All that glistens may be gold

Colour is an important factor for jewellery no matter whether you prefer the luxurious glint of pure gold or the colder but chic silver.  The bright colours of gems and crystals of course, are also what make them special.

Did you know that the colour we see is the colour the object reflects?  To put it more simply, a red apple absorbs all the colours of the rainbow caught in the light of the sun.  The only colour it doesn’t absorb is red and this is the colour it reflects and the one we see with the human eye.

So what I can hear you all muttering!  Well some clever guys at Southampton University have found ways we can see gold or any other metal as different colours without any chemical applications.  Basically by scratching the surface of the gold in a particular way, the colour it reflects to us can change.

Of course this is could be important for jewellery but even more so for documents like bank notes making them harder to forge.

How clever!

Salisbury Art Trail

The bi-annual event is well underway with only 3 days left to discover local talent and their creations. See artists’ work in galleries, studios and in their homes with some offering workshops for you to participate in. Enjoy installation art, textiles, jewellery, photography, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, painting, glass and sculpture.

This is the first year armcandii is exhibiting in the trail and we can be found in Fisherton Mill - the south of England's largest independent art gallery – alongside other invited and resident artists. We are debuting collections ‘sewn’ and ‘doodle’ with existing collection ‘couture’.


Sewn: textural hand sewn wire jewellery with suspended vintage elements

Doodle: sculptural hand 'doodled' wire jewellery with vintage elements

 

Couture: statement hand knitted wire jewellery with vintage elements

The Mill is this perfect place to start the trail and fuel up on coffee and cake whilst you plan your route. Or drop in for a well earned lunch halfway through and stay for afternoon tea. The food alone is worth the visit.

And if you don’t manage to get to the Mill during the trail, you can still find us there after the 16th October or purchase via our website.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and Flickr.

armcandii now showing at Fisherton Mill

Hooray, we're installed! You can now 'try before you buy' if you head over to Fisherton Mill in Salisbury...

couture necklace

What weekends were made for

We're so excited...our jewellery will soon be available at Fisherton Mill. 

hand knitted wire cuff embellished with vintage pieces & freshwater pearls

For those of you who are not familiar with the Mill, it is the south of England's largest independent art gallery and features the work of over 300 artists and designer/makers. Formerly a grain mill built in 1880, it now houses gallery space, studios and a fabulous cafe.

It is situated in Salisbury, Wiltshire and definitely worth a visit. Think lazy Saturday afternoon...punctuated with fabulous food in a building that wouldn't look out of place on Grand Designs, filled with beautiful objects to browse if you can drag yourself away from the paper...you're already there aren't you?!

Opening times:
10-5pm - Tuesday - Friday
9.30-5.30pm - Saturday

The jewellery or the website...which came first?

Well...the jewellery came first in armcandii's case & dictated the need for a website - an essential marketing tool for any designer/maker who wants to reach the masses. 

But what I'm really asking is which comes first on a daily basis? Which is priority? Both need each other after all. I'm constantly torn because I'm passionate about design & can express myself through both mediums. I can lose myself for hours in either...fortunate in some respects, because I can design our website to look & do exactly what we want, but the jewellery doesn't make itself...

And the point of all this deliberating? Our recently revamped website. Many hours well spent showcasing our current collections: couture, celebration & confetti. It's worth a look, if only to see where I used the hours I could have been re:designing vintage jewellery!

Recycling vintage porcelain

Annie Banian uses 'shards of discarded tea-services' according to 'Intelligent Life' to create her refined and unusual jewellery.

For comissioned work customers bring her ceramics for her to transform into jewllery and she claims almost every piece comes with a story. From a grandmother's cherished cup to a favourite cake stand. Annie turns the momento into something cusomters can wear.

She cuts porcelain with a handsaw if the china is valuable. Her creations range from rings made from tea-cup handles, to bangles from the rim of a cup, to china pendants hung on a string or two of pearls.

Annie claims that 'porcelain is surprisingly robust' and expects her creations to last for easily as long as the original pieces did!

The Craft Fair of craft fairs

Yesterday I visited Origin the annual Craft Council craft fair. It's a very professional and slick affair, real stands not tables, queuing round the block to get in, a trendy London location and of course and most importantly, some amazing maker/designers!ceracer


I was blown away by some of the jewellery but there were illustrators, ceramicists, textile artists, scultures and more there. I'll do some individual blogs about some of those that really caught my eye - like the girl who creates 3D art out of sweet and chocolate wrappers! Watch this space!

Getting ready to Promenade

We are busy getting ready for the Promenade exhibition - organised by Plain Arts for member artists; you can see all types of art from painting, photography, textile and jewellery displayed in shops around the town.

armcandii will share space in The Lighting Workshop in Catherine Street, Salisbury, no 19 (the pink dot!) on the street trail map. You can catch candii there from 11th - 18th September.