✴ at the bench

I've spent the last week or so 'at the bench'. When I say this I mean the jewellery bench but in actual fact I don't have one of those so picture me instead brandishing a soldering torch and cursing slightly slipped soldering on the tiny bit of workspace next to the kitchen sink. By the dying Aloe Vera plant. Next to the tin jug with the cat food forks in. Not very glamorous. But then silversmithing isn't. 

I have rough grated fingers and thumbs blackened and course from so much wire brush cleaning of silver and brass. A manicurists nightmare....or dream, whichever way you look at it.

I've been firing lots of little brass leaves, with a notion to turn these into a beautiful autumn inspired tiara and with several february birthdays I've been making jewellery gifts with silver snowhearts and recently fired copper hearts. 

I always end up with odd little bits of precious metal clay when I roll it out into heart and leaf shapes. Because the clay dries so quickly, these scraps never quite make it back into the pack while still soft and malleable. This time I thought I'd try and make something with these scraps. Something organic, twisted and strange. 

I think they turned out a bit like ferns or seaweed. They may end up in a new life as a botanical style brooch. For me. Because I'm quite attached to my strange little sea ferns!

Some dazzling creative spaces over here