Friday, June 24, 2011

Some days are diamonds ...

... but today was not shaping up to be one of them! My very first mistake was to steadfastly ignore the dishes piled in the sink and the overflowing laundry basket in order to head into my studio. I had it all planned - a decent day at my bench. Well, ignoring housework doesn't really work 'cos it sets up a whole lot of white noise that gets louder as the day goes on. This is especially so if you make a mistake - instead of  finding your zen place and getting in touch with your lateral - thinking - inner - child, you get in  touch with your whiny - juiced up - ferocious- inner - psychopath and hurl whatever is giving you grief across the room. ( Ok so I didn't actually  throw anything but that is only because my workspace is so small I figured it would ricochet of the wall and hit me in the head! ). I wanted to make a brooch - I have been thinking about the design for a while now so I was keen to get going. I had in mind a lovely big Ovid shape. I drew up a pattern and got stuck in. So this was how it was shaping up ...

Now of course brooches require pins but I thought I had that covered - just a bit of soldering really. WRONG! One of the vagaries of using recycled material is that sometimes it won't do what you expect - like allow itself to be soldered. A person with less white noise cluttering up their brain might have had the foresight to try a piece of scrap first. Hhmmm - 20/20 hindsight! Not to worry - I have worked out how to cold-connect the hook part and I am sure some research will reveal a way to make the pin. My next mistake was this little disaster ...
Yucky saw cuts - bad patterning indeed. I shushed the white noise and came up with a way to add a piece to disguise the ugliness ...

So in the end the piece looks something like this ...


The idea is that whatever you are wearing will form part of the brooch as you will be able to see so much of your shirt/coat/ t shirt through all that negative space. I suppose I should count it as a success because I have learned a lot and call this one a "prototype" - it was pretty frustrating though! And I still have to sort out that pin issue ...

Enjoy Bobby Bare's version of the song in my title!



Hope  your week-end days are ALL diamonds!

3 comments:

Lyndel said...

well Sue I think it looks great in 2 colour metal.. would like that on a nice leather cord as a pendant.♥

Melissa said...

Wow, reall y interesting piece
hope the white noise has gone away

Ms Kath Pathwalker said...

Well crap to the dishes and double crap to the laundry basket....I know just what you need darling!!!
A house elf. Yes sir-ee. That's the answer. Love the ovid. Good save on the saw cuts. God you're clever. Will we get more than one to play with in the end as they'd look ab fab on 'our' vest creation thingos we made on the weekend!!