Seashore Chocolate Box and Being Noticed!

It has been a wonderful week of unexpected pleasures!

I managed to have a creative breakthrough, which is something that provides me with a sense of zen, like nothing else! It all started with Musetouch Visual Arts Magazine sharing my Art Journal (see below), on their FB page last week. If you follow the link you'll see that the response was amazing, the photo was liked over 2000 times, and shared over 700 times! I have never had such an ego boost for my work!

The truth is that I made the art journal as part of my Uni coursework - it was a Summer project they set before starting in 2012, to create a concertina style book. I patched the cover together in haste, using Polymer clay for the sculptural seascape elements, and over time completely forgot how I did it! I wonder if this happens to other artists too ... now I try to document my process, especially as I jump about from medium to medium so often. Well, as you can see I managed to work it out this week with my Seashore Chocolate Box :) Yay!


Original polymer art journal from 2012

The chocolate box is for a friend who had every faith I'd be able to recall my process and tried to allay my anxieties. She wanted a coffee table book or box, and I came up with a box construction, to store her chocolate mini treats that she gets out with the coffee.

It turned out better than I thought it would. I combined polymer clay elements, Decoart Modelling paste, die cut shapes and several washes of acrylic paint to create the Seashore on the box, and added her initial to top it off. I am definitely going to make more of these for the second shop, and will try out different themes too, although I do love my Shipwrecked, pirate treasure themes in all the media I work in !

The other unexpected thrill was this amazingly complimentary write up on my metal clay work in The Polymer Arts magazine blog . My Fine silver  Purple Spider Conch Shell (see below) was featured and the author made connections between the piece and a human heart which was so insightful. It was such an honour to read, and they gave a flattering description of myself as a Multi Media Artist which did get me thinking about the way my work is developing. I cannot claim to be purely a jewellery artist that dabbles in mixed media on the side anymore, I think my condition is getting worse lol! I suspect the University course is responsible for freeing up whole other aspects of my psyche,  allowing me to explore those themes in other media

I certainly tackle issues from the past and mental health issues etc through more traditional art forms. I wonder where it is all heading?! Well, I'll be back at university this year, and will make sure I sit down with my mentor there and hash it out ....anyway I will leave you with lots of different views of the Seashore Chocolate Box and will come back with more jewellery soon, I am sure :)



Purple Spider Conch Shell in fine silver, freshwater pearls and sterling silver
(I hope to get the conches into the shop soon)



Seashore Chocolate Box









Box opened up - I used some distressed French script  paper to line the box

Close Up Views ... I love those!












I added this piece into the following challenge:
Country View Challenge #12 "Painty Pleasures"

Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

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

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)