Porcelain rings

From the North Story line, we don't have all the designs in all sizes so when someone wants a certain ring, I need to check if I have it in stock. If not, I turn to Anna to see if she has it in stock.
If neither of these are the case, I check my blank rings and see if I can make one. But then when the blank rings of a certain size are not available, I need to make new ones and that's a process that takes a while. For one, I don't always have enough work ready to fire a porcelain kiln so I wait until the kiln is filled up. That usually takes a while. Thankfully we have some very patient customers who are willing to wait a few months for their ring to be ready.  Today I made a few new blank rings to put in the porcelain kiln. Hopefully they schrink to the requested size... otherwise I can start all over again. :)

My favorite ring is this one:

New North Story rings

I made these rings a long time ago but never took the time to photograph them and put 'em in my shop. I came across them the other day and thought that I better do something with them.
They are in my Etsy shop now... More designs will follow soon!

Studio time

The last time I did any decal work was when Anna from LilaRubyKing was here in November. I do like applying the decals as it's so different from the usual routine I have in my studio. I do need a clean table in order to do decals so it's a bit of a pain to clear away everything.
But in a way it's good as it's always refreshing to start making a new mess again...

North Story - OOAK

When Anna from LilaRubyKing was here in November, we did some decal work together. Anna asked me to prepare some special shapes for that. She drew the shapes and I transferred 'em onto clay and handcut 'em. The process is the same as the other pieces but hand cutting each shape makes it even lengthier. And all edges need to be kind of rounded so that it's not too sharp to wear of course. But how fun it has been to work on them together. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing the whole time while making them and it was so much fun.
They have been turned into pendants with a sterling silver chain. And best of all is that they will be one of a kind (OOAK) as the images have been applied much like a collage.A fun detail is that even though we had the same shapes and decals to use, both our work is so different. You can find the ones that I made in my shop and the ones that Anna made in her shop. I went for minimalism while Anna went for artsy. :)
Do you love 'em as much as we do?

Work in progress

These will be glued onto ring bases and make their first appearance at Stiel & Stijl.
I love the patterned rings! Can you spot a new color too?

Experiment

Remember a while back I did a poll to hear if you would prefer glazed or unglazed pieces for jewellerey? It's hard to form an opinion solely based on a picture and opinions were divided into two as half of you preferred glazed jewellery and half of you would choose unglazed jewellery.
The pictures showed back then were with small samples that our screenprinter sent us and it didn't really represent any of what was to come.

As you know we chose to work with unglazed material but the other day I got curious about how it would look on glazed ware so I made a sample.The above brooche back is the unglazed one and the one below is glazed.
It is quite different isn't it?

Pendants North Story

The pendants of North Story arrived in our shops (ArtMind/AnnaRubyKing) .
Go stalk 'em if you like. :)

Launch North Story

At last it's launch day!
Over the next few days, we'll be adding new designs to our shops. We'll be listing different items in our shops so you can check to see what's available in Anna's shop and in my shop.

Forest bear - sage

Capillary ring

A leaf and a seedling

Sage sweetpea

These are some of the designs we have available over the next few days. There are pendants coming too in a later phase so you still have something to look forward too.
We're excited and happy to finally be able to share what we've been working on the past months and hope you'll enjoy!

North Story - the process

Do you find it hard to imagine what work has gone into a finished product sometimes?
I do, especially if it concerns a technique I don't know anything about.

That's why I want to show you the process of how the brooches of the North Story are made.

It's a lengthy process that involves lots of sanding, 3 different firings and much patience along the way. But believe me, the result is all worth it...

Press a piece of clay into a mould.

Smooth out the back.

Lift it out of the mould gently.

Smooth the edges with a bit of water.

Let it dry in between plaster plaques.

After they are dry, sand the roughness away and fire it a first time bisque temperature.

After firing, sand again and do a porcelain firing.
And sand again after the porcelain firing.
Jip, that's 3 times sanding...

Meanwhile cut out the screenprinted images.

Put the decal in warm water.

Apply it to the porcelain by gently tearing away the paper underneath the screenprinted image.
Decals are normally used on glazed ware.
We're using unglazed material and this is trickier as the decal is more likely to let loose on unglazed ware.

Rub over it with a clay rib to get the airholes and water out.

Gently rub it with a clean cloth and then fire it at decal temperatures.

I apologize for the gloominess of the pictures - I blame it on the weather conditions! :)

And for the final products, keep an eye on our shops (LilaRubyKing & ArtMind), we'll be listing our new line later this week... :)

Hand leaves

Another glimpse from the North Story...
Not much longer now before the new line will be in our shops!
Happy day everyone!

Tiny diamond

If you were curious what I have been cutting the other day... All tiny images like the diamond above. These screenprinted decals have been applied onto the tiny porcelain discs.
The image designs are from the hand of my collaboration partner Anna (LilaRubyKing). We don't want to spill the beans all at once and give you an overdose so bit by bit, the North Story will unravel... :)

Remember that we asked a while back if you preferred glazed or unglazed jewellery?
Thank you so much for all your response and opinions. It was a very close call and there were only 5 votes difference between the two.
Anna and I both leaned towards the unglazed jewellery so we decided to go unglazed. Such tough decission as decals are much easier to apply to glazed ware. I did run tests on the unglazed ware and it's definately a bit of a challenge but it looks so natural, different & unique that we're all jippetyjappety happy with the result. Not much longer now before we show more...

Cutting

Cutting 'till my thumb hurts... Lots and lots and lots of teeny tiny bits.
It's for the collaboration with Anna (LilaRubyKing).
We're in the final stage of the process.
After I'm done, I'm sending it all to Anna who will finish it off and photograph all the work 'cause she has mad photographing skills.
We hope to launch sometime in September. That's only a few more weeks - can you wait?

Dilemma

While working on a new collaboration line with Anna (LilaRubyKing), we sometimes face difficult decisions. Pondering between A & B and both being very indecisive, we turn to you to hear your opinion.

So, we're making new jewellery pieces and to be more precise: rings, earrings, brooches & pendants. All porcelain and that's were we need your opinion.
Do you prefer glazed or unglazed pieces for jewellery?

Glazed ware has no maintenance while natural pieces of porcelain might get a bit dirty when wearing. However it can be cleaned easily with a soft brush and luke warm soapy water. It will look as pretty and white as before and keep it's natural touch.

Below is a sample of partly glazed (right) and partly unglazed (left) ware. Perhaps it's hard for you to imagine without feeling it but if you do have an opinion, we'd love to hear it.
Thanks so much for your co-operation.

Work in progress

Things I'm working on right now.
Most of it is paper porcelain and it's for my new collaboration work with Anna from LilaRubyKing. We've been e-mailing back and forth nearly every day for a while now and things are really coming together. I'm so excited about this new line...
Hope to show some more soon! :)

Back on track

While my collaboration partner Anna from LilaRubyKing is still recovering from the second (!) operation on her hand, we took the opportunity to lock ourselves up in a chatroom on Etsy and make new & exciting plans.
It will involve quite a bit of testing but it is so, so, so exciting to finally be able to work on new things & I hope that once it's ready for revelation you will love it as much as we do already - and we haven only just started!
A bit more then a year and a half ago we started our collaboration and it's really unbelievable that we have not met each other yet.
Jip, we do all the communication via e-mail and it's working out really well and I'm sure we will meet each other one day! Then we'll have some ice cream together, no doubt about that! :)Did you see Anna's new collection 'Form' with beach pottery & her Myka necklaces line? Check it out, it's different, unique and stunning!

In the mean time, stay tuned for more updates on our collaboration work.