A fascination with usable art has lead me on many creative journeys adapting my art to be used in a multitude of ways.
In this post, you can follow my process of creating jewellery pieces from original drawings.
Zodiac and Ocean inspired Designs
I draw inspiration from many different sources, though as symbolism, mythology and the ocean are often featured in my artwork, I thought I’d use two of these designs to show a snapshot of the process from drawing to artwork.
Ink on Paper
Detailed ink drawings (often more than one), is where the idea takes shape. I tend to include more detail than what will be used in the final piece, to ‘set the scene’ and explore the essence. Once the drawing feels ready, I create high resolution scans to work on through refining the artwork with colours. The image above shows the steps for creating Zodiac pendants, featuring the 12 star signs.
Below, the process for creating the Orca pendant, shows development from ink drawing to scanned artwork, to colour version, with the completed pendant on the far right.
Handcrafting Jewellery Pendants:
The finalised and printed artwork is then put through a multitude of steps, to seal, protect and assemble the completed and handcrafted jewellery piece:
- Protect and seal the artwork – for this I apply triple layers, using use a combination of varnish and water-proof sealant.
- Additional hand-painted detail – Some of the larger (pendant) pieces have detail painted on top, using enamel paint.
- Cut the artwork to size – this is done using a cutting board and fine scalpel.
- Seal the artwork edges – a layer of varnish is added to protect the edges of the artwork
- Seal artwork beneath glass cabochon – and leave to cure for 12 hours
- Trim edges around the seal – and adding one more layer of varnish to the base, for extra protection
- Assemble glass cabochon and bezel – and allowing this to cure for 12 hours with weight on top
- Clean and polish – gently removing any remaining sealant + polish the glass dome
- Finishing touches – adding the pendant cord and any additional embellishments to complete the piece.
Explore jewellery pendants via the links below:
