What I see out my Window New Zealand Deer Earrings and Brooch

Courtesy of our neighbours whose deer have big rolling paddocks, gullys and trees to live in, yet their curiosity draws them to the fences for a chat each day. Over the years Stag Number One has shown a special interest in human observation and interaction.
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These earrings are made with some great purchased components from New Zealand's www.craftrunner.co.nz  Jewellery supplier,  some stone beads I purchased at a Rock and Mineral Show and  a few handmade fittings.  


Old Number One

My Inspiration                    

 

 

and of course there are Mum's and fawns too

 

New Zealand Spirit Brooch Original

 

The Human Spirit just keeps on  keeping on.....Remember that when things get tough!

 

 

 

 I'm refreshing my spirit by looking through old techniques recalling past achievements (and disasters )  What seems a disaster or insurmountable at the time can often turn out to be helpful in the future.
This is the first one of the series If you look closely you will see a small crack in the Paua (tail) and a hole drilled right through (top left) I  made the holes in the Paua the same size as the holes in the copper and when  riveting it was too tight. The holes in the Paua need to be  at least .5 (half) a hole bigger than the metal to allow for the expansion of the silver rivets.(Experimentation) The other hole well that was just a mistake in the planning. It could have filled it with a rivet but I quite like the way the colour of whatever the brooch is pinned on just shows through.
Sticky backed genuine Paua sheet has advantages, can't "move" around when riveting but that makes it fairly unforgiving. I never found a successful way of drilling Paua and metal sheet together, using a Drill Press they always had to be drilled seperately.
This failure became the protype for a lovely brooch series.

Fingernails?? or rings ?? or earrings??

 These were originally offcuts from one of my Dunedin Art School projects "out of the Box"  possibilities. However the shape and its  possibilities so fascinated me that  using a shield shaped template I cut, annealled and shaped (with a rawhide mallet) on a metal mandrel these little objects. Thanks go to all those at Art School  who played with them discovering new dimensions for their wearability and acting as models.

Stone Drilling is tinme consuming but fun and combined with recycled woven plastic bags creates some unique jewellery

And then there grew a little Dragon pendant...

Actually it is a plant inside here not a baby dragon but with a few touches of china enamel.....
you can see the 'littl fella" start to appear...

New Zealand Wildflower inspiration

 

And on the Dunedin New Zealand West Harbour Cycle/Walkway these  wildflowers 

 shyly lifted their faces to the sun

 

 

 

 

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Inspiration 2013

Dunedin West Harbour Cycleway/Walkway

Dunedin New Zealand

 

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Almost all year round the Passionfruit flowers along the Walkway

and the fruit is nice too


 

There were tombstone pendants and Mourning Rings too

Some were imprinted with living plants then filled with black  glaze and overglazed with clear  and some contained the actual plants in a dried and pressed state. The  firing out kiln process worked great so long as paperclay and glaze right thickness. (Just trial and error that)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sometimes the Mourning Brooches looked like.... 4 examples

or this
or this or this

                                 

 but not so blurry

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Merry Christmas to you

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas

 

 

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And then there were these Jewellery for the wall? or for the soul Soul brooches for the eye, the window to the soul

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We all have our own crosses to discover

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My cross comes from my identity and manifested itself in these brooches made from fired glazed ceramic clay and paper does anyone want to know how they were made?

see below for further details.


Firstly learn to slice white clay as thin as you can rolling it out makes it curl.

While base between 2 &4mm thick is still damp dip your materials in a mixture of a quarter recycled white paper shredded and mixed with 3 quarters white clay

Like this BELOW
Dry for several days
Bisque at 1100 degrees
glaze with clear ceramic glaze
Dries in an hour or two
Refire 15 hours at 1200 degrees
 transformation !




Not finished yet
Smoth base on diamond stone grinder. It's very hard even though brittle

I used sandblasting to grind out even indents to adhere the little silver fittings I cut and soldered for brooch pins







two part epoxy glue took 3 days to set but not one out 10 pulled out when I put in brooch pin backs even double ones and that's a great test.

Remember studying Again

 Remember studying again ? well
This Friday after one years study , a gap of two years and then back (when circumstances allowed) for another two years I step up there to be capped  gaining  Bachelor of Visual Arts tertiary degree courtesy of the Dunedin School of Art. Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand.
It has taken me a long time to get to doing my degree, it has been a wonderful experience.
 I never thought I would ever do this. I didn't even know I wanted to, til I reached out there and started extending myself  learning new things.  Maybe we're here to make the best use that we can of this life so  Don't put off your Dreams aim for the stars even if you only hit the Moon, it's a terrific ride to take.

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Mustn't forget these stages of process

 The Kilns

After 15 hours

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