By feebs-ks, Dec 3 2014 02:16PM
It's been a great week at www.fionaingramjewellery.co.uk - my pieces have been finding their way all over the world. As well as to all the lovely clients in the UK, I have sent items to Hong Kong, Belgium, Italy and France! It can be daunting setting up a new business, but ‘mighty things from small beginnings grow’ - it's been really exciting.
I've been getting ready for Christmas sales this week and experimenting with the 'mokume gane' clay technique. In Japanese mokume gane literally means 'wood grain metal' and in metalwork the term describes the way that layers of different precious metals are pressed together to make beautiful patterns.
In the clay version, the process includes:
- stacking layers of contrasting colours
- impressing the stack with tools or found objects
- slicing thinly with a fine blade to produce fascinating layers of pattern
I spend hours finding sections to roll thinly and apply to my jewellery.
My favourite accidental phenomenon that uses built up layers is 'fordite' - a beautiful byproduct of layers of paint recycled from car factories and used in amazing pieces of jewellery - industrial and beautiful.



