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. 

Planting

Replanting my new succulents around the house, using a mix of new terracotta pots, found kitchenware, and fun vintage planters. The little turtle I picked up in a vintage shop in the USA over Christmas, and the teapot I decorated with ceramic paint. I want to get some more plain white ceramic vessels to paint in different patterns and cluster together. Now I just hope they get enough sun over the winter!

Fixing up the new house part 1

I'm a renter. I have come to accept that I may be a renter for quite a few more years. But sometimes you just need a shelf, where there is no shelf. Like my new spare bathroom. It's a little hole in the wall, and I love the white painted brick. But nowhere to put a few rolls of toilet paper! Sure, I could have bought one of those toilet roll skewer things to sit on the ground, but I decided to make this instead. Totally freestanding, it utilizes what little space we have, and I can take it with me when I leave without having to patch up the wall. 

Cactus & succulent festival 2013

I went to the succulent festival today to try and pick up some interesting pieces. I'm always amazed by how some of these alien shapes came about. I particularly loved the ones that overflowed their pots, almost like a fern - but with these gorgeous juicy leaves, but couldn't find any of them for sale. I want to get more plant life into the house, but I always manage to kill everything. Maybe these will survive?