The Art of Frankenweenie Exhibition

If you haven't seen Frankenweenie by Tim Burton yet, I urge you to go! I love stop motion animation so I was thrilled to be able to attend the premiere and opening of the London Film Festival on the 10th October.

The Lost Prince

The NPG has a new exhibition and it is well worth a look!

The Lost Prince the Life and Death of Henry Stuart explores the impact that the death of the handsome, model prince Henry had on the British nation. Henry was the elder brother of Charles I. He died in 1612 leaving his brother to inherit the thrones of England and Scotland. Would the English Civil War still have happened if Henry had lived?

Featuring drawings by Hans Holbein the younger, paintings by Paul Van Somer, Rubens and Robert Peake and two suits of armour with a wooden armature not seen for four hundred years, it is a fascinating insight into the art and culture of the early Jacobean era. I particularly love the miniature portraits of the prince by Isaac Oliver (keep an eye out for Sir Walter Raleigh in one of the final rooms too, which inspires my sketches in silver jewellery!) I had a go at making a drawing after one of Isaac Oliver's pictures, which you can see below. I have some ideas for including this sketch in some forthcoming jewellery designs...

Sketching in Silver Sir Walter Raleigh finished pendant

A few photos of the finished pendant:

I quite like the hammered oval frame. I soldered it on using pallion soldering so that everything is secure.

Vintage Embroidered Chinese Cloud Collar

I just wanted to share with you this beautiful collar that I saw at a vintage market a few years ago. I really don't know much about the provenance but the seller said that she was given it by her friend in Singapore in the 1970s. I love that each little character has a personality and the embroidery is beautifully done. There is quite a lot of water damage on the silk so it needs a little TLC. I did a little bit of research and apparently this type of collar is called a Cloud Collar because of its distinctive shape and was often worn at wedding ceremonies.

This is my favourite character:

Sketching In Silver Series Update: Soldering

This post is an update of my Sketching In Silver: Portraits series, which has been at the top of my to do list for some time. The idea is to pierce a portrait of an historical individual using well known British portraits for inspiration, then solder some silver sheet onto the back to strengthen the pierced design. It did work the first time that I tried it with my portrait of Elizabeth I

However, since then I've had a few expensive disasters that are frustrating and disheartening when the solder ran and obscured the pierced design as you can see from poor Anne Boleyn below

Now, it's a poor workman (or woman) who blames his (or her!) tools but I do think that the technique of pallion soldering that I was using was incorrect for this type of work. Pallion soldering is when you cut up tiny pieces of solder and melt them using a butane torch on a fire brick. Anyway, after some serious contemplation, I alighted on the idea of using silver solder paste. My reasoning was that the solder is powdered and combined with flux in a syringe so it should melt quicker and stop the silver from getting too hot and melting or the solder from running too freely. A bit more research and I decided to use hard solder paste (there are several types of solder: hard, medium, easy and extra easy where hard is the most commonly used.) Last night I had a go at making a Walter Raleigh pendant and apart from the extremely noxious fumes that the solder paste produced (seriously this should most definitely be used in a well ventilated area and if you possibly can, outside!) by jove I think I've got it!

The design seems securely soldered onto the sheet at the back and as you can see, the solder hasn't run and engulfed the design as before. The original portrait miniature that this image is based on is by Nicholas Hilliard and it is part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection. It is unfortunately not currently on display. Now I just have to decide what design to use as a frame and then solder on some links to attach the beads that I want to use. Of course it could still go very wrong when I solder the frame on but fingers crossed all will turn out well!

How to Make a Fire Demon: Part Two

I decided to make my little silver Calcifer into an earring so I soldered an earring post onto the back of the silver shape.

After filing, sanding and polishing him using a barrel polisher, he was very shiny indeed and I used Liver of Sulphur to oxidize the tiny dots in his eyes. It is a liquid which bled a little around the edges that I wanted to keep silver so I then used a very sharp scribe to scratch at the surface around the black pupil of the eye to keep the oxidized part to that small raised area.

Another quick polish and he was ready to wear!

How to Make a Fire Demon Earring: Part One

Using my new jewellery making set, I decided to experiment and see what effects I could get from stamping the various tools onto 0.5 mm silver. You pass the steel rod through the opening at the top of the metal stamper. Pre-heat the metal to make it more malleable and cool it by plunging it in cold water. Then, position the stamp over the silver sheet and give it a whack with a hammer (I used a 16oz hammer, which is pretty heavy with a long handle so that it would make a decent impression!)

The effect of having a tiny raised dot and compressed outer ring looked like an eye to me and as I have been watching my Studio Ghibli dvds again recently, I thought it was a perfect excuse to make a little Calcifer fire demon from Howl's Moving Castle!

I cut around the eyes free hand to make the flame ball shape and drilled a small hole for the mouth, passing a saw blade through to make the smile shape.

To be continued...

Vintage Jewellery Making Set

The antiques market in the Jubilee Hall in Covent Garden is one of my favourite places to go on a Monday morning. It's got a fantastic array of jewellery, porcelain and the odd random knick knack all at very reasonable prices considering its central London location. I often find that there are those moments when you notice an item on a stall and are drawn towards it like a moth to the flame. The Monday just gone was one of those moments! A humble red wooden box holds a wonderful array of watchmakers and jewellers tools. Stone setting implements, gravers and punches. Some of the tools are a mystery to me but I knew enough about them to know that I had to have them!

The label on the front of the box reads Robert Pringle and Co. The company was formed in 1835. They ceased trading in 1965 so this is at least 47 years old!

Judging by the wear on the box, it has been well used although some of the tools are a little bit rusty. I wonder who used them in the past. Perhaps it was by an apprentice although the tools are so fine so they must have been used by someone with a steady hand and a lot of skill. I have used similar tools before so I can't wait to get to work on some silver with these!

Flying Dragon Earrings

These little dragons have moving wings. I'm thinking of making a pendant too.

Turtle Power!

Awhile ago I donated some little trinkets to the North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine's Turtle Rescue Team. I have a soft spot for animals and probably watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too much as a kid so was happy to support such a great cause. Today, I got a very kind Thank you card from the turtles (and Adrienne, who I assume has helped them with their spelling and grammar and the writing of such notes)... If you would like to help this very good cause, you can donate through the official website here. Hooray for turtles!

Flying Dragon Necklace

I have just listed this flying dragon necklace, my homage to Smaug from The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. You can see how the wings move from this photo. I'm hoping to do some smaller versions but it's quite hard to make the hinge setting smaller as the soldering is quite intricate. It'll be fun having a go though!

Little Smaug earring...

So, this is the little silver dragon from yesterday made into a one-off earring. If you pull the yellow flame shaped lemon quartz briolette the wings go down!

Upcoming Hobbit, Flying Dragon

With The Hobbit Parts 1 & 2 coming up very soon I am trying to work on some new designs inspired by Middle Earth. This little dragon has moving wings and is the first of a few moving and slightly more complicated designs that I want to try. Strictly speaking though, he's not actually wearable at the moment! I'm still working on that part!

A little bit in love with Sherlock!

A very belated Happy New Year everyone!

I haven't blogged in a long time because I've been writing my first essay for my masters in the History of Britain. Very daunting and I have been mildly guilty of what I like to call 'productive procrastination' during the period when I've desperately needed a break from studying the actions of women in the English civil war! I've been trying to get back into portraiture. I used to draw a lot (usually people from films and television because 'real' people sometimes get upset with how you depict them!) so given the fact that Sherlock became the highlight of my week recently, I thought I'd try painting Benedict Cumberbatch.

Here is the result of my 'productive procrastination'...

It kind of looks like him and I don't think it's awful for a first attempt at using watercolours. I'm definitely going to need more practice though!

I've decided that a new year needs new designs and now that I've finally submitted my essay, I'm trying to work out what these new designs might entail. I think that dark fairytales will feature and I'm working on more layered pieces that will include lockets and secret compartments and moveable components. This may be a bit ambitious given my limited resources but I'd like to make more intricate pieces. I will also be taking inspiration from Tudor and Stuart portraiture, particularly miniatures so I will experiment and post some of my attempts in due course. Think Elizabeth I and Anne of Denmark!

Anyway, getting back to what's really important... how do you think Sherlock Holmes survived his fall?!!!

I'm sure there's an elementary explanation.