Rosa Arvensis - A Fresh Hope

I am continuing to do rehab for my shoulder injury and am pleased to report that over the last couple of weeks I have been able to use my arms a lot more and have even been able to do some "art"

I would of course love to be able to take on my wire work, but as mentioned before, this would tax more torn tendon more than any other art form I do. Thank goodness I like to dabble in other media other wise I would be going crazy lol. Art therapy is a major factor in keeping me centred . I have taken to my watercolours again, which has been a surreal experience for me, as this was my only creative outlet back when I was a doctor. I haven't touched the medium in a decade - I had of course discovered the joys of acrylics and mixed media thanks to my stint on the Arts and Design course at DeMontfort Uni in 2012, but I never really thought I'd revisit this old faithful friend lol

My approach has changed though towards the medium, possibly as a result of all those mixed media influences and my love of 3D and texture, so I have taken more of an experimental approach this time. I didn't realise how much texture and vibrancy can be brought into watercolours these days, my old work could look quite washed out. The experimental painting above is of Rosa Arvensis a wild rambling white rose, that runs rampant in the English countryside...I felt it symbolised a vibrant fresh hope for me that I am turning a corner with my health and happiness in general. I have been able to reconnect with long lost family this year, and have managed to achieve significant weight loss in my efforts to address my health - so even though there has been somewhat of a creative drought and not a lot happening with the shop, I would say this has been one of my favourite years so far :) If the current trajectory holds true with my rehab, then I hope to open an Arts shop alongside the jewellery one to sell my other kinds of work , which is a lovely thought for me to hang onto as we go into the festive season



Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

Cover Artists Celebration Issue Of Metal Clay Artist Magazine

The latest issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine contained a special gallery celebrating the cover artists it had featured over the last 5 years. There have been some amazing pieces featured on those covers created by awe inspiring artisans. They featured my favourite Spider Conch Necklace as you can see, which was so  lovely of the team given that I haven't actually touched any metal clay since 2012!! I went running off to have fun messing around on the Arts and Design Course at Uni and became obsessed with painting and mixed media work.

Now I jump around between making Shipwrecked Pirate Books and making Seashore Boxes, then when I get bored I dabble in my first love wire sculpted jewellery. None of which has been happening lately due to my torn shoulder rotator cuff injury - however things are improving in that area and I am to start doing art again as part of my rehab. The irony is that I am not allowed to do extensive wire sculpted work as yet, which means I may well be heading towards playing with metal clay again. This new MCAM issue has been really inspiring and I think I really need to revisit this medium. I'll also be doing painting as part of the rehab regime, and am going to keep everything crossed that I have turned a corner and will continue to improve.

I appreciate all the lovely messages by people excited by my work. All the encouragement really helps me get into the right frame of mind to get better quicker :)  I will keep everyone updated on my progress and will show any new work on my Samantha Braund Jewellery Facebook Page . The image below is the banner for the FB page  :)




Thanks for stopping by




Samantha Braund

Paisely Easter Holidays

I'm back to making jewellery now that the Easter Holidays are here, and I'm on a well earned break from university work. This is the latest piece, a rather substantial  sized necklace containing a large faceted bicoloured Lemon-Smokey Quartz gemstone. The whole design is inspired by Paisely patterns. I took my time over it, and included a couple of sections of coiled wire - a technique I haven't used in forever... it was great to feel I had the time and the sense of calm to mix it up with my wirework methods. I think it turned out very well in the end...

I took a look back and noted that I hadn't fabricated a new piece of jewellery in almost a year! It was strange coming back to the discipline, but I loved every minute of it. So far,  my holidays have involved finishing a repair/commission piece for someone, dealing with sales, and taking pictures of new pieces for the shop. I have been so neglectful of the shop, and yet it does manage to tick along without my intereference lol. Anyway, I will be editing some of the new photos and the result will mean that there will indeed be more items in my shop - at last lol.

I am also in the process of designing a new metal clay/wire sculpted piece with a gorgeous Labradorite gemstone. I am excited about the prospect and am also just a tad nervous about it. Uni wise I have organised to meet up with a couple of tutors in Metal and Glass workshops in April , so I am keeping my hand in there too...no rest for the wicked as they say







Well thats it for now, hopefully there will be more prettiness and items in the shop soon...




Samantha Braund

A Hot Creative Streak...

I am in a rich creative vein at the moment, and have painted these experimental pictures, as well as a couple of abstract textured pieces, and have even made several glass pieces in workshop. I will post images of those very soon - I am very excited about how they've turned out, and can't wait to try and combine them with my copper forming work....

I am trying to take advantage of this good streak, as I know it will wane - but my head is spinning, with all the possible directions I can go in. There a few things I should be following up on, I just need to calm down and see what happens...






Samantha Braund

Preparing To Take Flight

One of the things I love about the course (in the Fine Art Group anyway), is how you are given free reign to explore whatever themes and media experimentations you feel inclined towards, as long as you check in with your tutors every now and again

I had been given so many pieces to complete following my tutorial/exam, but instead I went off in my own direction this week. Having made so many waxed paper pieces, I wanted to get into creating heavily textured canvasses on which to paint on, in the spirit of Antoni Tapies, and Anselm Kiefer (my main influences right now). It wasn't what I was meant to be getting on with but what can I say, I get bored easily lol....Anyhow I gathered natural materials from around the house and garden, and incorporated them into my paintwork, and they turned out really well! Here is a snippet of some of the effects I managed to achieve...




I foldformed a long piece of copper into this sinuous form, and included it in the piece

(closeups)









this is a cropped shot from a mixed media piece I am working on which includes waxed papers and a copper foldformed piece




close up views of a purple textured abstract painting




I think passing the exam so well has had a wonderfully positive effect on me this week. I have felt more free to mess around, knowing I don't have to pass another exam for ages now. I had been mulling over whether or not to pursue doing the Fine Art degree (as it seems likely I'll be offered a place as things stand) - there are so many pro's and cons regarding this. Finances are the biggest stumbling block, as well as mental health considerations and conflicting commitments to the shop. Truthfully I only set up theonline shop in between offline shows, and have never really put any proper effort into it since it's inception, I now have less than a full page of items on the front page of the Etsy shop , oh dear. I just seemed to have so many other things going on, but I do feel things are stabilising now, which is what I need more than anything really

I love making jewellery, but it doesn't fulfil my deepest needs for art to work as a therapeutic release for all the rubbish I have had to deal with. The course is teaching me how to channel those energies and turn it into something beautiful, my tutor thinks it's a form of Transcendentalism, turning spiritual decay and darkness into light . It certainly has been a life changing experience, and not just a course - it also helps that I have made the relationships that I have during my time there. You can actually make yourself believe that you are not acceptable or fit for society anymore, especially when jealous, ugly people encourage that negative spiral to take hold

Working in my studio at home over long periods of time has been rather isolating, and internet relationships do not make up for adult human contact really (well not to me). I also wanted to mix with other like minded people, who don't find artistic pursuits to be frivolous. I also had no idea of how good or bad I was - it is hard to know without proper guidance...anyway having mulled everything over I think I am going to do the degree, on a Part time and thus, more affordable basis. The extra time will go into the shop, to try to raise funds to pay for the course. This way I have a community I can feel I belong to, and can thrive there

Inspired by these events I am also thinking about writing a book dealing with Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and the ignorance they face. People really don't seem to realise that even though there is a designated sexual predator in the scenario, there is often also a pathological family set up too. My own experiences of how these other "family" members can knowingly perpetuate abuse cycles and how to overcome them may be of use to others...who knows...it is not something I will repeat mentioning here anyway.It is just something I will do in the future....

Anyway, changing the subject, these textured pieces and experimentations got me thinking about making altered art journals, as something else I can add to my shop. I will be setting up an arts shop as a sister shop to the jewellery one this year we've decided (the hubby and me), so we'll see. Hopefully, I'll get a more stable life of spiritual fulfillment , challenge and growth...and who knows where it all may lead.




Samantha Braund

A Validating Week

This is more a picture update post showing the latest mixed media experimental work and some digital photomanipulation work I did based on the crystallised hydrangeas (see last post)

I had a brilliant assessment/review with my tutor who has become something of a mentor to me now. I did incredibly well in my exam and received high praise indeed (yay!) . It was a validating experience and really made up for  a lot of the soul sapping nastiness I had been through lately. I really do think this is the answer for me spiritually speaking, to continue with my growth and development in art. I will be continuing my jewellery work too, but it is definitely on the backburner. I am even thinking about closing the shop for a while until the end of term...I have had to decline commission requests, so it might be an idea to shut things down until I am ready again. I haven't decided yet...

Anyway things are looking up which is nice to say and feel...







































Samantha Braund

An Artistic Train Of Thought

I thought I'd document how I've gone about producing work following the method of Primary research gathering, then developments from the primary research, to media experiemntations and ultimately to final pieces of work. It's more for myself tbh, to serve as a kind of diary entry. I do have a formal reflective journal that I fill in for the course too, but I thought it'd be fun to document it here too

Primary research - following a trip to the Tate in London, I came across Sir John Everett Millais's Pre Raphaelite masterpiece Ophelia. It is world famous, and had been a favourite of mine, seen in the form of posters on uni students walls....but this was the first time I got to see it in person. It is breathtaking....

There were many reasons I was drawn to it, the theme of Ophelia's descent into madness as described in Shakespeare's Hamlet for one, then the painting itself is a real draw - the dreamy feel, the luminescence and realism of the drowning figure, and the detailed fauna framing the scene. The other thing that struck me was the effect of the ornate dress part submerged in water - the textures were so rich and evocative, and the tinges of gold, silver and pearly blues were of particular interest to me

Media Experimentations and Developments - I became just a little absorbed with the idea of trying to emulate the effect of the layers of clothing submerged under water. I did washes of acrylic paint, combining it with thicker impasto layers, but this didn't have the effect I was after



In the end after trial and error I started experimenting with layers of different types of papers and melting wax to create the translucence I was after. I combined this with fibres of cloth, and random splodges of metallic pigment - finally I ended up with many sample of waxed layered papers, which were thick, strong and reasonably pliant



The first development I wanted to do was to use these collaged waxed papers to create dresses for dancing figures as seen below





I really loved the effect, and had fun experimenting with acrylic paint effects and indian ink to create the backgrounds too. As mentioned while making these waxed papers, I found them to be surprisingly strong, and pliant, so I thought I would test this out, by using wire to "sew" them onto wire frames. I started stitching a circle of waxed paper to a frame, and once this was complete I found I was able to twist and form the wire frame - the waxed paper stayed intact and even moved with the wire....this lead to the idea of making multiples of these stitiched waxed paper frames, and configuring them together into a 3D abstract form, as seen below...






(a close up of the papers and wire weaving)

I have no real idea, at this stage, what I am going to do with these 3D "things", but it has been an interesting journey so far, from Ophelia to these mini discoveries... I have enjoyed each stage including the failed experimentations, and am trying to keep an open mind with regard to the direction I'll be going down next



Samantha Braund

Things Could Be Much Worse....

(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