Getting making....my own Aloe Africanas

Part of the designing fun is to make jewellery that can clearly be identified as aloes without making  it pokey and uncomfy.

My first Aloe jewellery- a pair of earrings, work in progress....

End of yr. exhibition display....

I know from now until the end of the year time is going to fly and before i know it, its going be crazy, hectic and last minute. So I've started planning out what i want to do for my display so that that issue can be sorted and outta the way. One of my ideas is to have water colour design drawings in the background. My water colour skills aren't as great as i expected/hoped them to be. Hopefully with much experimentation and some practice they"ll be top notch for end of yr.

2 of my first attempts on crappy paper. Need to get a few variations of water colour paper and want to try on hand made paper too.

I love Aloes & Succulents

 Indigenous plants are an important factor to the sustainability of a habitat. Native plants attract birds bugs and wildlife and often feed off them either direct or indirectly. Continued human propagation of indigenous trees and plants will help to insure sustainable eco systems. I've decided to do an Aloe and Succulents range, starting with Aloes. There are about 120 different species of aloe in South Africa. Most are indigenous to the Cape, including my favorite- Aloe Africana. Took some photos of a few of the aloes in our garden.....

My favorite. a special friend gave it to me.

my favorite again.... Aloe Africana

Also mad about Rock Roses

Looking at how I'm going to construct recognizable ones. 

Support Local & Indigenous.

For a long time I've considered using indigenous plants as reference to my work. Last year I  got excited (briefly) about the Large Leaf Rock Fig & Coral tree (2 of my favorites). I took some photos of them, attempted repoussing a leaf and made a wax mold and a few ceramic ones, but never turning anything into a piece of jewellery and then blew off the idea.

 From there I've continued to used made up stylized leaf shapes. Now its become apparent to me how much more meaningful and "sustainable" ( from a narrative perspective) it is to use indigenous plant reference. I think It will also give my work a naturally more contemporary feel.

Beautifully adorned

I've collected an assortment of  "cow art", different beautiful cows.

Holy cow -Madurai Temple

A decorated cow

Barbara Philips- Watercolour.

Cant find the artists name for this work, but its striking.

A happy blue cow- Marcia Baldwin

This painting above is by Rebecca Colins, she specializes in custom pet portraits, painting colourfully over digital images. I really dig her fun and funky style. Check out her blog - Art Dog Blog http://artdogblog.blogspot.com

Cartoon style wood cow studs - Craftjuice