Kelley of Kellscreations.com blogs about her jewelry, art, writing, and creativity in general

Last night my husband and I, along with our daughter and her boyfriend, attended a gallery show at Oso Art in Capitan, NM. This show featured a group of artists, and several of my pieces were included! My first group gallery exhibition. Quite a few people turned out, and it was a lot of fun, with finger foods, drinks of all sorts, and plenty of mingling and visiting. The chosen theme was “Zen,” and the manager had asked to display my polymer clay dragon pieces because she wanted pieces featuring dragons and dragonflies. Inspired, I finished three more pieces in addition to those already at the gallery. Here are pictures of the three latest polymer clay/wire wrap combo pieces that were part of the exhibition.

“Azura” — The stylized Celtic knot dragon that adorns this blue fan with its subtle chatoyant snail designs was originally one of my watercolor paintings. The dragon design was reduced and transferred to a thin sliver of translucent clay, then fused to the fan design.  A blue kyanite briolette dangles from the fan, and the necklace features kyanite ovals and pale blue freshwater pearls.

 ”Freya’s Mask” — This one-of-a-kind Art Nouveau polymer clay pendant  was influenced by some ideas in one of Donna Kato’s polymer clay books. This pendant and necklace features a dragonfly woman I’ve named Freya. Freya was the Nordic goddess of love associated with dragonflies, and this piece has subtle Nordic influences in the wire knotwork of the dragonfly’s body. Above Freya’s face is a faceted amethyst solitaire embedded in a foiled polymer clay bezel. Amethyst, dyed blue aventurine, and tiger eye beads, along with handcrafted twisted brass beads, complete the necklace.

 ”Akitsushima” — Japanese for “Land of the Dragonfly,” or possibly “The Dragonfly Island.” I’m not exactly sure, but both possibilities were mentioned in the research I did on dragonflies in Asian culture. In any case, Akitsushima is supposedly another name for Japan. This golden polymer clay pendant features iridescent green dragonflies against a background of chatoyant snail designs, which are echoed in the coiled wire embellishments. The replica Chinese coin serves as an escutcheon to protect the hole in the polymer clay, where a textured bronze-like polymer clay  bead connects to a handwoven brass wire bail. The woven bail is decorated with small peridot beads and tiger eye beads. The wire-wrapped necklace features tiger eye, etched yellow jade, and carved green jade.

It seems ages since I’ve posted! I’ve been busy getting some polymer clay wire wrap combo pieces done for a gallery show at Oso Arts Gallery in Capitan August 9. The theme is “Zen,” with dragons and dragonflies abounding–right up my alley. Finished the pieces, delivered them with the help of my daughter, so now I will be one of the artists whose work will be featured in the show. Yay!

And so I’ve been falling behind everywhere else, including my email. But today I was reading the July issue of Ann Kullberg’s online magazine (Ann Kullberg is a fabulous colored pencil artist who also has several books published on her technique), and she provided a link to a fun interactive website called The Color Test. Want to have some fun with the struggle between the right and left brain? The first time I took the test I bombed. And then I read the instructions more closely and did better. Ahem. Did I ever mention I don’t always do so well reading instructions? I seem to remember a certain report card in grade school with the teacher’s comment “Doesn’t follow instructions.” LOL Anyway, have some fun with this test. I did! It’s more difficult than you might think.

Here I am again, posting about another jewelry design. I already blogged about aspects of this on the Year of Jewelry blog, which you can read, but I can put a different spin (swirl?) on it here.

Anybody who knows me knows I love the Book of Kells (hence the name Kell’s Creations–it’s a happy coincidence that Kell was also my best friend’s nickname for me all through school) and I love all things Celtic, especially all forms of Celtic knots. I love to draw and paint them, and I have numerous books on them for inspiration. Featured in this piece are three interlocking circles which form what is called a “triquetra” in the very center.

I knew Ireland was deeply influenced by the Vikings who first arrived there in the 800s AD, but what I didn’t fully realize until I recently took an art history class was how much those Celtic knots I love resemble wonderful artworks such as the wooden portal on the stave church at Urnes, Norway (image below can be seen in context at this site), or the animal head posts ca. 825 from a Viking ship burial at Oseberg, Norway.

If you’re fascinated with Celtic or Scandinavian art and want a little inspiration for your own artwork, here are a few books I can recommend (in no particular order): 

101 Knotwork Designs, by Courtney Davis
Symbols of the Celts, by Sabine Heinz
Great Book of Celtic Patterns, by Lora S. Irish
Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction, by George Bain
Celtic Spirals Handbook, by Shela Sturrock
Celtic Motifs, by David Balade

It’s been a while since I posted about any of my jewelry designs, and I’ve created two pieces recently that I’m proud of because they presented unique challenges. Both designs are slightly adapted from tutorials. Several wire jewelry artists create step-by-step tutorials, and I subscribe to magazines that publish tutorials, but I don’t want to become dependent on them because I never want to be known as a copycat. I want to be able to create my own designs, and normally that’s what I do. I use techniques I’ve learned or have seen in a piece and I extrapolate to create my own pieces. But I still have plenty to learn from those who go before me, and the good thing about the tutorials I have purchased is that I have indeed learned new techniques which I can use in other, more original designs.

I adapted this design from a tutorial by the late Jorgen Greftegreff, contributed by his wife Beverly Langhus, in the April 2001 issue of Wire Artist Jeweller. Ever since I saw my first wire-wrapped faceted solitaire ring, I wanted to be able to create them. The adaptation is in the twisted middle wire and the wrapped shank. I found that wrapping the shank gave me more control of the piece as I was working, and I think it added an attractive touch to the design.

I’m not sure whether the stone is a ruby–aka Lord of the Gems–or a spinel, ruby’s beautiful imposter. A friend of ours frequents police auctions, and this stone was one of his finds, which I bought from him. The paper this stone and its twin were wrapped in was labeled “ruby, 8mm, wt. 2cts,” but more writing on the same wrapper said “red spinel, lab grown.” Come to find out, naturally formed spinel, which comes in a range of colors, has become even rarer than rubies, and according to International Colored Gemstone Association’s page on spinel, “spinel is the great impostor of gemstone history: many famous rubies in crown jewels around the world are actually spinels. The most famous is the Black Prince’s ruby, a magnificent 170-carat red spinel that now adorns the Imperial State Crown of England . . .”

Lab grown spinels are often used in birthstone rings, so here is my version of a ruby/spinel birthstone ring, wrapped with 12K gold-filled wire.

This design is based on a tutorial by Eni Oken, an amazing wire jewelry artist. To make it a little more my own, I changed the bail from the series of jump rings that were shown in the tutorial to a woven beaded bail, and I used a pointed amethyst briolette and freshwater pearls–two of my favorite combos. I also added some coiling detail as a loose frame around the pearls at the top of the background heart. The wire is 12K gold-filled. I’ve decided to keep this one for myself, but I do plan to offer one similar in my shop sometime soon–maybe next week.

I’ve also purchased tutorials from Iza Malczyk and Perri Jackson of Shaktipaj Designs. I hope to be using those tutorials in new pieces soon. :)