Ring Talk

Hi from thepapersac
Another icy day today. The sky is clear and a pale blue - the whole scene is 'looking' cold - not sure it's possible to see 'cold' ? However, it's just what I'm thinking ! As I'm writing, the sun is coming up very low and the scene is warming up (just a little).

Yesterday, was a day for concentrating on my 'finishing' jobs. I did get on well and have moved my packaging on. I have my display board sorted and painted. I need to add some hooks and a few pretty bits. More jewellery tags to do today and I should be there for my charity sale. The sale will take place near Warkworth, Northumberland on 1/12/12. If anyone would like to go (in person) contact me and I can arrange a ticket. Any of my stuff that doesn't sell will go into my Folksy Shop at the same price. I will update the stock situation after the day. The event will take place at a friends house (between 2 - 5 pm) with a raffle, refreshments and lots of crafts for sale. All money raised will go to support a scouts trip to Kanderstag (Switzerland) next year.

Meanwhile, I'm still buzzing with ideas for new jewellery. Most of my efforts over the last few months with polymer clay have been just 'playing' without any real sense of a plan. However, I'm struggling with the lack of order. I like to have a whole planned project approach to work and do much better work if I have some constraints. Even if the constraints are self imposed (and subject to change). I prefer to have a central idea or single inspiration for a project. My newest idea is to have some fine silver 20gauge wire as a frame for holding some polymer clay with specific textures and colours involved. I want to develop a 'bead' (this could be a non traditional idea of a bead - not sure yet ?) and use the 'beads' for developing earrings,bracelet, necklace and broach, maybe a ring too, as a 'collection'.I've got as far as developing some very basic drawings and I'm still thinking of using the colour 'blue'.

Ive also spent some time, last night, trying to sort out a couple of rings - these two items are/were very close to the bin. I wanted to see if I could resurrect them. I made the rings some time ago.



The two rings are the two on the right - I'm not including the big 'pearl' like, round ring. This was the look on 22/9/13. Ive managed to carve quite a bit from the band parts. The rings look a bit different after my carving. The first ring is the smaller of the two and I need to do more but Ive learnt lots about carving and how to change to shapes. I will continue to make the band thinner and do some more sanding.



The second ring has change more. Ive added some texture to the shape and added a little paint. I need to be more bold with the paint.


I was particularly surprised how much strength the ring band seems to have after the trimming down. The ring feels more of a solid item. My aim with this little project (at the beginning) was to imitate traditional jewellery ie with a metal band and a set stone of some sort. I didn't want the ring to look exactly like the traditional ring but take an element of the item and make the similarity obvious. I think it does that but I want the 'finish' to be better and I want the 'balance' of the ring to be there. I'm getting there and am learning. Maybe these items will not get there but the next ones will. The disappointment at the moment is that the ring is too big for me. I am working on an idea to make it smaller. I used a craft knife to make the little lines on the ring and want to give an impression of metal by using paint. I know this is a long term thing ! I will keep going until I'm happy with it and it fits !

Must get on.
Bye for today.