Information, stories and news!
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10K followers! There and back again, an artists tale
I have made it to 10k followers! Which is amazing! Thank you everyone for helping me grow so much in the past four years. To all of my followers, n... -
Sand casting classes
Announcing classes for 2021! Keep an eye on this blog because I will be adding more dates and locations through out the year!
Very excited to be teaching more beginners this year, spreading the love of sand casting and rough sapphires. But I am also excited to be teaching a new advanced sand casting class with cast in place faceted stones!
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How I make my jewellery.
Have you heard the saying “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”? A horrible saying, I know, but what it means is there’s more than one way to do something. Jewellery making is like that. There are always many processes or techniques that can be employed to make a single piece of jewellery. I mainly use three types of manufacturing methods, let me explain a little about them and why I choose these processes. -
Sapphires are my best friend
They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend right? Well not this girl! My gem stone of choice is corundum, more commonly known as sapphire and ruby. Yep you got it, sapphires and rubies are made of the same material, corundum. But when corundum is the colour red it is called a ruby, all the other colours are called sapphires. Another wonderful but little known fact about sapphires is that they come in every colour of the rainbow and every shade in between! Did you know they can be heated to temperatures higher then what gold melts at and will be fine? Also they are super hard and scratch resistant which makes them a perfect diamond alternative. For these reasons and more is why sapphires are hands down my favourite stones. -
Picking the right stick
Most people don’t realise my designs come straight from nature, that I mould real twigs and sticks to make my pieces. But even fewer people know just how little I have to do with the design process. -
UnEarthed workshops announced!
Many of you are probably familiar with my Twig jewellery, but some of you may not know about my UnEarthed collection. I use delft clay to sand cast rough sapphires into silver, it is a hard to predict process and every piece is truly a one of a kind. I have been using this technique for over five years and I am totally addicted! In the past I’ve done some one on one workshops guiding people through making their own pieces of jewellery in my UnEarthed style, it’s always fun and very rewarding. My little workshop at home is great for one or two people but there isn't enough room for any more than that. So I have decided to bring the joy of sand casting to more people and run group workshops at many exciting locations:
Claw Creative Studios in Fitzroy Melbourne,
Mayben artisan jeweller in Moonah Tasmania,
Saltbush Collective in Manly Sydney,
Kin Gallery in Braddon, Canberra,
Hodak & Young in Bowral, NSW,
North Brisbane Lapitdary in Nundah, Brisbane,
The Goldsmiths School in Bardon, Brisbane,
Salvage Merchants in Mordailloc, Melbourne,
Jam Factory in Adelaide,
Wagga Wagga Lapidary club in Wagga Wagga,
And CQ University in Rockhampton, QLD.
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How Kirra-lea Jewellery started
I am a traditionally trained trade jeweller, which means I specialise in making fine diamond jewellery. Sounds awesome right!? Getting to work with gold, platinum and precious gemstones all day long? So why did I get sick of looking at dazzling 1ct diamonds every day?
