The Eye Of Poseidon - Mermaid Amulet

Finally after about a year of rehab and recovery following a torn shoulder tendon, I have been able to wire sculpt again!!

This piece is a Mermaid Amulet called the "Eye Of Poseidon" honouring the all powerful God of the Oceans and Tempests, which seemed particularly fitting as this piece is a veritable maelstrom of crashing waves and turbulent waters, woven loosely into my interpretation of his eye




I feel this piece fits in nicely with the rest of the pieces in the Mermaid Amulet collection - there have always been stand alone pieces such as Ariel's Voice, and Cascade but all in all I think this is one of my favourites. I won't lie it was tricky to make, as I had to take a slowly slowly approach to making it, rather than my usual 16 hour straight approach lol - but I feel she was worth it in the end :)

Ariel's Voice II

                                 
                      Cascade Mermaid Amulet

 

There are a few Mermaid Amulets still available in the shop at present including these two personal favourites of mine....anyway follow the link HERE to see them all

 

 

 

Seafoam Mermaid Amulet, the blog post on this piece can be found HERE

Yellow Aquamarine Gaudi inspired Mermaid Amulet available to purchase HERE

 

 

I do love photographing my work against natural textures such as river rocks, pebbles, wood and stone - it adds to the organic nature of the work. I hope my shoulder continues to behave from now on and allows me to create this kind of work again soon :) Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the photos

 

 

 

Thanks for looking ...



Samantha Braund

Humble Beginnings

 

It has been a long time since I have been able to do any wire sculpting, due to a Rotator Cuff tear of my shoulder...so you cannot imagine the joy I felt today in creating this little nugget of swirls lol. It is the humble beginnings of a Mermaid Amulet :) So far the shoulder hasn't reacted badly to doing this, but we'll see...if all goes well then wire work can be officially part of my rehab too (yay)
Thanks for looking ...



Samantha Braund

Sea Urchin Mermaid Amulet Gone To A Mermaid!

I had to post about this piece, one of my absolute favourites in the shop, has been sold
Inspired by the textures and form of a Sea Urchin I constructed the radial wire sculpture and fused it to the fine silver sculpted metal base. It is a technique I have pioneered and is unique to me , which makes this piece totally one of a kind. I know this amulet is going to a good home for a very special occasion and I am thrilled about that :) I even made a little certificate card to go with the piece as she  travels across the oceans onto her new Mermaid owner

I hope you love the photos...she will be very missed...






Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

So Much In So Little Time!

 
AAA Cognac Quartz Art Nouveau Earrings

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last posted here. The shame of it all is that I have been a constant presence online, photo editing and listing new items in the shop, as well as making new pieces.

The Art Nouveau Cognac Quartz earrings (above) were such a rewarding challenge to create. I  can admit to avoiding even attempting mirror image symmetry with my wirework - it is so much easier to do in metal clay lol. Yet, there they are, looking stunning dripping in "Gatsby Glamour" - I am totally chuffed to have been able to pull it off. I plan to make more, and am toying with the idea of making earrings based on my Bridal Coral Drop Necklaces too, as I have a kind of pattern to work from, so I will give it a go

As you can see from the Pirate's treasure chest of beauties below, there have been a lot of new additions to the Etsy shop . The complete Contessa Collection inspired by Countess Olenska from "The Age Of Innocence" novel by Edith Wharton, are in the shop now....the Queen of that collection (AAA Smokey Quartz gemstone one) has already been reserved, which is fabulous news.



Contessa Collection and Dragon's Eye Necklace



AAA Peridot Cubic Zirconia Dragon's Eye Necklace



Close up of Blue Aquamarine Contessa Necklace

There have also been a fair few sales too, which has been a lovely surprise given the usual Summer slump many of us sellers experience. Let's face it I'd rather be running around in the sea and the sand than internet shopping too lol....anyway inspite of the season, the various pieces below have all sold. I'm a very happy bunny  lol

Next on the to do list is to continue listing my never ending backlog of pieces to the shop - I have the Holi Charms and the Spider Conch Collections to go in next aside from any new work. I will also be working on media experimentation for my new shops, which is really exciting and I will be sure to expand upon that here first :)

The Free Earrings Giveaway is going great guns too, there are less than 100 likes to go before the Prize draw will take place. if you haven't entered before now, it is well worth a look, the prize is a good one for such a giveaway... it has only been running less than a month, but I expect things will slow down a bit with Summer, which will give me a chance to work on the video for it!

So thats a brief synopsis of the latest goings on ... thanks for reading  - even if I don't update here as often, my Facebook Jewellery page is always up to date, so you can find me there :)


Bridal Coral Drop (Turquoise freshwater Pearl)


Selena - White Beryllium gemstone and sterling silver necklace


Green Amethyst and Sterling wirewrapped Necklace


Teal Blue Fluorite gemstone Boho earrings

Bye for now xx



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

Latest Commission - Another Aquamarine Siren Ring

Gosh, it has been a busy weekend! I haven't really had a decent break after the course assessments last week - instead I caught up on commission work. Ironically, it was a welcome departure from all the uni stuff and it was great to get back to my wire sculpting roots

This ring is from my beloved Siren Ring collection, they are part of the Shipwrecked Jewellery family . They are made for Mermaids, that have discovered barnacle encrusted gemstones on their travels, perusing the ocean beds for Shipwrecks. This ring contains an Aquamarine gemstone (bluey-green) and is sculpted in sterling silver. The attractive elegant finger displaying the ring is that of my husband's lol....he has very elegant fingers compared to me, so he is the designated ring modeller in this household lol











Samantha Braund

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

Musings On Photography

This is one of my latest pieces, from the Mermaid Amulet Series.
The gemstone is a cloudy sky blue Aquamarine nugget.I really love this necklace, it's another of my personal favourites

I've been photographing my work for a while now, and never feel completely satisfied with the results. Selling online draws even more pressure into the equation, given that the photography is key

So I have been taking a bit of time to practice with different backgrounds, and lighting angles etc. I want to get hold of some more natural materials too, and have a play with those.

Anyway here are a few photos of this piece... with a few little lighting touches that are new for me :)









Hope you like them :))