Ice . . .

Coaxing the muse out of hiding with the tempting tinkle of ice, perhaps?  


Yesterday I made up my mind that I'd chain myself to the bench until something was created and with much distracted playing, this piece appeared.  I arranged and rearranged and rearranged again little bits of leftover pieces of silver around this sweet cab of Tourmalinated Quartz and I'm pleased with what appeared.

Simply set with an open back.
Moves easily.

I have a handful of these cabs, some just the size of your fingernail, and each one has the appearance of cracked ice.  Holding them in the palm of my hand looks like a handful of crushed ice.


Maybe it's the icy driveway and shrubs and icicles on the eaves this week that inspired me to set this as ice tongs holding a melting cube - no matter, I'm just happy that errant muse showed up.

January sunset . . .

Skinny gold orange sliver of the barely-set sun, darkening evening grey January sky, striped bands of layering clouds and jet contrails.

All at once in this banded agate.

I'm committed to getting back to what I love working on most of all : lapidary and setting the stones I cut and polish.  I have so many delicious cabs on my bench and I have spent the weeks leading up to Christmas working on the 'quick work'.  Not particularly satisfying for me but results oriented work.
With this new year : new work
Simple
Direct
Clean
Fresh
Oh, and my New Year's Resolution every year is to make contact with at least one old friend who has dropped off my radar screen.  This has been my Resolution every year for at least a decade and it has been so rewarding.
Completely doable.  
So if you've dropped off my radar, expect a call.

Looking for Elvis, or elves, or any help at all, please . . .

True.  I've been away from the blogosphere for months now but trying to juggle so much just gives me fits.  My muse has wandered through occasionally; however, not with any constancy so I have to wrestle her to the ground whenever she strolls casually through.  So much has been on my bench.  So much.

Project: a ring of jade given to me by a friend last summer who wanted a necklace for her tweenage granddaughter.  It was to be my choice of design and when I took one look at the ring, it spoke to me.  (Well, my muse but dammit, she's been so busy lately.)  It needed to be youthful so I gave it a scalloped bezel and it needed to be current so I gave it a peace sign and it needed some texture for contrast so I hammered it.  (Okay I melted it once.  Just once.  Things don't always go as I want.)

My dear friend also gave me a little bag of rings and old earrings to play with and I found these moonstone cabs to be so lovely and a great size for a pair of dark and swingy earrings.  I set the moonstone in scalloped bezel and built a scalloped wall around the circle of silver.  Darkened a bit with silverblack and buffed on the edges to give it some life, I drilled out the backside of the stone's bezel so the light shone through.  I think I may work this design a few more times.  (Please love it!)

Special orders went out late last week for aquamarine sets and I used up all of the chunky aquamarine I had left for this hefty necklace, save for a few pieces that turned into earrings.

Next week : one big three day charity show that I am the organizer for along with a friend who I feel does even more than I do to prepare for the artists and the benefit evening.  It will be a wonderful Thursday, Friday and Saturday but I'm seriously looking forward to Sunday the 4th.  Also to go out in one week is work for an Omaha Gallery and there is a two day show at The Sheldon Gallery on the University of Nebraska campus Wednesday and Thursday just prior to the three day event.  Oh, did I mention that there is a four hour show at a local business on the 8th?  No?  Oh yes.

Help me Elves.  Or help me Elvis, either one.

Dragonfly wings . . .

It was a revelation of sorts.  

My darling friend Rachel 'Two Dog Pond' dropped by last week to take a look at my torch and haul off my wrought iron outdoor bench and table (okay, you didn't really need that information) and she had on the most interesting and lovely necklace that I'd seen in a while.  She had found a dragonfly wing down by the pond (yes, there really is a pond) and sandwiched it between two pieces of glass, worked her magic by soldering it between the glass pieces and made a pendant.  My comment to her was that it looked so much like the Montana Agate that I've been working with that I begged her to let me copy it.  So here you have the first in a series of Dragonfly Wings.

My first pendant is not set with an open back - rather, it's been pierced with two cattails that are only visible from the front when held to the light.  Still, I like having hidden elements in my jewelry so that when one comments on the piece, it opens a conversation to show them the back and start a little info sharing about the jewelry.  Maybe it's just me - I can talk to anyone and don't always need an excuse.

I digress.  This is a nice, simple pendant and I'm absolutely itching to dig deeper into the pile of Montana Agate and recreate the Dragonfly Wings in stone.  Lovely.

Copperlicious . . .

I am just having 'way too much fun with this copper stuff lately. Clearly I'm hooked on this material and I cannot believe how warm and cool it can appear all at once. When paired with sterling silver, the pink tones really stand out.

This is a pendant that I made for my friend Connie - that is, if she likes it.

Completely fabricated in copper, it has an off-center punched hole, is oxidized inside the hollowform bead and is accented with a copper-capped rondelle of sweet aquamarine. It measures 3/4" and is about 1/4" deep.

I love it. How could you not?

Copper box pendant . . .

Special orders are an intimidating challenge and, as I've said before, I do not challenge myself enough so this project I took on after the customer and I exchanged emails and drawings until we came up with something I felt comfortable attempting. I've made lift-off box lids before and since she wanted this to open, it was the best and most logical choice. So here we go.

The idea begins as a sketch - lots of ideas get tossed out at this point and, quite frankly, some I'll just file away to use later.

Beginning with sheet copper, I first cut the sides 1/4" tall in one long strip in the total length and bent them to the basic box shape and I soldered the ends. This rectangle shape is filed and sanded until the 'bezel' sides are perfectly flat when laid on top of the copper sheet to become the front and back of the pendant.

You can see in the photo with fire that the box obviously has to be closed and this can get tricky on several levels. One, I didn't want the silver solder to flow on the outside of the copper box and show on the copper sides so I scratched the outline of the box on the backside of the pendant and placed the solder inside that line so I could fit the box on top with the solder inside the box during the soldering process. The second issue is that there must be a vent in the box so that the gas can escape - otherwise you run the risk of the box exploding. Not good.

Another note of caution here: if you're trying to photograph your soldering process, have someone else take the photos. If you try to hold both the torch and your camera, you may burn your camera . . . like I did. With a little sanding, the lens once again retracts into the camera. And that's all I'm sayin'.

Whew! Soldered!

Now comes lots of cleaning, sanding, filing. Not exactly the fun part but it is satisfying to hold this little box in your hand and turn it as you sand and love on it.

The top gets cut off very carefully around the scribed line so that it's as even as possible. A thin strip of sterling silver bezel wire is formed to fit exactly inside the rim of the cut off top so that when it is filed and sanded smooth, it will make a sweet fitting lid for the box.

Copper tubing is soldered onto the sides for the loop that will hold the chain. Everything is cleaned and sanded smooth and all file marks removed with the finest sandpaper. A sterling silver chain is oxidized and added to the loops through the tubing on the sides.

I like to finish oxidized sterling silver with a coat of Renaissance Wax just to give the black silver a bit of sheen. I buff it with an old shoe brush and I think it's ready to go. I give it the 'wear test' and wear it around my neck for a few hours to make sure the top is going to stay on and it feels nice and sturdy. I think I love it.

I email my customer with the pictures. She likes it. I'm happy and relieved. *whew*