Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Happy flowers

This is my happy flower necklace and earrings set. It has been an interesting set as I have refinished it several times. I guess therefore, it's story is more of an epic - but I'll keep it brief!!

I first made the piece a year or so ago by shaping the silver and then cutting out the petals and stems. For a while I left it like that - and here's it's photo below:


But it didn't quite do it for me. So I had another idea, I would put polymer clay in the cutouts and give the pieces a little color. I really love color - and working with silver doesn't exactly satisfy my bright color desires.......so I added some green polymer clay and it took on a more four leaf clover look rather than flowers. I left it like that for a while......(Sorry - no photo I'm afraid.)

But then I didn't like that. The clay looked too heavy and solid for delicate little flowers or leaves, so after a few months, I took the clay out and so now I'm on my third and final (?) rendition! I used a uv resin to fill in the petals and leaves. I decided to have different color flowers for the necklace and earrings. To fill in the resin in a piece with no back - ie cutouts - I had to secure the back carefully first and then color the resin, then cure the resin in uv light. The resultant look is what I was after all the time however - a translucency that reminds me of the delicacy of petals and flowers. When the earrings hang, the light shines through them so nicely with a delicate but definite color to them.
So, some stories start in one direction, go off on a tangent for a while, then end up somewhere else. Now when I look at this necklace and earrings, it makes me happy and makes me think of real flowers....which is why I call the piece "happy flowers"!

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