As I said in the first part of custom made jewellery I made a silver pendant for someone's mum's birthday, I made two pendants so she could choose between them. Making these pendants was so much fun but also it was tense, because I wanted these to look as beautiful as I could. I made a little lilly type of pendant with an amethyst dangling in the middle of the pendant. The second was a simple square pendant with a little swirl design in the middle for decoration, it also has a small amethyst drop gemstone.
 |
| Lilly style necklace |
When I went to make these I made sure the mat and my tools where clean. When making the lilly shaped pendant I used a drinking straw to make the tubular part of the lilly so I could put a head pin through it so I could then put the amethyst in the middle. When making the tubular part I made sure that the straw had badger balm on it so the clay didn't stick to the straw, (which if you don't do it could stick and the silver could crack when removing it) I added some slip to the clay that I was going to join together, I then pinched the silver clay around the straw then fanned out the bottom of the lilly, then shaped it so that it came in to a soft point. After the silver clay dried I then carefully sanded the clay so that the shape was smoother and also to stop it from catching on cloths or scratching the skin. The little rectangle shaped pendant is the most simple design when working with silver clay,
 |
| Rectangle pendant |
I cut the metal into a small rectangle shape, then waited for it to dry. After it had dried I applied some slip, which is just silver clay in a single cream consistency, I then used the silver clay syringe to add the fine swirl detail (I also did this with the lilly). The slip is just so the syringe clay can stick to the silver clay without the slip your more likely to make a mistake and the metal may move around and smudge. After filing, sanding, adding syringe detail then waiting for it to dry I then got it kiln fired. The best part of making silver jewellery is when it comes out of the kiln!. The metal is an off white colour when removed from the kiln, when removed I put it into the a jug of cold water, to cool it obviously. (I will say that I did not put the amethysts in the kiln they where put on to the silver later). The silver cools instantly after being in the cold water, I then dried the silver with a soft cloth. The best bit! using a brass brush I then began brushing off the white layer to reveal the beautiful silver. Even better part! I then used a burnisher to shine up the silver, I just love seeing the shine of the silver after it has been burnished. After all that fun I added the amethysts and put them on a silver snake chain. I'm hoping that the person really likes them, because I have just loved making them.
Keep it spooky children of the night!!.
I have been getting a few requests for personalised jewellery. A friend of my friend asked if I could make their daughter a wire necklace, in the style of written script so that it spelt out her name. I was also asked if I could make someone a polymer clay coffin pendant, so I made two for choice so the person could pick between them. Both seemed to really like what I made them. I have had another request for a silver pendant with an amethyst to set off the piece, I feel honoured that they asked me to make something for them. When someone requests me to make them a piece of jewellery my initial thought is "oh crap" because it's you're responsibility to ensure its their vision comes to life and so you just hope you can capture what they want. I will show one of the custom designs the others I will put up when they are done. 
The person who asked for the silver pendants I'm more nervous of making something with silver than I am with polymer clay, mostly because silver is very expensive and do not want to waste silver by churning out piece after piece. I tend to take my time when working with wire or silver because I don't want to waste silver by making a mistake so I ensure that it is made to the best of my ability. I tend to experiment more with polymer clay because the price is more affordable and it comes in big packs which is more affordable when I want to stock up. The coffins aren't quite finished. I need to glaze them and put them on a necklace chord. So I'm hoping the person will love them when they are finished. And I'm really hoping that my friend loves the silver pendant with amethyst gemstone.
This was a rather short post but I hope you enjoyed it all the same. Keep it spooky children of the night.
This month I went to the Scottish bead fair in Perth. The fair doesn't have to much in the way of Gothic jewellery items to purchase, but there is enough to make unique Gothic jewellery. So just because there is nothing blatantly Goth that stands out I did find skull beads, teeth beads (in the shape of fangs) also drop beads in red, black or purple, red drop beads are great for making vampire bitten necklaces with the drop beads dangling, to represent the blood dripping down. There was also a stall that sold polymer clay. I bought all the black polymer clay. I have a lot of jewellery projects that require the black polymer clay. Whilst wondering around the stalls much like any other woman I was looking at all the sparkly beads and bought a few. Also while wondering around I went to a glass work stall, I stopped to have a look and I saw how much fun it looked, the person making a glass pendant and just how they made it look so easy. I will say that it is harder than it looks, the person who was making the glass pendant has been doing it for about 20 years. It's a skill I'm also looking to acquire a few years down the line, I will be experimenting with glass clay to make pendants hopefully next year. I just love the effect glass can give a Gothic piece of jewellery especially reds, blues, greens and purples even some pinks!. I say it like that because I'm not to keen on pink (not that I hate it). Me and my soon to be mother in law caught up with the silver clay jewellery teacher that taught me so much two years ago, I talk about this experience in my very first blog.
Now I'm sure your wondering after your little trip to the fair Raven did you make anything with your goodies!. Well yes I did!. Now I said I saw lots of sparkly things well one of those sparkly objects was a rivolos. Its a very sparkly bead that you can use in bead weaving or in polymer clay. Well I used it in the polymer clay I purchased.
I also made some earrings with grinning skull beads with amethyst drop beads. Also some grinning skull beads with glass crystal style drop beads
I also made some teeth necklaces they are fun and funky especially because there are different colours. I also wire wrapped the beads for that bit of added decoration.
Thank you very much for reading my blog I hope you enjoyed it.
Keep it spooky children of the night.
As the title suggests this blog is about bird skulls. They seem to be big in Gothic and alternative fashion at the moment and that's what caught my attention. When ever I looked at Gothic fashion these skulls kept showing up. So I decided to give some a go from polymer clay. Now you must remember these are the first two I've ever made within this month. So since I made human skulls from polymer clay I thought I'd give bird skulls a go to. The first one I made was rather difficult but I managed to get the basic shape of a birds skull. The raven skull. WOW!! was that difficult!. As ravens have a longer beak and the detail is a bit harder to map out.
When I started making the bird skull I will admit that I was staring at my lump of polymer clay thinking where do I start?!. So I made a basic cone shape then put it on my work surface and shaped out the cone so the back was flat but still retained the cone shape. Then I sculpted the tip of the cone into more of a bird shaped beak. I then proceeded on to the eyes now that the beak shape was formed. I added shading to bring out the shape of the bird skull more, I sometimes feel that with polymer clay that if shading isn't added the shape of any skull really isn't pronounced, that it is missing a certain bit of ooomf.
Now on to the raven skull. Again I made the cone shape, but as you can see the detail on the skulls are completely different to one another. The ordinary bird skull is much more squat and raven skull is more elongated. Also the detail is very different, as you can see on the basic bird skull the nostrils are much further apart and aren't that pronounced.
The raven on the other hand as you can see is much more pronounced, the eyes sockets are larger and the nostrils are more pronounced, the contours stand out more and are much more defined. When I made the raven skull I just had a picture of a skull to copy. So I could grasp how to form the skull shape and from there went on to make the pendant. Now with the raven skull the detail I had to sculpt was much more in depth so I had to be much more aware of what I was doing. I managed to get the detail required to make it. I then shaded and defined the skull. I then made a background to put the skull on, I made a basic oval shape and sculpted swirls on the sides for decoration, I then dusted it with silver pigment. After I baked the pendant I used a high shine glaze just to magnify the skull in the middle of the pendant. For further decoration I used a black glass bead just for some added sparkle.
 |
| before adding the glaze |
 |
| After adding the glaze |
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I'm not an expert just love what I do.
Keep it spooky children of the night!!
