Interview in Metal Clay Artist Magazine

LIVING an Artful Life

Look what editor Brit Hammer did with a couple of pictures I made from the Furrow Field#1, a silver ring of the earth collection.  She added some great quotes and turned them into beautiful inspirational images featured in her magazine “LIVING an Artful Life”.

This is one of the 5 pages she made with my pictures:

 The ring Furrow Field#1 - silver and gold

Thank you Brit, I hadn’t seen this side of my jewellery yet!

Other gorgeous work from:

• Sue McNenly (cover girl)
• Laura Acuto
• Jaye Houle
• and Brit Hammer

You can download your version on Brit’s site and see all of the inspirational artist showing how to live an artful life:

Lasting impressions on silverclay with paper patterns

This January Art Jewelry Magazine contains an article written by me. I explain in detail how you can use lasercut patterns in paper onto metalclay. On the picture above you see the necklace used in the publication. Silver and copper seastars combined with ammonites from ancient times into a collier. Each element has been made with the paper.

The lasercut patterns, which I use for it, are so easy to use and order. They give a consistent look that is reliable for production work. It's not that I am an affiliate for this product, my only wish is that they stay in business because I love them so much.

Spining Daisies silver earrings Evelyn Pelati

Radiance silver pendant Joy Funnell

But how did I get to know this product?

We have to go back all to May 2010.

When I have a break from working in the studio I always use facebook as my office watercooler. I hang out there to relax, to hear something new, cheer on posts from friends and look at gorgeous jewellery.

So on that day I saw somebody reacting on a post from Rolling Mill Resource. I was curious, I love my mill, it was one of the first big investments in my studio when I started. So I followed the link and saw this message:

Anyone want to try using one of my rolling mill patterns? Just send me a message containing your mailing address and I'll send you one. All I ask in return is if you make a piece of jewelry with it then send me a photo of the finished project that I can use in my website. If you like my patterns and think they are the "bomb" spread the word about my facebook page. If there are problems tell me so I can work them out with you. Tracey Johnson from Rolling Mill Resource

Immediately I send in a request and low and behold on the 2nd of june I had my patterns in the mail. Without hesitation I rolled out clay, oiled the surface and rolled the pattern on it.

WOW, beautiful crisp image. Instant love!
They also work great for the rolling mill but I focused on working with clay on them.

I recorded the several steps and sent them to Tracey (see on her FB page). She was amazed that she fell into a market she hadn’t yet thought of: Metal Clay.

A month later I was going to the PMC (Precious Metal Clay) conference in Purdue, IL (USA). The envelop with patterns travelled with me. I knew I would meet people that could use them and wanted to share.
I still remember standing at a table spreading all the little cardboard papers out and explaining about them. Evelyn Pelati was one of the people who where curious.

Jill Erikson was also interested, as an editor for AJM she asked if i would write an article about it. Ofcourse I said. Submitting to the magazine and getting the approvals took quite some time, but I am more than happy about the result in print.

If you want to try them yourself, like Joy Funnell did, go to Tracey's facebook page.
There you can find her Etsy shop where she sells the patterns.

Have fun creating!

Re-launch of website and blog, welcome!

You know that you have to do “something” but postpone it because it such a gigantic task? Well, re-building this site with the newest software was such a thing. In September I re-thought the logic of my several sites to combine them into one. Then I started with a fresh site and kept on building throughout October.

Today I am happy to present you my new La Leipsig Jewels site with the blog incorporated.
It is by no means ready. I still have to add many new product pages, but it functions well enough to get going. The foundation has been laid from where I can grow.

I have been building sites for small companies and artists since 2006 in many different platforms. What I accomplished in this La Leipsig Jewels site I am really proud of. It’s a bilingual, self-hosted site and webshop for my jewellery. Although the shop cannot take orders yet, as it is set to catalogue until it is ready (circa first of December).

One thing I couldn’t take over from the old blog site were the comments, so please feel free to re-add your thoughts about my posts. For my subscribers that wait already this long to see my next post for “Process as a Design Tool”, thank you for your patience. I have committed myself to write the next post for the end of November.

Then my latest news is that I am the featured artist and cover girl (with my Dragonskin bracelet) on the fall issue of Metal Clay Today. It feels like a reward for all the hard work.

Three silver pendants in Metal Clay & Color by Mary Wohlgemuth