Contemporary Wearables [jewellery]

Contemporary Wearables

Step 4.

I want to use the kangaroo rib bones for the arms of the spectacles. They are the right shape. There must be some way to fix them to the holes in the lenses by means of the watch winders. Many hours spend drilling fine holes [fragile and brittle], fiddling with difficult angles and getting blu tac stuck over everything.

 

Contemporary Wearbles, step 3

Contemporary Wearbles

Step 3.

I'm happy with the 'nose piece' bone and I fancy adding some bony eyebrows. Fortunately, the hole through the vertebra bone will accommodate a couple of rib bones after some gentle grinding and shaping.

A bit more grinding with my dremel grinding wheel, and I make a groove to seat the gold nose pieces of the specs.....all held in place with epoxy resin...yes, a bit of creative license here!

How to attach spectacle arms to the lenses? Rummage through a box [one of about a doz] of tiny watch parts. Gold winders fit perfectly, they should work. 

 

 

  

Wearable Contemporary Art [Jewellery]

Next Challenge.

Wearable art.
I have entered into the Toowoomba 'Contemporary Wearables' Biennial Jewellery art exhibition and prize.
Contemporary, mixed media jewellery is my favourite thing to do. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that my work will be accepted, but I need to keep entering these things to keep me motivated.

Step 1.
These are the materials I want to use:
1. old reading glasses found in various places, [I love the top gold ones so will keep them and try to get my own lenses fitted],
2. kangaroo/wallaby bones found on Bruny Island [road kill],
3. acupuncture needles,
4. farmed emu feathers.

Step 2.

I want to use the broken glasses - love the gold spring loaded nose pieces!
Need to work out how to connect the loose lens - [went with araldite],
and can I use something to cover the edge of the lens - tried all sorts but nothing worked.
Which bone to use and how to fix it over the nose piece?
A play with feathers in a convenient hole in the bone.
[some Biology lessons on nerves travelling through tunnels in the bones]

  

 

 

Day 7 - Painting challenge

FINISHED.
I hope the client likes it as much as I do.

Day 6 - Painting Challenge

I have added some graphite details and highlights and I have started to draw/paint in the face.

Day 5 - Painting Challenge

Day 5 - Painting Challenge

Today I worked quite a bit of whispy white acrylic paint into the furry textured areas. I'm certainly not fussed about pedantic watercolour techniques- mixed media is the way to go as far as I'm concerned! It was quite a challenge to get the shadows and highlights of the 'locks' of fur.

 

 

Day 4 - painting Challenge

I have added some gold to the fur of the golden retriever and some more shadow and wispy white fur.

 

Day 2 - Painting challenge

I was tentative about starting to mix and apply my watercolour paints, but loved the process once I started. This paper is SO forgiving, love the fact that I can blot out and work over areas.
Hahaha, maybe it is worth paying for good quality products after all!!!
Today I blocked in the darkest shadows just to get me going.

A facebook 'Painting a Day' challenge

My bestie of 50 years, Jan Martin, has asked me to do the 'painting a day' thing on Facebook. I have done this before and as many of you out there will agree, it's a bit of a pain getting 7 friends to accept the challenge of doing this every day of the week. Jan assured me I only needed one person at the end of the week, so this is much more 'doable' than every day [and the bonus is that she has a friend already agreeing to take over next week - Y...E...S....!]
I have been procrastinating over doing a commission drawing/painting for a friend of a friend. The image I am to draw is a much loved canine member of the family who is quite elderly and maybe not long for this world. Such a responsibility! Also I want to work on paper, and being confronted with a pristine sheet of 640gsm Arches which cost me $35 is daunting - I usually work on recycled canvases which cost me nothing!!!
Jan's challenge has given me just the boot up the proverbial that I need. I will post on the progress every day this week, so by the end of the week, voila!!, it will be finished.
All I need now is to figure out how to link my blog with my 2 Facebook accounts and my Instagram account and all will be well with the world!

 

Preliminary sketches to get the feel of the image [golden retriever], and trials of 'brushes' to get the texture of the fur.

 argh.....white paper!!!

 OK, so maybe I should get all the proportions right, so after recalling a bit of high school maths, ! work out a rough grid - drawing on the photo and taping grey cotton thread over the paper.

 Which drawing medium will I use to rough in the image?

 I settled for a regular 4B pencil - a good idea as I had to do a bit of erasing and redrawing....hope the paper surface will hold up.

 Final sketch for the day, I'll take the thread off tomorrow and have another panic attack as I start the water colour shadows.