Enamelist Society Student Exhibition

I'm so honored to be a part of the Enamelist Societies Student Exhibition.

The pieces featured in the online exhibition are quite impressive and beautiful.  I especially love Dru Patrick's wall piece, you can view the rest of the entries and winners in the link above.

My Heart on Fire brooch, below, was accepted into the exhibition. 

Heart on Fire,
Copper, sterling silver, powder coating, enamel, decal.

Thank you for stoppin' by.
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Living Jewelry

I have mixed feelings about this new interest in live jewelry. Poor little beetles! I'd prefer to find a dead one and make a mold than dress up a lil' creature with heavy weight on it's back.

It seems to stem from a Mayan tradition of wearing Maquech jewelry, "Maquech brooches have women swarming to pick up one of the hottest accessories: live beetles covered in small gems that are worn as jewelry. The pet-cessories may seem shocking to some, but they're actually part of a centuries-old tradition that stems from the Mayans. When the artists glue small, colorful gems onto the bugs, they also frequently add bits of gold trim chain, attaching a clip that can be used to wear the beetle on clothing" -Huffington Post

What do you think?

Living jewelry. Tenebrionid beetle.

Courtesy Virginia Scott, Entomology Section,
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

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Heart on Fire

I finished my Heart on Fire brooch a month ago but wasn't yet ready or perhaps feeling skeptical about posting it.

This brooch along with the Lady of Life and Death are my Mexican trip inspired pieces. It was really fun to use such bright colors and go a little crazy with layering metal and expressing my Catholic upbringing.

I definitely experienced some issues with putting all three pieces together and in the end had to create the silver rivet heads you see on it, instead of concealing how it was all attached.

Lisette Fee 2012 Enameled and powder coated copper,
steel and sterling silver rivets.
@Images not to be reproduced without permission.

Back of the brooch, 'cause you always have to look at it!
Enameled and powder coated copper,
steel and sterling silver rivets.
@Images not to be reproduced without permission.

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more images for Preyed Upon exhibition

More wonderful images of the work that will be on display at the Preyed Upon Exhibition at Art Avenue Gallery in two weeks.

Mike McAteer's miniature mossy snail world.
@All images reserved Mike McAteer

Marlene True's Hare brooch.
@All images reserved Marlene True

Rachel Qualliotine bullet and fur neckpiece
@all images reserved Rachel Qualliotine

Thank you for visiting my blog!
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The Hunted - Buried brooch

Sterling silver claws from my talon mold.

Fossilized stone embedded in resin,with my secret ingredient.

Another addition to my Hunted series, though this brooch is not for sale yet. I love how you can see through the back. Resin and acrylic are fun to play with!

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my new obsession

Deer antler! One of my bench mates in the undergrad studio had been working with deer antler for awhile and I asked him where he procured them. Well, luckily, he gets them from another undergrad metals student, Luke Price. His family does alot of hunting (what family in North Carolina doesn't?).

So I spoke with Luke and we did a trade; a pack of smokes for two antlers. Deer antler has this beautiful ivory/tree grain quality, and it's soft. So I began cutting it up and found that the antlers worked really well with my starfish cast pieces.
And above are 3 of my pieces for Casting I class...I still have 2 more to knock out before tomorrow...so I plan on making earrings. That makes 2, right?
I hadn't really seen any of Luke's work until this morning and I almost had a heart attack from the beauty of his 3 brooches for Mi-Sook Hur's Jewelry I class. Luke also used antler, he carved them into 3 cabochons, of varying sizes. I really, REALLY, want one of these brooches. Luke also used wasps hives...at first I thought they were beehives. Aren't they gorgeous? Pin It

tentacles

Above are the 'tentacle' wax molds ready to be sprued. I hollowed out the back, so they aren't so heavy and I don't need to use alot of silver. We'll cast these on Monday and see how they come out.

In the meantime, I'm going to ECU's Metal Guild Charm swap! This time it's going to be a brunch, I'm bringing bacon and spinach quiche.

Here is a quick shot of my charm.
Initially this piece of silver and riveted coral were meant to be a pendant but then I abandoned it for a bit and came back with fresh eyes and decided it was meant to be an odd looking charm.

Another reason I'm excited to attend the charm swap is to show off a brooch my friend made, Josh Craig, he's a new metals grad student. I first noticed Josh's work from Crafthaus and then further when he attended ECU's first Materials Symposium. I'm quite taken by his bowls and now his brooches....hopefully we'll do a trade in the future.

Here's his brooch:
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caught by the hair

cameo2 detail
Originally uploaded by borderlinebarbie

Isn't this cameo brooch fascinating? It's made by Barbara Smith, a first year graduate student at SUNY-New Paltz in the metals program. On the back it has a momento of someone's hair, which people used to do back in the middle ages and probably earlier than that.
I found Barbara's work on flickr and many of her pieces contain of some sort of hair.

The tooth in this brooch is especially cool to me!

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