Patience is a Virtue

This lovely piano solo by Kevin Kerr expresses the emotions I have tried to capture in this necklace. To me summertime is all about butterflies and dragonflies, mellow sunlight, tinkling music and flowers - I don't think about the slugs and snails and weeds and rain that are such a nuisance - I must be a romantic at heart, although I would deny it hotly, if someone said that about me.

Happy Friday, readers and thanks for joining me today. This week, I've written two posts - the last one about Statement Jewellery, posted on Wednesday will be a guest post on a friend's blog later on in the year - but you caught sight of it first, right here. I didn't want to add this weeks pieces of jewellery to the guest post and decided to write a separate one instead. 

My muse see sawed wildly this week from the conventional and pretty, to the wild and crazy. I kick started the weekend by making wire and resin dragonflies. The problem with this was that each coating of resin took at least a couple of days to set - this gave my mischievous muse time to draw my attention to all sorts of other ideas - I was a bit overloaded on the ideas front and my mind was spinning out of control!

The wire was shaped and hammered, and attached to a paper backing

Jewellery - quality resin and eyeshadow pigments applied to the frames

A second layer of resin applied - and then to wait....the most difficult bit!

And while I waited for the resin to set, off Ms Muse trotted dragging me in her wake, this time in the direction of Cubism and Pablo Picasso. A few lessons ( quite a few, actually - because I cannot draw) off the internet in drawing a face from two different perspectives and I set about making this piece, which in the end was made into a brooch by the addition of a pin.
 It was an awful, grey and rainy weekend, which might have sparked the need for bright colour.
 I  love it, but I do feel the need to offer apologies to Pablo. 
In my defence, it is more difficult than one would think, especially for someone who cannot draw in one perspective, let alone two at the same time! -  try it and see how you go - and then, once it has been drawn, to successfully convert it to a polymer clay piece - eeps! not sure I'll be doing this again any time soon. 
This is a gift for a very wacky and fun friend of mine - we are to visit her in Hamburg soon, I hope she will love it as much as I do.

And the dragonflies showed no sign of being ready yet, so on we went, my muse and I, plodding on with another piece.

Images from the Subconscious - Mind Games!

While I was researching the making of the 'Picasso' pin, I looked at a whole load of stuff on the internet that set my mind a buzzing - among others, the art of Romero Britto, and the South American god of Fertility - the Kokopelli - colourful images that seemed to stay with me in my dreams. No wonder then, that my next piece was shaped by them.

This is Kokopelli, a Native American fertility deity. He is usually depicted as a hump backed and feathered flute player,  and he takes care of both the harvest and fertility - which in the end mean one and the same!
 I was looking for a colourful piece to replicate in Polymer clay, but passed him up in favour of the cubist face - another time perhaps, I thought.............

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This is the first time I actually drew a sketch of what I wanted to create - and you will soon see why I don't bother!
 Also, I was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me god - when I say  I cannot draw.
 I drew a few different shapes, and then picked one I liked, and then set to work with a few miles of wire and a druzy cabochon.

And this is what came from my drawing when translated into wire - it looks like a Kokopelli!! - it breaks my heart to have to destroy it, so it sits on my table alternating between begging me to pick it up and love it, and glaring at me reproachfully - but I'm afraid it's for the chop, unless I can think of some other way to salvage it which eludes me just now.

And the dragonflies were still wet........sigh!  Oh well!

Zehra

Conus snails are venomous though beautiful and are the species of snail whose shells are seen in most collections.The species most dangerous to humans are the larger ones which prey on small bottom-dwelling fish; the smaller species mostly hunt and eat marine worms. They have a venom gland and a hollow tooth like a harpoon or proboscis through which they inject and paralyse their prey before eating it. 
This pendant came from Indonesia and is set with cross sections of conus shells in coloured resin, and I added faceted onyx, and pyrite nuggets which gleam in the light - they aren't called 'Fools Gold' for nothing! 
'Zehr' is the Arabic word for poison - although Zehra means beautiful! Either way, I think the name fits this pendant - would you agree??

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Mayuri

This peacock feather pendant came from Indonesia as well - I was quite taken with the way the edges of the feather had been beaded like a Rastafarian's dreads - hard work, and done so neatly - I have a great deal of admiration for the artist who made it. It can't be fun to play with feathers and glue and beads - just imagine the mess at the end of it.
Together with a string of freshwater pearls and a couple of enamelled Indian beads, bought during my last trip home, a simple, but elegant necklace was born.

Mr and Mrs Peacock

Of course the word Mayuri really means a peahen and is a misnomer - the poor peahen hasn't been born with the elegance of the male bird - but hey, let's not quibble, eh!

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At last, finally, the dragonflies were ready to be used - and about time too!!

The Dance of The Dragonfly

I think it was worth the wait, don't you?? As a bonus, I have a few leftover dragon flies, which will eventually work their way into other pieces, later on.

That's a wrap for this week folks, I'll catch you again next week, same time, same place. Have a lovely week
xx