"You've just let yourself go, haven't you?" - exploring local textures

Lately I'm feeling very much that I'm missing so much that is right under my nose and that it's high time I attended to it!   






Here what attracts me is partly the whitewash intention/ eventual, inevitable failure; 
the flaky brick and greenish mortar looking more cavelike than modern.


Also the interplay of human with other aspects of nature.  It seems so inherently poetic.

There are some great Flickr groups on this topic, the "Best Textures" one, for example.  
I enjoyed searching with terms like "peeling", "flaky", "blistered" , "abraded" "rusty" and even "mouldy"!  Not forgetting "palimpsest". 

Other flickr groups celebrating weathered and time-affected materials include "The Rust Bucket" "Wonders of Oxidation"and, especially exciting to me, "Old, Abandoned Houses", and "Rural Decay".

Side turn back into metal clay

Enjoying working in silver clay again! (My previous work can be seen here

on flickr).


This piece is based around wrapped fine silver wire.
As silver clay shrinks during firing, the wire armature method is especially useful for rings made to a set size.


It's the kind of piece you can work on by building up layers
of clay slip, and also torch fire in the kitchen, although I always
kiln fire them too at the later stages.


Here's the latest photo of the ring - in - progress:

...and an earlier shot of the ring, before firing:

Bride of a Bull

Oil on canvas paper, 16 x 12
etsy link

Evening of Light

evening of light

Vintage Special: Jorma Laine Bronze Belt Buckle

From Mascara Jones on etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26818812

I'm thrilled to have found this! I'm always fascinated to see Finnish bronze pieces

and Jorma Laine is one of my favourite names from this era.

Here's some background information, a great article that I go back to regularly for inspiration,

by Maggie Snell at Modern Silver:

http://www.modernsilver.com/Bronzeage.html

UPDATE: I'm delighted to add that Mascara Jones has very kindly added

a fantastic "Finnish Bronze"set of jewelry photos to her flickr pages!

Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39804935@N07/

Latest rings

Fine silver hand made wedding rings; made using silverclay.

This can be worked with like clay and when fired it sinters into

fine (.999) silver.

The top ring has been formed using silver wire as an armature;

I then work silver clay paste in and around this structure and torch fire it.

Then a shorter length of wire is twisted around the top part of the ring;

this is then filled in, shaped and worked over again with more silver clay paste.

The larger ring in the foreground is made using a syringe to pipe clay slip over a dry base.

Multiple firings with a torch and much shaping and refining follows;

("oil paste type" is used over fired silver). The rings are kiln-fired for strength

and then burnished using hand tools; the larger ring is also oxidized

with liver of sulphur solution to bring the contours

of the upper part of the ring into greater relief.

More photos of my jewellery work here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mossmottle/sets/72157612801969864/

More information about metal clay here:

http://www.silverclay.co.uk/?gclid=CL7Hic2QwpQCFQ2L1Qod610wFA