Forbidden Memory

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

This was an experiment with my Lensbaby soft focus lens last week on a 'camera walk'. The more I worked on it (in Photoshop) the more it reminded me of the trailer of The Walking Dead (one of my all time favourite series). The combination of the imagery (barbed wire, viewer hidden in the trees) and the textures and soft focus made me think of those memories we can't bear to look at directly, but only sideways and with a squint, hence the name.

All images/textures/brushes my own or bought. Grunge and emotion added in with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). You can now also get most of my images on cushion covers (go to Society6 for these).

 Available on Society6

Scent of Roses

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

Image created for the Facebook Group/Project 1/52. This is week 34.

I combined 3 images of a reflection of a rose in a water butt and played heavily with the colours/curves, added textures (bokeh, ripples and scractches) and the barbed wire.

The idea behind this image is that some memories, no matter how beautiful are just too painful to remember, but sometimes something like the scent of roses will make you remember anyway.

I wanted the area behind the barbed wire blurred  and vague but with bright distinct colours to show the dreamlike quality of memories and the way they are distorted by how we felt at the time or feel now.

Edited in Photoshop, all my own images.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas).

This Haunted Life

MyFreeCopyright

MCN: C56MV-BW51L-963T4

Image to go with my poem The Glass Coffin

Model: Jessica Truscott, Faestock

All other images my own or bought stock.

Soul Mirror

 

MCN: CE2U8-SGJWY-RXQBJ

One of my latest images for the 1/52 project. This is week 21. All my own images. I am still thinking about what you see in the mirror and how it reflects not just what is there, but also what is in your head.

All my own photographs.

Poem to go with it here.

All my licensing images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas).

Sisters Under The Skin

MCN: CCCJ1-XHKC3-2FX5S

I've been reading so much about women's rights being abused everywhere in the world recently  - from Honduras to America we seem to lose all the hard earned rights to our own body and what to do with it. Read this article here and weep.

I was so upset and angry about this article and tried to think of why it made me so upset, and a large part of the reason is that these are 'my sisters' what happens to them happens to me and it shouldn't happen. The long history of women's rights (or the lack of them) has shown we only get things done, if we stick together.

So this is what this image is about. Sisters under the skin, no matter what colour or where we are. :-)

Credits

Model

• stella-5 by xstockx

Brush

• Hair brush set by para-vine 

 All other images etc my own.

Secret Heart II and more jewellery

I thought it was time to show off some jewellery again. This is 

 Secret Heart II

A commission that made its way across the pond yesterday. It's always been one of my favourite designs. I love the barbed wire chain and the caged heart. Sad, I know.

Here it is once before the oxidisation process, just the bare bronze and then again, oxidised and packed, ready to go. This design takes forever and caused me some very sore fingers. Each part on it, except for the wire (different gauges) and the bead, is made by me. Each barbed wire link takes about 10 minutes to make. The wire heart took me most of an afternoon. Even the jumprings are handmade.

 Dragonfly Necklace

This was a present for my friend Helen back in October. I am so pleased with how this turned out. Different chains, different mostly semi precious beads and vintage chains and charms (apart from the swallow at the bottom. Click on it to see a larger version.

A Walk in the Woods

Christmas present for my friend Caroline over on Uniqart. I love wooden beads and seedpod beads and have accumulated quite a few of them (as you can see). I've used every singel one of them plus everyhting else that fitted with the theme including paper beads, fabric beads, Kashmiri beads, a little vintage bear bead, a glass heart, semi precious beads, mother of pearl, horn....

Viking Ships

Christmas present for my friend Helen... She loves blues and purples. The colours reminded me of the sea and the ships on it, hence Viking Ships. Wooden and glass beads, vintage and new, lava and kimono fabric beads, resin and semi precious, even a sead pod or two.

Pomegranate

Pinks and greens and reds... another Christmas present for my friend Liz. :-) Her favourite colours and all the beads I had in those exactl colours. LOL

Pink Eruption

Final jewellery Christmas present for another Caroline. :-) This was one of my silver art clay experiments I liked. I loved the heavy texture on it and thought it worked really well with the pink Calcedony.

That's it (for now anyway). I am always open for commissions, even with older pieces. Just send me an e-mail and ask, if there's something you fell in love with and just have to have. :-)

Written On My Skin - Photo Manipulation

This is in part inspired by Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and my musings on how we 'read' people. In the Oscar Wilde story people's perception of Dorian is wrong because the signs of his life as they are written on his face etc are not visible but only shown the hidden painting of Dorian. How do we 'read' people? How do you explain a sudden like or dislike of a person you know nothing about? There are many conscious decisions we make about people but probably far, far more subconscious decisions that allow us to get an 'idea' of a person just by looking at them, be it the shape of their mouth, the lines on their faces, the expression in their eyes or their body language, and all the many others we don't even know about.

I've chosen to 'cut' off the model's lovely head for two reasons. For one I wanted to 'cut off' the usual way for us to read people and instead show all the other ways and secondly I wanted people to be able to identify themselves with the image.

The barbed wire is a symbol of how people's perceptions of us and the decisions and choices they make on this perception limits us.

See the accompanying poem here.

Credits
Model: Rael C
Photographer: Marcus Ranum
Perchance to dream - 2 by mjranum-stock
Texture: Backblech 01 by sundel

MCN: C1LJ9-FKRSN-5YM76

Breakdown

 To accompany the lovely poem of the same name by Shar.

Credits:
 
Stock:

• Erisa 14 by Faestock (image on the far left)
• Butterfly, spiderweb, ice crystals by Alison Ashwell

Textures and Background:

• 66 by sullenstock
• Barbed Wire Stock 1 by texurestockbyhjs
• adult about this by CKdailyplanet
• texture015 by buzillo-stock
• fire textures by shin-rhys
• Backblech 04 by sundel

Brushes:

• Ice Ice Baby by Shiranui
• Crack Brushes I by hawksmont

All other images and textures my own.

Commissions June 2008

On top of all the illustrations I did the last couple of weeks I also had four commissions - one from my Etsy shop (another sale - YAY), two from my website and one from Caroline. Check out her new Etsy shop Pretty Flamingo. Check the Ivy Mania post for details of the ivy bangle.


Green Spectacle Chain

This was custom designed with lots of lovely, mostly glass beads. I've added a few pale sky blue wood beads for texture. The beads include Indian lampwork, Chinese glass beads, Czech faceted and flower beads, Japanese Miyuki seed and cube beads, recycled glass beads and whatever else took my fancy and worked with the design. The cord used is a silky rayon cord from China in a gorgeous leaf green. Available in different colours from my Etsy shop or as a commission in a colour of your choice.



Killer Whale Necklace

This is a design available from my website made with leather, a ceramic killer whale pendant (and a little charm hanging from the extension chain also with a whale), and wooden beads in coordinating colours strung on a blue leather cord. The necklace has an extension chain. It's part of my kids jewellery range. Other pendants available include a little red fox and a yellow duck.




Ladybird's Dream Set

This is a design from my website again, although it's different from the one shown on my website as I never make exactly the same design twice.

The necklace with coordinating bracelet has been made with glass beads in purples and pinks with flowers and ladybirds running as a theme all the way through. It's been strung on very strong pink tigertail and is a lovely addition to anyone's jewellery box.

Bracelet



Necklace

Secret Heart and Forgetmenots

More fun with wire. :-)

Been playing with wire shapes as you could see with the Pear Blossom necklace and the Cloudberry Bracelet. This time I've set my heart on a wicker type heart with a little heart hidden inside it.

Secret Heart

I started with a heart shaped wire frame I made from 0.9mm bronze wire, which I hammered flat to strengthen it. Then I added centre supports and a sort of scaffold going out from the centre supports in 0.5mm bronze wire.


I added the little wrapped vintage heart bead in the centre, and finally covered the heart shape in a criss cross pattern with 0.2mm (very fine) bronze wire.


Next, I started on the barbed wire chain.


I used the 0.9mm wire to make little eye pins with eyes on both ends, which I hammered flat. With the 0.5mm wire I then created the barbs for the wire on each of the little links. The next step was making jump rings and a custom made clasp for the chain. I linked everything together and the necklace was finished apart from the oxidisation. The chain - although it does look like barbed wire - is perfectly safe. There are no sharp edges on the barbs, as I've just squashed loops to make them look like barbs, which works just as well but is comfortable to wear.

It looked nice in plain bronze - see the Etruscan necklace - but the secret heart was not very visible and oxidising it made it far more interesting. A bit gothic, admittedly, but I think it works.




Forget-Me-Knots Necklace

This was born from a little sunshine and the pretty blue vintage flower beads (made from lucite) that arrived in the post the other day.

I started off with a kind of sprig in 0.9mm bronze wire to which I attached three flowers made with the lucite flower beads, some ivory coloured size 8 and yellow size 15 Japanese seed beads and some thin (0.5mm) wire.



I made three of these flower sprigs, connected them with handmade jumprings and added some ready made copper chain and a handmade clasp. The copper chain works much better with the bronze wire as the bronze wire looks almost like rose gold and the rosey sheen of it is closer to copper than the grey/gold/green sheen of ready made antiqued bronze chain.



The final touch are the Miyuki drops in yellow, pale blue, deep blue and white I attached as a little dangle next to the chain.