Sterling Silver Textured Cuff

It took 2 lessons to get my next sterling silver jewellery project made. I had wanted to do a textured looking cuff like my ring and a pod with pearls on top but it would have been a bit beyond my scope yet so I went for a slightly raised cup on the cuff instead. The tricky part was setting it up for the soldering but with my tutors help I got it all together. Sterling silver is hard to photograph so forgive the shody shots but here is my cuff....

The cuff is 15cm long and 3cm wide so its nice and heavy. I'm really enjoying playing with and learning about sterling silver. Of course it all can be applied to my junk jewellery making. The lady teaching us will be doing a class casting with the lost wax technique later in the year and I can't wait to learn that too!
hugs
Annette In Oz

Hi Ho Hi Ho A Silversmithing Annette Goes

I've just started a 6 week silver smithing course right here in Darwin!!!. My first class was tonight and I had a ball.Our first thing was to make a sterling silver ring by measuring and using a jewellers saw to cut a strip. Next we soldered it, hammered a pattern and then polished it. I was amazed at how it all came together. I didn't break any saw blades but still manged to drop and tip over stuff left right and centre....all in the name of art I say *grin*. Who knew you can use cheap house hold items as a flux and pickle solutions!!!

Here is my first sterling silver ring. Not perfect but it fits and I love it.
 
                                  

I think there will be more sterling silver creations to come now and another door opens in my creative life :o).

                                                                          Hugs

                                                                   Annette In Oz

My Arty Space

I've just finished sorting thru my zillion beads and had a huge bag of beads to donate afterwards. 1/2 way thru the last task of sorting thru ribbons and fabric and then my nice clean clear desk is in for some serious arty play!. Okies here are some pictures of the area I have now. There is my desk.I have draws under it and to the side. The side draws are on rollers so if I want to work on metal I just roll it to the other side and if I want to do paper crafts roll them the other way. The one under the desk has my acrylic paints and painting mediums. Still two empty draws here and I thew out four draws. I have a daylight lamp at each end as the lighting is crap in the room.

To the left is stackable containers with draws containing embellishments, vintage images and paper crafts stuff.I decreased my stash here by 6 containers. There are three draws still empty.

To the right are books, magazines and cabinets for metal work, soldering, ice resin stuff, etching stuff, Opals embossing enamels, Cuttlebug and accessories, glues, tapes, paints and mediums. On top of the book shelf  that I have cut off ggrrr is my pyramid of life piece, my rusty clock and some gorgeous art work that my friend Robin in USA gave me.

There is a large cupboard to the right too for stamps.Ill slowly swap them from folders to loop and tape and then put them in DVD cases for easier storage. My beads and metal embellishments are in here too and my stamp making machine, solvents, fabric inks, sewing machine etc.

Here are some of the doors open on the cupboards below the book shelf.

I'll get Grant to permanently attach my dremel to the desk and have two cork boards still to hang but I'm pretty happy with it all. There is a single bed in the room too which I shall change to a sofa bed lounge later in the year.
hugs
Annette In Oz

The Stash is Moved At Last

Well I have sorted, tossed, decluttered, agonized and got frustrated but my stash is all in the spare room now at last. I had no idea how much crap I had hidden away and never used nor how darn long it would take me. I've donated a huge amount of staff to the aged care facility I work at, to use in their activity programmes. I've also decided to get rid of all my Australian "Stamping and papercrafts" mags, Australian Paperarts mags and Rubber Gazette mags. If anyone wants a specific issue or issues just drop me an e-mail. You pay the postage and I'll pop them in the mail.
hugs
Annette In Oz

The devotion of dogs!!

Floods, loss of life and cyclones here, earthquake, destruction and more loss of life in Christchurch New Zealand...our friends across the "ditch" and now the still unfolding tragedy after the awful earthquake and huge tsunami that has affected Japan....so many lives lost and whole towns no longer standing. My heart goes out to all those affected. So much sadness has befallen our neighbours since the start of the year!
I'm still sorting my stash but I stop and watch the news every time I come out of the spare room or after work. Last night I saw this video via Jen's son Matthew fb page and it just made me so sad for all the animals affected as well.

The vidoe isn't showing the full screen in blogger so here is the youtube link as well.
Take care all my friends across the globe and lets hope the reactors in Japan can be cooled and fixed!!
hugs
Annette In Oz

The Move Begins!!!

Well my big stash move has begun. I think I'll just drag it all into the spare room and then declutter (if I can LOL) as I find new spots for my stash to live in. I'm hopping to have a metal work section and a paperarts, paint and fabric areas. Well that is the plan. May have a few things to give away too yet :o).

I started this card for my very ill and much loved neice Lisa a few days ago. Lisa has three kids and is in her late 30's. She was diagnosed with acute myloid leukaemia a few weeks ago and will be in hospital for 6 months. At this stage they think it was too advanced when she was diagnosed and they can't cure her. So terribly sad. Her kids are 15, 13 and 6. As she is in another state and I can't visit her I thought I would make her a card. I was relocating my Stamping and Papercrafts mags on Mon and I sat on the floor for 2 hrs flicking thru some and came across a pull tab card I used to love to make. I used that for her card. It sits flat but opens to reveal the images in a shadow box effect. Shame I got glue on the right tab but I may cover that yet.
I used twinkling H2O's to paint the butterfly frame. I gave the butterflies a 3D effect by adding another stamped butterfly to the base frame ones and some wire antennae.

The tabs at the side slide to move the front stamped section up and away to either side and reveal the image underneath. The image is a gorgeous Gothic fairy stamped and then painted with water colour pastels.

Here is the image a bit closer.

Another find when moving stuff was a beaded crazy bracelet I made many years ago in a sea theme. I really loved making them and must try to make another once I'm settled in my new art space.

Off to move some more.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Wet Season Photos

Its official we have and are having the wettest Wet Season on record. So far over 2000mls of rain  have fallen. Up here in the Nrth of Oz we have only 2 seasons....the Wet and the Dry. The Wet is our rainy season and with it there is a flourish of plants and animals everywhere. Here are some photos we have taken over the current Wet.

A rare sighting of a black wallaroo at Kakadu before the flooding cut the highway and became impassable to cars.

Berry Creek. Grant couldn't get to work for 2 days. The Wildlife Park he works at is on the other side of the creek.

Giraween Rd. My road to work. Fortunately ....hhhmm or not LOL I could get to work by driving the long way round on another road.

Croc trap in the creek on Giraween Rd. Locals usually swim in here in the Wet...not this year I hope, though we see stupid fishermen thigh deep in water next to the trap everyday!!!

Florence Falls

Tolmer Falls

Wangi Falls

Green ants piled up on a leaf trying to escape the water in my driveway.

Leichaardts grasshopper at Kakadu. We only see these for a few weeks of the year.

Litoria Microbelis frog in full song. Man the frogs have been loud this year.

and lastly a tawny frog mouth on the fence that joins our block to next doors.

Shame I couldn't suck up some of that water and send it where it could do some good. Will be a bumper fishing season to come. Our bedroom is painted and tomorrow we will go back there and then I'll have to spare room at last wahoo.
hugs
Annette In Oz