Robin Cassady-Cain 7/25/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 7/25/24

Something’s Still Cooking

I started last week telling you about a new project I was working on. I’ve made a bit of progress on it, and I’m still working on custom work I can’t really show yet, so I thought I’d share a bit more about this project with you.

These guys have progressed a little - I’ve cleaned them up and done a preliminary polish on them - you can see that they’re slightly domed much better now. Normally I’d add a backplate so I could stuff some colourful felt in those cutouts, but not this time! They’re going to have colour, but I’m going to use glass enamel instead! Haven’t quite decided what colours, but the biggest one will definitely be blue!

Make it stand out

So, I’ve made a start on the second metal elements I’m going to use - these will eventually be some of what I call my “L units”, inspired by lymphocytes, the “smart cells” of the immune system. When they’re in their nascent or naive state, lymphocytes are almost all nucleus with very little cytoplasm. So, I like to texture the surface of the discs before I dome them, and then attach them to a backplate. For this project, I won’t use all the units here, but I like to make extras so I can do other things with them (economies of scale!). I also decided that I wanted to use several different sizes, to go along with the variation in size I used for the “M” units.

Have I piqued your interest yet? Watch this space to see how things progress further!

Robin Cassady-Cain 5/16/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 5/16/24

Cells, cells, cells

I’ve been working on making more of these teeny-tiny wax blood cell clusters- keep an eye out for the new jewellery I’m excited to make with them! Including something for myself (for once!).
Fancy something of your very own? Email me, and ask me about it!

Robin Cassady-Cain 5/9/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 5/9/24

New Ring - Help me name it!

So, I can’t remember if I posted anything about this one, but I’ve finished (finally!) a new ring. It’s super fancy in 14kt rose gold with a star sapphire and a lab created diamond. It’s embellished with some tiny new elements I’m starting to use in a new series of jewellery, modelled after red blood cells. They’re sculpted, and put together to give the impression of flow and subtle differences in shape, but still with that characteristic “donut” look to them.

I love the hexagonal shape of the sapphire, even though the star is not very discernible with ths kind of cut, and I think it looks amazing with the colour of the rose gold!

I envisioned it as my interpretation of a “Toi et Moi” ring (which seem to be pretty popular at the minute, and is usually two stones together to represent you and your partner), so it could be worn as an unconventional engagement ring (and there’s cleverly space for a wedding band to snug up against it from either side!). However, it doesn’t have to be an engagement ring, I just hope it will eventually go to someone who loves it as much as I do!

Here’s how it looks on my finger - don’t you want to see it gracing yours?? ;)

I made it with a created diamond, rather than a natural one. Apart from the price difference, created diamonds don’t have the same ethical issues, and so I’ve decided that, as a goldsmith, the work I make for my own personal designs are going to be made with re-claimed diamonds or from lab created diamonds. The interesting thing about lab created diamonds is that because of the process that is used, you still get different grades of stones, so the “C’s” (cut, clarity, carat, colour) still apply!

So, I like to give everything names, but I haven’t quite landed on one for this ring, yet—any snappy ideas come to mind? Hit the button below, and let me know!! Or, if you just want to tell me how much you love this ring, that would be awesome too!!

Suggest a name, or tell me what you think of this ring!

Robin Cassady-Cain 5/2/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 5/2/24

Networks, Immunity, and Vaccination, oh my!

You may remember that I exhibited last year at Science Rendezvous, at University of Toronto, as part of their SciArt Gallery. I had a blast! It was so fun meeting loads of the public, and talking about my work, and finding new people to geek out with about science and immunology, it was awesome. I also met a load of other fascinating sciartists and enjoyed their art. So, I am excited about exhibiting again this year, on May 11th, in a slightly new venue.

You might already know about this, but if not, Science Rendezvous is a fun, familty-friendly day out with lots of STEAM-related activities and exhibitions, including a Science Fair, a Science Chase (a science experiment obstacle course, how cool is that), something called SR Hacks (a coding and engineering competition), and, of course, the SciArt Gallery - which is where you'll find me!

Whenever I do an exhibition or a show, I try to have new and fresh work. This year, I’m hoping to share the collaboration I did with Carolina Reis last year (you can read about it in the blog I wrote), along with the artisti writeup about the piece, called IMMUNITY, and the story of how it came about. Alongside the art piece, I made a series of mixed media jewellery. I hope that mahy will see it and experience it. If you miss it next Saturday, it will take up residence in the windows along Roncevalles at the Jewel Envy Studio for a while.

Robin Cassady-Cain 4/25/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 4/25/24

New Rings are almost here!

Stacking Pearl Rings

I’m a bit obsessed with stacking rings - I think it relates to my love of all things Wendy Ramshaw (I’ve written about here before, you can follow the link to find out more about this iconic British woman goldsmith). This is my latest iteration of elegant stacking rings in sterling silver - with pearl. You can see some of these in person at the Craft Ontario Shop, but I’ve been working on some new ones that are coming to Jewel Envy soon!
In the spirit of waste not, want not, I use the cutouts from my M cells to form the pearl cups on the rings, so I like to think of them as my “nuclei rings” :). It’s a little secret story that you don’t know about unless you know about it! Yes, it makes my little geeky science heart happy! And each one is different from the next one!

Message me If you want your own nuclei ring with a pearl!

Robin Cassady-Cain 2/8/24 Robin Cassady-Cain 2/8/24

Yellow gold brooch to White Gold Bling!

I love interesting custom re-designs of jewellery. This is one I did recently. The client brought in this sentimental brooch, with the intention of making it into two new pieces, this is one of them.

Now, she’s not particularly fond of yellow gold, and she’s not really what I would call very traditional, which is always fun! So, the brief was that she wanted a white gold ring, re-working the sapphire and diamond cluster. She said that she liked negative space, and I knew from previously that she liked architecture. She also liked the Diana-esque esthetic, and wanted something that would nod at the Princess Diana engagement ring. The sapphire was also particularly lovely in colour, but wasn’t very lively, partly because of the setting it was in, so I tried to do something about that as well.