Saturday, September 8, 2012

metal clay adventures | Go to post ➜

Hullo!

 Just wanted to share some WIP shots of the metal clay pieces I've done over the last few weeks :) This first one was done with the syringe + paste type clay.. Honestly, I hate the syringe. Up til now I can't help but feel that anything that can be done with the syringe can be done more easily  using other types of clay.. I'm still working on finding something that doesn't end up as an exercise in frustration (and futility). On the bright side, I have gotten a lot of practise at reconstituting dried-up broken rejects back into usable clay.

Pendant - Fine silver and Cubic Zirconia (L-before firing, R-just after firing)

It's really, really bright straight out of the kiln, and in any case I've never really liked the shiny look of silver, I think it obscures a lot of the detail - much prefer the matte/brushed and oxidised finish. So that's how I'll finish this..

The next set are pictures I took while making a hinged box, which I've always wanted to do :) I love anything that can move, so hinges, lockets, and kinetic jewelry are the kinds of things I want to try making.

Hinged castle box - unfired metal clay

I didn't really plan this one out, actually. It started out as a hollow formed castle turret meant to be a pendant, but I wasn't happy with how it was turning out so I chopped the bottom half of it off, and decided to save the top to use on a box lid. And when I started cutting out the box pieces, I intended for it to be a two-piece box, not a hinged one... The hinge was a huge pain to make, and I broke the whole thing so many times (the entire piece fell off my table once) it's quite a miracle it's still intact and functioning :D Very pleased with how it's turning out though, I spent several minutes opening and closing it and grinning to myself once the hinge was complete. I'm not sure if I should keep working on this and add a catch, or just fire it already.

So having made a working hinge, I started thinking about other types of movable parts, and came up with my next project. Based on the idea of a spinner ring, and incorporating some of my more science-geek sort of interests :D Really excited to make it but I don't think I'll be able to for quite some time yet (not least because preliminary trials on how to make a spinner ring with metal clay have ended in spectacular failure, probably because I was stupid enough to try it with a syringe.) 

Anyhow. I'll try to get some work done on that, although I really should be focusing on my midterms D:

♥ Jasmyn

Labels: metal clay, WIP

5:54 AM

Friday, August 31, 2012

Photoshoot collab + updates | Go to post ➜

Hullo!

Life has been.. unfortunate, lately. Came down with a bad bout of stomach flu, followed by a regular flu, and today I fell down the stairs in the rain so I've got a long gash and lump on my back. (Although that last one is possibly less misfortune and more paying too much attention to coffee and book and not enough attention to slippery stairs.) Anyhow. After several days of not eating anything while sick because even water made me nauseous - I've been drinking loads of comforting things :)

Ice Lemon/Chrysanthemum/Winter Melon Teas.

Sugar Cane, Green Bean, Liang Cha. (I'll try a different one each time, so far my favourite is the one with dried logans and red dates.)

And of course, hot kopitiam-style milo ♥

Came back online after a week, and found out that someone has been reposting my jewelry on a site and reselling it for a higher price without my knowledge or consent, and even after contacting him, he hasn't replied or taken down the page yet.. (Posted a journal on DA with some more thoughts about art theft, inspiration and originality here) I'm honestly just too tired to bother with these things now. Of course, I'm angry but it sort of fades into this background exhaustion of things I have to settle. Ineloquently put - it just sucks, is all.

Being an artist is hard, because you have to love what you do enough to keep doing it, but hate what you do enough to keep improving.

Sometimes (most of the time) I don't know whether I love/hate more. And worse than hate, is the feeling of contempt/disgust/worthlessness etc.

But on to happier things, here are some of the pictures I talked about last time, shot by the lovely Sarah Trickler (her FB page is here):

Hnnngh, so lovely ♥ I'm waiting for her to send the pieces back to me, as well as for the rest of the pics. She was so nice to work with :D Will be posting a couple of pics now and then, just to keep the blog about jewelry (because I tend to blog mostly when I'm upset and exhausted and very often not in the least bit excited about art at all.) But if you did read though all that, thank you.

 ♥Jasmyn

6:48 AM

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Life update | Go to post ➜

Hullo! ♥

I am so sorry about the lack of activity here and elsewhere, life has been terribly hectic ever since school started! In all likelihood I won't be able to make anything new for a long while yet, and commissions are also closed (except for those I've already been working with, I'll finish yours I promise!)

Instead of regular updates in DA, since I have nothing new to show, I'll try to blog a bit about what I'm doing :) Right now I've just wrapped up a collaboration with a lovely photographer shooting some of my work, Sarah Trickler. The photos are amazing and I'll try to post some of them within the next week!

I've also started working with a new material, Art Clay Silver. It's the perfect combination of my love for sculpting/clay and jewelry! A quick shot I took while at work- an unfinished ring, with a little fish :) Still have to oxidize and polish this one before I can set the stone..

So yup, that's life so far. School's only started for a week, and I've already finished two books and started on a third monstrous one (Barchester Towers, anyone?) It'll probably only get more hectic from here on but I'll try to blog once a week at least, it's easier because I can do it from my phone, but I apologize in advance for the odd position of photos, typos and all that. Til next time!

♥Jasmyn

9:25 PM

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

DIY Watercolour Tutorial: Glow in the dark galaxy nebula stickers | Go to post ➜

Hello! ♥

So I occasionally do things completely unrelated to jewelry, and last night I made a bunch a glow-in-the-dark nebula stickers. Had the foresight to snap pictures while I was doing it, so here's the tutorial to make your own DIY galaxy stickers! :D (I used stickers, but I guess you can use this to paint cards and other things as well.)

 

Materials needed:

If you don't already have these, they are available at any stationery/craft store. If you live in Singapore, I bought them all from Popular for under SGD$10 altogether.

-Sheet of plain white labels

-Watercolours and brush (I used one of those cheap kiddy trays where you add water to cakes of paint) 

-Toothpicks

-Silver paint marker (optional)

-Glue

-Glow-in-the-dark glitter 

Difficulty/Time taken:

-Easy, 1 hour

Basically the watercolours do all the work for you, so artistic talent isn't really needed. It's really fun and even kids can do it, and there's a list of tips and modifications at the end of this post on how to make things easier :) 

  

Start with a plain sheet of white labels - any size will do, really. These are 1 1/4" circles

Lay down a quick wash of diluted black paint - work quickly because it dries fast! Don't flood the labels with too much paint, because excess water will make them curl and peel off the backing sheet. And don't worry about leaving small gaps or messy strokes - watercolours are very forgiving :)

If you like, you can then put on another layer of dark blue paint - shown here on alternate rows

Working quickly, drop a bit of light blue paint onto the stickers - make sure your paint is quite watery or the next step won't work!

Drop a bit of pink paint onto the stickers, overlapping the blue paint a little. Since the paints are both wet they will blend together on their own, no need for you to do much work :D

Closeup!You can see that the two colours will start bleeding together :) Note that watercolours are more vibrant when wet, so when they dry the colours will be less vivid.

Do the same for the rest of the stickers and let dry.

To make the stars, load your brush with white paint and flick it off your finger so that it splatters over the stickers. You can use an old toothbrush as well. (If your paint comes off as fat blobs, it's too thick. If it flicks off properly but there's barely any white showing, it's too thin!) If you're not sure, practise on a scrap paper first :)

Use a toothpick to create bigger stars and comets - Snip the tip off, a blunter tip will give bigger stars. Drag the toothpick to create shooting stars!

Use a silver paint marker to add metallic accents if you want to.

Let all the paint dry, then use glue to draw a line across each sticker.

Sprinkle on the glow-in-the-dark glitter.

All done! :D Let the glue dry and brush off excess glitter and you have your own set of pretty nebula stickers!

Tips/Modifications:
-I used pink and blue for the nebula cloud because that's the most common colour, but you can use other colours like orange or green too :)
-For astrology geeks or cool horoscope gifts, you can paint on the stars in the shape of actual constellations.
-Instead of splattering paint, use a white paint marker for less mess and drying time.
-Instead of glow-in-the-dark glitter,  which usually comes in tubes and is a bit messy because you need to apply glue and then the glitter goes everywhere - Use glitter glue that comes in tubes. I've seen regular silver and gold glitter as well as the coloured glitter or "pearly" ones that look really great, and glitter glue is also a lot easier for kids to handle.

One last snapshot! Used a sticker on one of the packages I'm sending out today - brown paper, twine, handstamped glassine bag sealed with a nebula sticker and a bit of scrap ribbon. I have an unhealthy obsession with wrapping things. Anyway, I hope the tutorial made sense :)


♥Jasmyn

Labels: DIY, galaxy, glow in the dark, nebula, packaging, stickers, tutorial

5:01 AM

Saturday, May 12, 2012

New collection - Egyptian Treasure | Go to post ➜

Hello!

Just posted the new collection over on the ValkyrieCouture Facebook :D

All inspired by Egyptian symbols/mythology. I love them all, mostly because I'm a sucker for Egyptian things. I have a pretty blue and gold scarab paperweight on my desk that I've been staring at over the few weeks that it's taken to finish all these..

Anyway. Two of these designs have already sold out, I've ordered supplies to restock them but shipping to where I live takes a really long time. =| Check out what's still available over on the ValkyrieCouture store on Etsy :D Other than the new stuff, I'm also working on restocking all the items in the shop that have sold out.. the worst part for me, because I'm lazy and don't like making designs I've already done over several times. Making new things = fun! Making old things over and over again...not so fun. But sales have been picking up recently so I just tell myself to stop whining and get to work.

I've also recently gotten addicted to the Avatar series, whooshed through two seasons in as many days, which obviously isn't good for getting things done, because I sit there with my tools all laid out and end up with nothing done after 3 episodes... It's a lovely show, though!

♥ Jasmyn

12:29 PM

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Etsy Shops now open! | Go to post ➜

Hello! ♥

I'm glad to announce I'm finally off hiatus and both my Etsy shops are now open!

Sodacrush: [link]
ValkyrieCouture: [link]

And all of these new designs are for sale (Click image to go to the Etsy listing):

Fullviews of the cover photos for this collection, you can see over on FB: [link]

Because I've been on hiatus for a long, long time, I have a lot of things to say so feel free to tl;dr-

I think from now on I might do collections this way instead of dumping every single picture of the item onto FB, I'll make up a set of cover pictures for every new collection. :) Although I love doing jewelry along a certain theme, I'm also wondering if it's a good idea to make 5-6 items on a certain theme when there won't be demand or interest in it. But we'll see how that goes :)

I've also (finally) gotten around to doing my my profile page on DeviantArt, so... I'm really happy with how it looks now. :D After being buried in books for so long, it's really, really nice to fiddle around with... everything, really, from jewelry to html. Speaking of html.. I'm currently still using the classic blogger html editor because I'm a bit of a control freak and like things exactly where I want them to be. Tried out the Template Designer and spent a few hours swearing at the ..gadgets and things before I gave up and reinstalled the old code. Ugh. It's pretty much the same situation over on DA, the system of widgets and dragging things around isn't bad, but I still think everything looks much prettier when it's customized. Not that I'm anywhere near proficient at html, I only realized today that the "follow" button on my blog hasn't been working. It's fixed now~ :D

I'm so glad school's over! Exams were tough~ I'm not even going to think about school until next semester. Unfortunately I've already been told that certain exam scripts are ready to be collected from school, so I could actually get my results now...but I really don't want to.

Anyway -  as for commissions, I'm working through them already! Please be patient with me, I have something like 15 people on the list.. I feel like I'm gasping for breath catching up with commissions until I have no time for making any new designs or even restocking my shop! ~whew~ (Not complaining, though. It's a mad rush but I love it at the same time.) Yes, commissions are still open for now. I go back to school in August, so there's a long while yet. :D Here's one of the commissions I just finished:

A lovely set in silver&black, for a wedding. Best wishes to the happy couple! If you're interested in a commission, drop me an email at sodacrush@gmail.com.

Also, I'm probably going to do my next giveaway soon, either as a kiriban or blog giveaway, right now the votes for both are really close.. if it stays this way I might, uhm, do 2 giveaways? With one prize to the person who catches the pageview kiriban, and another prize to a random winner from the list of people who enter the blog giveaway. So yup, exciting things coming up. :D

♥Jasmyn

Labels: available, commission, filigree, handmade, necklace, pendant, sold, ValkyrieCouture

5:02 AM

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Packaging + Commssion Key Pendant | Go to post ➜

Hello!

Few quick shots of packaging and things.. I change the way I package things all the time because I want to try out new things. Don't worry, the items will always be well-protected and beautifully packed! :)


I don't usually wrap the gift boxes and label them, but sometimes orders pile up or people order more than one item.. I label them so they don't have to unpack everything to sort it out, in case they're meant as gifts or something.

And lastly, here's a commission I've just wrapped up and sent:


The request was for a key pendant based off my Valkyrie pendant, it was a birthday gift for a lucky girl turning 21. In Chinese tradition you get a key on your 21st birthday. :) I always asked my mum for a car key -coughhintcough- and she would say,

Cannnn, you take my car key. You drive me. -Singlish accent-

Sigh.


Anyway. This piece turned out to be really popular, and made it to the front page on DeviantArt. I'm new enough to this that fame of any sort still excites me, and I'm really grateful for all the comments and favourites, because I wouldn't be anything without all my lovely supporters ♥ You don't even need to buy anything, but I still recognise the ones who take the time to comment on my new pieces, and I appreciate all of you from the bottom of my heart ♥

Jasmyn

Labels: packaging, pendant

9:27 AM