Rustnstuff: Bone jewellery

Showing posts with label Bone jewellery. Show all posts

Friday, October 29, 2021

Bone jewellery

I got to finish a stash of bone jewellery (earrings and pendants) today - some of the earrings above.

Quite a bit of work goes into cleaning, cutting, grinding and polishing the recycled bone - and I'm not always happy with the end results so some bits are not used.

Some process photos follow including some metal and buffalo horn that was prepared for toggles on the pendants.

Photos of completed pendants and earrings.

A good achievement for the day.

Friday, February 28, 2020

Whilst we are still in the thick of moving the letterpress studio I wanted to grab a couple of hours to do a bit of creative stuff. The easy option was to finish some paper and bone earrings that had been in progress.

The paper earrings are a collaboration between Fiona and I. Fiona did the peace and love calligraphy on something like 800gsm scraps of rag paper. I dyed one lot purple; and them cut the pieces up into approximately 10mm squares. The paper in the earrings is offset with silver and crystals

With the bone I just wanted to use the natural forms of some small bones - cut into about 8mm slices. The bone is completed by solid silver beads.

It was nice to step out of the demands of moving for a little while.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Buildings, brass and bones

Fiona and I were away in Melbourne for a few days of work - facilitating conferences. One conference was on the 17th floor of a city building - I just loved being able to look out at the cranes dancing in the landscape and sky - cities never seem to be finished.

And looking down on the bare trees 17 stories below.

On our way home on Saturday we dropped in to the recycling fair at our local show-grounds to buy a stash of silver-plate. Got there just before the stall holders packed up.

Today there were many tasks to be done on the block; but I managed to cut and clean bone for earrings.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Mini pod and bone

As the title says this blog post touches on the mini pod I completed over the weekend; and the preparation of bone for carving.

First the mini pod. Called a mini because the finished pod is about 45mm at its widest point and 39cm in diameter across the top. The most difficult thing about hammering out a small pod is being able to hold it firmly on the metal stake and not hit one's thumb or finger. A few process photos follow.

As you can see from the photos below this pod is quite small compared to the earlier hand shaped pod. I was pleased with the outcome.

Recently I saw a book on bone carving in one of the local second hand book shops. I thought it would be interesting to give carving a go since I have used bone and horn in jewellery. I also wanted to see how one prepared the bone. Of course it sorted with buying a couple of large beef bones and getting the butcher to saw the knuckles off. All the surplus meat and coating on the bones had to be scraped off and marrow removed. I thin cut the bones into rectangles to enable me to finish the scraping and brushing before soaking in detergent and bleach. the dried bone looks ready for carving.

The bone I have used in the past for jewellery has usually been through a cooking process. According to the book this results in oil etc penetrating the bone. Processing it as I did is supposed to produce whiter bone - we will see.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Assembling the bits

On Saturday I enjoyed a bit of time assembling the pieces of bone, horn and metal objects that I cut and ground on Friday.

One of the joys of making is bringing the varied bits we make together to make a new whole. I think the following photos show how humble materials can be enhanced and brought together to create small pieces of wearable art.

We have had a wet Sunday today so more time was spent in the garage-studio rather than working on the block. I did a lot of dismantling silver-plated objects gifted to me; and I cut many silver-plated pieces that will be given new life in a few planned projects.

Friday, December 14, 2018

Making bits

There are times when one's creative effort goes into: cleaning; the making of components for the planned works; and the website shop. Today had them all.

We started the day by washing a box of beautiful wood letterpress type - more on that another time. After packing and posting a purchase from my website shop I was able to get into jewellery component making.

Recently a customer bought all the bone pendants, with negative space, that I had in my stock. So I thought over the weekend I would replenish the shelf. Of course along the way there will be other pieces made.

The following photos are simply about the stages of cutting, grinding and polishing.