Restock at Craft Ontario Shop

I’m happy to say that I dropped off some work with the Craft Ontario Shop recently, so if you’re browsing, spot my work :). Selection of what you can find there below.

You can find this luscious selection of M clutch pins (sterling silver and needled felt)

This T bar M pendant with hand-knotted jadeite beads, two-colour silk, sterling silver and needled felt

I’ve made a new version of my Asymmetric M earrings (sterling silver/needled felt). These are a bit shorter than the original model at about 2 inches long, with a corresponding slightly smaller hollow forms to have a similar look to the original, longer model.

I don’t want to give everything away, so if you’re going by the shop, pop in and have a look at what else is there!

Major necklace

Almost a year ago, I told you about an art collaboration that I did. Along witht that, I made some jewellery pieces incorporating quilted and embroidered panels in silver frames that I call my “Portholes on Immunity”. A series of four brooches, a pendant and a large 5 panel necklace, these mostly (but not entirely) are an homage to different cell types of the immune system. When I was thinking about making this series, I was reminded of various sci-fi films where you see people shrunk into miniature, along with their little submarine, journeying through the blood. So, these are how I imagine cells would look from the porthole window on a teeny tiny vessel in the blood.

Sterling silver frames the embroidered panels. The panels are little quilts with a base of oakshott cotton, using trapunto to emphasize some areas of the panel, and quilted using mainly embroidery techniques.

Left - Right: monocyte/macrophage, T cell, extravasation in blood vessels, B cell, granulocyte

Legend: quilt = 3 layer sandwich secured with stitching; Trapunto = a technique where you use added batting to highlight or give further dimension in quilting; oakshott cotton= fabric that has different colour threads in the warp and weft.

Interested in knowing more? Drop me a line, and let’s talk!

Pictures and AI

There’s been alot of controversy about AI and art. I think AI is here to stay, and it’s up to us how we engage with it. I recently started playing around with a photo processing app - I admit it, I fell into the FB advertising, and got sucked in! Anyway, the app uses AI to cut out your object and then you can put it onto a new background. So far, it’s been great at picking up on the object and I can quickly place it on a new, interesting background. What do you think?

These were both taken just sitting on my wooden bench, and the transformation is pretty startling!

Restock coming soon!

It’s always difficult facing the end of summer…..to be honest, there are only a few things that I really enjoy about summer, I love the lake, hanging out a bit with friends who always seem to be a bit more available, enjoying not wearing heavy clothes…..but fall is really my favourite season, and I’m finding myself longing for that first evening when I suddently have that feel that the weather has turned. Sadly, I also am not that keen on winter, but I somehow forget that in the beauty of the fall colours. Of course, that means that I’m kind of starting to think ahead to the holiday season, especially when I start getting requests to provide work! So, I’m busy fabricating away at the studio to get new work to Craft Ontario for the shop (down on Queen Street). Stay tuned to see a new modification of an existing design new this season!

New hollow forms waiting to be - I broke two saw blades and sawed 3 different fingers piercing these shapes!! (Don’t worry, no blood was shed on metal :)

Stay tuned to see the final pieces! And hey! If you want to suggest a favourite colour, drop me a line and let me know!

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!

Something’s Cooking!

I’ve been doing alot of custom work recently, so this week I’ve been working on something for myself. I collected some bits and bobs ages ago, and they’ve been sitting in a bag, along with my half-baked design for what to do with them. So, I made a start. The design is still pretty half-baked, but it’s moving in a good direction! Next up, some enameling, I think. Any suggestions for colours?

I’ll post some more pictures when I’m finished, but as with my ongoing obsession with the immune system, it’s all about cells of the immune system (with some pearls thrown in for good measure!).

Summertime - Shows

The hot weather seems to be truly here! It makes me think about the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. Sadly, you won’t find my work there this year (boo!), but I will be there - a number of my friends will be there exhibiting their jewellery (and other art). Anyway, in honour of not being able to show you new jewellery, here’s some of my favourites!

A selection of my M pendants on postcards by Lamellopodium Art - I love using them as backgrounds :)

If you find yourself wanting to get out this weekend, venture out and see some art! It will make your heart sing.

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!

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!!

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.