New Beginnings - taking shape

For the last few days, I have been working on my ideas for a range of jewellery and accessories called 'New Beginnings'. This is a little project to satisfy my creative desire to make some tasteful souvenirs for tourists to our country, and to get back into the market/craft fair scene, which I have missed. My long term plan is to use images of my original dot mosaics, but until I have actually made them, I will focus on using one design, based on the Koru.

New Beginnings – hand painted jewellery and accessories by Claire Fairweather

The ‘Koru’ symbol, widely used in Maori art, carving and tattoos, has also come to represent New Zealand (Aotearoa). Derived from an unfurling silver fern frond, it represents new beginnings, growth and harmony. New beginnings both literally, in terms of new life and growth, and also a new start or new phase of life involving personal growth. To be in harmony with life is to understand, grow and change.

The circular balanced shape of the Koru design is attractive to the eye and is a very positive symbol, to be worn with pride. It makes a wonderful gift, especially for a new parent or child, newlyweds, for a new home or anyone starting on a new phase of their life.

New Beginnings seems a very appropriate name for this project, as it has meanings on many levels. Apart from the symbolic meaning of the Koru, this will be my first serious attempt at turning my creativity into a small business, it will also be my first project in my new studio, in my new home. I am hoping that this will be a new phase in my own life, the beginning of a successful venture into a new creative career.

Fingers crossed for Heritage Day craft stall - EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

The weather forecast is not looking good for this event, next Saturday. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will improve but a decision will be made on Friday and it will be cancelled if the weather is too bad.

A Review of December 2009

From the observations made at the two craft markets I did running up to Christmas, I have decided to rethink how I present my Art-Brooches. Despite having printed information, it was quite obvious from every visitor I spoke to, that they did not realize it was a detachable brooch in the frame. So, rather than selling the complete package, I think I will have to sell the Art-Brooches on their own, with the option of purchasing frames to keep them in.

I have been working on some more brooches (CF023 - CF031), using Friendly Plastic, but all the time thinking about future designs that will incorporate other materials for contrast. As there is no market at St Heliers in January, I have booked to do the big art and craft market at Mission Bay, on Auckland Anniversary Day (1st February 2010), which should be a great event if the weather is good.

My plans to do some experimenting, over the Christmas holiday time, with mould-making and casting did not exactly go to plan. We have today, just signed up to move into a great little apartment, right on the beach front, in a couple of weeks time. It is, however, in a totally different location – Browns Bay on the North Shore.

I only managed to have one small go with the casting resin (Easycast) kit but the pieces I made were very thin, so I found that they snapped if you bent them. I do not know how thick a layer it needs to be to have the strength but this has ruled out using it to make the thin additions to my 'cast' brooch ideas. I then started to think maybe polymer clay? But that may well be the same when in a thin layer. I have not had a chance to try the silicone (Pinkysil) for making moulds (I used the reusable KleanKlay) or the doming resin kit, to compare with the Envirotex Lite that I have used previously. After reading all the data/safety sheets for the resins, I do not know how I feel about using them long-term.

Anyway, my creative ideas will have to go on hold for the time being, while we pack up, move in and get settled in our new place. Limitations on space in the new apartment and reorganizing my creative time to fit in with our commute to work means that I will most probably have to change the medium I am working with – it could be a return to Paper Mosaics. So the New Year may well bring a new direction to my art/craftwork.

Art-Brooch Designs CF023 - CF031

A Review of November 2009

Following my first public sales event on the first of this month, I have spent my creative time making butterfly brooches, which was not as easy as I thought to make purely from FP. After many attempts, which looked flat and clumbsy, my last butterfly (CF022) finally captivated the look I was trying to get and I only deemed this one good enough to be sold as an Art-Brooch.

I have also spent a lot of time thinking about combining FP with other materials in my brooches, as I am keen to get different surface textures, particularly matt surfaces to contrast with the high gloss finish of the FP when it has been coated with Envirotex Lite.

Although the design stage is still in my head at the moment, I am thinking of making some moulds from my own designs. This would enable me to cast part of the brooch base (either in resin or clay) relatively easily, so that I can concentrate my time on the inlaid designs with FP and other materials. I may also have come up with a different type of fastening pin that could fit flush into the back of the brooch, so that it would fit into the frame better (which I am also considering casting from my own design as well). Lots more to think about for December!

Successful first event

The first public showing of my Art-Brooch designs took place at the St Heliers Art & Craft Market on Sunday 1 November. This was also my first craft fair in New Zealand. I believe this first event was quite successful considering that visitor numbers to the market on this particular Sunday were extremely low, due to other events going on in Auckland on the same day. This included the Auckland Marathon, which resulted in one of the main roads from the city to St Heliers (and the Harbour Bridge) being closed to traffic.

I was pleased to hear most people say what a great idea the Art-Brooch concept is and that they have not seen anything else like it before. I have been fairly limited in the amount of time I have had available to build the collection of Art-Brooches for this first event. However, I am inspired with ideas which need to be developed to refine the concept and also for new designs to add to the collection.

A mention in the local paper

Newspaper cutting from the East & Bays Courier - Friday 30 October 2009

A Review of October 2009

I am writing this early, as we are going away, to Tauranga, for Labour weekend – a much deserved break! I have worked really hard this month to complete my first 20 Art-Brooches (in addition to the first one, which I am keeping for myself) for my first New Zealand craft fair on 1st November. I have had to use bought frames for displaying my brooches, due to time time constraints, but I intend to work on the idea of designing and casting my own display frames in the future.

CF001 - I will keep this one for myself

To save space, the following photos have been cropped, so the frames are not shown, but hopefully they give an idea of what my Art-Brooches look like.

Art-Brooch Designs CF002 - CF021