Teacher Nature

I love picking up little things from my nature walks, a simple stroll in my garden or neighborhood. I now have a prized collection of them:) With the inception of this blog I have started photgraphing these to share with my readers and friends as these inspire me in endless ways... I am humbled by their beauty, each one a lesson in its own significant way. It could be about form, movement, texture , shape, color, feelings or inexplicable nostalgia at times. As subjective as it sounds I know that any nature lover can relate to this and appreciate. I have to say, I am really enjoying taking these photographs.  Some of these images seem to become larger than life in their visual impact. I can't say all of these will translate directly into the things I create, but the happiness I derive from these nurtures my creative spirit and I am very grateful for that. Hope you'll enjoy these pictures! 

I came across this great new blog called dearest nature, which is a treat with its beautiful nature inspired vibe and breathtaking photography and graphics. I am participating in their project called ( visit this link for details and check out their blog!)  Spring Pickin’s.

Found this under a tree on one of my walks, it has beautifully maintained its green color for months now.

I have a couple of these as it fell of form one my potted plants. I liked watching cool textures emerge on this one as it contued to dry. I love the way light dances through it too in this picture.

I found these under a palm tree during this rainy season.

This is actually a dried mushroom I found under a tree.  This  has cool radial design on both sides as shown in the picture ( see below as well). 

These are part of a very interesting furry-bushy looking blossoms on a tree in my neigborhood.

seeweed found on a seashore

very cool drift wood found on a beach here in northern ca.

The other end of the driftwood.

I found this in my garden, it is the outer skin of a flower bulb, I love the diamond patterns on this.

Repurposed, Upcycled Ethnic Necklace

Repurposed, Upcycled Ethnic Necklace, Old Silver, Sterling silver, copper, FireAgate

I acquired a few antique silver pieces from one of my trips to India. These were not in great shape but had excellent craftmanship and design. I believe that this one must be 50+ years old if not more. I kept these with me for few years not sure how I could repurpose these as they were broken in a few places and there were no gemstones on it. I wanted to be sure as an artist that I make these wearable again and keep the design harmonious and complimentary to the original.
 
When I saw fire agate beads at one of the gem shows I knew immediately what to do with them. These fire agate beads seemed to be made just to go along with this old silver piece. The patina on the silver kind of takes on the colors of the beads and vice-versa. I used both silver and copper wire to match the patina on the old silver. I took out the silver chains (some of them were missing or broken). I then added the wire wrapped charms, a total of 37 in all, to the main piece. I wanted the overall design to do justice to the beautiful ornate silver work; each individually hand-wrapped with two Sunstone beads using cooper wire and one Fire Agate bead on silver wire. Needless to say it was tedious but absolutely worth it. I then soldered sterling silver chain on the back to make it into a necklace along with the clasp. 
The necklace is choker length with extender to make it 16 inches.

Vaasvara Celebrates National Women's History Project

March is National Women's History Month and this years theme is Women's education-Women's empowerment.

This non-profit is very close to my heart and I decided to design a pendant after this year's theme and do a fundraiser for them.
This was a great learning lesson, from concept to a finished peice of jewelry and doing that within the limits of the theme. After some drawings for concept, I made a digital print of the design on Photoshop elements. Next, I created a photopolymer plate of it.

I used this plate as my texture plate to make the pendant out of bronze clay. I made this a reversible pendant with a custom texture I call eternal spirals. I decided to add a vintage brass bead to make it more feminine and vintage looking. Here is the result.

One of this pendant can be seen in the bidding for good website in the auction benefitting NWHP( National Women's History Project).
There is a limited number of pendants available for sale at National Women's History Project's webstore http://shop.nwhp.org/theme-and-celebration-items-c241.aspx

Please support this fundraiser! This necklace will make a great gift for women in your life who have helped empower you through their support, encouragement and education. Or simply a beautiful keepsake for you while supporting this very important non-profit.

Creating Organic Forms in Metal Clay

Vaasvara earrings make it to the pages of Metal Clay artist magazine. This my first published work in print! Hope to see more in coming months.

This design is an excellent example of what I call designing and creating organically. I did not use any shape cutters, templates or textures to design and create these. These were made with metal silver clay( Fine silver) and I wanted to take advantage of its unique properties to design and create organically.
I wanted to create a multiple piece, simple form based design that resembled an exotic blossom. Since these are earrings, the forms need to be of similar shape and size. ( if not identical;in the spirit that nature is perfect in its imperfections) This can be pretty challenging if you also decide that you do not want to use shape templates or cutters or any cutting tool on your clay!
So here is what I had to do. I needed to make 3 graduating sizes so I started with three lumps of metal clay in and weighed them. I needed to know the weights so that I could reproduce the other pair in same size and weight.

Here is what I did to roll out the forms:
I wanted the smallest petal to be more or less rounded so I hand pressed it in a flat rounded shape and then rolled it between the slats.
I wanted the other two pieces oval shaped, so hand-pressed the clay in an elongated shape and then rolled the clay.
Since the weights were same the rolled out forms came out similar and I did not have to use any cutting tool!

The texture that you see in there is just the clay drying up a little bit and leaving this scale like texture, that I found beautifully organic. Since I didn't use any cutters or cutting tools to make these forms I didn't have to sand much at all. I antiqued the earrings and then polished them just enough to enhance the texture.
So there you have it, an organic design not just looking natural and organic but created in the same spirit and process, a holistic design approach that I have come to love.

Few inspiring pictures from my India trip.

Buddha at Kanheri caves (1st century BCE to 10th century CE), Mumbai, India 

These caves served as a center for Buddhism in ancient times.

Ornate cave monuments of Buddha, Mumbai, India 

I thought she had a cool nose ring. She comes to clean dishes and floors at my sister in law's home. She seems so joyful all the time;  amazing for someone who lost all fingers of her right hand in an accident, lost her only son at a very young age and has to fend for herself as long as she lives. She is so cute, she quickly dropped the broom when I asked her if I could take a picture of her and covered her head with her Sari. A beautiful person indeed...

I loved photographing these trees in Mahabaleshwar, India,
 near Arthers seat point, 

Custom Texture plate design

The latest in the nature designer cabochon series..this is gorgeous blue green Chrysocolla and Malachite cabochon from Gerard scott designs.com. For this I made a custom texture plate using copper etching based on hand drawings, this lends a particular hand rendered organic look to it. 

Etsy treasury

My Etsy shop has made it to two treasury lists, interestingly the same pendant. Treasury lists are a good Karma way of promoting other artists. You make a curated list of themed products( cannot put your own products) and put it out there for people to see. These lists also might end up on the home page if well done. Here is the picture of the pendant that has been included: