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!

Decalling

It's been a while since I did some decal work in my studio. But we (Anna & me) have some custom work waiting so I send Anna some porcelain pieces that she could decal. OOAK pieces are heaps of fun to make as not one is the same. You can have a preview of Anna's pieces in her blog. Although they are fun to make, I always twist and turn about placing a certain image somewhere. Is it too little? Is it too much? And the secret is to stop in time before you ruin the piece. 
I also like seeing how different Anna's pieces are to mine. I'm rather modest in combining an placing colors & patterns while Anna dares to use big color blocks. It makes her pieces really artsy I think.
Some of these pieces will be in our shops soon. :)
If you would like a OOAK piece of your own, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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...

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?

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?