2020
60mm x 15mm x mm
Handmade black clay flowers with natural hesonite, handmade argentium sterling silver hooks and sterling silver beads.
Melissa Gabelle lives and works on the beautiful far south coast of NSW in Verona. She has been working in clay for 25 years. Surrounded and inspired by nature, she is currently making ceramic beads and jewellery with forays into her love of whimsical and colourful ceramics.
Melissa works in mid-fire porcelain, black midfire and warm midfire clays. She uses slip, sgraffito, underglazes, glazes and incised designs. Some beads have gold, platinum, copper or coloured lustres which are applied after the glaze firing and fired for a third time. Once fired, her beads are combined with precious and semi-precious stones, pearls and sterling silver or 14k gold-filled wire, to create unique earrings and necklaces.
“All my beads are small works of art and each one has multiple stages in the making process. love all aspects of making, but my favourite part is opening the kiln…it’s always such a surprise and there is a touch of alchemy about it.”