Nesting in the studio

Birds nest
Copper, baroque pearls
© 2012 Nayna Studios™

Today I was back in the studio after a good long break, well not exactly a break but a break from making jewellery as I had been busy working on a metal working order, something that I had expected would take a couple of weeks actually turned out to be a six weeks job! 

So naturally, I  had to do something completely crazy and fun to get me back in the 'jewellery making mood' :) I was rummaging through my little bowl of odds and ends of wires and had this wild idea to just solder everything together !

I just piled the entire stash onto my firing brick and just randomly arranged the outer shape into a soft square and let my soldering torch go wild. Initially I had thought of melting and fusing the pieces together but then I realized a lot of the thin wires were just melting away creating small gaps, so I placed a few remaining lumps of hard solder and let it all fuse together.

A few of the smaller pieces fell away as I picked up the cooled mass but this beautiful piece was what I had left behind. 

A few baroque pearls fit just snugly creating the 'eggs' in the bird nest ! What do you think should I add a few feathers for special effects? Would you wear this nest as a pendant? Lemme know what you think ?

The original chain maille

As most of you might know, apart from enamelling, chain maille has been a passion, one that I discovered recently but am absouletly in love with! I had know about the history of chain maille in that it was first created and used to make strong weapon resistant armour for soldiers and had seen some examples of the same in mueseums, but mostly as extensions of helmets to protect the neck area. Imagine my surprise when I saw a complete body armour in a shop! 

About a couple of  days ago, I had visited Mumbai's oldest flea market Chor Bazar and stumbled upon this armour in a store display. Thank fully the store owner was kind enough to allow me to click a few pictures of the armour. Wouldn't it make for a stunning conversation piece? If you look closely there is also a head piece hanging in the foreground with pieces for the legs hung on the sides.

Here are two close ups with the chain maille pattern clearly visible, not these are double layered for added protection no doubt. Hat's off to the first artist to incorporate this beautiful work in jewellery !

Something fishy earrings
Vitreous enamel
© 2012 Nayna Studios™

With the success of the something fishy bracelet, I was prepared to create more of the same pieces, but what I was not expecting was a request for a smaller set of fishies to be used as earrings ! Well this of course was a fun challenge, so here is what I came up with. A pair of fish earrings with wire bails and of course simply ear wires. After all the fishies have to be the centre piece. :)