(Inspired by the concept of Miss Havisham's dried decaying roses from her wedding)
It's been a weird time for me lately. I would say the positives outway the negatives, but the negatives come from such a petty ignorant place that it does make you question the way things are, and why such ugliness exists in people.
Anyway, moving on ... I ended up doing pretty well in the exams, so I was thrilled about that - and also being as I do the course part time (haha) I won't have another exam now for the rest of the year, hopefully, which will mean I can put the brakes on a little and get back to the business side of things again I still intend to make more jewellery for the shop, but I must admit my emphasis is still on learning rather than marketing and selling. I have been asked to teach and go over to the US to teach workshops there too, but as I say, my head is not in the right place for that yet. I just hope there will still be interest in me by the time I am ready lol...anyway, I'm not too concerned about that right now.
Once I have re established myself on the final part of the course for this academic year, I am going to get straight into some experimentation. Metal clays, especially mixing base metals is soemthing I am really intersted in, and have seen many amazing pioneering efforts by facebook friends to really motivate me. The other area I am going to be getting into is Foldforming and Anticlastic metal work with copper, which I am sure I will refer to in more depth when I get going. The aim is to enhance my metalworking skills which will hopefully lead to metal sculpture on a larger scale, outside of jewellery... anyway these are all going to be self directed activities which I will be conducting outside of the course led teachings, and workshops
There is still an intention to set up another Etsy shop which will house a more general collection of artwork, ranging from prints and paintings, artjournals to polymer clay jewellery amongst other things. I will see how the next few months pan out regarding this. A couple of magazines have expressed interest about articles on my work, but I haven't found the time to fulfil the requirements the editors need at this time, so I'm not sure about those either lol...
I know, I sound really unfocussed, but I am optimistic that everything will fall into place when the time is right. For now, I have been out and about collecting "research" to develop into art projects for the course. There has been tons of snowfall here, and I have taken some wonderful macro images of hydrangeas, leaves and trees altered by the cold snap. I have also been doing some mixed media experimental work, layering and texturing painted surfaces which I am very excited about. So here are the pics, I hope you like them
Frost on the tree branches
Frosted cocoon like suspended leaves
Hydrangea bush, with intracellular skeleton of the petals just visible
Full skeletal structure of the hydrangea petals exposed...really beautiful ...
Dried roses on a window sill
Samples of Mixed media experimental work
Samantha Braund
