I went from sparkly little girl necklaces to a beach-combing, sustainable piece this week.
It uses nettle string through drilled bone, small turquoise beads and beach finds to make an environmentally friendly necklace.
The finds include a piece of a whistle, and a tube lid. It also has a piece of pau shell, a mother of pearl offcut and a disc from an old necklace. The copper clasp is bound to the nettle string using old electrical copper wire.
I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted. I got caught up in the pandemic in Japan early in 2020 and haven’t posted since. Here we go though:-
My granddaughters asked me to make them necklaces using bits from my workshop last week; and here are the finished pieces.
They both use pearls from Puri, glass waist beads from Togo and crystals from Prague; one has a pierced silver scrap piece that I got from a fellow art student and the other a pierced mother of pearl piece from a different friend.
They are simple and shiny because they are for small children. I’ll pop them in the post today and they’ll arrive for Chinese New Year.
However, if you want to see my work there are several pieces at the Wade Gallery in Elie, as shown above. The Wade Gallery opens at weekends until August 18th.
Jan and Richard at the Fisher Gallery have re-opened for the Pittenweem Arts Festival and have several pieces of mine in a silver copper alloy and in iron.
So although I’m not at showing at Pittenweem Arts Festival this year there is an opportunity to see and buy my work in the East Neuk over the festival period.
Keny, Fraser and Nicola are also at other venues this year.
2019’s open studios has been and gone. The weather was lovely and lots of people visited; and several people bought pieces or commissioned new work.
Commissions included a charm bracelet as a gift for a niece in Canada, which included a dolphin from the Firth of Forth; and a neck piece using an piece of carved peat that was a brooch from my childhood. I’ll show progress on this piece in a later post.
A sea water patinated bowl went to a new home as did a sea drift necklace.
It’s always good to show people my work and studio and I particularly like new commissions.
I’ve started test pieces for the glass poppy petals that I want for a commissioned piece commemorating Dunkirk.
Keny Drew at East Neuk Glass let me try out some different moulds, colours of glass and different glass thicknesses.
I now need to try thinner glass and make my own irregular moulds because these are too chunky and symmetrical; but the process has started and thinner glass will be easier to cut.
Thanks Keny
julia cowie
This silver frame-ring, Sea-drift necklace has a blue, lapis lazuli drop, a solid silver heart and a witch stone. The belcher chain and the ring and bar fastening are also silver. The reverse of the frame ring is textured using a beach stone and the necklace can be worn either way.
julia cowie
This penultimate necklace in the sea-drift ring series (for now at least) has a brass, domed, corroded washer from the beach in Cellardyke, a hollow silver bead and silver charm. It has a silver belcher chain, silver frame-ring which is textured using a stone from the beach and my ring and bar fastening.
julia cowie
This silver necklace has a lapis drop, the Forth dolphin and a silver heart all handing from a silver-frame ring. The chain is a silver belcher chain and the clasp is my own bar and ring fastening so it is easy to wear.
The sea didn’t bring me the witch stone direct, it’s from a beach in New Zealand; the glass bead is from Czech Republic and the dolphin charm is obviously a Firth of Forth dolphin. Just putting together some individual pieces for ENOS 2019 which are sort-of sustainable as I’m not buying new stuff.
I finished this piece on Sunday. It is part of a bone counter with a little tab from an old necklace and a hammered silver ring.
I also took a photo of the rising moon as I probably wouldn’t wake up for the eclipse.
juliacowie 