It’s been a while

Well, it certainly has been a while since I made some jewellery. This is mainly due to my other project I have been working on – Inkwell Arts Saturday Cafe – a new vegetarian cafe in Leeds.

Inkwell Arts Cafe was set up by me in November 2012 and is still in its infancy. There is still so much to do and it’s all a very steep learning curve! The reviews we have had so far have been overwhelmingly good which has been so important to be on the receiving end of such positive feedback. I still get to be creative, designing the posters, menu and flyers but admittedly the jewellery has taken a bit of a back seat.

My jewellery work is not something I want to continue to neglect as I feel the time I have invested in it so far would have been wasted. I feel like I was actually getting somewhere with it too – National exhibitions, Vogue magazine, tutorial writing and invitations to teach workshops, so it would be daft to let that all go and fall away.

It’s not always the physical time you need but the head space to fill with ideas and designs. My workload has recently been halved so surely that would be more time to do copper wire work? Well, I do hope so and I can’t wait to get back into my work.

Having my first weekend off in ages let me get on with a design today. My technical skills are still ok but I felt rusty in the ‘imaginative department’. This piece took me much longer than normal ( about 20 hours) to make. I think I must have chopped half of it away, rebuilt it and then discarded half again! It’s all about confidence in what you are doing, having faith in your vision or idea and that comes with practice.

My latest piece is very much inspired by Egyptian costume and artifacts. The colours remind me Pharaohs costumes and Tombs and Egyptian gods and goddesses. I used Lapis Lazuli – a stone I absolutely love but rarely put into my designs.

cleopatra 3

wire work necklace ethnic jewellery

I do hope this is a new beginning. One where I concentrate more on my wire work. It’s been a year since I did any painting, but I am trying not to think about that too much!

2 Replies to “It’s been a while”

    1. Amanda says:

      Thanks Neena. It’s been crazy hectic here. Never enough time to make jewellery in my opinion. Ideally, I either need to be an octopus or the days be twice as long!

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