Instead of crocheting with yarn, Janet uses fine gauge wire to construct intricate and wearable art. She often uses natural gemstones mixed with freshwater pearls, crystals, and glass beads. All beading components are lead and nickel free. The combinations of pairings are endless, making each piece truly unique. A broken string of Grandma’s pearls can begin a new life as a bracelet or a newly designed crochet wire necklace.
Crochet necklace with amethyst and apatite
La Principessa is one of Maryilyn Clayton’s pieces that she is very proud of and it employs various types of wire work.
Principess Necklace
This necklace began with a foundation of base wires which is the foundation for this piece. Very thin wire is then woven to make the woven silver seen on the lower part of the work. The Ametrine stones (citrine and Ametrine blended together in nature) were wired in afterwards. Next came the braid that you see in rose gold-filled and silver on the top-most section. This was formed using an ancient Japanese braiding technique called Kumihimo.
Kumihimo bracelet
Also pictured is a bracelet which is also formed using the kumihimo disc with leather strips for a very different look.
Drop by the gallery today or tomorrow while Marilyn is on duty, and she’ll do a demonstration of the technique should that interest you.
Marilyn Clayton works predominantly with gemstones and uses various methods of wrapping, weaving and connecting the jewellery she makes.
Marilyn likes to have the stones and beads she is working with dictate the medium used. Kumihimo is a versatile system of weaving using cording, thread, wire, etc alone or using beads. Marilyn is seen working the kumihimo in sterling silver and rose gold filled wire to make a flat braided bracelet to go with the ametrine necklace, also pictured.
Here are some pictures of various applications for kumi. The possibilities are endless.
Drop by the gallery and see how it’s done!
Marilyn will be in the gallery next on the 13th & 14th of July.
My Unique Stained Glass Scissors…and no, I don’t run with them!
Janet busy cutting out the hundreds of pieces for a stained glass church window
Before building a stained glass panel, I design the pattern and make two copies of it. I build the glass panel on top of one copy, and cut up the other copy to use as pattern pieces. This second copy gets cut out with a special pair of lead shears. These shears have three blades which automatically remove a thin strip of paper between the two pieces being cut, to compensate for the width of the lead came. This allows the glass to fit together perfectly when assembled with the lead. This process can be time consuming…and we haven’t even started cutting the glass!
Janet’s special shears…you can see where the strip of paper is removed to allow space for the lead came.
What inspires me?
Magazine photos, paintings, old stained glass windows in century homes…and mostly people, like the young father of three, who asked me to make him something special for his wife last Christmas. He asked me to build a transom window to sit over the doorway of his family room. He wanted the word “family” to be in the design, but didn’t want it to stand out.
So, pencil in hand, I started sketching a design. From there, the building of the panel begins. The end result…see for yourself. If you look closely, you will see heavy lead lines to indicate the letters in the word, FAMILY. It was a fun project to work on, and the young husband earned many brownie points too!
