local markets in my lunchtime buying fabric ready for my next makes! I also made some of my children’s clothes when they came along.

However, as life became busy with work and family I did not use my creative skills that much apart from knitting a few jumpers and making a few curtains but about seven years ago having always loved silver jewellery and buying it to match my handmade outfits I signed up for a one day silversmithing class in Dorset.  I had such a wonderful time and made a couple of rings, a pendant and a beautiful bangle – all of which I still wear today! I
enjoyed it so much I decided I just had to carry on.

Lace Design Sterling Silver Open Ring
Sterling Silver Open Ring

I began attending weekly jewellery classes then started to exhibit my work locally, sold at local craft fairs and in the last few years have taken part in art trail events around my local area in Maidenhead, Berkshire. I took early retirement just before the Covid lockdown so Silver Wave Jewellery has now become my main focus and I love being able to work on designing and creating new pieces from my little studio at home.

Sterling Silver Long Squiggle Earrings
Sterling Silver Long Squiggle Earrings

I use nature as my inspiration and I am lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time at the coast in Lyme Regis which is where I came up with the name for my business. I love walking along the beaches with my dog Archie and collecting sea glass and pottery. I have not used these in my jewellery yet but have made quite a few pictures for myself and family with them.

I work with sterling silver, precious metal clay, copper and brass and add semi-precious gemstones, crystals
and gemstone beads for a touch of sparkle and interest. Texture is added to my work with hammers, metal stamps, etching, fusing and reticulation, fold forming and on occasions a rolling mill. I love creating simple, boho style, wearable jewellery suitable for any occasion. I create contemporary sterling silver and copper jewellery including rings, pendants, earrings, bangles and cuffs using traditional silversmithing techniques. Many of my pieces are one of a kind, unique items often created out of scraps left over from other projects as I try not to waste any metal and recycle as much as possible.

If you are buying for a gift I can ship direct to the recipient with a short handwritten gift note.

All my jewellery complies with the UK hallmarking regulations and I have my own makers hallmark registered with the London Assay Office.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Deborah

Email: silverwavedesigns@gmail.com

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Bevart designs and ‘Wabi Sabi’ a Japanese philosophy

What inspires to me to make my jewellery pieces.

Hello, I am Beverley from Bevart designs.

I am an artist that has been inspired to make jewellery from my love of art. So in short, my jewellery creations have been inspired from my artworks. 

I love wood and colour and have combined the two elements to make beautiful art inspired jewellery for you to wear. 

Whilst doing my degree back in 2008 whooooa! long time ago.

I was fascinated by making something that was quite ordinary very beautiful, I incorporated copper pipe and wire and velvet fabrics to bring my 3-D relief paintings and sculptures to life.

 

The photo is a piece that I created for my fine art degree, I embedded a large ornate mirror, red velvet and copper pipe. This work was made in response to self Indulgence and decadence.

 

Artwork – 5ft x 3ft plaster, paint, velvet, copper pipe, mirror and varnish.

Entitled  – ‘Indulge’

SOLD

 

Fast forward to now, in my fine artwork I use gold leaf and mark making using unconventional tools. My ethos in my creative life is ‘Making the ordinary beautiful’ a few years ago I discovered WabiSabi a Japanese philosophy and way of life.

 The Japanese people embrace things that would be normally deemed as useless or boring or very ordinary, old, cracked or broken, they fix and make beautiful. I am fascinated with that as a thing in its self, so the way that I use WabiSabi and making the ordinary beautiful into my artwork, is that I embrace things that could possibly go wrong, like, unintentional marks, the drips from the paint the knots in the wood!

I fix good with love, polishing and gold/silver and rose gold leaf.

The pink and green artwork photograph is a painting that I made a couple of years ago, I have used wax and mark making to create this ‘Indian Summer’ inspired piece. We went on holiday to Goa, whilst on a market trip we met a lady selling the most amazing fabrics, she was wearing the most exquisite sari, my painting was inspired by this trip.

 

Art work – wax, oil paints and gold leaf, painted on board.

Entitled – ‘Indian Summer’

 

This is just a little insight into the jewellery making and the things that inspire me to be creative.

Bevart designs creations! are inspired by my paintings, travel, and WabiSabi.

 

Thankyou Beverley x

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A little bit about me!

Hi I’m Jo from Jo’s Little People also known as ClayFiguresUK

I live in North Cumbria (very close to the border of Scotland) with my husband, three daughters, dogs, cats and guinea pigs!

I’ve been making my unique little figures for over 20 years and have hundreds in my collection!

All my figures are designed then entirely handmade from polymer clay by me. I don’t use molds. Every figure starts life as a lump of clay, so they are slightly different and unique, the slightest change to facial expression creates a new little character each time.

I love making commissions too, it’s always nice to do something completely different and one of a kind.

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Hearts aren’t just for Valentines!

I have had a lovely time over the Christmas lock down period making fused glass hearts in a cast iron pan. Thanks to an excellent tutorial from glasshoppa.com me and my daughter whiled away the time, when we couldn’t see the rest of the family, coming up with various combinations of glass to pile up in the mold ready for a hot fuse.

Once out and cooled down they needed a bit of grinding and cleaning before going back in the kiln for a nice fire polish.

Now I’m waiting for some little box frames to be delivered so I can mount them and then put on sale in my shop. Should make a lovely little letter box gift to send to those we love.

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Squashed Glass?

So what is squashed glass? This is a fused glass/kiln forming technique that I’ve been having a go at. As described it is glass put in the kiln to fuse but you have to weigh it down with a second shelf to ‘squash’ it as it fuses.

Glass is viscous at high temperature and up to a certain heat it conforms to the glass fusers mantra “the 6 mm rule”. This basically means that however many layers of glass you put on top of each other the finished fused piece will always end up 6 mm thick, unless you dam it, but that’s another technique! 

Squashed glass is multiple layers of glass weighed down with another kiln shelf on top (and any other bits of kiln furniture you might have to hand) so that the pressure of all that weight will go down on the piece and the glass will flow and merge together. The finished glass piece is nice and level and will have a smooth texture from the kiln shelf.

After that you can cut up your sheet of squashed glass and cold work the edges to smooth them out and slump in a mould to get the shape you want for your finished pieces.

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Featured Artist!

It is well known that many artists and crafts people often struggle with self- esteem and find it difficult to acknowledge their own talent. It can be daunting to put your work out in the public domain. When there is so much time and passion invested in carefully crafted pieces, it can feel as if you are baring your soul for scrutiny.

 

If, like me, you have no formal artistic training and are completely self taught, feeling your way, experimenting and exploring techniques as you go, it is easy to feel a bit like a fraud amongst other talented makers and artists.  

 

It takes time to build confidence and just one positive comment can make you feel ten feet tall.  

 

So it was in a bit of a mad moment that I applied to be a featured artist with World of Wool. I didn’t really give myself time to talk myself out of it, I just filled out my details and sent off the form!

 

The site regularly features a variety of makers and their gallery is full of seriously talented textile artists, including the fabulous Moy Mackay.

 

Imagine my surprise when I received an email two days later telling me they would like to feature me in their latest monthly blog and newsletter! 

 

I was beyond excited and thrilled to think that an organization was interested in my work and prepared to feature it and share it with thousands of their subscribers.

 

This morning when I opened my email, there it was!  A copy of the article and my  face staring back at me from the World of Wool newsletter.  It feels amazing to have my work acknowledged and it has given me such a confidence boost, just when I needed it.

 

I started to get feedback on my social media pages almost instantly, lots of congratulations and support from followers and fellow artisans.  There was one comment, however, that really made my day, from a lady I hadn’t heard from before and this is what she wrote:

 

‘And that’s how I came across you. You’re work is beautiful and inspiring. I had lost my mojo a bit with felting even though had just recieved a big order from world of wool. You’ve made me want to get felting again ❤️’

 

 

What a wonderful, uplifting comment, how fantastic that someone would take time out of their day to say that in response to my post.  She had read the article from her inbox first thing and by the time I had shared the article on social media, she had already looked me up and was engaging with my thread. It was incredible to think that my work had helped to reignite another artist’s passion. 

 

So thank you World of Wool for accepting my application, thank you Andrew Novotny for such a great write up and thank you to each and every one of you who read the article and left some feedback on my social media pages, it really means a great deal.  

 

Please continue to support small business where you can, it’s hard work to find recognition but I am delighted to tell you that I did a little happy dance all the way to my studio this morning! 

 

If you woud like to read the article , please visit: 

https://www.worldofwool.co.uk/apps/base/blog/featured-artist-louise-hancox

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Welcome!

I just thought whilst I was photographing, listing, measuring and generally sorting what planters and window boxes I have made it would be a nice idea to introduce myself properly. 

This is my world of Metal Garden Planters. 

Welcome, my name is Fiona, I have 2 children (12 and 9) 1 mini dachshund and an OAP Cat who thinks he is a teenager still. I live in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, famous for being voted the most boring town in the UK one year, being the birth place of myself, Margaret Thatcher, Doris Stokes and Sir Isaac Newton to name a few. 

The image is of me, no makeup, not having done my hair and dressed for the cold,  about to set off in my VW Flatbed, with some roofing sheets on the back. I sell a variety of Box Profile and Corrugated roofing sheets, and manufacture the flashings to finish the edges in house. It was from the waste I was generating in terms of making the flashings which lead me down the path of making metal boxes. 

I was on the hunt for an office bin one day, and the cost shocked me, let alone the fact they are all fairly boring looking so after some cutting, measuring, and general faffing with the Guilloline (not the kind the Frenchman used to lop off the heads of Aristocracy) but a blade which can cut thin metal sheeting safely, and my bending machine (its clamp with a lever that once lifted puts a fold in a metal sheet in its simplest form) A bright yellow tall, square bin was created, and 6+ years later it is still used daily. 

So thats how I started, if you have any specific questions for future blog posts I would be happy to answer them, in the meantime I will continue selecting troughs, and planters along with a special gardeners gift pack I am pulling together.