Lately, I've been working on making things out of resin besides belt buckles. I've made a bunch of Tiny Pins, cuff links, and also the earrings pictured to the left. I hope to have more new and interesting things coming soon. Any other suggestions? I'd love to hear what you'd like to see from my shop. Please leave a comment here.

On December 6th, Alene Couture Jewellery & Accessories will be participating in the Holiday Makers' Market on James Street North in Hamilton. (See the poster to the left for more info! You can click the image for a larger view.)

Getting Ready for the Holiday Season

I've made lots of updates to my Etsy shop over the last month, and it may be more full now than it has ever been. Please checkout my latest listings here.

The picture to the left is an older belt buckle design that I have revisited. Hey, people like it, so why not? As all of my resin pieces, this one's a little bit different than the others.

"Sorry About That"

If you find yourself on James Street North in Hamilton this Friday (October 10th), keep an eye open for some of my work in the window of Hamilton Jewellers. "Sorry About that" was design by local artist, Andrew McPhail. I constructed it out of sterling wire and chain this past winter.

Metal Forming

Here's another project from my fourth semester at George Brown. I made this pendant in Metal Forming B. I utilized two different metal forming techniques to make it, the first being the Plunkett fold. The bottom part was die formed with the use of hammers and a die that I made specifically for this purpose.

This project stood out from the others for me, because I found the class to be much more relaxed than the others I had, and I think that helped me to work much more confidently and ultimately make fewer mistakes. I also haven't had much experience with metal forming, so this really opened my eyes to the plasticity and memory of certain metals.

New Item Promotion

Starting with my next listing on Etsy, I'm going to offer free shipping for the first week after I have any new item listed (this won't apply to most re-listed items). Hopefully, this will succeed at keep people interested and coming back to my shop on a regular basis. Stay tuned for a new barn swallow resin brooch coming soon. The barn swallow brooch design has been quite popular in the past, so I'm going to be bringing it back in both brooch and belt buckle form.

Koi Belt Buckle

I thought I was trough with making resin belt buckles, until I finished this particular buckle the other night. It turned out just great. I just ordered a bunch more metal findings, so I can start making more of them again.

Ring Reconstruction

I had planned to share more of my school experiences on here shortly after leaving GBC, but just kept procrastinating. Finally, I’m here. I plan to talk about at least a couple of other projects that stood out for me.

This particular ring was not something I made initially, but something I made better in repair class by reconstructing the bezel and polishing the band.

In the “before” photo you can see how poorly the bezel around the stone was made and how banged up the ring was.

The “After” picture shows what the ring looks like now. The bezel is even and the finish is a high polish. I also opened up the back of the setting so the stone shines much more brightly. I'm quite proud of this ring because of the contrast between the before and after.

Find Me on Facebook!

You can now become a "fan" of Alene Couture Jewellery & Accessories on Facebook by clicking here.

Photos

My photo link has been updated. To see a slideshow of my work, please click here. I also updated my online shop a couple of weeks ago and then again today with some beadwork.

The Work of Robert K. Chen

I thought it would be interesting to share some of the work of at least one of my classmates from George Brown College. Robert Chen is a graduate of the Jewellery Arts Program at GBC, a program that differs from the one that I took in that it runs a year longer and students have the opportunity to focus on perfecting their design skills as well as their technical skills. The award-winning rings to the left are an example of some of Rob's work.

"My Formula is: 1", a composition of three rings in bronze, sterling silver, and 22k yellow gold, which have been highlighted with colour using a specialized car paint application, won Best in Show for 4th annual Zilberschmuck Art - Jewellery National Juried Exhibition of Canadian Fine Jewellery and Metalwork. For this Exhibition, Canadian jewellers and metalsmiths both professional and jewellery arts students were invited to interpret the term “FORMULA”. This word motivated Rob to make Mercedes-Benz F1 race car inspired rings, the materials referencing firsts, second, and third place winners of Formula 1 racing.

My Etsy Treasury

If you've ever been to etsy.com you would have noticed that there's always a colourful collection of items on the front page. These items are chosen from a bunch of lists that people who frequent the site make called Treasuries. I made a Treasury the other day featuring a few of my favourite Canadian Etsy artists, including a couple from Hamilton and this morning it made it to the front page of the site! It's no longer there, but you can view my treasury here until it expires in about one more day.

Warbler Brooch

It has been way too long since my last (new) addition to my online shop. I finally added this brooch this past Sunday.

I carved the main body of the bird for a class project in Model Making I. I added the branch at a later date and then had it cast in sterling silver. I also set a small stone in it for added interest and sparkle.

Fourth Semester

My full-time career at George Brown has come to an end. The college was kind enough to give us a week of free time in the studio to work on our own personal projects, so over the next week I will be back and fourth between home and school working on a few small things. On Monday, I will be cleaning out my bench and hopefully getting back all of my projects from the past year. I look forward to sharing photos and experiences of a few things that I've done.