Featured in a Treasury:)

Firstly, my sincere apologies that the blog has not been updated for a long while. With work and a new addition of a pet in the house, things have been really busy:) Plus, health was not so good too, but thank you for the ones who appreciate my work. Will really try to add more items in the shops:)
Anyway, here's my red nest in a treasury by kriture who does lovely clay figurines and is located in Portugal!

And, here is what is keeping busy on most days:)

New Line of Items

I have been really MIA and close friends go "Hey when are u gonna show your face again?"
Truth is, I have been really really busy these months, with short trips overseas and a major change - shifting~~~

It is probably the next most stressful thing, next to wedding and change of job. From getting the rt furniture to the rt look, to the rt contractor etc, all these are hands on and they are TIME CONSUMIMG~~ Phew, finally things are much more settled now and the new house is looking alot better and my kitchen is FINALLY up (We slept without HOT water for 2 weeks and admist lots of dust as the kitchen was NOT up YET)

Tomorrow, minor touch ups here and there and I can happily say we are 99% done. And I can get on to my business.

In these 2 months, lots of knowledge was gained, and given time, i could probably write about how many different sinks we looked at, just to find the perfect one.

Why so much effort just for ONE sink, some may ask? It wasn't about the PRICE, Not because of the Brand, And certainly Not because we had nothing to do:)
A sink is a small item but just think how often you use it. If you cook, then you might actually realise you use it even more often than the dryer or the TV.

I guess the most basic thing in the kitchen might seem the most insignificant and it gets missed out at times.Our sink in the previous house served us for a good 4 years and I must say I felt a tinge of pride when the new owner remarked how well kept the kitchen was:)

I could share so much more but one thing is for certain, stay tuned to see what else comes this way and it would be ALOT ALOT easier to get my pretties locally in the coming weeks...why?

You shall soon find out:)

PS, and what is up with the strange column on the left? Hm.. it was a genuine attempt to have a 3 column blog which of course has been pushed aside until now, and I am not sure when it would be a 3 column blog but I am crossing my fingers and hoping it is soon too:)

Sincerely

Autumn

Update and Newest

Find out why they are called a family here, Square Nest pendant Family

Ok I confess, I have not been to my PMC class recently. Will try to do so this week. Have been swarmed at work and also with orders from friends and colleagues, which isnt a bad thing:)

Have also purchase more gemstones and goldfilled for making pretties for myself and frds who like me prefer to reduce the sensitivities to our precious ears:)

I did however find time to wire this nest pendant. The shape is in a square cos I don really take rounds too well on my neck and also because it was inspired by Kathryn Galbraith who wrote a feature on how to do the bird nest ring and earrings. The article was bery precise and I have merely taken the technique and incorporated it to this design. I love doing these. It is so addictive:) albeith very timeconsuming as each wire is painstakingly weaved in. I also realised that it is alot harder to do squared then round and it uses up alot more wire. There are more areas to cover. When it is round, the wire crosses and flows more smoothly against each other, kinda of like naturally.You can find it here.

This has been made with nontarnish wire. The pearls are the central focus of the pendant which in time to come, I hope to add other gems to it. Hope u like it as much as I do:)

I wired a larger one with aquamarine and turqoise gems">
Other stuff I made

My PMC class Update 2

Ta da:

This is the pendant I made after almost 8 hours of hard work. After the clay dries, comes the most important process. The shaping, the sandpapering, more shaping, more touch ups, more drying, waiting, then shaping, sanding...and the whole process...until you are satisfied and in it goes into the kiln at a temperature of 900c.

And just when you think after you remove it from the kilm work stops there, you are wrong, you need to brush and I mean firm and strong but not elephant strength:)

Then step 2 , you need to use a tool to make the silver (the shine)come forth, cos when it comes out from the kiln,it looks stark white.

Step 2 ain't easy too as you need to be careful which angle of the tool you use as you can scratch the surface if you are not careful. This process was the hardest after firing as I wanted to leave the non leaf area matte so I could not brush that area.

Step 3:

Polish it, meaning rub it until there is heat and like magic, you see the leaf becoming shinier and shinier.

I took the picture immediately after I cam back and the lighting in my house is not very good or else you can see that only the leaf part is shiny. I left the other areas matte as I wanted to work with contrasting texture.I like it that the bail is hidden behind.

In my other lessons, my plan is to make another and put 14k gold powder on the leafs for greater contrast.

This is not a paper thin piece of silver pendant that you sometimes see. The leaf and the pendant base is about 2mm thick in total, about 12g of silver;nothing else, just pure natural silver.99.9%

Shiny right :)This is the pendant phtographed with flash.

This ring was handformed, no mould no cutout. Teacher says this is very important as many rely purely on moulds but this step of learning how to make it free hand is important as it trains your eye and gives you the experience and confidence later to carve other stuff. After all, this is part of the exam.

I think I am gonna find this most difficult as it is really challenging to make the width uniform throughout inside and outside:)

Oh well, this is my first attempt, so I will make more for practice. Love wearing rings. Am wearing it now as I type.

Next lesson is on the lacy technique. Imagine lace like texture wrapped around a stone.

A bit like the layers of a bird nest.

My PMC class Update 1

I am soooo excited, I went for my first Precious Metal Clay class today after work and yes, I am tired...but the class rreally made my day. PMC is basically almost 100% silver as we the end product is 99.9% silver.
The cost of the materials is very expensive but it was really worth it as I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I decided to take it up as I have so many ideas that I want to see in silver. And the good thing about silver is that it is not as expensive as gold but it is a precious metal. People with allergies like me, can wear it without fear:)

Having started beading and crafting since 11 years ago, I started picking this self-taught craft after a 4 year break, I am discovering new direction and new passion. I like the fact that PMC allows for so much creativity.

The is the first craft course I am taking and it is tailored to suit my timing and hopefully when i complete the exam, I will be a certified trainer.

I made a pendant and a ring today. The ring was the hardest as it is not easy to handfashion it, all the way. No moulds, nothing.

I cannot wait to fire it and buff it up and show you pics. If i go for my next lession soon, it wont be long before i put it up:)

Stay tuned and do wish me luck:)