Fortnightly Focus - Flower Impact Necklace

This Fortnight I present an absolute bobby dazzler of a necklace. This knock out statement piece is sure to add impact and drama to every occasion - perfect for the forthcoming party season.

The overall lushness of this piece is created by the linked together 24 individually designed and etched silver, flower components. They scale from the bold 5cm central flower piece to the 1.7cm flower at the ends. Each flower alternates between enameled, shiny, black flowers with black onyx settings which have been slightly formed to cut out plain flat flowers. BUY NOW FOR £865.
Measurements - 17cm from center to ends, 9cm from center to drop, largest flower 5cm smallest 1.7cm

2012 - A Good Year So Far....

Every year since leaving art school (2007) I  have optimistically said that this will be my year. Needless to say each year has been a relentless slog since then, with often grim times, wondering if things were ever going to go anywhere. It probably was  foolhardy and crazy to move back to my hometown of Assynt to set up my workshop, which is almost as remote and out of the loop as you can get my gut told me it was right. Miraculously it does actually feel like the picture is beginning to make sense and I`m glad to say that I`m finally getting a bit of a break.

Sunset From The New Croft and Future Studio

Without going on to sound too smug here, it was a great boost to get into Goldsmiths` Fair but I also got some more good news this year.... I was assigned a croft last month by a friend of the family who taught me how to dress make as a child and was leaving town. Basically the croft is an area of land to grow crops, have animals and also 2 buildings come along with too - one of which I will be converting into a new studio/shop and the other will be my house and hopefully with not with too much work involved. I`m hoping (probably too optimistically) to be moved in my next summer. There are a lot of people touring about these back roads in the summertime where these buildings are located, so hopefully I`ll get some traffic stumbling across my studio wanting a unique piece of jewellery. Will keep you posted on the development of this project.

House on the Left, Studio on Right (eventually)

Views out to sea from Studio

Fortnightly Focus

Every 2 weeks I will be presenting a new piece of work hot off the bench ready for immediate purchase. So keep watching for something brand spanking new every fortnight.

Today I present...

Spiky Flower Bracelet and Earrings

 

An absolutely stunning, lusciously enameled, bejeweled, classic flower bracelet. The piece is made up of 7 alternating in size silver flowers (2.4cm and 2cm) - individually they are composed of 2 layers of spiky petals. These have been enameled over multiple layers back and front - a delicious shade of dark cobalt blue. Dazzling White Topaz stones are used to give dramatic contrast.  Matching Earrings also available. Buy now: Bracelet £330, Buy now: Earrings £126 (or together for £400 for the next 2 weeks only) 

New Work

If you`ve seen my work over the past few years, you may have noticed that it has developed in different ways. I originally introduced colour to my work by using resins and cold enamels. These days, I`ve shifted mainly to hot vitreous enameling and I`m not looking back to be honest.

I love the depth of colour and glossiness that can be achieved from vitreous enamels and like the fact that this ground up glass is actually fused to the metal. I found that proper vitreous enamelers could be a bit snooty (rightly so) about my cold enamel work because it wasn`t "real" enamel. There is really a lot more skill with vitreous enamel as it takes time to figure out firing times as each enamel can reacts differently and even just applying the stuff is quite a skill.

Clustering has become a bit of a trend in recent times with many jewellers like Ruth Tomlinson, Polly wales, Katie Lees, Joanne Macfadyen to name a few that have explored this aesthetic in their work. I wanted to try my own interpretation of this by using clustering flowers. These have been achieved through cad design, rapid prototyping and casting, then stone set and enameled. See more at www.barbara-macleod.com