a delicate balance: new earrings

pea green, dark green & white

dark orange, red & white

blue, green & white

white, red and dark yellow

I changed the design a little bit, leaving out the ring on top (as you can see on the first pairs) because the weight of the glass bubbles keeps the balance really well, just like the pendants:

pendant 2

pendant 3

I love how the transparent spheres catch the light!

You can find them on Etsy.

If you like to see more of this series, the photos are bundled in a set on flickr and you can track down other posts and the work in progress on the blog by clicking the tag "a delicate balance" (under this post or in the left menu on my blog)!

And this is the 6th blog post of the year! That's already half of the number of last year's posts... :-o

There's still more to come, I want to tell you about a little project that I just started. Something that's funny as it is icky... :-D icky sticky glass. What could it be? More soon, I promise!

a polyp ring

I made a new ring by accident. Well, I made up the design as I went along... the murrina (the little glass cabochon) was the starting point, and at first I wanted to include it in a new pendant design, but halfway into the process I decided it would make a pretty ring. And while the result is not bad, it's not quite perfect...



You can't really see it on the first two pictures, but the ring isn't round -it's a little lopsided. On the back, the oval base and the ring don't fit perfectly (although they're soldered and strongly connected) and there are some unaesthetic gaps. So I guess this one will have to stay in my own collection... ;-) And next time I work on rings of a similar design, I know how to fix it.



When I'm working on a piece of jewelry, it's the first realization of a design that I'm most attached to.  They're the freaks, the poor little monsters and misfits, all cracked and gapped and limping, but they mean a lot to me! With the following realizations of the design, I correct the mistakes so they're technically and aesthetically better and ready to go out into the big world and I love them too, but they don't have the same appeal to me as their first-born siblings...

I wonder what would Mr Freud have to say about that, eh? :-p

carnaval des animaux

My very first treasury (this is fun!) with animal masks and animals who dress up, prints, paintings and sculptures - do we shapeshift into animals or do they become human?

sunsets & summer trees...

During the week of holidays after my college exams I was able to retreat to the studio for a couple of days, for the first time since September. I guess it's a good thing the studio is in Ronse and not in Ghent, or I would be there all the time instead of working for school! ;-)

As usual, I had many ideas, but I didn't have all that much time. So instead of rushing to try to realize those ideas, I worked on a couple of pieces that I had started in Feb. 2010, from a batch of glass cabs I had made in the summer of 2009. It was nice to finally get around finishing these! Or at least these three, as I didn't get to finish  the whole pile...

In other news, you can find them on Etsy!

I called this series essence (on flickr & etsy), because the organic shapes and colors remind me of moments of quietude... Which in these dreary & cold February days mostly means the warmth of summer to me, so here I am again with sunlight and green leaves! :-D And one starry night too.

sunny green trees brooch

starry night pendant

 

sunset earrings

glass cabs!

pounced! treasury

thank you LongWinterFarm for including my sunset earrings!

purrfect interlude

So...what do you do when you're stressing out over your impending college exams?

- take cat pictures.

 

 

 

- cuddle cats.

- record purring! Here's Yin and Isaura. There should be relaxation CDs with nothing but cat purring! Although they do sound a bit like heavy engines, come to think of it...hehe.

- repeat as needed.

- pass exams. 

I did it ! I passed the 1st semester of Art History. Now on to the next...