New pieces in progress

Day 84

Day 83

I may have been slightly influenced by all the Easter eggs that  haunt me on every supermarket trip at the moment, some buttons, made by hand drawing intricate patterns on plastic.

Day 80

 erm...I might have to open a button shop.

These buttons are made using hand drawn illustrations of Chinese lanterns.

Day 79

Day 77

 

....more buttons...

Made by hand drawing the pattern onto plastic.

Day 76

Some buttons I made for day 76, using a hand drawn motif on plastic.

Day 74

A necklace for day 74. Made from hand drawn plastic fragments, felt and velvet ribbon.

Day 67

Earrings made from plastic with a hand drawn and coloured pattern and a silver post.

Day 64

I had a little relapse with the shrinking plastic today, I haven't been able to make any plastic pieces recently as my oven broke leaving me unable to shrink! (notice I'm less bothered about being able to cook in it.)
I had this 'already shrunk' piece hidden away, and cut it to shape to make this ring.

Day 46

So today I thought I'd try a similar piece to yesterday, but, hmmm... not too sure about this one! It doesn't have the 'Hey Presto' magic of yesterday for me, more 'Piff Paff Poof! It looks like a police chalk line around a body wearing dodgy pajamas!

Ah well, can't win 'em all

Oh, its a brooch pin by the way.

Day 45

More fun with the shrinking plastic....
I have a fabulous book called Breaking Bounds which has a series of stunning photo's of dancers. I've used one of the image silhouettes for this piece and given it a bit of hand drawn pattern magic - hey presto,  a pendant full of movement.

Day 43

Teeny tiny fragment ring.

Very different from my original plastic ring, this is tiny. The plastic gem has been riveted to the ring shank.

Day 42

A new design using shrinking plastic for day 42. I've set the hand drawn  plastic gem against a silver background this time, and made this pendant. It has that wonderful found object feel to it, and I love the way the silver reflects the light back out through the plastic at you.

Day 36

.....and I'm back to plastic,
I can't help myself!

Today's piece is a brooch pin made from plastic and sterling silver. I used an old Victorian brooch design for the drawing, then added a tiny leaf design in sterling silver which acts as a gem and holds the pin to the back.

It has a wonderful ornate feel, but you lose a lot of the detail in the drawing when it shrinks down to this scale, I'll need to think bigger next time.

Day 27

A new ring design. I tried a slightly different setting for this ring, and added some colour to the plastic gem.

Day 26

I made necklace for day 26.  Freshwater pearls and a hand drawn florish on plastic held in a silver setting.

Day 25

I'm continuing the theme with today's earrings.
In treating the plastic as though its a found fragment of something much older and more valuable and setting it as a 'gem', I think I'm getting over the hurdle of viewing plastic as a worthless throw away material, which is what I've been battling with whilst making these pieces. I love what I can do with the plastic, but hate what it stands for.  I've always used  more natural and what I view as honest materials in the past like silver and textiles, but I think this plastic might be winning me over!

Day 20

Some more Gothic images today, this time for a necklace, made with silver chain and hand drawn images on plastic.

Day 19

And another ring,  with the same theme of the simple black drawing on white.
These rings are taking on a life of their own, each one larger than the last, and the drawing more elaborate.