Rural Arts Acrylic Workshop

I had a great day teaching at Rural Arts in Thirsk, a 10-4 day long workshop with a little lunch in between.  I started the day giving an overview of plastics and how they are used in jewellery.  We looked though a mix of examples and I gave information about Acrylic which is what we were working with.  Showing how to work with Acrylic was really important so we spent the morning cleaning up, sanding and polishing pieces ready to transform into jewellery. 

Sanding

  

I think the students were surprised how much prep goes into working with acrylics, but realised its worth the effort once the finished items were made.  We went to the cafe and were treated to lovely lunch at the Rural Arts cafe included with the class.

After Lunch it was time to think about decorating the acrylic, I showed various ways to mask the pieces to create patterns.  Then with all safety wear in place we mixed some dye ready to dye the Acrylic prepared pieces.

 

Care needs to be taken when using dyes.

Washing the pieces well

When the pieces were dyed we took off the masking to reveal what patterns were created.  I then showed the students how to put the necklaces together and fix on the catches.

The fiddly bit......putting your necklace together

This is the final stage think everybody did a fantastic job and created some lovely necklaces, with some great effects!

Some of the finished items by the Rural Arts students, some fantastic effects created!

If you are interested in the jewellery I make feel free to visit my Etsy Online shop.  If you are interested to take part in any future workshops please feel free to join my mailing list on the front page of my website www.jessicajewellerydesign.co.uk and scroll to the bottom.  Also take a look at the Rural Arts homepage. 

Feel free to add comments if there is anything you may be interested in learning how to do, or other ways to work with acrylic.

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Blue, Blossom and Buttons

Cherry Blossom outside my workshop window

Blue Skies and Blossom, Spring is here!!

So looking outside of my workshop window what did I see a few days ago? I saw the above two pictures! Lovely Cherry Blossom and deep blue sky.  There is nothing more beautiful in Spring time!

This image has always inspired me and I have taken many photos of cherry blossom which I use in my jewellery and now in my buttons, both the handmade 'Odd Bodd' buttons, and my printed range.  I will hopefully get these on the website soon but in the meantime e-mail info@jessicajewellerydesign.co.uk for any purchasing enquiries.

"Odd Bodd" Handmade Buttons

Large printed buttons with my Jessica Jewellery Design image

Smaller buttons in 3 different shapes

Hope this blog has brightened a dreary day!!

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New Work .....

Well the brand new range 'Optical' has been doing really well so far, and is filtering into shops. You can also order direct by looking at the trade catalogue on my site then just e-mail your order as I haven't had time to get pieces uploaded to the shop.

The range is a brand new shape for me, a circular shape but very 3D and tactile. The use of black text on the back gives a unique optical effect throughout the pieces and you do find something new in them every time you look at them. I love that people are a little bit mystified and question what is happening when they look at my work.
Each piece is hand shaped and the surface of each piece of acrylic has been hand formed then sanded and polished as usual. The idea is that both the wearer and viewer can be puzzled and intrigued with the pieces whilst they still look pretty and wearable.


Spirograph images also feature quite heavily along side the text, I had great fun drawing with an original Spirograph set to draw up the patterns I felt worked the best. They also helped me come up with the overall design (although it may not be obvious in the final pieces!)

I hope that has given you a bit more of an insight into my new range of work. Keep up to date with all my news and of new work over at my website www.jessicajewellerydesign.co.uk

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