On my worktable.... glow in the sunlight!

Finally I took some time to create again. Here you see earrings I made with headpins made by Sasha Crow and lampwork beads made by Sue Reynolds. The are lying out to dry after being oxidized with liver of sulphur. They will get a protective layer of renaissance wax, I will buff them gently (I want a dark and rusty look) and take pictures of the finished pieces. Most of the time I think how easy and enjoyable it is to create earrings but I keep forgetting how many small steps are actually involved! I have to keep this in mind especially when calculating for the right and fair price ;)

"Everyone needs an elephant... or two...." - Earrings made from polymer clay

 More little elephant earrings! This time one pair with pink flowers and one pair with blue flowers. Took me long enough to finish them...

But I'll have to try to take more pictures since it was already a little bit too dark. So here also just a few shots.

But they are just so cute! I made from the original pair I sculpted two tiny molds. These I use to create the basic form and then I sculpt them a little bit more, bake and paint them.

If I manage to take more pictures I may also manage to list them in my shop ;)

"Intense orange" - Industrial earrings

Intense orange... the colour is so strong, so bright, so pure... A simple design that has an industrial feeling for me. But oh, how they move! Dangling is one of the most important properties earrings can have for me!

I also want to note: These beads I etched to get this matte finish. There is just something special about the matte look and soft velvet touch of etched beads. I got help from Julie Wong Sontag (uglibeads) but she later also wrote a really detailed description about etching at art bead scene.

You can get them here in my shop :)

All the roses... between research and art and not enough sleep!

Right now, in this very moment, I should prepare several presentations. I am doing this but my brain needs some rest in between. If I would really rest I would just fall asleep and not wake up i time again (who needs sleep? ;)) so doing something different is also a kind of rest. Actually my brain has to process and reset somehow so I finally get the story line I want to tell and preset finished in my head. 

I am sorting my slides for introduction, data and so on after I know what kind of story I want to tell. Research is really deep and detailed so it is easy to get mixed up. If you only have ten to fifteen minutes you can't tell about all the stuff you and your group is doing. You need to show one piece and represent it in a good story with a red line everyone can easily follow and enjoys (hopefully) to listen aaaaaaaaaaaaand understands it well enough to ask relevant questions, discuss more deeply and (I know most hate it but you should embrace it!) offer profound critics. If you lose your audience in between, you'll also lose all of this and in the end you'll lose the reason why there should have been a talk after all.

Is it easy? I am getting better and better in it but still no. But it is not really a talent but rather an ability you can learn and train. In a good group you're helped on your way, in a bad one you have to figure out everything by yourself. This includes how to stand, how to interact with the audience, what not to do with your hands and hair (especially the women), even what to wear and getting the balance right between too shy and too arrogant (men and women quite often tend to fail in different extremes).

Oh and especially for women: Stop making yourself small and stop apologizing. There is always an experiment not done, data not perfect, and so on. Just be honest, discuss your data, show the strengths without hiding the weaknesses and don't undersell your work and yourself. Just don't. Please. Also as hard as it is: Don't expect motivation from someone else and also don't put your own self-esteem in dependency on the critics of your supervisor/boss/... Nobody will ever give you if you don'task. You're an adult after all. Also nobody will ever see the work you do. Most often women in the lab are super hard working but often don't get credit for it. Why? Because they don't tell it. I am not very far from the lab and even I don't see how much and what my students are really working. Yes, I see the data but no, this is in no way representing all the hours, days and weeks that went into. In the end you are grown up and have to stand up for yourself. Nobody else will and it is definitely also no-ones task than your own. 

Strangely enough... you could switch researcher to artist here quite easily, no?

It never should mean that you're blind to good and constructive critics, that you don't take other opinions into account, no... just that you're not depending on them and also reflect your own behaviour and how much you're creating your (let us be blunt) misery yourself (or enhancing it). Take care whom you give the power to judge over you, really, be careful. Also on which level: Your supervisor for your thesis should be the critic for your work but not for your self-wroth and esteem. Your close friends and family may give you personal critics and they are allowed to do so because they love you. But what a stranger says? Why should you? 

I started writing about the earrings, no? That was the original intention and then I drifted away. I am tired. Oh, I behave the same in real life: If I am really tired, I will start talking like a waterfall...! ;)

The roses were made with different kinds of polymer clay. Actually they all were the test flowers for the wedding jewelery I made some time ago. The last critics was: Too small. So I made bigger ones and had these tiny ones left. Since we have family over here, I had to try to reign in my chao a little bit and stumbled over the roses. I cut down the backs, glued on silver filed posts and there we go! Love them!

Also a new ceramic pair (I have more but no pictures... sorry!) and a new colours for my little dots of colour earrings!

Maybe I will even manage to get them into my shop in the next days with all the overload of work I have. In case you would like a pair of roses first, just write me (they are 15 euros per pair plus shipping).

On my worktable.... body parts again!

Since I seem to start more new projects than being able to finish them... again a blog post about what is on my work table right now. Oh, I am okay with all the projects since the main reason to create is to "keep me sane". If I have an idea, I try to follow it. Sometimes there is not enough energy left in me (the beginning of the dark time of the year makes this always worse) but at other times my head is overflowing of ideas and images. 

I made a little comic style skull again. The last ones I made at the same time of the year in 2012. Still love them! I also had this etched piece of brass lying around and decided they would go perfect together. This kind of ideas just develop in the total chaos that is surrounding me ;) But really, I have to see everything to keep my brain working. Still not sure how some kind of order with this desire to have everything in sight may ever be combined. I am open for every idea!

The brass piece still has to be sanded (I love gently and smooth edges!), pickled, and oxidized and sanded again... and before all this maybe solder some prongs to hold the skull. That was also the reason why I stopped working on it. Soldering... would take to much time to set up everything. Next week is full with work even in the evenings (one symposium, one conference and guests from Korea at the  institute) as well as we have family staying with us the whole week. Did I mention the chaos...? ;)

The arm was first wrapped in a cut piece from a metal flower (these scrapbook "stuff") and wrapped it with copper wire. Will oxidize it for a darker look.

Last but not least: I got little felt balls from Tine (Belle et la Bête) and started to play with them. I stitched a little bit, put some seed beads on top and finished them off with bead caps. Still, not perfect but I do love them!

Just look at the bright colours and the beautiful shape!

They are really light weight. Not sure what to do with them... ;)

At the happy POP-UP market "Hallo Herbst"

Just an impression: Carina made this image for me! We (Silke and Carina from "urban trifft schön") shared a booth together. Better to be with friends than alone :)

Scarabs, bird skulls, beads and more

Since we were on Formentera for holiday I got into my mind that I want to create some scarabs. These are the first two finished ones! I have some more waiting to be glazed as well as waiting that I have time to start a new firing (will not be before next week *sniff*).

They turned out in all these lovely hues of blue and turquoise with a hint of green! I need to make more and also have to play with glaze and colour effects! I actually used underglazes like washes comparable with polymer clay and acrylic paint. 

You can see it maybe a little bit better at the backside It enhances the colours of the transparent glazes on top!

A lot of pendants. On some of them the glaze dropped more than I wanted to (I like a little dropping). But the kiln had started and stopped in the middle. The glaze just started to melt down. The kiln was started again but it had an effect on some pieces. Some glazes also reacted strangely... 

I played around mostly with "bottle green" but had to include "orient blue" as well. 

You can see the difference better at the backside.

Of course I also had to try to make a bird skull like I made so often with polymer clay. Love him! What else can I say? It is a different effect from polymer clay. I will definitely make more from ceramic clay as well as from polymer clay since both materials create different and unique effects. But I was honestly surprised how much easier it was to create the skull from ceramic clay compared to polymer clay.

The skull is just really, really difficult to capture with the camera!

Some more favorites (yes, I have also non favorites... but in the end it divides in "love it!" to "love it not" ^^). I like the organic shape reminding me of either sea shells or flower petals.

 I also love how this tiny leaf tuned out that had a kind of frame around. I used a polymer clay mold I made years ago.

Using the "hand ruler" you can see that is rather on the small side.

Now to the ones that went wrong. *sighs* Yes, the upper two also have a beautiful side shown in the image above. But the glaze dropped a little bit too much. The same amount like the last time but I think it behaved different due to the kiln problems. 

Maybe the same reason there was a piece gone from one of the beads.Only problem is: All of the broken ones were so beautiful on the other side.

But all in all: I am happy! Off to the next round! ;)

"Overgrown" - Earrings

They are actually quite simple. I made small headpins with polymer clay, patinated the copper wire and just wrapped them. But sometimes simple is enough. Because the organic structure and surface of the green pod-like structures are interesting just as they are (for me at least). Of course, they also dangle lovely! ^^

You can find them here in my shop!

Inspirations: On the streets (Leipzig)

Look at that smile :)

"Ocean Tides" - Earings

There are colours, images and feelings I am always coming back to. The ocean is on of my deepest and oldest inspirations. I started with the enameled pieces, numi-sticks from Kimberly Rogers (Numinosity Beads). Green crusty spots on a whitish-grey surface reminding me of the coast, the grown algae and moss, the sea foam of the waves crushing against it... the different blue lampwork beads are all from Sue Reynolds (she has an etsy shop here, but you may rather find her selling on fb). With the beautiful shades of blue I could think of nothing else than the sea.

Funny thing is: I already showed them on fb and Sasha Crow (she makes cool headpins, here) found a wonderful name for them too! "Moody Indigo". Just a beautiful name! These earrings are ocean tideas for me, since the name is always a representation of the feeling and thoughts a piece has for me... but moody indigo somehow is stuck now in my brain, I'll see if I can create something this time for a name!

I also put them in my shop here :)

"Wonderland Dreams" - Earings

Purple and blue, violett and green, it is all inside. Layer of layer, swirling chaos and yet in beautiful harmony... 

I am naming my jewelery. It is not always easy but I want to name my jewelery because the names represent for me their story, their feeling, their meaning for me. I started not too long ago. I already told you quite often, that "to create keeps me sane". This also means that my creations reflect a part of myself, sometimes more, sometimes less. In the same way they evolve together with me... 

...so one day I felt something was missing. Names. The names to their stories. It is not always easy to find the right name due to mainly two reasons: The first is the usual problem to put complex feelings and thoughts into words... the second occurs if I am not really attached to a piece. Then it may be nice and all of that but it is not representing me. 

But for these earrings the name was there even before I had to think about it. Dark and dreamy, beautiful and a step next to reality.

The headpins are made by Kimberly Rogers from numinosity beads and the tiny wee beads are made by Julie Wong Sontag from Uglibeads. So different, but the colour keeps them together like they are always mean to be this way.

I hope you can see how long they really are! A hand being used as a kind of universal ruler. Yes, it is biased because hand sizes are different... but still.. ;)

I also uploaded them into my shop (yes, finally some new pieces in my shop, more coming soon ;)).

"Mechanical Blooms" - Earrings

Sometimes it is good that I am quite impatient and show my work in fb in artist groups before I blog about it here. The reason why this is good, is quite simple: You get beautiful comments and descriptions!

One of these was from Meridy from "Two Trees Studio". She said (and I hope she don't mind :)): 

"Very cool--love the similarities (color) and the juxtapositions of differences!"

Gosh... honestly? My process is involving a lot of thoughts about colours, shapes and especially also movement. But it is not a pure rational process, it is rather the opposite: A highly instinctive process. This is also the reason why it takes me often a long time to figure out why I am distracted from certain properties of a finished piece. I would love to be able to describe my process so clearly like Meridy did! :)

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Can you see how they are slightly tipping to the front? They look good worn but it took me some time to accept this. Sometimes the small details are the ones that throw me off. As I said: Interesting to see how the own brain is working! ;)

The enameled pieces I got from a destash from Lori (you can find her here) and are from Sue beads. The chain elements are actually recovered / upcycled / recycled chains I found at the flea market. Last but not least, the glass flowers... aren't they also just gorgeous? They are recycled glass beads from africa. I couldn't resist buying them when I saw them at the Grassi fair at the Grassi Museum.

They are not too heavy but they are also not light weight. Difficult to describe but you'll feel their movement.

Edit: You can find them now here in my shop :)