As I've decided I want a fancy, new website, I'm migrating over to WordPress because it is easy to do certain things with. Sorry blogger, but you just don't cut it for me anymore :(

My new blog can be found at infectiousdesigns.wordpress.com

I have a new toy to play with!

Which is exactly what I've been doing! Thanks to Mr. Rudd and his generous stimulus package, I bought myself a Nikon D60 digital slr camera, and he's beautiful.

I haven't taken any jewellery pictures yet, as I don't have much time before having to start getting ready for a 1920's speakeasy themed party that I'm attending tonight. I did however, take some pictures in my mum's lovely garden. I'll share a few, as I'm really excited as to how they've turned out.

If you had ever wondered...

...what it might look like after you've picked up a freshly annealed piece of brass stock gauge before letting it cool sufficiently, then I have the answer for you... in picture form!

Yes, that is my thumb. I have the same lovely rectangle on the first two fingers of my left hand too, which means three fingers that are useless for a while.

Oh, and the yellow stain on my thumb (and fingers) is from the aloe I was putting on it, not some weird infection.

On deadline this weekend for the magazine I write for, so no jewellery making (even if I hadn't burnt my dumb fingers and thumb). Posting this post is what I'd call an avoidance tactic. Back to work...

Cuff-tastic!

 

 

I got my hands on a bracelet mandrel at Tafe yesterday and this is what eventuated!

 

 

Give me an “S”! Give me an “A”! Give me an “R”! Give me an “S”! What does it spell…?

 

 

I made it into a cuff! Oh, the possibilities for this collaboration are seemingly endless! Now, to get a bracelet mandrel for my own studio…

Studio Day: A Bunch ‘o’ Bracelets

 

 

Just a teaser image of what I was doing today in my studio; a bunch ‘o’ bracelets!

My fingers are swollen and bruised from all of those individually wire wrapped loops. Looks like I need to build up those beading calluses all over again!

I got most of my website redesign done yesterday, now all I’ve got to do is build up stock levels and take new product shots to upload. New site coming soon, so stay tuned!

French Curves in Copper

 

 

 

I’ve been doing a little work in the studio over the past few days, on some other projects I’ve had in my mind. This is the beginnings of one of them.

My dad is a draftsman and before he started using a CAD program to design houses, he used to work on a drawing board. As such, he has collected some pretty awesome things; an ultrasonic cleaner (just what I needed too!), cool pens and these neat stencils called French Curves. They help you to draw accurate curves, but look really cool too. When I uncovered these, I immediately saw them re-created in metal so off I went to my studio and chose the smallest one. Here’s some progress shots (I like these, they’re fun).

 

 

 

Here it is roughly cut out, you can still see my marker lines which I sawed down a little more, then filed to make it smooth and neat.

 

 

 

This is when my hand needed a break from emerying, so it’s a mid-way shot. That’s all I took, I wanted to finish it quickly because I had some bead related jewellery to make. The mostly finished project is in the first picture of this post.

I made my first ring in Tafe today, pretty exciting! Even though I had to cut it and resize it down as part of an assessment. Can’t wait to make something I’m actually allowed to take home.

Today has been a productive day! I met up with Morgan yesterday to collect some sketches that he's been working on for our jewellery collaboration, and I was so excited, I couldn't wait to start working on our pieces. So I decided to take progress photos for you all to have a sneak peek at what's in store for Infectious Designs. We're taking advance orders now, but we will be having our launch in the not too distant future, so stay tuned and we'll let you know where and when!




I started off by photocopying and gluing my chosen style onto a sheet of 0.8mm copper and cut around the basic outline. I've also drilled the holes ready for my saw piercing.





Here is the piece with all of the easy bits taken off it. The next step is to cut all of the negative space, which is what the drill holes are for. This next step made far too many profanities pour forth from my mouth.







Here it is with the negative spaces cut out (grumble grumble) and the copied sketch still pasted on top.






And here it is with the paper taken off. Oooh coppery!








Here it is after being filed and having been attacked by emery paper. I gave it a good hard scrub with a steel bristle brush to give it a nice matte finish. I like this finish, less likely to get finger prints! I think it also gives a nice depth to the piece too - when you move it, the light catches on different scratches and makes it look cool. In my humble opinion anyway.

It's not quite finished yet, I still have a fair bit of filing to do in the little spaces to make them all neat and pretty, but I am so impressed with how it's turned out. I was worried it would lose a little 'something' when transferring the design from paper to metal, but it's worked out really well.

As I said, we're taking advance orders, so feel free to contact me if you're interested in owning a unique un-named infection (we're still trying to think of a name, any suggestions?). There'll be a few designs on offer, depending on the size and length of your name and you'll have your choice of metals too - copper, brass, gilding or sterling silver. Eventually we're going to progress into making Perspex versions too, meaning we'll have limitless colour selections and combinations to choose from. We're also aiming to have a stall at the next market day at Dirty Shirlow's in April. I'll post definite details once we've worked them all out.