Eye of Lamia

"She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,

Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;

Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,

Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd;

And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,

Dissolv'd, or brighter shone, or interwreathed

Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries -

So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries,

She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf,

Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self ..."

~ Lamia – John Keats ~

I am so excited to share this latest piece with you! Not everyone's taste, I admit ... but definitely an absolute blast to make. It is pieces such as this that evoke the sense of play in me. It is pieces like this that make me giggle when it finally works :) I'm like a little kid I know.

The Eye of Lamia began with a single eyelid; made of repurpose copper, it was hammered into shape without the use of any dapping tools, just an old driftwood with plenty of curved crevices and a ball hammer.

The eyelash are synthetic lashes, and peacock feathers. Such DRAMA!!

And then the "armored socket" I call it ... in the form of a heart, made from epoxy clay, sculpted, painted and sealed. The 'armor' is also repurpose copper.

The coolest thing about this piece is, the eyelid moves! The eyelid opens when the chain drop is gently tugged downwards. 

Yearnings & Repetitions

Lately I've been really attracted to adventure. I think my heart yearns to go places. Unfortunately the body is kinda stuck here. It's a good thing that the imagination is still able to take flight. Having made 2 Time Travel pieces, I had to make one last one before telling myself to move on. So here's the last piece of its kind ... slightly different as this piece addresses missed opportunities and what ifs.

Unlike my Time Traveler who is able to move through time in his alternate reality, in the real world we cannot. Unlike the clock face on my time pendant whose numbers are reversed, in reality that does not happen. The Time is Now reminds us to take action now, for once it passes, you could never turn back time.

When I say adventure, I really mean it :) I couldn't stop making stuff with maps! These 3 pieces are proof of to how much my heart yearns for exploration.

EnRoute

EnRoute II

a Traveling Bohemian

 

Speaking of repetitions ... I've been repeatedly using my resin too. It's so weird, I was never really comfortable with resin. The ICE Resin I bought 2 years ago, I hardly touched until this week. This week, I opened it at least 5 times and used at least a quarter of it. ((O_O)) This is the last pair of earrings made with ICE Resin. Rhythm and Blues.

And then, there's this. I am Passion.

The 5 elements used in this piece; Wheel, Wings, Bell, Heart represents I live, I soar, I seek, I feel with Passion. And finally, I embody Passion in the form of the house-vessel ... I am Passion.

A Love Beyond Time

“Hey mister … wake up! Wake up! Are you alright?”

The Time Traveler jolted up and came face to face with a shabbily clothed young man. He took a glance around trying to make out his new surroundings as quickly as he can so that he could plan for his next course of action. Most of the time he would wake up disappointed, but this time there was something different. The air smelt familiar. As his eyes finally focused on some of the things around him, his heart skipped a beat. He jumped straight up from the weathered worn wooden bench that he was lying on and grabbed the scruffy stranger by the collar, or what’s left of a collar. The Time Traveler uttered the first word that came to his mind.

“Lamarque!?

The stranger looked at him curiously and answered, “Lamarque’s dead! Died a long time ago … you dunno?”

“How long ago? What year is it? WHAT YEAR IS IT?”

“Hey mister, get your hands off me! It’s 1857 for Christ’s sake!”
The stranger limped away quickly.

As the Time Traveler contemplated the date, his hand clutched harder onto his Time Amulet.

‘how did I screw up this time?!’ He thought angrily.

“25 years off!”, he muttered to himself.

And then he caught sight of a building across the city square that made his heart beat wildly. Immediately, he ran towards the building, passing a huge sign on the way that read ‘PARIS’

He was looking up at the ornate old building once again. Even now in its half decrepit state; it brought back memories of the time he spent here with the girl he loved with all his heart … one whom he has been searching for the last 15 years. Slowly, he climbed the creaking stairway, not knowing what to expect. Very soon, he was facing the wooden door he was so familiar with. The door was slightly ajar, so he carefully pushed it open and peeked inside.

The little apartment that he used to live in, now looked very different. For one, it was mostly in pink. He took a step in and the floor creaked beneath him.

“Mother? Is that you? Did you leave something?”, came a female voice from what he use to remember as the kitchen.

Before he could turn to leave, a young lady, not more than 25, dressed in a simple frock came out. On her neck was a pendant not unlike the one he was clutching in his hand. They had the same compass, only the one she was wearing had a heart in it. It had writings on it that resembled his. And a key hung beneath the pendant, a key that was once his …

Every emotion he possessed, he felt it at that very moment. This was the face that he was searching the universe for the last 15 years, and now she is standing not more than 5 feet away from him. But yet, there was something very wrong. The time was wrong. According to the stranger he met outside, this face should be 25 years older. Finally, seemingly confused, the time traveler whispered,

“Satin?”

A look of realization suddenly dawned upon the young lady’s face.

“Father?”

Those of you who have read my last post would remember why the Time Traveler had to return to Paris. Well, he finally did, only to find out that he had 2 gals waiting for him instead of just one. I wonder how he'll handle that!

Anyhow, this piece is now on my etsy ... not the physical piece, but the PDF Tutorial on how to construct this piece :) It's a 54 page tutorial with over 90 photos. Even more extensive than my last tutorial! Because this one had so many different elements to write on, for instance - simple metal working, how to work with epoxy clay, alternative uses of acrylic paint etc. But the most interesting part of this piece is how to make a bezel without fire or solder. I have always wanted to make a piece with a bezel that can hold little fragments of timeless objects and then freeze them in time with ICE Resin. But I could never make one cos I don't solder or own a torch. But in this piece, I've come up with a way to construct a no-solder bezel :) And not only that, it's a bezel made with wires ... yet, it holds ICE Resin with no problems of leakage or spillage :)

If you have some time, do pop over to my Etsy and have a look :)

Thank you all for your comments in the last 2 posts ... I am always really happy and excited to read what you guys have to say :)

the Time Traveler

As soon as he opened his eyes, he knew exactly where he was. With a dejected sigh, he released the hatch and climbed out of the capsule. He glanced to his right, the mainframe flashed

‘Orion - Year 3032AD’.

It did not surprise him. Still clutching onto his amulet, his eyes squinted at the amulet’s compass. Somewhere in Denmark ... Darn! So near, but not enough. Unsuccessful yet again.

He ran his fingers across the etched stone-like fragment on the amulet.

“Paris”, he whispered softly to himself …

‘Damn Lamarque for dying! Damn those crazy people! How can 100,000 of them appear in one day?! We don’t even have 100,000 people here in the Republic!. Those were the curses going on in his head as he walked towards the mainframe. He needed to get back to that point in time where they were supposed to meet and run away together. And then suddenly, the streets were filled with throngs and throngs of angry bodies, all wanting blood. He waited at the window of his quaint apartment anxiously. Where is she? And then it happened. ‘No … no NO! Not now!’. As if they could hear him! He could feel his molecules collapsing. In dismay, the only thing he managed to grab was a letter she had written to him after their first meeting. He needed something to remind him of this place, and of her. He was coming back for her … no matter what it took.

‘Curse them for warping me back to the Time Ship!. That was 15 years ago. Still caressing the stone-like fragment, he remembered tearing out a little piece of the letter where the Paris stamp was and attaching it to the Time Amulet that he had constructed, so that he will never forget his destination. Through time, even though the piece of letter had petrified and turned to stone, his heart never stopped loving Satin. With that, he resets the coordinates on the mainframe and walks back to the time capsule.

Coordinates : Earth 48:51:17N 2:20:12E

Destination : Paris, France

Year : 1832AD

 

I hope you liked the story ;) Hot from the over, this piece called the Time Traveler was completed just last night. 

Before this I was playing with 2 pairs of earrings. Both rather huge ... for my normal earring standards. But what can I say, they were both inspired by women of strength.

This one I gave an Elven name, Maethor-Aranel which translates to Warrior-Princess

And this, is Helen of Troy.

In fact, these 3 pieces, the necklace and the earrings, all have one thing in common. They all began their existence with pieces of repurpose metal given to me by a good friend and wonderful artist, Barry of Rustnstuff. Barry works with metal and all of his art began their lives as something else, everyday items like serving trays, old pots, metal trash that people discard. And in Barry's hands, these items are cut up, torched, hammered, formed and worked into beautiful sculptural pieces. I was lucky enough to be sent quite a heap of metal pieces, some already worked by him into components, some still in their cut up unworked state. And this week I've been inspired to work on his gifts. I do hope he likes what he sees :) If you haven't yet met Barry, you should pop over to his place and marvel at his wonderful work! Simple click any "Barry"s and it will take you there :)

Beloved

They were deeply in love, even though they were as different as night and day. He was the King of the Dark Realm, and she was the Star-Child of the Realm of Light. But she would follow him into the darkest abyss if he asked her to. He could never ask that of her; for if the darkness didn’t kill her, his Dark Queen would. There was only one place for both of them to have a chance to be happy. There was a place where neither Dark nor Light could exist. It was the Void.

He created for her a Mansion from black steel. Once she entered, she could never exit. It was not to imprison her, but to protect her from the Void. The Void could literally suck the light out of her. Within the Mansion, he created never-ending meadows and woodlands where she could roam, luscious gardens full of flowers and a home filled with shelves and shelves of books that she loved so much. He promised to see her whenever he could get away from the Queen. They laid in each others arms until the sun set. It was time for the King to leave. But before he left, he created for her a gift so precious, and he begged her to wear it on her neck at all times. It was an amulet that would protect her from all dangers. But most importantly, this amulet was the one way to reach him. Whenever she would need him, she only had to gently tug the quartz on either sides of the amulet and speak “Beloved, I need you” ... and he would appear before her instantaneously. With that, the King gently kissed his concubine on the lips, spread his wings and disappeared into the Void.

This mixed media necklace took me many hours to conceptualize. It began its life with the synthesis of metal with fire, paint, resin and clay.

And then it morphed into its current “creature-like” state,

yet still retaining some form of fantasmal elegance … so I hope :)

From concept, I now wanted to add the mechanics that I dreamed that it could do. There were plenty of constructions and frustrating deconstructions, but it was all worth it when I finally got it to work the way I wanted it to work.

And I am tickled pink with it!

hidden messages

In my last post, I unintentionally started a new line which I called the Hidden Series. It began with a dream I had. To read about the dream, go here. A friend over at Facebook, Teena, then suggested a scroll for my second Hidden Series piece. And so I took up the suggestion.

The conception of the scroll vessel ...

and then, it developed into this ...

The hidden message within the vessel was inspired by a conversation between me and a friend. She was contemplating if it was worth it to fight for something that she really wanted. In the midst of that conversation, I was reminded of a thought that ran across my mind on my birthday earlier this year. I thought to myself, I have already lived more than half my life on this earth, and if I’m lucky, I’ll have perhaps 35 more years here. I told myself that I want to make each moment worth it … That is the very quote I chose to house in this scroll vessel.

This was sold within seconds of listing ... to Teena :)

So far, the Hidden Series seems to be inspired by friends who surround me everyday with positivity and great energy. Again in my next Hidden Series piece, I am reminded of another wonderful friend and sculptor, Barry Smith’s concept of “Daily Words”.  Barry would stamp words on repurpose metals and put them in metal shrines/bowls he creates. Each morning he would pick up a word and hold it in his palm. How wonderful it must be, to feel the coolness of the metal and to feel the energy of the written word permeate through one’s body.

With that as inspiration, I decided to create a miniature book with hidden Words of Light, hidden within a miniature house. This mixed media necklace mainly comprises of repurpose copper/brass (also courtesy of Barry) and mixed metal wires.

 

The house is a totally no-solder piece where the corners, hinges and wire-mesh are all folded, tied or bent into place. I would like to think of it as a piece of metal origami creation :)

The little golden wing on the cover of the book signifies light. It peeks thru the wire-mesh when the door is closed, just appearing under the word “Light”.

The miniature book is handmade out of leather, lace and coffee stained pages, and is removable from the house. The Words of Light within the book are from an old novel. These are some words that I gravitate towards.

I'm pretty excited by the potential of this series ... let's see what inspires me next :)