Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The Wedding Collection


Everyone who works in retail, or selling goods in general, knows the weeks and months following Christmas are notoriously slow. There are all kinds of methods and tricks to drum up business while all your customers are shopped out from the holidays. I am not exempt from this, I fall right into that category. So, what is the best way to utilize this lull in sales? Do I just wait around for things to pick up? NO! Time is valuable!  I won't go so far as to say "time is money", but time has value and should not be wasted!

With the money I made during my fall shows and over Christmas I was able to invest in learning a new skill set. I purchased a number of tools and materials to start working with precious metal clay or, PMC for short. I coworker of mine first mentioned it to me some time ago, I was flabbergasted that such a thing existed! Here’s the basics of PMC: It’s clay, just like the clay used to make pottery, except instead of being made up of tiny dirt particles, it’s made up of tiny metal particles, a binder, and water. You can sculpt this clay into virtually anything you want and let it dry. Once its dry, you can fire it in a kiln or with a torch. The binder burns away and the metal particles fuse together to leave you with a solid piece of metal. How cool is that?!


Here's what the firing process looks like, if you look carefully you can see the flames coming off the pieces as the binder burns away.



I’ve been wanting to compile (and create) a wedding collection for some time now. With the after Christmas lull, and wedding season fast approaching, it seemed the perfect time to get to work on it! I already have a few pieces that are ‘wedding worthy’, but I really wanted to create some truly spectacular pieces! By combining metal clay with my other skills, the possibilities are virtually endless!

My first, very ambitious, piece was a tiara. I’ve never made a tiara, but brides love them so why not give it a shot? I love using nature in my work and I love the Art Nouveau style with all its gracefully curving lines. So I decided to create a tiara using silver leaves made with PMC. Metal clay shrinks when you fire it, in general your finished piece will be about 15% smaller than what you started with. Some might see this as a limitation or annoyance, but it can be quite useful! By making a mold of a finished piece, and using it to create a duplicate, that duplicate will end up being slightly smaller than the original after firing. By employing this molding method, you can create a series of identical pieces, each consistently smaller than the one before.


Above, are the two leaves I started with.


Here are all six leaves, each made from a mold of the one larger.  Each time you copy a piece, you inevitably loose some of the detail, kind of like when you make a photocopy of a photocopy, and then make a photocopy of that copy, eventually you loose the image.  With each generation of leaf I had to go back and add in details that were lost in the process, but this is easily done!  The resulting set of leaves were perfect!  After creating a wire frame, and soldering the leaves (with difficulty) to the frame, I had my tiara, and it was spectacular!

Bridal art nouveau elvish silver leaf leaves tiara nature weddings

Bridal Elvish or Art Nouveau Graduated Leaves Tiara in Silver


Bridal bride elf elvish art nouveau graduated silver leaf leaves tiara crown head piece

Bridal Elvish or Art Nouveau Graduated Leaves Tiara in Silver


Bridal bride elf elvish art nouveau graduated silver leaf leaves tiara crown head piece

Bridal Elvish or Art Nouveau Graduated Leaves Tiara in Silver

There is something really wonderful in creating something you didn't think you were capable of creating.  It's a feeling of accomplishment like no other.

The tiara is wonderful, but necklaces are really what I love, and what I sell the most of. I needed a jaw dropping necklace.  A necklace that could serve as a centerpiece for my social media accounts and my Etsy shop.  I wanting something that would catch peoples eye! When I first began working with PMC I made a ton of these tiny leaves for a design that ended up not really working, so I set to work trying to figure out what else I could do with them. It’s these designs, that come about from another failed design, or from accidentally purchasing the wrong thing, that end up being some of my best work.  What I ending up doing with those tiny leaves was solder them onto wires and twist them together to create this statement necklace that is truly wedding worthy!

art nouveau elvish elf bridal wedding statement necklace leaves cascading silver adjustable

ArtNouveau Cascading Leaves Bridal Necklace in Sterling Silver,Adjustable


art nouveau elvish elf bridal wedding statement necklace leaves cascading silver adjustable

ArtNouveau Cascading Leaves Bridal Necklace in Sterling Silver,Adjustable



Once I'd started creating in this vein of design I couldn't stop, I was loving my new new creations!

art nouveau hydrangea flower bloom statement necklace silver bridal wedding

Art Nouveau Hydrangea Flower Bridal Statement Necklace in Silver, Adjustable

Art Nouveau elf elvish nature Cascading Leaves Bridal wedding dangle statement Earrings in Silver

Art Nouveau Cascading Leaves Bridal Earrings in Silver

Bridal wedding flower Cala Lily, Peace Lily Pendant Necklace in Sterling Silver, Adjustable

Bridal Calla Lily, Peace Lily Pendant Necklace in Sterling Silver, Adjustable

Bridal wedding Elvish Leaf Drop Earrings in Silver

Bridal Elvish Leaf Drop Earrings in Silver


Bridal wedding elf art nouveau nature Elvish Leaf Pendant Necklace in Sterling Silver, Adjustable

Bridal Elvish Leaf Pendant Necklace in Sterling Silver, Adjustable

Silver Primrose Flower Ring, bloom

Silver Primrose Flower Ring


I’ve been hard at work creating this wedding collection, and it is by no means complete! With wedding season upon us, if you are planning a wedding, or know someone who is, take a look, and find something that will make you feel amazing and beautiful on your wedding day!