Dolorous inspirations at the Venice Biennale

I was lucky to get to travel to the 2015 Venice Biennale with my family this summer and was overwhelmed by how much unbelievable and inspiring art I saw there. Here are just a few of my favourites from both the Garden and a few exceptional satellite shows.

Dolorous Spring Inspirations on Pinterest

At Dolorous Jewelry we're sick of winter and are focused on spring thinking! To help keep us in a spring state of mind we've give the Dolorous Pinterest a super springy makeover!!

Follow Dolorous on Pinterest to see all the latest press and design inspirations! I'm also totally addicted to Pinterest so its updated daily! I can't stop myself!!

Dolorous Jewelry on Pinterest

Have I mentioned I'm obsessed with Pinterest? Find me at http://www.pinterest.com/dolorousjewelry/
I'm constantly pinning

More Girls Girls Girls

I just keep collecting girlie pics, so I'm going to keep showing them to you. This edition, in honour of my most recent collection inspiration, is a collection of a few of my 90s heroins.

Colour Envy

I have some serious hair envy right now. Happyfuntimeblog is aptly named :)

Some piles of supplies

This summer has been very good to me. Though the heat has ground my production to a near halt, my shopping abilities have apparently remained intact. On top of some amazing antique tools, a collection of beads and pearls from my grandmother, and several feet of vintage chains, I recently acquired some new colours of vinage chandelier crystals which are just begging to be made into crystal bodychains for my fall collection! The crystal bodychains are really one of my favourite pieces so I couldn't be happier to be able to widen the variety.

My camera unfortunately altered the colours a little, the blue is more of a dull periwinkle and the grey is deep and smokey with a hint of forest green (can you tell I love it?). I'm also pretty pleased about these two small grey crystals.

Not sure what I'll do with them but likely two one of a kind pieces.
Expect them in store by early September!

A few Hues and a pair of shoes

Something about this colour palette just tickles me

And these shoes are my new favourite thing in the world

Summer Lovin

Sometimes you see someone and just know they have it all figured out.

These ladies obviously have their priorities in check. Great accessories, a good friend, and a nice fat cigar is really all you need. Seems like a good way to spend a hot day to me!

Girls Girls Girls

Madame Alix Gres 1939

So I recently bought a large batch of new supplies! YAY! Part of looking forward to spring for me is considering new additions to the line, and I've decided that some new supplies are just what I need to get my creative juices flowing. With this on my mind, I've also spent a lot of time considering my different inspirations and the one thing that it always comes back to is the female figure. Its so important to me to make a piece of jewelry that wears and moves well, as well as looking fantastic, and a big part of making a piece of jewelry hug the body well is considering the body its supposed to be hugging. The female form, in every shape and size, is something to be appreciated. One of the most rewarding things about making jewelry is seeing someone wearing one of my pieces and making it all their own, cohesive with their unique style. When designing I like to keep conscious of all types of shapes and styles by frequently leafing through my every growing collection of what can only be deemed 'girly pics'. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Protractionation

So yesterday was Family Day (FUN!) and surprisingly, I actually spent the day with family. I went with my parents to an antique sale they were going to, and in spite of having to wake up unnaturally early for a long weekend monday, I was very happy with the decision to tag along. Its not often that I find something so fabulous to look at that also proves a functional purpose but today was different. I found this amazing protractor and compass set, complete with replacement pieces and a velvet lined leather carrying case. I kind of couldn't be more excited about it. Not only is it a very useful set of tools for my trade, but there is also something so satisfying in using something that been around for so much longer than I have.

On top of that amazing find (which really would have been enough to keep me happy for weeks) I found three amazing new pairs of earrings. Well, actually my mom, who is a great shopping partner, found two of them, probably because she knows I'm always a sucker for big geometric hunks of metal. Since I actually don't have my ears pierced (a choice that has become even more shocking to people considering my choice of profession) most people assume that it must be difficult for me to find earrings but, as you can see, I do just find. Honestly, when it comes to vintage, I'm surprised when people find earrings that aren't clip ons.

Overall, it was a very successful day.

Love is in the Air

And as I always say, the idea that V-Day is only for lovers is for suckers.

Take a note from these cuties!

Jealous? I am! That looks like a great hug.

So, I'm completely smitten. What started as an innocent experiment during some free time quickly grew into passionate love. It was love at first sight. I haven't named him yet (I'm considering Bonco), but I know I want him on me at all times, for a long time. And I hope to make more soon! Incase you're confused, I'm talking about this adorable little brass Brontosaurus I made at school the other day.

Inspired by something I doodled in a notebook, I sawed him out of some scrap brass on a whim, and as soon as I laid eyes on the finished piece, it was LOVE! In fact, I love him so much that I plan to do a million different things with this prototype. I'm currently in the process of casting it in silver, and also plan to saw out a few more from sheet metal. Ideally, I'd like to wear multiple Brotosaurus on pins, earrings, rings, I want them everywhere.

If only

I was recently reading an article on snowflakes (my homepage is set to National Geographic because I can kind of be a science geek) and it sparked up a bit of crystal frenzy deep inside me.

Individual snowflakes are actually called snow crystals, and their formation, though much quicker and more climate sensitive, is not unlike the formation of other crystals. Unfortunately like many beautiful crystals, they're far too delicate to be worn, which got me thinking about the pletherra of enchanting crystals that are nearly impossible to make into anything wearable. Not that that will stop me from trying to figure a way around it.

Pictured: Mesolite, unknown, Carrolite, Humite, Beihlite all photos from InlovewithGeosciences.tumblr.com

All this looking at unconventional crystals has left me wanting to go shopping for some new supplies! Expect lots of new crystal work for this coming spring collection

Otto Dix

Otto Dix; German painter, printmaker 1891-1969

One of my favourite artists. I was given a book of his work for my birthday and these are a few of my favourite portraits. These hardly do justice to his range. Much of his work was deeply shaped by the first world war, of which he was a veteran, and the theme dominates his earlier work. In later years he began painting portraits of both the famous and shadowy characters of Berlin in the 1920s, including the scandal plagued dancer Anita Berber (showed in the first painting).