New range of 3D printed jewellery

I had taken a bit of a break from the computer and had started to get my hands dirty again while forging silver and brass jewellery by hand, but the last design I drew up finally arrived from the 3D printer and they look amazing!

 

I modeled the design from those little concertina paper straw toppers after getting one in my fruity cocktail and challenging myself on how I would recreate the honeycomb pattern. It took a couple of tries in my 3D modeling program to get the sequence of steps right, but I loved the results. So far I have made a pineapple and apple versions, and can make them into earrings, necklace pendants and brooches. Perfect to pair with a summer dress while sipping a mojito.

New packaging!

Few thing give me that satisfying, tingly feeling like fresh stationary, clean bedsheets, and new packaging. It took me long enough, but I finally got around to designing a logo for AskForOompa, and that means I get to stick it on all my packaging. Screen printed cotton bags (oooooh!). New business cards (ahhhh!). What a feeling! Everything is hand screen printed by No. 7 Print House (www.no7printhouse.com) in Brisbane and ooh it's so crisp! 

In the workshop

When I was at uni studying product design, I did a few gold and silver smithing courses, but I don't think I got out of it as much as I would have liked, mostly because I was a poor student and couldn't afford much silver, so I worked mostly in aluminium, copper and acrylic. After working in brass and silver through my 3D printing, I've started playing with the raw metals again to make new pieces, which is quite satisfying because you can see the result straight away, instead of waiting several weeks for a 3D print. I've slowly been building up my workshop, practicing my soldering, and working on new designs. Mostly I'm just making things because I want to wear a new necklace or earrings for an upcoming event, and the feedback I've been getting when I wear the pieces out have been really positive so I've started make more for sale.

Because I can work as soon as a design strikes me, production runs may be more limited as I replace older designs with newer ones at a quicker rate, but if you see something you like, or if you like a design but want something slightly altered, let me know and I can do custom work.

I am very happy that Miss Bond in Fortitude Valley is stocking my jewellery, 3D printed pieces as well as my new range. Plus she sells her own beautiful jewellery and those from other local designers, so it's well worth a trip to have a look.

Silver Jewellery & Exhibition

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been playing around with silver casting and the results are just beautiful. A wax model is 3D printed from my design, which is then cast in sterling silver and polished by hand. 

I've also been playing around with finishes, polishing to a high gloss, buffing to a satin finish, and detailing with liver of sulfur which darkens silver to a subtle rainbow of Amber, blue, green and black. 

The silver pieces aren't available for purchase on the website yet, as I am taking them all down to Melbourne for an exhibition at the Brunswick St Gallery in Fitzroy. Here's a link to the Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/770853992960304/

Opening night is Friday 31st October and it will be running for 2 weeks. 

New House Project Part 1

So rentals are always a bit of a pain, things falling apart and real estates never doing anything. The new place is pretty bad, half the vertical blinds are missing, there are water stains on the walls, and the carpets are horribly stained. 

But it has a lot of potential. It's so bad, that I don't think the owners could complain if we did a bit to fix the place up. First I wanted to rip up this square of carpet by the front door. Not sure what evils happened here, but it was already a replacement piece that was stained, so it was easy to rip up just that bit without ripping up the whole carpet. 

We bought some carpet tiles from Bunnings, I think they were only $2.00 each. I cut them with a Stanley knife into strips, and made a chevron pattern. To keep it all together, I stuck the pieces onto some heshan fabric with liquid nails. It fit in the hole left by the old carpet quite snuggly, and didn't need to be fixed down at all - if the real estate really has a problem, I can put the old carpet back when we leave!

Much better. Next I think I'll paint the door. 

Moving house

After a little bit of quiet time on the AskForOompa front, I have just moved into a new house (with a amazing workshop space downstairs) and I am ready to get back into building! I have set up my little reading nook featuring the Cut Lamp and super comfortable Lounge  Chair in Copper and Leather. I have added the leather chair to my shop on the website, I'll make these on demand so send me a message. 

The new place has a few little thing to fix up as well, so over the coming weeks I will try and document them here. First up, the horrible piece of stained carpet by the front door. 

Experiments with weaving

a new project has me working with weaving. I have never really done this before but I think it is looking good. more soon.