Part A of making a cameo bangle

Here is an image of my bench. I am looking at a print off of profile shots of myself as a reference for doing the line drawing of the cameo to scale.



After drawing the cameo image to scale I then glued it onto a slab of carving wax.
I then scribed through the paper onto the wax. This image is of the wax after I have pulled off the paper line drawing.



Carving the wax...



This is after about 8- 10 hours of carving. I have polished the wax using terpentine and a rag and alot of patience.



I then cut and filed the wax and set it into a bought finding.

Part B of Making a Cameo Bangle

I had the wax and frame sent to the casters where I got it silicone moulded and cast in silver.



Bending and forming the shank from half round stock gauge silver



After filing and sanding the prongs to an elegant shape, I then gave an offering and a prayer to the soldering gods and hoped for the best. It worked. right on. The image here is the metal being cleaned in the pickle (a hot acid solution to clean the flux off).



Here is is clean and polished! I decided to polished the shank and leave the cameo matt white, which I achieved by heating and pickling the top of the piece repeatedly to bring up the fine silver to the surface.



After much faffing about with different finishes and techniques and having to re-polish and fine silver after every damned failed attempt at getting it looking the way I wanted...

I ended up painting the background black with enamel paint.

Done. Photographed. And now in a box under my bed. x

Studio Crash

5 days before moving my at home jewellery studio in to the fabulous share studio that is "Gate 8 Workshop" in Thebarton... All my shelves crashed to the floor. Fortunately I was not at my bench at that time. I was sitting in the room though... talking to a robotronic indian call centre dude from Telstra. I think it was sign.
The robotronic Indian dude didn't make a sale that day.
It was about 50 god damned degrees upstairs in that sweat box of a room, the shelves melted off the wall.
I love Gate 8.

Magnolia Square display

Young Blood Design Market this weekend

Meet and buy direct from the best new design talent in the country.

Featuring fashion, furniture, jewellery, graphics, industrial design and more, this curated market is a glimpse into the future, a critical launch pad for Australia’s talented young designers, as well as a vibrant market for the design-savvy shopper. Read the list of hot designers at Young Blood.

This year, Young Blood will be joined by the international designboom mart, featuring designers from around the world.

YOUNG BLOOD: DESIGNERS MARKET + DESIGNBOOM MART
Friday 13 August , 10am – 9pm
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 August, 10am – 5pm
$5 entry (includes Museum admission) BOOK NOW
Free for Powerhouse members
Free for Sydney Design Pass holders

Young Blood is part of the Museum’s commitment to foster and promote Australian design.





Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo NSW powerhousemuseum.com

Packing up for Magnolia Square this weekend

Packing up all my displays for Magnolia Square this thursday Friday and Saturday. I am a bit freaked out but also excited... eeek!

I have new necklaces and new small earrings. I wanted to do hair clips for the kiddies and some wall pieces but you can't do everything can you. It will have to wait until October at Bowerbird Bazaar.