Rubina Panjwani: Jewelry Artist

Rubina Panjwani will be at the Oak Ridges Community Center on the 17 and 18 of October for the Richmond Hill Studio Tour and this is her blog post.

I am a creative person and familiar with a variety of crafts. With respect to jewelry design, I am very interested in wire wrapping techniques, which is a technique that dates back thousands of years. Wire wrapping requires the use different kinds and shape of wires, cabochon, beads,and an array of tools.

This is a piece of jewelry as it is being created.

Here it is completed.

My motivations come from Mother Nature. A hoping frog, Fall colours, trees in the winter-time, colourful flowers, majestic birds, and beautiful butterflies - anyone of these sights can prove inspiring. When I make jewelry, I don't usually draw first. In the past I have tried that, but drawing a pre-set notion of what I want to create often feels restricting. When I just follow my train of thoughts and let my hands keep up, the wire-wrapping takes me in unique directions, and then I add-in beads or work on cabochon. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I never repeat my designs. All my designs come from my heart and soul, and a place of freedom. In fact, I do my best work when I too am happy and at peace. Making jewelry is certainly not as easy as it may seem. You require imagination, yes - but it also needs patience, effort, hard-work and persistence. An important piece of advice for aspiring wire-wrappers is to remember that wire has a soft nature. When you stress wire, it becomes hard and stiff; it refuses to listen to you and bend to your whims and becomes difficult to work with. Be gentle in your approach.

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend. Please click here to see the brochure so that you can visit the Richmond Hill Studio Tour artists this weekend.

Studio Tour Featured Artist - Vera Samarkina

Vera Samarkina, a wonderful new to the studio tour this year shares her artwork and thoughts on her process in this week's post.

Born to an artistic family, I grew up surrounded by watercolors, brushes, stained glass and sculptures, but it wasn't until I started doodling - a passion that brings lines to life in a somewhat meditative process and naturally intertwines into animal and floral images, which are often finished with slight touches of color.

My inspiration comes from nature - vibrant flowers, green valleys, and peaceful lakes fill my canvas. Spending time outdoors with my family always puts me into a creative mode. My absolute favorite place is Algonquin park, where it seems I can stay forever and just paint. I love this feeling of freedom. My creative process is very spontaneous and each piece may take as little as 15 minutes or many weeks. Sometimes I keep painting for days on end, allowing the work to stay in a raw and quite state for weeks. However, whenever the urge appears, even if it is late at night or half way through my house chores, I pull out all my brushes, put up music and set the stage to paint, just as a rock star would, as they are about to perform.

Check out the brochure for Vera's location info, dates and times of the Studio Tour!   

Karen Pasieka - Polymer Clay Artist

This week, Karen Pasieka is sharing her inspiration and how one of her most beloved pieces was formed.

When I had made my first ranunculus flower brooch, I noticed that I had accidentally created a simple cane with the offcut.

I never discard any clay, and I saw an opportunity with these byproduct canes to make simple, graphic flowers when left in miniature.  For Pick Me! II, I filled a wide band of the polymer clay tile (which is a sheet of clay that I created, blended from soft teal blue to white to simulate the sky) with a cluster of these varied cane slices.  I create my composition by first placing in the flowers, then painstakingly fill in the stems from each and every flower head!

The final product is baked and then mounted in a shadow box frame.

Sometimes my inspiration comes from what I see in nature, and other times simply by the vibrant colours from my bins of clay.  When I'm working well and frequently, the designs and compositions run through my head and I simply cannot wait to get to creating them.  Very rarely do I ever sketch before I create.

I have always been a creative soul, and have been crafting and making art of various forms from various media since I was a little girl...polymer clay is the one that I always return to...I think it's the tactile nature of the medium that love so much!

Looking forward to sharing more of my work and inspiration with you during the Studio Tour! Check out the brochure for location info, dates and times!

Wendy Emery: Glass Artist

Wendy Emery is a glass artist who will be showing her work at her own studio at this years' studio tour on October 17th and 18th! Wendy wanted to share with us all the fun she has with glass...

As a child I was told to be wary of glass, I heard things like,  "Be careful it's glass!" or "Don't touch it you'll break it!" I guess I was a rebel, because I didn't listen. Now I play with glass all day long. I think it's because glass really fascinates me. I am intrigued by what happens when I break, cut, smash, grind, shape and sometimes polish my pieces of glass.

My favorite however, is when the glass is heated to extreme temperatures (sometimes over 1500 degrees F), and I am able to manipulate the glass, making it stretch, and watching it bend curl, and twist.

I love that glass has a liquid quality in it's solid state, and that not only depth but so many different textures can be achieved when fusing glass. 

So glad I was a rebel!!! Can't wait to see you during the tour! Check out my location details in the brochure.