Autumn and creativity

It may sound weird, but I LOVE autumn, was born in the autumn, and even the thought of autumn brings out the best of my creativity.
During this super hot summer, I found myself longing for shorter days, cool winds and the rustle of leaves in the first rain.
The result - a unique tribal and bohemian autumn collection, bold, rustic and impressive.
Check it out :)

Copper and Turquoise cuff bracelet 

Big hoop necklace

Raw linen,copper and Jade tassel necklace

Raw Amethyst crystal necklace 

Red coral necklace

And a touch of fresh colors:

Hollow dangle earrings

Enjoy :)

Summer colors

To tell the truth, summer is my least favorite season. The central coast of Israel tends to be very humid during the summer. Steam room comes to mind.
But nothing - even summer - will get in my way.
Looking through my studio for ideas, I found a refreshing box: colored gemstones in vivid colors.
While watching my Coursera lectures, I knitted colorful wire necklaces and flowers to use with those gems.

Just finished uploading them to my shop.
Here's my new summer collection, TA DA:

coral and hematite tribal neckace

orange howlite necklace

magenta jade and turquoise howlite earrings

Are they not gorgeous???

Inspired By Nature

I have shared with you my artistic inspiration in the pat, and also how nature itself provides such inspiration.

My new collection too includes items that were inspired by nature. Such is this new necklace:

red and chartreuse wire crochet necklace

The source of inspiration this time was Physalis Alkekengi, also known as "Chinese Lantern", "Japanese Lantern" and many other names:

Physalia Alkenkegi

The necklace - as well as it's matching earrings - represnt all of the advantages of my wire crochet jewelry: they can be colorful but transparent, voluminous but light weight.
And most of all: fun to make :)

Inspiration - spring rain

Spring came early this year, raining large spherical drops that cleaned the heavy haze.
These large raindrops remained on the leaves in my garden for some time.
What a beautiful sight, just like in this photo by Susan Stevenson:

Susan Stevenson: raindrops on leaves

Nothing can be a better inspiration than nature, as I manifested in this pair of earrings:

fine silver crochet earrings with fresh water pearls

I wonder how will summer inspire me this year...

Tutorial - Fine Silver Earrings

One of the techniques for working with metal clay is to press it into a mold.

The main advantage of this technique is repetition - with is great for duplicating the same design over and over again.

The mold can be made out of any object, and also your own design. These designs can be carved out of wax, pressin a metal prototype, shaped using polymer clay etc.

I work with Art Clay Silver, wthich is easy to handle, shape and burn at home.

I pressed soft silver clay into my mold, and waited for it to dry. 

work stages (left to right): mold - silver clay - fine silver piece

My long experience with the material tought me I should let it to dry completely. My patience paid off, and the next day I burned the pieces over a net on the gas stove in the kitchen.

After firing and filing corners, I blackened the pieces - now pure silver - using liver of sulfur, then smoothened the relif with sandpaper and polished with a burnisher.

All that's left at this stage is to assemble the earrings: adding the beads and the hook.

fan earring - fine silver with rose quartz

These earrings are "little siblings" to a pendant I made last year:

"big brother" - fine silver pendant with rose quartz and sterling chain

Getting There

What triggers your creativity?

What makes you leave everything and rush into your studio?

What drives your art making?

Every artistic creation has a story, and behind these stories lays inspiration.

I'm not different from other artists, and would like to share with you my sources of inspiration in a series of posts.

Let's begin.

The first rainy period this year was stormy. I love stormy weather; it charges me with fresh energy and fills me with joy. Go figure…

It wasn't so for my husband, who also likes rain but realized he lost his long loved wind resistant umbrella. It's the kind of umbrella that doesn't bend inside-out by a light breeze or even a fairly strong wind. It looks like this, but was dark green:

Charged with all that energy I was very generous, and suggested to knit him a new umbrella :)

I took the spool I just knitted from and made a dome, which later became this earring: