Cultural Elegance Designs

These are my Peaceful Squiggle Earrings. I had no idea of what style of earrings these would be, other than I wanted to make something that looked cultural and elegant.  All the jewellery I make, I make with the intention of wearing one from a batch of three, test driving it, to see how it feels and how it looks.   I never imagined that I could get so much pleasure from working with wire, making jewellery that will not affect  my skin or turn my ear lobs into little mounds of  gently weeping pain. A couple of years ago, I use  to sport earrings so chunky that I could have knocked myself out if  I made a sharp turn. Now, I can and will make earrings that might be big and flashy but  are comfortable to wear.

Peaceful Squiggle 1 is the first version, these are made in 2mm silver aluminium wire and are so light, that I have forgotten to take them out at night. Peaceful Squiggle 2 are longer with a tighter swirl at the ends. One thing I have learnt from this job is to have a note book to hand. It’s not that I am not firing on all cylinders, but rather that trying to keep track of other things as well as to keep visualizing a design, is no longer possible.

And why Peaceful Squiggle, you may ask. Funnily enough, when I looked at these finished pair of earrings , I just thought ah..Peaceful Squiggle. The flowing and curvy shape just seems peaceful  to me.

Peaceful Squiggle 2 Earrings

Peaceful Squiggle 1

As I was on a bit of a role after making Peaceful Squiggle 2 earrings, I thought I would have a go at making knuckle or mid finger rings. These rings are made with 2mm Aluminium Wire, which I have found to be a wee bit thick. I think I will try making some in 1.5mm. I have also made some knuckle / mid finger rings with silver and gold plated copper wire and will share this in my next post.

And I have just remembered the reason for this post …….Cultural Elegance Designs will be the name of my collection of handmade jewellery.

SpriCulArts – Heartical Works in Progress 2

These are the latest additions to my ‘Heartical’ Collection. I am still working on two and deciding if one is complete.  This may sound funny, but each work I do has to feel completed, like I have expressed all within that space . I have also found that by working on a couple of pieces at a time, I am less liable to feel low.  Mind you though, I do have some neon green, yellow and orange card waiting  in the wings, I’ve just got to find my sunglasses to start working on them……

A lot of my ‘Heartical’ Collection  are head and shoulder images which also reflects my love of cultural  hairstyles and head wear.

SpiriCulArts – Heartical Works in Progress

New Year, time to start creating new works of art. I love working with metallic pens, specially gold and silver and am always looking for brighter pens or markers.These pictures are from my ‘Heartica’l collection and I am still working on them. ‘ZebHeart’ is the only one I have had framed so far.

ZebHeart

SpiriCulArts – Moon Of My Soul

‘Moon Of My Soul 2 ‘ by Imani aka EmpressFaith c 2012

Gold, Silver, Green and Pink metallic ink on black card

‘Moon Of My Soul ‘by Imani aka EmpressFaith c 1999

This is one of my smaller pieces which I had designed for my CD compilation collection back in1999.  I love music and have an extensive collection, in fact I use to be a member of a women’s Sound System. I only came across this a few weeks ago, hidden in a plastic box with a couple of other covers. They all looked a bit dull, so I decided to brighten them up. I used silver and gold Uni Paint Markers as well as Signo  Uniball  green and pink metallic ink pens.  ‘Moon Of My Soul 2’ is the result.

SpriCulArts – Birthday Celebration Part Two

     

Wow, another birthday, another year for me. And I am feeling really good.

I’ve always wanted to see how  some of my pictures would look if they were displayed properly, so this is my birthday present to myself. I used metallic ink pens to create these pictures but I also have a small collection of  HB pencil and crayon art.

As my birthday fell on a Tuesday (yesterday)  I will keep on celebrating until the weekend as I’m working my way through my Chocolate Brownie Birthday Cake.

I’m so glad that my children had the sense to buy ‘Happy Birthday ‘ candles, last year the heat from all candles was something else, I thought the smoke alarm would go off.

SpiriCulArts – Birthday Celebration Part One

This is my special day.  So I thought that as well as having  some gorgeous chocolate brownie cake that my beautiful children bought for me, that  I will start a display  of my work so far.

SpiriCulArts – Revelation

‘Revelation by Imani aka Empressfaith c 1998

Black Silver and Gold ink on pink neon card

 

When I am in a good mood, I can work on two or maybe three pieces at once. And I also find that working on bright neon card can be a bit eye watering at times but hey, I love the results. I found ‘Revelation’ to be a really calming picture to make.

 

 

SpiriCulArts – Fleeting Dreams

Fleeting Dreams by Empressfaith c 1999 Black and Silver ink on neon yellow card.

 

 

SpriCulArts – Eye Of The Beholder

Eye Of The Beholder by Empressfaith c 1999

This is one of my earliest pieces, so early  that I had forgotten about it. I was sorting out some of my old artworks and found this picture in a folder. I remember snatching moments to draw as my children were much younger then. Those were the days when I could be working on two pictures at once, it was like I was running on an engine of creativity.

‘Eye of The Beholder’ is made up of Black, Green Red and Silver ink on neon yellow card.

SpiriCulArts – Question and Answer

Question and Answer  c 1989 Empressfaith aka MJA

HB4, HB5 pencils and water colour crayons.