My Serene Way Of Regaining My Mojo

This is my latest piece, called Serena. She is a necklace based on my shipwrecked jewellery themed collections, sculpted in Fine silver, with sterling silver wire elements. The gemstone is a pale green Aquamarine gemstone from the multicolour Beryllium family

Serena is a name with the dual meanings of Serenity, and calm, as well as meaning Mermaid in Italian. Creating this piece has been an exercise in serenity for me. I found having completed my wire jewellery commissions recently, that I had lost my "metal clay mojo". I came to realise that I hadn't sculpted in metal clay in almost half a year!

It was so frustrating having sketchbooks full of weird and wonderful ideas, and I just couldn't do a thing about it. Ultimately I decided to calm down, and indulged in zen like creative practices such as zentangling. This worked amazingly well for me. Initially, I tackled the patented zentangle exercises, then over a few days, having got the gist of it, I branched out and incorporated my own ideas. The last post has the large illustration I came up with in the end

It was a nice way of easing myself back into that rhythm of creative thinking , and designing in metal clay. I sought inspiration from my sketch and came up with a watered down design, as you can see below. Then I calmly and methodically worked out a way bringing the sketch to life as a 3D sculpture

The whole experience has been a joy, and I love the results. I'd recommend zentangling to anyone with a creative block . Anyway, I've added more images of the lovely Serena below. I hope you love her!















Samantha Braund

Experimental Chimeras

I’m starting to get back into my metal clay again (yay!). It has literally been months since I have gone near any metal clay work – I am a little faddish, and jump around from medium to medium anyway, but  commission work had pushed everything back a bit too.

So this week I have been doing a few experiments, drawing inspiration from my zentangle doodle thing that I posted below. I took a few elements from the illustration and tried to bring it to life in metal clay.  I’ve posted one or two of my experimental “chimeras” made by randomly combining various design elements I’m interested in

I kind of love the “centipede”  - and the “chimera” one is really weird isn’t it lol...I think it will sit on my desk  as a reference guide.  I’ll be making a proper metal clay piece next, incorporating some of these ideas... it feels sooo good to be back in the metal clay groove again


  (The doodle illustration my experiments are based on). Click the thumbnail to view in full

Samantha



Samantha Braund

Birthday Week Work and Play

I had a rather significant birthday recently, and had to rush straight back from my brief getaway, and get to work on a couple of commission pieces. I have only just been able to stop for breath...

I thought I would share a few highlights from my Birthday Week in pictures...
The first picture is of a decorative plate of chocolate dipped Strawberries, left for us in my hotel room!!. They were gorgeous to look at, and tasted even better...



This is one of the true highlights of my trip to London, I went to see Wicked at the West End. I'd wanted to see the show for ages. I knew a few of the songs and loved them, and had watched clips on You Tube. I really didn't know what to expect though...it was wonderful and the leads were amazing. I laughed and cried . It was magical, no pun intended lol

The photo below is the the stage - a huge mechanical dragon hung over our heads, throughout the show. The canvas at the front, has a map of Oz and a shimmery Emerald City that glowed green in the centre



Anyway, onto the work ....I had a commission request to make one of my Siren Rings in Gold . This one was sculpted in Goldfill wire and contains a White freshwater pearl. I loved working with the Gold wire, it was so malleable and has such an alluring colour. I'll definitely be working with this wire again soon
I've posted multiple views of the ring below, my favourite phot actually is the one with the ring on the Cinnamon stick lol









This ring is the second commission piece I had to complete this week. It's another from my Siren Ring Collection, a blue green Aquamarine gemstone sculpted in Sterling silver . I love how it turned out...enjoy the extra views of this piece below too. I even modelled the ring on my own little  finger lol

So now that I am back and have finally cleared my decks of work pending, I find myself in the rare position of having free time to think, and experiment. I am also becoming obsessed with zentangles, have you tried them? they are dangerously addictive and do have a calming affect on the mind....








Samantha



Samantha Braund

Garnet Gemstone Circles Earrings

These are some images of a recent commission for a pair of Earrings. It’s the first time I’ve ever attempted to make matching earrings, in the Gemstone Circle Collection style.

The challenge was to keep to the asymmetric organic freeflowing style, while mirror imaging the design in the other earring

It took me two attempts and was a real challenge lol. If they hadn’t been requested I don’t think I would ever have tried to do this, and I am incredibly grateful for this – I learnt so much in this project

Anyway, I hope you like the pictures - I tried out a resin bust in a light box as part of my photography experimentations, I love it! The acrylic material looks luminous when back lit through the lighting tent – a very inspirational prop isn’t she lol?

The other pics include some taken in the backgarden with the earrings hanging off a little milk jug. The gemstones are rich coloured Rhodolite Garnets, sculpted in sterling silver

If you are interested in anything similar, it's best to contact me at mail@samanthabraundjewellery.com














Samantha



Samantha Braund

British Museum Commission

I have just sent these pieces off to the British Museum in London today. They will sit in the Grenville Gift Shop...it's all very exciting

They purchased mainly from my Goddess collection, 2 Gaia (Greek Mother Earth) necklaces, one Lakshmi( Indian Goddess of Prosperity), Venus (Roman Goddess of Love) and Athena (Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War)

I'm planning to visit the shop on one of my daytrips to London, I always pop into the British Museum anyway, just to see the Mummies lol, so can you imagine then seeing my work in the gift shop. It's like a kiddie dream come true

Grenville Gift Shop






Gaia (Mother Earth)


Gaia(Red Indian Jasper)
(Red Indian Jasper)

Venus


Lakshmi


Athena


In other news, I just completed another Desire Jewellery show this weekend. These are some of the latest pieces sold there ...I'll miss them very much









Samantha Braund

Turquoise Mermaid Amulet

So it's show time again - my pieces will get their airing in a lovely glass cabinet at the Desire Jewellery and Silversmithing Fair this week.

This is one of the last pieces I made as part of the Mermaid Amulet collection. I love Turquoise (with silver or gold). I was watching that movie blockbuster "The Mummy" while making this, so it has taken on an Egyptian feel....

I really need to be careful about which movies I watch when I make pieces lol, thats how my Necronomicon took it's Giger Alien form etc...

Anyway, back to this piece, I don't usually do symmetry, but recent commission requests have forced me to revisit it, and I have enjoyed the process this time around.
Hope you like the piece as much as I do






Samantha Braund