a bit of bling!

This is the underside of my little vase/pot/sculpture....I'm happy with the contrast of texture and the gilding. I made a stamp of my initial "F" and will probably use this on these sort of pieces in the future, I've got a series planned and I've already ordered the boxes!

I'll spend the week-end drawing Jasmine flowers and leaves and preparing some alloys to make the butterfly... I've got an interesting combination in mind. You'll have to come back next week for the next installment. I hope you've enjoyed the process so far.

a little bit of colour...

Today I completed the new base and I'm much happier with the result. You can just get a glimpse of it along the bottom edge, when it's completed that part will be a marbled gold and will hopefully provide a delicate "underlineing" or framing of the arrangement above.

The opening at the top has a green gold ( aokin ) lining that I will work further and will actually be the start of the composition. I was very happy with the texture I managed to create so I did a quick patination to get some idea of the effect of solid colour on the form and overall feel of the piece. So far so good...in my opinion ;-) oh,...it's about 9.5cm across, a little less than 4 inches. If you double click on the image you can see it in huge size.

...a bit more.

I refined the top today and made the base. I reckon the bottom looks rubbish so I'm busy doing another one that is far more subtle...trust me, the view from the front, of the base at this stage, looks rediculous. When I get the new shape right I'll let you see both. I'm very pleased with the top though, especially the texure. It's going to sing when it is deep red. I'm thinking of making the base gold and a discreet liner to the opening at the top in gold too....yummy!

...and now for something completely different.

I've put my dragonfly away for the moment, I'll get it out in a few days time and write up my thoughts about it and a short description of the process that lead me to this result.

I am brimming with new ideas now, all clamouring in my mind for attention. So to help me re-focus on this next project I started pushing metal around yesterday. I just took these images this morning, it's a lovely clear blue sky and the light in the studio is wonderful. It's still very icy outside and the studio is a bit cold but I'll warm up quickly as I get back to hammering and annealing the metal. I'll try and keep you abreast with my progress...;-)

This time I'm aiming at a subtle, natural sort of stone texture on copper. You may be able to see some of that finish in the images. The patina I will probably use at the end will be a deep red gloss. I'm toying with butterflies now, an entirely different different feel to dragonflies...softer, fluttery and fun. A butterfly gavotte.

...the end!

well, it's finally come. I've completed my dragonfly fugue at last. I'll write something about the title when I get my breath back....for now here's a link to a short slide show of images that I hope will reveal what I've been trying to express.

A huge "thank you!" to my mate, Gavin. Brilliant photos....you could do this for a living, Gav ;-)

.....and just one, obligatory, shot to end on my blog to end off this personal metal odyssey. p.s. please click on the image to enlarge it....after all, " I'm worth it!" ....as they say in the cosmetic ad's.