Year of the Jewelry - Week 12: Spring has Sprung

Time will pass and seasons will come and go ... Roy Bean

This weeks challenge was "Spring has Sprung"  ... but has it?  Here in the southern hemisphere we are embarking on the Autumn season although you wouldn't know it - where I live tends to be an eternal summer with just two seasons - wet season and dry season.  We only get a couple of months a year of cold weather! 

To celebrate the wonderful weather ... I designed this piece using colours that are reflective of both seasons, the blue/green colours for the wet and the bronze/gold for the drier times of the year!

Year of the Jewelry - Week 11: Rescued from the Scrap Bin

"The purpose - where I start, is the idea of use!  It is not recycling, it's reuse" ... Issey Miyake

I enjoyed this weeks challenge - I found these samples that I had made when testing the kiln and had put to the side some time ago, but when thinking about what to do for this weeks challenge, remembered I had them tucked away and thought I would use them to create a pair of earrings - why should they sit there in the back of the cupboard? 

They are not perfect - far from it, and I'm the first to admit they needed a lot of work however I love the texture and the rawness and decided to add some my lampies from my hoard ... voila - another pair of earrings to add to my collection.

Design:  Caron Michelle
Technique:  Metal Clay
Materials:  Bronze clay, lampwork beads from N Valentine Studio, handmade ear wires

Year of the Jewelry - Week 10: Wabi Sabi

"Wabi sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, the antithesis of our classical Western notion of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and monumental." -- Leonard Koren, author of "Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers"

This weeks YOJ challenge was exactly that - a challenge, to create a design that reflects the true connotations of Wabi Sabi.  However, I did it.  This week I took some time out from my looming and went back to the metal clays and finished working on a design I had started some time ago. 

To me the pendant is the epitome of imperfection whilst retaining beauty within, maintaining the very essence of wabi sabi.  I'll let you be the judge xo

Year of the Jewelry - Week 9: Simplicity

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" ... Leonardo da Vinci

Week 9 and the year is already starting to slip by.  This weeks YOJ challenge was simplicity.  How can you go past a classic pearl bracelet!

Design:  Caron Michelle
Technique:  Erin Simonetti Warp Management

Wedding Collection - Part 2

Last week I featured a recent commission for three bridesmaid cuffs.  I thought I would share with you the brides cuff as well as the earrings I made to compliment the ensemble.

The bride is wearing a comb/headpiece in her hair with oval shapped diamontees and pearls, so I sourced out some vintage montees complimented with Swarovski pearls to loom as the central point of the brides cuff. 

The earrings I designed for the bridesmaid is an Ellad2 design. 

The wedding is later this month, so I look forward to sharing pictures with you of the wedding party wearing my designs.

Design:  Caron Michelle
Technique:  Erin Simonetti Warp Management
Materials:  Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls, Miyuki Delicas, Miyuki Round