Silver and Aquamarine Sea Urchin Pendant

This is my new piece, which will be the start of another collection, as part of my ever growing Shipwrecked jewellery menagerie

This piece is inspired by the radial symmetry seen in Echinoderms, and in this case, Sea Urchins.

The dimension and intricacy is created from a silver wire sculpted element, I made first, which is incorporated and fused into the metal clay , to create the overall look

I have explored radial symmetry with my wire sculpted pieces before, like this one , but I’d never combined the two. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, being as metal clay likes to crack around wire, so I feel I played it safe a little. I’d like to have been more adventurous with the base, and created anemone like fronds lol, but I guess I’ll bring those ideas into the rest of the collection

I have even included pics of the piece in my hand and of the back, which I never remember to do. Anyway you get a sense of the pendant’s size, and can nag me about not decorating the back more lol.

So, so far for the show later in the year, I plan to have a collection of Sea Urchins, Spider Conches, and Labradorite Coral Reef Pendants. I think I’ll stand there wearing a snorkel to blend in !!!

Treasury Fun

(click the image to view the collection in full)

I became a member of the Wire Goddesses Team on Etsy this week, which was lovely. I remember mentioning here that selling online is quite a cold business compared to selling in person. Etsy seem to be aware of this, and have various ways to conjure up a sense of community there, amongst it's sellers. I found joining Teams and making Treasures kinda fun

Treasuries can be time consuming at first, but I'm sure that,any creative person would enjoy curating their own mini gallery, from all that Etsy artisans have to offer.

I made the first one, based on the theme of Enchanting Blues, using creations made by members from The Wire Goddess Team. There were tons to choose from, and the end result displayed a nice variety of wire sculpted jewellery, I think.


(click the image to view the collection in full)


The second one was a whimsical collection based on the theme of An Art Nouveau Wedding. All very pretty, with hints of bridal wear and fantasy thrown in there.

I didn't expect to enjoy the process, but I really did. Also the unexpected spin off, has been getting to bond with lots of the artists featured in the treasuries :)...so I'd recommend it to anyone

New Jewellery For The Etsy Shop!

These are the new pieces of jewellery going into the Etsy shop over the next few days. They are my Gemstone Circles Collection mainly, as described on my website HERE, and a couple of other pieces thrown in too.

It's been a great week so far. I completed my experimental Conch Shell Necklace, which was subsequently received very well by my metal clay peers.I was thrilled about this and really surprised by the response.

I try not to become too reliant on feedback from others on the internet, on the whole. I try to gauge for myself if the pieces or collections are good, and have faith in my own judgement. Of course, this is all very well in theory, but as any angst ridden artist will tell you, trusting yourself is not easy. Often I complete pieces, and absolutely hate the sight of them by the end of the lengthy process lol

Anyway, other news is that a magazine that I love wants to do an Artists profile piece on me. This was one of the best emails I'd ever received EVER lol. I was dizzy with excitement for a whole day... I'm much calmer now

So here are the rest of the photos of the Etsy shop pieces, that will slowly trickle into the shop listings. Then I'll be back in the studio working on another of my metal clay marine life inspired pieces.

Spider Conch Shell Necklace

This necklace is sculpted to resemble a spider conch shell. I grew up within a household with these shells scattered about all over the place, they are very common to Mauritius.

This will be part of a new collection I'll be doing for a show later in the year. I wanted to create a seashell with a focal decorative wire sculpted element at its centre (see the sketch). The wire weaving resembles patterns seen in the calcified calyces of hard coral, which I love. I bought 3 pieces of coral for my studio table this week, I'm besotted with them...it's fortified my new obsession lol.

A cluster of olivey green/ gold freshwater pearls sit inside the shell to complete the piece. I'll make more of these types of sculptures and vary different elements, but I think I'll stick to the pearls for this collection, although I'll change the colours for each one.

I'm really excited about this new direction I'm going in at the mo...in fact I can't wait to start the next one (I'll have try to ignore the rising cost of metal clay)