Lorena Angulo

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The making of my "Tree of Life" brooch

Going back to my first days when I played with metal clay, I still remember how confusing this material was for me at the beginning. I already started taking silversmithing classes at Southwest School of Art and my mind was use to the rough playing with hammers, jeweler saws and metal sheets. Metal clay was such a confusion but I knew I will like it.

I played with metal clay two or three times and then I just decided to leave it on the side and focus on my metalsmithing work. It was until I took a casting class that I totally understood what this wonderful new material will do for me.

Casting is an option but I did not have the equipment to do it in my home, this is why metal clay was the perfect option.

I love to hand sculpt and carve and metal clay will give me the amazing opportunity to make pieces I have always had in my design note book. My designs are very three dimensional and with lots of details, metal clay will make all my ideas come to reality.

Since that day I have not been able to stop creating with metal clay, I still do some fabrication work but most of my pieces are made with metal clay. I absorbed myself into this way of working with the material, time can fly by and I feel like I have only been minutes working. I am so relax and happy hand sculpting and carving every detail in all my work and finally yesterday I finished my first brooch I made with my tree of life design.

The Tree of Life (Arbol de Vida) is one of my symbolic pieces, I have made it into earrings, pendants, necklaces and cuffs. Now it was my turn to make it as a brooch.

I am a passionate about detailing my work with a lot of attention in every side of my pieces. Spending time to make nice and clean finishing in the front is as important as taking your time to do the same on the back. I am not only talking about having a secret detail on the back, I am talking about having a clean and nice finishing. Craftsmanship is very important and we all must take our time to do so.

ARBOL DE VIDA
©2012 Lorena Angulo
PMC3

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

My Reliquary Collection 2012

I am so happy to share with you all about this new project I am working on this year. I started drawing reliquary designs a while ago but it was until now that I started to make them.

I can honestly tell you that the time I have spent making them has been a great journey. I only draw a small idea in paper but the actual finished project comes alive while I am working with it. I design following my heart and most of the time ideas just flow in the moment.

I have spent whole nights working but very happy !!!

Here I will show you my first finished necklace in this new collection.

Flaming Heart Reliquary
©2012 Lorena Angulo
Silver

Flaming Heart Reliquary
©2012 Lorena Angulo
Silver
(front and back view)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Teaching at La Ruche Davis Teaching Studio

I am happy to announce I will be teaching in the Washington, D.C. area on May 19 and 20 at La Ruche Davis Studio.

This is my first time teaching in this area and I am very happy to go there and share my passion for working with metal clay.

If you live in the area, I will love to meet you and have you in my class.

Love,
Lorena

Friday, March 2, 2012

A wonderful get together with friends

I just had a wonderful long weekend with three incredible friends and artists. After all I have been this last year I was very eager to have this play time with them.

Lora Hart came to visit us from California, her first stop was in Austin where Vickie Hallmark lives, I met with them the following day and we sure had a super great time.

Vickie's home is beautiful and her studios and her where very inspirational. As soon as I got into her home I got into action and joined Lora in the enameling adventure.

We tried to get a picture with all of us together but it was not an easy task,
as you can see in these images.

We sure laughed a lot trying to get one decent image!

Enameling was super fun, Vickie showed us how to enamel with a torch and use enamel paintings. It was incredible to see how easy and fast you can be able to add so much color and at the same time draw with enamels.

These are the pieces I painted with enamels, I sure know I have lots to practice still but to consider we made them in such a short period of time, I am happy with them.

Yes, I had to add lots of color.
It is impossible for me to be plain.

These are very small and I have no clue
how I was able to draw in such a small area.
That is my finger holding one of them!

Vickie also showed us how to make an inspirational book.

Vickie Hallmark, our teacher !

Lora Hart busy working.

Ready to start drawing !

Our next adventure was in San Antonio, I took them to some great galleries in the city and one of our fist stops was Equinox Gallery where we met the wonderful Laura Wood.

Laura came home to watch the Oscars with us and also to talked with us about her paper work and how she makes it.

Thanks Laura for sharing this with us !!

My husband was very happy to cook for us all.

Thanks my dear husband for the yummy food
you made for us ! ♥

Thank you Lora for coming to Texas to visit us, it was great to see you again and to see you create with us !! You are a talented Lady !! ♥
Thanks to Vickie and Laura for sharing your talent and for the laughter !! ♥

If you want see Lora's and Vickie's blog post about this adventure, click in the links.
Lora Hart's Blog
Vickie Hallmark's Blog

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Art Clay Scotland Jewellery Studio

I am very happy and honored to be one of the artists invited to exhibit my work at the beautiful Art Clay Scotland Jewellery Studio.
Emma Baird, who is an incredible artist, invited me to be part of her gallery.
The opening night will be on February 25 from 6 to 8 pm at Art Clay Scotland Jewellery Studio.

These are some of my pieces you can see there.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Remembrance Necklace

This necklace is very close to my heart. My family had a very difficult year on 2011, we lost three important members of our family in less than 3 months during the summer. Losing them was very painful and I lost the interest in making new pieces or designs. My heart was sad but little by little I have regained my passion for making and drawing my jewelry designs.

I made this necklace as a remembrance of my Soul-Brother Alberto, my Grandmother Felicitas and my dear Mother-in-law Ana Maria. To represent them in my necklace I decided to make three butterflies, each butterfly represents the soul of my dear family members who are now in a better place. In Mexico the butterfly symbolizes the soul of our family member who passed away.

The tree of life who is the center of my piece symbolizes the family and even though the pain is very hard we have to continue with our life and always have them in our hearts. On the back side of the piece I added the heart symbolizing our passion, love, gratitude and respect for them and for continuing with our life and their love they left behind.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Playing with the SpeedFire ElectricMini Kiln

I got the SpeedFire ElectricMini Kiln a while ago and I wanted to play with it and see how this mini kiln works.

As the name says, it is very small, I was surprised to see how light and small the kiln is. The firing chamber is 3 1/2" high, 4 5/8" wide and 4 5/8" deep.

I was very eager to try Sterling PMC and FastFire Bronzclay. My first pieces were sterling pmc.

I was more than happy to see this mini kiln is able to fire FastFire Bronzclay !
Here is what I have fired in the SpeedFire ElectricMini Kiln:

Can you see how I bend one of the pieces?
It did not broke !

I am happy with how this kiln works, if you are on a budget or have limited space on your studio; this can be the perfect match for you.
You are limited with the space in how many pieces you will be able to fire but if you do not produce lots of pieces at once, this is a great kiln to have.
You can find all the instructions for this kiln in this link:
http://www.spcimages.com/MCS/SFEM-Instructions.pdf

Keep playing, keep creating !!

Love,
Lorena

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