Artist Spotlight on Gillian!

Happy Sunday readers!

We are celebrating our tenth anniversary this year—a milestone for Gillian E. Batcher, who is not only the owner operator of Jewel Envy but also, a woman, a daughter, a friend, a goldsmith a wife, and a mother.

She opened her first jewellery studio ten years ago in downtown Toronto.

She has a degree in Psychology, and graduated with distinction, from The University of Western Ontario. After completing her degree, she went to George Brown College and completed the three-year Jewellery Arts program, graduating with distinction.

Next she went to Florence, Italy to study an intensive jewellery course, focusing on textile techniques in precious metals, and she participated in a three-year residency in the metal studio crafts studio at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.

Gillian has been running with great success her business, congratulations to her, to her husband Matthew, and her gorgeous baby Everly, for these ten years of growth in this incredible, competitive and difficult career.

We, the resident goldsmiths at Jewel Envy are very proud of being part of this achievement.

Helena (resident goldsmiths)

Gem Colour Combos

I recently created a couple pieces of jewellery with a gradation of gems. What I found is that it is difficult to come across a full range of colour when searching for gems or to come across the saturation of colour that I love. I have purchased a few boldly coloured gems that I have yet to use, but keep going back to sketches to try and mix in new colour combos. I recently dove into Pomellato's website to oogle their wares and share with you some of their stunning colour combinations. I can only assume that they create custom cuts of gems for their creations and they don't shy away from combining bold and beautiful colours together. Check some of them out just below and follow the links attached to the images to Pomellato's website. -Alexis

CORAL & GREEN

Coral with emeralds/coral with peridot.

PINK & BROWN 

Amethyst and brown diamonds/Smoky quartz and rubies

  


TURQUOISE & PINK/PURPLE

London blue topaz and rubies/turquoise and rubies/ceramic turquoise and amethysts.

Artist Spotlight Long Gao

We are very happy to welcome a new goldsmith to the Jewel Envy "crew"!

Welcome to talented Long Gao!

Long was born in Beijing, raised in Vancouver and educated in Toronto where he majored from OCAD with an Industrial Design and double minor on sculpture and as well as Jewellery Design and Goldsmith.

Most of Long pieces are amazingly intricate and unique expressing an emotion and reflect his life experiences.

You can check more of his work at: http://www.longgaogao.com/

 Working hard at the bench today, creating really cute rings!

 

MADE

 


Recently I've been obsessed with all the great work that has been featured in MADE London Design and Crafts Fair. Last week while scrolling through my Instagram feed, I stumbled across a piece by Victoria Walker who is currently showing her work there. Victoria makes mind blowing fine kinetic jewellery inspired by nature. My favorite is her Peony Locket. Hand made in 18ct yellow gold and 9ct rose gold, it has a total of 34 individually hand pierced petals that open and close.

You can find more about her work on her website here:
http://www.vwjewellery.co.uk/

I would also highly encourage you to check out all the great work in the MADE London Design and Crafts Fair here:
http://www.madelondon.org/

Artist Spotlight on Zef of Radi Brothers Jewelry!

Zef is our featured resident goldsmith this week!

Zef is one half of Radi Brothers Jewelry, growing up in a jewelry family and learning from his father, a filigree master. He is inspired by nature, with birth and energy being strong symbols in his work. Filigree is a technique used since ancient times to create intricate patterns with wire. Below are some examples of Zef's intricate work.

-Tam

oh, rats!

This morning while sweeping the studio I came across studio mate's Micheline missing glasses, fired up the kiln, and after adding inventory sat down to do some internet reading.

Glasses found! pic of me wearing Mish's glasses. Damn girl, you blind!

I was catching up on the latest blogess and went off on a google search tangent for taxidermy in Toronto...

You guys......

There is a Taxidermy class available in which you can create your own anthropomorphically posed rat. 

photo of Ankixa Risk's work

The teacher, Ankixa Risk teaches around various locations and even creates taxidermy jewellery:

Ankixa's taxidermy jewellery, click the picture to check out her instagram!

What better month to track down wonderfully weird handcrafted items. And if you're a keener like me you will be obsessing about how you would like to pose and dress your soon to be rat after signing up for a class! -Alexis

More of Ankixa's work.

watch

Today a friend of Jewel Envy who repairs watches came in with a vintage watch housing that needed to get soldered .

It was made from brass with a heavy layer of rose gold plating,
and a piece of sentimental value.

Soldering went better than expected and after a good polish the watch looked really pretious.

And an interesting and challenging experience for me.

Spotlight on Haydee

Hello Readers!

Today I want to talk about Haydee's work as it calls out for attention. She focuses on scale and I picture her pieces as perfect for runway shows and cocktail parties as they are show-stoppers. Just look at the scale of this citrine ring and image every time you wore it how much attention it and you would receive! Pair this will a simple monochromatic outfit and I guarantee everyone will be commenting on your fabulous taste and secretly thinking they wish they had the guts to wear such an unusual piece.

All of her work is one of a kind so you can feel secure in knowing once you buy no one is going to show up with the same piece and you will always own the one and only piece of its kind from her.

If you are drooling over this look, come down to the shop and try her pieces on to find the right one for you!

-Gillian