Delay In Jewellery Making

Hello Darklings as you probably know I haven't posted anything in a while. I haven't stop writing blogs I'm just over worked at college but I thought I'd show some of work such as paintings and photography :) 

So have a look through and I hope you enjoy the pictures I've posted... Again sorry about the lack of posts. Everything will be back to normal in July 2016, however I will post some of my college work in the meantime :)

Paintings and Drawings

  Photography

One of my favourite photographs this one looks
other worldly 

Taken when I was walking around the woods

The forest from a tiny fairies perspective 

Taken on bonfire night 

Taken on bonfire night. I love this photograph

I hope you enjoyed looking through my work and next month I will post some more photographs and some art work. 

Keep It Spooky Darklings!!

College and model update!

Hello Darklings!!

Sorry about the lack of updates but you will be in for a spooky treat in October :) As you know I'm in college and now I know the stress of homework all over again, I had enough of that when I was in primary school! 

In October I will be making more Halloween jewellery and of course you will see the items I have made up on my etsy page near the time. This years Halloween blog will be longer and there will be a lot of spooky photographs of my jewellery and some spooky ghouls will be modelling my jewellery :)

 I'll be able to get around to working with these lovely ladies this time as I have been wanting to work with models for a while now and I might as well get my finger out my backside! Working with these lovely ladies I also get to indulge in doing their make up and hair I'm just a girly, girl at heart! 

I've also had a few other people asking if they could model my jewellery but in the mean time I'll be working the other two women. It's always flattering when someone asks if they can model for me but all I could offer anyone who does ask is a portfolio of photographs I took of them. In the future I will keep an eye open for other models that get in contact with me. Mind you they can only be from the Inverness area :3 

I know this has been a rather short update but I shall make it up to you in the Halloween blog :)

As always Keep It Spooky Darklings!!!

And here is a photograph of the moon I took last week :P

My camera still amazes me!!

College and Jewellery

Heeeeeeeeeeelloo Darklings

I haven't been blogging for a while now and there is a reason for this, I have been at college :)

When I applied I never thought I was going to get into the art course I'm currently on but I did and now I'm super busy with all the work I have to do. I'm not stopping the jewellery making it will how ever take me a bit longer to make items due to being in college. So in the meantime here are some photographs I took with my new camera. This new camera will make my jewellery look even better to! 

So here are the photographs I took for my college course :)

I know this was short but I hope to make it up next month :) 

Keep It Spooky Darklings!

Dragon Pendants

Hello Darklings! :)

So anyone who knows me knows I love dragons, their beauty and their mythology have always fascinated me. So I decided to do a dragon style pendant for the first time.

While the design I chose for my first one is a very simple dragon design, I do plan on using more complex designs in the future, once I have the suitable tools to do so. In the meantime here are the pendants I have made so far: the first one wasn't too great but I am pleased with the other two I made. These will be available to purchase on my Etsy store, to which I will leave a link below so you can browse. 

As you may know from reading my other blogs, I love to work with polymer clay; I'm a polymer clay fiend! And this is what my dragon pendants are made from. 

The great thing about polymer clay it's so versatile it can be painted, sculpted, glazed, pigment powders can be used with it... Seriously you can do anything with it that's why I love working with it so much. 

Ironically I hated the clay when I first worked with it just because I wasn't using it properly, but after reading 'Polymer Clay Beaded Jewellery' by Isabelle Cheramy-Debray, I began to use the clay correctly. If you are a beginner I suggest you read it as well, as I found it very helpful. The designs are great if your new to polymer clay and easy to follow. 

Dragon Pendant First Try  

As you can see this was my first attempt at the dragon pendant it's not as good as the other two I made, at least I don't think so. I still like it though :) 

To make this pendant I rolled out some black polymer clay so that it was about a quarter of an inch thick, then I cut out a square out of the polymer clay. I then rolled out a strip of polymer clay for the basic serpent shape of the dragons body. 

When sculpting the head of the dragon I studied a dragon model I have at my work space, I didn't get it right first time and there is no shame in getting it wrong... that's how you learn. I sculpted the head using a fine pointed stylus ball tool. 

Not to bad for a first attempt!

The wings were the easiest part to make. I just cut out some bat wing shapes from the polymer clay I had rolled out, the wings are obviously thinner than the square I cut out for the dragon to be placed on. I did layer these wings on top of each other. 

Once the dragon began to take shape I then added some texturing to represent the scales and for the wings I used a sharp sculpting tool and just drew some lines onto the wings to make them look a bit more detailed. With the same sculpting tool I also added this scratchy detail to the background of the dragon pendant. 

Before putting the clay in the oven I added some pigment powder just to add to the whole fantasy feeling of the pendant :)

Second Dragon Pendant 

How did I make this one well just look above!  The only difference with this dragon is the background pattern. There is one thing I did right on this dragon that I didn't do on the first pendant... This dragons ears are in the correct place but in all my wisdom and divine thinking I gave the dragon in my first pendant a Mohawk  aren't I clever! 

Third Dragon Pendant.

Practise makes perfect as they say :)

This dragon certainly looks much better and it's more detailed and refined. 

Again I made this the same way as I did the first pendant. Its just more refined :) 

Finally I hope you enjoyed reading my new blog you can comment below and also follow this blog, you know so you can keep up to date with haunted moon jewellery blogs :) 

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!

You can follow me on twitter to! Just click the link

On facebook? Of course you are! Then come and like my page and keep up to date with haunted moon jewellery

Are you a pinner? Then you'll fine haunted moon there to!

Find me on tumblr to!

  

Gothic Ear Cuffs

Hello Darklings! I have been a busy bee once again, this time making Gothic ear cuffs as well as necklaces, earrings and other pieces of jewellery. In this blog though I am going to focus on the ear cuffs, and as you can see I  have made quite a few. 

They are made from silver plated wire, and though simple in design they are quite tricky little things to make because even the slightest mistake bending the wire can result in the cuff being too misshaped to be able to really salvage it. So when I'm making ear cuffs from wire I try to be as careful as I possibly can.  

Ear cuffs can be made from sheet metal, wire or even polymer clay, I haven't made any ear cuffs from polymer clay yet but I plan to because the idea of a beautiful vibrant coloured ear cuff just appeals to me. 

Here are the ear cuffs, and as always, I'll give a little description on how I made them. So I made these from silver plated wire, to get the right size I used a peg from my wire jig. You can buy these from any jewellery website. I have a wire jig that has varied peg sizes because I feel it's more versatile for the projects I'm working on. 

I use hard or half hard silver plated wire, although hard wire can be difficult to work with so I recommend if your making ear cuffs for the first time buy soft or half hard wire. This will get your hands use to working with it. On to thickness of wire I tend to use wire that is  20 gage and 16 gage jewellery wire when making ear cuffs. 

Tools you will need to start making your ear cuff. 

1. Jewellery wire cutters.

2. Round nosed jewellery pliers.

3. Wire jig and pegs (one with various sized pegs preferably)

4. Flat nosed jewellery pliers (for attaching jump rings to the ear cuffs)

Firstly I positioned the wire half way around the peg then once I had made a half circle with wire, I used my round nosed pliers to bend the wire back up so I could continue to make another half circle. Think of this part as the layers of a cake . Trim off the excess wire and curl the ends of the wire as you can see in the photographs. These are really simple to make, as long as you be patient with it and take your time. I learnt that lesson the hard way!

Also a little tip if you don't curl the ends of the wire you might not be able to hang charms or chains from them like I have done, but if you just want a plain ear cuff then you just need to sand off the jagged edges that occur when you cut the wire. Also you may need to manipulate the wire a little bit after you have finished making the cuff, this is just so you get the best comfort when your wearing it. Don't be to rough when manipulating the metal though!

Thank you for reading and keep it spooky Darklings!

New Gothic Pendants.

Hello darklings or anyone who has just stumbled across this blog... Hi there! :) 

Now over the weekend I have been working on some new projects, Gothic pendants... surprise surprise! These new pendants though aren't my usual design I wanted expand on what I make. ( I gave myself a creative kick up the backside) 

I will usually draw and plan out the piece of jewellery I'm about to make, however this time round the idea for the pendants just popped in to my head so I impulsively went for it before it vanished!

 Fortunately the image in my head wasn't over elaborate nor was it too complicated to make. They are of course made from polymer clay those who have read my previous blogs will know I love working with it because it is very versatile it can be painted, textured, put in moulds the colours can be blended  and best of all you can make absolutely anything from polymer clay... Well almost anything.

Monster Skull 

Isn't he cute in a strange sort of way... Just me on that one? Okay. This was going to be a kawaii skull but I added horns and fangs which changed the look of this particular pendant completely from what I had originally envisioned. These pendants were made by layering one piece on top of another, first was the base just a simple round disc shape with a twisted or knotted border going around the outside. The second layer is the green vines which I did not curl at that point, I curled them around after I added the third and final layer the skull. No glue was used in bonding these

layers as polymer clay I feel tends to bond quite well when one piece meets another. 

On occasion glue is needed to bond certain parts but only if you have made each piece separately and plan to assemble them after baking or if on the off chance your polymer clay brakes. Please do not use any glue before baking only apply glue after it has been removed from the oven after has cooled and hardened sufficiently. 

The All Seeing Eye! 

Yes gaze into the eye feel its power consuming your very being! Ahem! Well that was dramatic!  Now this pendant was made in the same way as the monster skull but with one difference, the eye. Eyes made from polymer clay are easily made just roll the clay in to a ball and just cut out the colour you want the iris to be, of course you will need to roll out the polymer clay to about

one or two cards thick I'd also suggest doing this for the pupil to. The veins on the eye were achieved by using a very fine paint brush and dark red ink to give it that maniacal feel. Before the clay had been put in the oven I put an ornament bail at the top so it could be put on to a ribbon or a lace choker  

Kawaii Skull With Tentacles 

Eeek! I just love these type of skulls they are just so fun and cute! I love making them and because the style is so versatile I can use these type of skulls in any kind of jewellery. 

Again the same method was used in making this pendant the difference being the suckers on the tentacle which were made by rolling small balls of black polymer clay and using a stylus ball tool to make the suckers. 

Kawaii skulls are moderately easy to make but pay attention to detail so you can achieve that cute look. I was terrible at making these before but with a bit of practise I have gotten better at making them, also adding some dark shading around the skull adds some character and

depth to it. I do need to add a bail to this pendant which again is easily done by drilling a hole at the top and inserting a handmade bail from silver wire. These will be sold on my etsy page at some point in the future. 

Well, that's all from me - I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading about my work, I have certainly enjoyed making these gorgeous pendants :)

Keep It Spooky Darklings 

Accepted in to college and new jewellery

Hello, hello :) The past two months have been very busy for me.. Very busy! I'm planning my wedding I have also been accepted in to an art course in college along with other things. Not that I'm complaining, but I haven't posted anything for a wee while so I thought I'd just let you know why I have been quiet for a while. 

I bought some more polymer clay after my college interview, which went great I showed the teacher who was interviewing me some of my artwork and jewellery; which she loved! I was quite taken back by her reaction because she just loved the detail and styles. It feels good when someone likes what you make but articulately tell you why they love it.  Especially when that person is an art teacher and who is herself very talented. 

With the polymer clay I bought I made two pendants, don't worry my darklings I will make more! Just calm breath in and out.. Better? Okay lets get back to the pendants.

3D Raven Skull Cameo

Cameo pendants like this are very popular amongst Gothic women, I myself love them and enjoy making them. Raven skulls are easy enough to make either by using a mould or hand sculpting them, I prefer to hand sculpt them as I feel it just adds more quality to the item, that and I have more control over the detail. 

The wonderful thing with cameo Gothic jewellery is you can make so many different styles and not just with ravens. Bats, skulls, spiders, dragons, fangs, wiccan symbols, Celtic designs, crosses and much, much more the possibilities are endless :)

I will be making more cameos with the styles I described above and not just in black and white, I will use a varied pallet of colours along with some pigment powders or paints. 

Dichroic Glass and Polymer Clay Pendant

I love dichroic glass! It is so beautiful and just adds volumes to the jewellery I make. I used this glass in some of my silver work and then decided to use the glass with my polymer clay jewellery. If it can make silver look enchanting then it will look awesome on a polymer clay jewellery and it really does. 

The good thing about this glass is it can stand temperatures up to seven hundred degrees so being in the oven at one hundred and thirty degrees is a walk in the park. The glass is very easy to work with when using polymer clay, silver on the other hand can be difficult if you don't know what you are doing. 

Here are the pendants I made with the glass and as you can see the pendant bewitches the senses. These are simple yet effective designs I decided make, I used a texture sheet on one of the pendants along with some powder pigment to add an antique

warmth to the overall design. The other pendant was very simple just the plain black background with the glass in the middle and a simple swirl border around the centre.   

I'm sorry that this was a rather short update but hopefully I can write longer and more detailed blogs in the future, anyway I hoped you enjoyed it and Keep It Spooky Darklings :)

Silver and Glass Pendants

Hello there :) Today I'll be writing about silver pendants with glass set into the silver. These were made using the skills I've acquired from the silver class I attended down in Fife. 

When I got back from the silver class I made it my mission to order dichroic glass so I could make more of these amazing pendants.  

 Working with silver is the best part of making jewellery, I sat at my workspace and began to roll out the silver clay. Once I got the clay to the thickness needed I then transferred a pattern onto it, and once the pattern had successfully been added I cut the clay in half. 

On the first part of the clay the glass was placed in the centre, with the second part I cut out the circle

The silver before it is kiln fired

because the two bits of clay have to be sandwiched together with the glass in the middle. Before joining the clay together I added moisture to the silver so that it could bond together. 

After all this was done I had to wait for the clay to dry, this is the part were I become impatient, usually I'd wait a day or two for it to dry but this time I decided to put it into the oven. That was a good idea! No it really was because instead of waiting all that time the silver was dry within thirty minutes... yay! 

After the oven had dried the clay I let it cool down; even in its organic form precious clay is still very hot. Five minutes of cooling I then sanded away the rough edges and fill any gaps that

After being kiln fired and polished

may have occurred during the drying process. When all the sanding was done I then started on the bail for the pendant.

 I could have just drilled a hole in the top of the pendant but I really didn't want to do that and attaching a bail to the back would keep the pendant elegant in design. That and I just learnt how to make a professional bail so why not use that skill!  Waiting for the bail to dry naturally didn't take long, I let it air dry because the silver was wrapped around a

The bails that I learnt to make in
the silversmith class

plastic straw so it could retain its shape; therefore it couldn't go into the oven. So when the bail had dried I then bonded it to the pendant, waited for that to dry, then sanded all the rough edges away. 

Kiln day! Yay for this day! Every person who has worked with silver loves this part of jewellery working because this is the part were your silver is in the final stage. When the silver was done being fired I opened the kiln door and couldn't wait to brush off the frosty white top coat and reveal that beautiful silver. I'm sure I was a pirate in a past life my love of silver and jewels knows no bounds!  

I really enjoyed myself  when making these beautiful pedants, a lot of time, hard work, patience and money went in to making these. I will put these up on my Etsy page in the future but just now they will be tucked away until I get some sake chains to finish them off.

I plan to make more silver pendants in the future but just now it will just be maybe two or three pendants a month. If you wish to see more of my jewellery (even the stuff I haven't put in my blog) you can click on the links below :)  

Facbook Frost Raven Jewellery

Twitter Frost Raven Jewellery

Frost Raven Jewellery Pinterest page

Frost Raven Jewellery Etsy page

Hope you enjoyed reading this and Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!

           

Jewellery Day Class

Hello there :) I was at a metal clay workshop last week, learning how to set glass into silver, kiln fire it and how to set semiprecious gemstones on to silver and gold plating silver jewellery. The class was awesome and the teacher is very knowledgeable and down to earth which makes her easier to speak to. She also doesn't mind people asking her questions, I'm full of questions and always want to know as much as I can about working with silver. There are plans to go to more classes, one I really want to attend is the ring making class. I've always wanted know how to make rings with silver there are so many kinds of rings I want to make. I'm not going to go in depth with the techniques as I think they are best kept to workshops or classes. 

Silver Semi-precious Pendant 

So here are some of the pendants I made at the class, this first one was how to put a bezel cup on to the silver. The technique I found quite easy to do and closing the bezel around the semi-precious stone was again quite simple. The teacher did say that sometimes the gemstone can fall out if not done correctly but because her instructions were very clear making this pendant was easy to do. I transferred a pattern on to the silver before I put the bezel cup in place.  

Silver Glass Pendant

The second pendant that I did was this one, I have to say this pendant was one of my favourites to make because I learnt so much just making it. From repairing the silver when a piece brakes to learning how to make proper bails and adding moisture to the clay when two pieces peel away from each other. When making this pendant I learned how to make professional jewellery bails from the silver. I even amazed myself! 

Gold Plated pendant

I was going to take a photograph of this pendant but because I wasn't to liberal with the gold it didn't show up to well on the silver. After the pendant had come out of the kiln the teacher did say I should have used more and not to be intimated by the gold, because gold is expensive. She did say you paid for the class so if you do want to make it again just go for it and put a good lot on the silver.

Along with going to a silver workshop I am also pleased to announce that I now have an Etsy page! 

I am currently planing my wedding so I had to take my jewellery out of the shop that it was in because my money is going towards my wedding. My sister set up my Etsy page and offered to run it while I plan for my wedding so a big thank you to her. I will pop a link below :)

My Etsy Page

Keep It Spooky!

Silver Clay Jewellery Course, A Long Time Of Learning.

If you have ever read my older blog on this silver course. You will know I had a bit of trouble trying to get to grips with some of the techniques. One would be making the silver bead. Trying to make the bead was hard work. It frustrated me to no end. The course is eighteen months long, so I had time to perfect the design of the silver and just relax, because no one learns these kind of techniques over night. If that were the case I'd have passed by now! 

Detailed Silver Pendant

It's amazing how a white bit of clay can be moulded in to something like this. PMC or silver art clay is made up of small silver particles in an organic binder. When the piece of PMC silver is fired the binder burns off and you are left with the silver. 

This pendant was made from silver art clay. A silver clay that I didn't like when I first used it but now I do like. As you can see

this is just a simple pendant design. I rolled out the silver and just cut this simple shape out (free handedly). I transferred a pattern on to the silver. I also used badger balm to stop the motif from sticking to the clay. After the clay had dried completely I then added the vine like detail with an art clay syringe. Syringe detailing can be difficult but with patience and steady hand, or as steady as possible it can be done beautifully. When I completed this pendant I sent it off to get fired and polished. I really enjoyed making this pendant :)  

Silver PMC Bead

Ah yes! The silver bead of doom! Not really, I had three failed attempts at making this bead. Ah but on the fourth attempt however I got the round shape that is needed for the course.  In my older

Older bead as you can see it's uneven
and not round in the least.
(still pretty though)

blog I used cork clay to make the base for the silver to be wrapped around. The cork clay I just couldn't work with as it was mouldy and wouldn't keep a round shape, but wood clay I can work with. Wood can be sanded cork can't! I shaped the wood clay in to a round ball and waited for it to dry. I rolled out the silver clay so it was about three cards thick. Then covered the wood bead with the silver clay. A lot of blending and sanding later I got the perfect round shape. With some of the clay that was left I made some donut ends for the bead. I was looking

A closer look at the new bead
(sorry for the picture quality my
camera at the moment can really pick
up the silver or it's detail very well) 

at the bead and it looked rather plain. So I added some leafs and vines to add some ooomf to the bead. 

Even though I complained about this bead in one of my blogs and how difficult it was, it can be done. I used my frustration and

New silver bead as you can see
it is much rounder.

annoyance to fuel me. I pushed myself because sitting on your backside complaining doesn't help you succeed in what you are doing. Even if that is making a tiny bead! It's still an accomplishment even if it does seem like a small one :)

As you can see I have put up the new silver bead and the older bead for comparison. You can clearly see how uneven and distorted the shape is. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I had fun sharing with you.

Keep It Spooky!