The Joy Of Pebbles!

(Turquoise Freshwater Pearl and Fine Silver Spider Conch Necklace)

I have been trying to find different ways of photographing my jewellery, especially the more ornate organic looking sculptural pieces for the shop. As mentioned in the last couple of posts, I have been experimenting a lot with stone backgrounds, and black, white and grey gradients. However, the hubby brought home my favourite new photographic props, and who would have thought it would come in the form of smooth black pebbles lol. I stacked them in a Feng Shui zen stones kind of fashion, and lay them on a bit of distressed wood, and Voila! Gorgeous pictures! (if I say so myself.....)

So I've spent most of the weekend re-photographing old work including the rather ornate Spider Conch Necklaces, well the Green and Blue pearl ones, and they have turned out really well. I think it's the organic more natural setting that works, and the surrounding muted tones are unobtrusive to the eye, allowing the focus to rest on the jewellery. They really seem to pop, even when shrunk down to smaller thumbnails, which will come in handy for the shop I'm sure.I have bombarded my Facebook jewellery page with multiple of these pics in all my excitement, and they have proven popular, so I think it was all worth the effort.

Speaking of Facebook, I clicked one of those new shiny "Boost the post" buttons to see what it would do. I chose the little Bridal Coral Drops post to promote, it's still running, and has generated a bit more interest, so it might be worth doing more ads etc in the future . Anyway, after all that photoediting and promoting, and dealing with all the new queries and notifications, I feel it's time to get back to creating another piece. I have a lovely Labradorite gemstone that is too large and irregularly shaped for metal clay but would suit Wire sculpting....so that will be occupying the next few days :)

Enjoy all the pebble photos.....



(Green/Gold Freshwater Pearl , Fine Silver Spider Conch Necklace)




(Blue Aquamarine Nugget, Sterling Silver Mermaid Amulet)




(Serena - Green Aquamarine, Fine Silver Mermaid Amulet)




(Ebb and Flow Necklace I - Copper freshwater Pearls , Fine Silver)




(Turquoise Freshwater Pearl, Sterling Silver Barnacle Cuff)




(Sea Urchin Necklace  - Blue Aquamarine, Fine Silver)



Thanks for looking ...



Samantha Braund

Coral Reef Sculpted Necklace

I'd wanted to create an organic pendant, inspired by the Coral reef, as part of my Shipwrecked Jewellery Collection (as seen HERE). The collection is based on the idea that precious art jewellery are marooned on shipwrecked vessels beneath the sea

Over time, barnacles, and other marine life settle and grow over them, creating new organic, part living, sculptures. These are in turn discovered by Mermaids, searching through the shipwrecks, for lost treasure.

I usually sculpt this collection in sterling wire, but I wanted to add another dimension to it, by fusing metal clay sculptures with the wire.
Below is my original sketch. I wanted to emulate hard coral, with those finite repeated patterns and arching forms, which I found wire weaving lent itself to. The fine silver clay was sculpted to create a chamber for the gemstone, and to create that flowing "fin", that gives the whole piece that sense of movement and directional flow. I think the fused wavy wire work on the right side , resembles turbelent water flowing around the coral



I then used fine silver to add the little organic embellishments such as the seashells.The gemstone is a flashy Labradorite (the same stone seen in an earlier post), it has proved to be very inspirational. The colors within it are unbelievably bright at times, with yellows, golds,greens and blues are captured within it.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos, showing different views of the piece. I'm really happy with it, and am encouraged to do more sculptures combining wire and metal clay