Coral

at the moment i am working on pieces of jewellery that i can incorporate with the colours of the sea (through the use of enamel) and the textures of certain coral. in particular i am looking at this coral i came across in one of my Great Barrier Reef books...



i have tried to recreate the shapes and textures i have seen in this coral by fly pressing thin fine silver, drilling into it, then enamelling it. the fly press mould i made may be too large to use for rings and earrings, but will be suitable for pendants and brooches. at the moment i have made a few test pieces, and i will have to change a few things for the pieces i make in the future, such as the metal thickness and arrangement of surface holes. One of the pieces i experimented with first drilling, then fly pressing, this resulted in a 'happy mistake'. The silver split along where i had drilled when i fly pressed it. This made the metal look like it had 'exploded'. I really like this mistake, it looks lovely and natural (in the way it was formed) and i can still see the connection between it and the coral that is my reference.