Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists: Reveal #3 ~ featuring Sally Russick

Welcome to the 3rd reveal of The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists.  If you're new to the CC7A blog hops, you can read about how we became in one of my previous posts: Introducing the CC7A.

March is hosted by Sally Russick, of The Sublime Studio (the one and only of the Focus on Life!), she chose 'Contrasting colours' as a theme and sent me these beauties... errr... yup, I forgot to take a picture *before* I started: I have to stop doing this, really! Luckily for me Sally did take a picture! mine is in the top right corner, the red and turquoise / aqua palette.

The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists: Reveal #3 ~ featuring Sally Russick :: All Pretty Things

I drove the package around for 2 weeks, at the studio I go on weekends... but I had to work on other items (check tomorrow's blog post for some extra details), plus my ingredients weren't available (keep reading for details :) ) and it wasn't until Sunday until I started on Sally's beauties. I had a fixation on a tassel, and I had another fixation on how to make it. You might remember I have 2 huge 'loves' when it comes to jewelry making: metal and glass. I don't have much opportunities to work on glass and I have wanted to try enamels for a long, long, looooong time.

A few weeks back Dee (the lady who owns the studio) mentioned enamels and I had to be patient for either (1) her to find her own enamels or (2) her to get the new shipment of enamels. As luck will have it, #1 happened on Saturday so I got my chance on Sunday to finally work a little bit with them.

This is the tassel 'wrapper' - for lack of a better name. I made it of copper, looks very much like a flower (a tulip), then I covered it in enamel: green, with a border of sparkling grey.

East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things

The pictures are horrible, if you keep reading you'll also find why! Can you see the purplish-grayish-sparkly border on the bottom? It's truly lovely in real life, and the transparent peacock green gives the copper some interesting reflections.

East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things

Since I was having so much fun with the tulip, I continued on with some head pins. Being limited on time, I took an unorthodox approach: instead of getting copper wire, ball it, then cover it with enamels, I took some ready-made eye-pins and covered them in enamel. It makes for a more flat 'bulb' at the end of the pin (you can see the original eye-pin in this picture, on the middle turquoise bead.

East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things

With the tassel exactly as I envisioned it, I found myself in a bit of a 'now what?!' moment. I am usually going for simplicity, but this time I felt a little bit of chaos is welcome.

Out came Tibetan silver, coral, and turquoise beads (which I bought from my Bead Soup #7 partner, last year, and never used), copper beads (which I did receive in another swap or challenge, but for the life in me I cannot remember who sent them to me), copper chain, the wire (of course), red leather and... wait for it, this one *is* funny: even the thread Sally wrapped her package with (the turquoise bit you see below)!

East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things


East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things

Yup, another very long necklace.

East meets West: ooak necklace, enamel, copper, Tibetan silver, Kristi Bowman copper element, turquoise, coral, Czech beads, crystals :: All Pretty Things

The story behind these not-so-great pictures? It's funny: I finished the necklace on Sunday, I wore it on Monday and Tuesday, I was admiring the sunset on Tuesday when I realized  the reveal is just a few hours away... and I had no pictures taken! That's what happens when you miss a perfectly sunny day, you get average (at the most) pictures. Oh, well...

Not very proud of the pictures, but incredibly proud of the necklace itself (and the second pendant). In a very eclectic way, everything matches - there are 5 different types of metal in there (silver, 3 different coppers, and the antique copper) and they are somehow OK together. The colours would be perfect together: turquoise is the common denominator for copper, the bright red, the coral, and the peacock green. There are so many elements: Kristi Bowman's copper elements, the Tibetan bead, the copper beads, the enameled tulip, the 3 different type of beads - and yet somehow everything is just perfect together.

It is fluid, it is colourful, it is asymmetric, it whispers secrets of the East, and invites you to some adventures in the West. It's my 'East meets West' piece (well, 2 pieces, to be exact).

Sally's beautiful package (we had an ad hoc contest, with all of us claiming her package is the prettiest) inspired me beyond my imagination this time. I am incredibly proud of the enameling parts: they came out exactly as I envisioned them, and the process is easy and fun (yeah, you guessed it correctly, you'll see lots of enamels from this girl). And solves one of my issues in a perfect way: it covers the metal base so I'm not allergic to it anymore. Did I mention I love the look of it?! Glass and metal: my 2 loves in one element.

Yes, I am excited :) But I should stop here and thank Sally for her generosity and for firing this spark in me! And the entire group for making this special event possible: it turns out to be one of the most fun and most enjoyable ever, with every reveal it becomes more and more interesting.

I am thanking you, too, for stopping by today! I hope you have enjoyed this new adventure - and please make sure you visit the entire group (it's a small one).

Sally Russick (March host)
Alicia Marinache <- you are here

11 comments:

  1. Thought I would drop in early, Alicia, I'll be on the road off and on today. I am very excited to see your enameling (as you know from my last posts I have become very fond recently) and good news about the practical aspect :) The finished product is wonderful... don't you love it when other art pieces we have/create just sing together. I laughed when I saw the embroidery floss... I used it in one of my earring designs LOL. I wonder if it will keep showing up? I agree this challenge keeps getting better and more fun!

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  2. Hi Alicia,
    This is really turning out to be a great challenge I am so enjoying working with all the different elements each month. I love your gorgeous necklace it is awesome it is a piece that every time you look at it you see something you did not see before. The bracelet is beautiful too. Congratulation on learning a new skill. Enameling is on my bucket list too I think it is a great way to adorn a not so pretty piece of metal. You did a beautiful job with all of your pieces.
    Therese

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  3. Alicia, I love stopping over here to see what magic you are going to pull with your wire working! Always FANTASTIC! I love the mix of elements with the colorful beads and isn't enameling FUN!!! I had to laugh when you mentioned forgetting to take photos, I took photos but forgot to attach the lobster claw clasp before taking them! I realized when I was editing the photos! :) Beautiful design!!!

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  4. WOW, it's so exciting to see what you all have done with my component. Every one of then is so creative and beautiful. I love what you did!!!

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  5. Wonderful! I love the tribal feel in this piece. Great use of Kristi's component.

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  6. Alicia ~ Wow! This is spectacular! It completely embodies that East Meets West title. And for how much is going on, the look doesn't feel busy. The look feels calm and meandering. What a lot of thought and work went into your piece. It shows...and the reward is in the necklace itself ~ a gorgeous story piece of new beginning (enameling!) and old traditions. You started a great group here~thank you for putting this together. Sally's stash was very inspiring this month :-)

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  7. So, so fun! I love the headpins, what personality they have, just so different from what I now think of as the standard enamel headpin I've seen. I have a massive amount of enamels from when my mum did it back in the 70s. Resurrecting them is on the "someday" list. I had to laugh with you on forgetting to photography it, so much for that done early feeling. Beautiful work as always.

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  8. Beautiful job Alicia. You are right they do all work together well. Kudos for trying enameling. I took a torch fired enamel class back in December and I am smitten too.

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  9. The necklace is to die for! I love each contrasting part and how everything works so well together, especially the "tassel wrapper." :) (That totally made me smile.)

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  10. So beautiful Alicia! and wow to that enamel work!! I LOVE it, and can see why you're so happy with how it turned out. I love this long, swing style you've got going on with your necklaces .... it is beautiful, and colorful, and flowing and would absolutely rock any boho-flair outfit (which I happen to be fond of as you know :))

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  11. Beautiful!!!!! I love the long necklace.....and your "tassel wrapper" how cool! I be it is awesome in real life.....you did a great job Alicia!!!!!!1

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate and love to read your comments!