Ready to Bloom

Ready to Bloom
Photo credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

Yes, I am ready to bloom as an Art Jewelry Designer and as I looked at this beautiful stone, all I could see was a tight rose bud, ready to bloom and I knew….I just knew that was the right title for this piece.  There is a lot of meaning in this for me and I’m fairly certain this latest piece in my Soul Searching Series will become part of my private collection.

The stone. It is Ruby in Zoisite.  I purchased this from Gary B. Wilson at the Denver Gem & Mineral Show this past September.  I think it is so important to give credit where credit is due.  Lexi introduced me to Gary at that show.  Prior to that, Lexi had introduced me to his work.  As she says so well, Gary is one of those stone cutters that designs with the artist in mind.  And those of you who have been following my blog know that I want to do justice to all of the stones that I purchased from Gary and others.

The setting. Sterling silver with textures.  I’m quite fond of adding textures to my metal pieces and right now I have a fascination with bringing some of what I see in the stone and extending it into the metal.  I have several hammers that are my favorites for texturing.  The texture you see at the top is from one of my Fretz hammers with the silk pattern.  It’s subtle and yet, you can do many different things depending on how much and how hard you hammer the metal surface with it.  The ‘dots’ are my attempt to bring the patterns from the black spottings in the stone out into the surrounding metal.  I used another oxidation process to try to emphasize the textures.

The photo. Dan just came up with this idea to spritz water on the surface he was using.  The liquid look and feel really enhances the beauty of this piece.  I hope you think so too.

I have to come back to this beautiful stone again.  I’m really not one for pinks.  Yet when I went to that show, I made a mental commitment to NOT buy everything in purple, my favorite color.  And I did well, just ask Lexi and Dan. I may have acquired about 5 purplish stones then and the rest were totally different.

This stone stood out from day one.  As I worked with it from design … to creating the setting … and the final phase of putting the stone in place, I kept seeing that tight little rose bud.  Ready to burst forth and bloom.  If I may, that feels like me right now.  I’m ready.  Yes, I will always have more to learn, if we are honest…that is or should be the case for all of our lives …. if we truly want to continue to grow as individuals.  Without growth, we stagnate.  I for one want to continue to grow and learn until the day I leave this Earth.

Can you tell I fell emotional about this piece?  Yes, I have made a connection with it.  I feel it represents where I am at this time as a Jewelry Artist.  Get ready 2010, I’m going to bloom!

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person…you know I am.

Peaceful Surroundings

Peaceful Surroundings
Photo Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

Another pendant in my Soul Searching Series, this one I call “Peaceful Surroundings“.  I have been able to complete a number of art jewelry pieces over the holiday break and it’s nice to reveal this one at the beginning of 2010.  I feel it represents many of the good things to come in this new year.

The stone in this setting is Dendrites in Limestone that I purchased from Gary B. Wilson at the Gem & Mineral Show in Denver this past September.  I textured the metal to carry the dendrite markings from the stone into the surrounding setting.  This is set in Sterling Silver and I added 24kt Keum Boo to the top piece.  I thought the gold was a nice touch to sort of extend the rich color of the limestone into the top piece.  I oxidized the sterling with a liver of sulfur and as I worked with it, I wanted to emphasize the texture I had added to represent the dendrite extensions into the metal.

I find that the name for a piece is an interesting process for me.  Sometime it comes to me as I start the design.  In other cases, nothing manifests until it is complete.  This time, it was the latter.  As I looked at the completed pendant, I saw some of the gentle grasses that line the hiking trails in the Tetons.  I always feel at peace when I’m in the Tetons and there was my title, Peaceful Surroundings.

Wishing all of you a healthy, happy, and peaceful 2010.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Radiance

Radiance

Photo Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

I would like to begin this post with my hope that all of you are having a wonderful holiday season.  Dan & I have been enjoying our time with family and friends.  Plus, we’ve had some snow here in Colorado which gave us a white Christmas.

Today I finished this pendant.  Three hearts, of different metals, each with their own textures.  The biggest heart is brass, the middle heart is nickel silver, and the top is copper.  I added a light patina to the brass and the nickel silver to bring out some of the textured effects.  As I looked at this finished piece, it reminds me a bit of the sun and I’ve decided to call this one Radiance.  I think the warmth of the brass with the texture helped to create that effect for me too.

One of the things Lexi has taught me about making jewelry is how important it is to add movement to a piece.  People seem to be attracted to it and I know I certainly am.  These hearts have a lot of movement and make the slightest noise too.  It’s been a fun piece and I’m looking forward to doing more earrings and pendants where there are graduated shapes connected with a single element, like the jump ring here.

It’s so nice to get back to the bench and start working with metal again.  I took a bit of a break over Christmas, but now I’m looking forward to what 2010 holds and what new pieces I’ll create in both metal and my old favorite glass.  For my adventures in glass, you’ll need to visit my other blog, Reflections of a Glass Artist.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

It’s a Matter of Attitude

It’s a Matter of Attitude
Soul Searching Series
Photo Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

I think this is a beautiful piece of Texas Flint.  I purchased it from Minerax during the Gem and Mineral Show week.  It was another one of those stones that perplexed me when it came to a design.  However, after I had my breakthrough, this one just continued to evolve.

It’s one of my first pieces that I think has that true Arts and Crafts look to it.  In my opinion, the sterling silver circles really compliment the stone.

As I worked on the top section this week, I truly wished that someone had a square cutter just like they have circle cutters for metal.  I used square wire and soldered them in place.  My first attempt at this resulted in melting the top piece.  I’m very pleased with this second attempt.

I used sterling silver for the construction and added patina for color highlights to compliment this stone.

The title just kept resonating with me and so I felt it was necessary to call this “It’s a Matter of Attitude“.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with me on this one.  I always enjoy what others see in my works.

The holidays are here and I want to send my best wishes for a safe and festive holiday season to all of you.  Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Zion’s Waterfall of Perseverance

Zion’s Waterfall of Perseverance

Photo Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

Another piece from my Soul Searching Series; I call this one Zion’s Waterfall of Perseverance.  It had quite the journey, creatively speaking, to arrive at this destination!

The stone is an Ohio Flint that I purchased from Michael Hendrix of Minarex.  This was one of the first stones I purchased during the Gem & Mineral Show week in Denver.  Michael had a sneak preview of his works for CoMA members and I took my time looking over the collection of stones he presented.  This one jumped out at me and from the minute I saw it, I could see this lovely waterfall in the center of this.  What I envision as a waterfall in this stone is a very thin, pale blue section and I’m hoping that your various computer monitors will allow you to see the delicate color of the waterfall here.  It immediately reminded me of the scenery Dan & I have enjoyed during our visit to Zion National Park.  This waterfall is gracefully flowing and carving out its place in the deep brown ridges of the stone that surrounds it.  At the bottom I can see the mist rising up as the waterfall completes its journey.  I find it a spectacular stone.

Now this is one of those stones that haunted me during my creative block.  Circle shapes shouldn’t be a big deal to design around, right?  Well, apparently they can cause their own set of design issues.  Lexi guided me and things evolved.

The shape for the setting is more of a rounded square.  I chose a copper setting with sterling silver accents.  The accents came into play after I set the bezel for this stone.  Once I had the bezel soldered in place, I had a problem.  The join for the bezel ends came apart.  But as I looked at it, I saw the design evolving.  Why not open the bezel up even farther and have the stream/mist of the waterfall extend into the setting?  Sure, that will work!  And then I added a silver moon to the right.  Now I have a landscape and I’m luvin’ it.

First I opened up the bezel a little more to show the flow of the stream I see in this stone.  I then rounded the edges of the bezel to follow the gentle curves of the ‘water’ in the stone.  Next, I textured some sterling silver and drew what a felt would be the graceful lines of the stream after the waterfall entered it.  I used my saw to create those gentle lines of the water’s edge in the silver.   I soldered that overlay in place and then trimmed the excess from the side edge with my saw.  I filed the edges smooth and now there is an extension from the ‘water’ in the stone.  The little circle in the upper right is my representational moon.

There’s a simple copper bail on the back to accommodate most necklaces.  In this photo is one of those 50 strand black steel necklaces.  I find them very versatile.

My last step was to add a patina finish.  I’ve been using the new liver of sulpher gel and love the effects.  Once I had the color I wanted on the copper I quickly stopped the patina process.  And I wanted to get back the shiny silver, so I used one of those 3M polishing ’spiders’ to take the patina off the silver accents.

I think my perseverance paid off and that’s how the title for this piece came to me.  It reminded me of a waterfall in Zion and was also evidence that perseverance pays off!  I hope you enjoyed its journey.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Nature’s Embrace ~ A New Series

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been working on some new earrings to take to Coyote Creek Studio Arts in Fairplay. As a result, I created a new series that I’m calling Nature’s Embrace. These earrings remind me of leaf variations. They provided an opportunity to mix textures and metals. For this series, I am using brass, nickel silver, sterling silver, and copper. I find that each one seems to have a delicate quality.

I’m happy to post the reveal of these today and I hope you enjoy them. I look forward to making more and if any of you are interested in similar ones for your Christmas gift giving, please feel free to contact me.  The photo credits on all of these goes to Dan, of course!

Leaves

Approximately 2″ long . Textured Nickel Silver  with Argentium ear wires ~ $30.00

Leaf Patterns

Approximately 1 1/2″ long.  Textured Brass with brass ear wires ~ $17.50

Serenity

Approximately 3/4″ long.  Textured Nickel Silver & Copper ~ $15.50

Harmony Leaves

Approximately 1″ long.  Textured Nickel Silver & Copper ~ $20.00

Nature's Treasures

Approximately 1″ long.  Textured Sterling Silver & Copper ~ $27.50

Today, Dan & I will be heading to Fairplay for the town’s Arts & Crafts Holiday Celebration. Dan is taking a new framed photograph that will be available for purchase at the gallery too.  And I will be taking these earrings for the holiday shoppers.  If you happen to be in the area, please stop by Coyote Creek for the holiday festivities.  Many of the artists will be at the gallery for a “Meet the Artist”, including Dan & I.  There is a lot of beautiful work in the gallery, including some of Lexi’s!  And Lexi will be there today too, so you would have a chance to meet her and chat.  Wouldn’t that be fun? 

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Emergence

Emergence
Soul Searching Series
Photograph Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

Another piece from my Soul Searching Series, I call this one Emergence.  The stone is an Amethyst Sage with Dendrites that I purchased from The Clam Shell, while attending the Denver Gem and Mineral Show in September.  I think this is my favorite piece to date.  It evolved as my work tends to do.  I find the stone captivating.

The reason I called this one Emergence is because I see a beautiful white cloud emerging from the stormy surface of a planet….as if a creative spirit has been freed from its bindings and released from the surface that has deep purple and rich rusts that comprise its surface.  It was a very freeing experience for me as I worked on this piece.  Why?  Well, it became more than the original design as I show in this next photo.

Working with metal has opened so many doors for me.  I really do work on my designs for the stones and I don’t just start something without a plan anymore.  I tended to not have specific designs in mind with the wire wrapped glass pieces I made.  Those wire wrapped pieces did turn out rather free form, which worked.  But now that I work with metal and stone, I can’t take that kind of cavalier approach anymore.

As you may have noticed, there are three textured sections in the final piece, not just two.  When the metal was ready for soldering, I looked at it with the stone and realized it wasn’t balanced.  The famous/infamous threes in art!  Keep the balance.  This was part of the fun for me in this piece.  I drew what I felt was the appropriate accent on the right side of the piece to draw attention to the shape of the stone and balance this pendant.  I found it worked.  And it made me very happy to realize that I could still capture some of that free ’spirit-ness’ that made my wire wrap so unique.  I like carrying that into my metal work too!

I used Sterling Silver for the setting and applied liver of sulfur gel, with a hint of ammonia, to create the rainbow of colors that you see on the metal.  A couple of the textured components were overlaid to create the depth. And I really like adding the diamond shaped pieces of silver at the bottom.  I love the way this one moves too.

This piece truly symbolizes how I feel about my artistic spirit emerging as I grow with metal.  It wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning Lexi Erickson, my teacher/friend/mentor/sister.  She nurtures and nourishes me as a metalsmith, a person, an artist, and a friend.  Thank you Lexi!

I have been absent over the Thanksgiving holiday, but rest assured that I have more pieces in the works.  I look forward to sharing them with you soon.

Until the next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person!

Dreams

Those of you who follow my Reflections of a Glass Artist blog, may recall a recent post about Lexi’s Dream.  To sum that up, after Lexi and I had our soul searching evening, she had a dream about a glass bowl.  She encouraged me to make it and I did.  You can read more about Lexi’s dream piece by following the link to Lexi’s Dream above.

Now, my husband/best friend/soul mate, Dan, has had a dream.  In it, I have made either a pair of earrings or a pendant that look like very detailed…almost realistic leaves.  He thought they may have been Maple leaves.  He said the details were almost exactly like a real leaf.

The coincidence here is that I’ve been thinking about leaves.  I love their beauty.  I knew I needed to incorporate them in my work at some point.  Clearly, it’s time to do that and see if I can capture the essence of Dan’s dream……..

I feel compelled to answer what I perceive are these calls to my creativity by the people I trust & love the most in my life.  The outcome from Lexi’s Dream was even more ideas for glass work, as I feel is evidenced by my Fallen Leaves bowl.

I just incorporated a leaf into my new logo:

I came up for the idea of this new logo as I was working on the redesign of my website.

It’s clear now that I need to begin working on leaf designs for a new series.  Stay tuned for further developments.  In the meantime, I have been working on more of my Soul Searching series and I look forward to publishing some of  the latest works in this series.  You can see a glimpse of a few of them on my website.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

The Break Through

The Break Through
Photo credit ~ Daniel Krucoff

This piece is the reality come to life from my 4 AM break through moment in the early morning hours of September 29th.  This stone was one of those that haunted me, trying to come up with the ‘perfect‘ design.  After Lexi and I had our Gelatos and Mountain Sunset evening of artistic soul searching, many things simmered in my subconscious.  And I believe they are still simmering and bubble to the surface on a fairly regular basis.  This past week Lexi commented that neither of us has seen the full effects on that evening in our lives and our works.  I believe she is correct.

I named this piece The Break Through.  I didn’t feel there could be any other name for it.  It is part of my Soul Searching Series.  The image of what I wanted to do literally woke me up at 4 AM that morning.  And I wondered if I could hold on to it and bring it to life.  After that, 2 other images popped into my mind too.  I wanted to go back to sleep.  I was exhausted from the energy of the evening before.  And I felt I would be able to preserve that image and the others in my sketch book the next morning.  I did.

The Sketch

I believe you can tell that I was able to capture it and then ultimately create my vision of this piece.  Now, my drawings are not the prettiest ones in the world, but they help me as a pattern and guide me in working with stone and metal to create my art jewelry pieces.

The stone is a White Opal Dendrite that I purchased from The Clamshell while at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show.  I have another stone in this family, but it is completely different from this one and even more unusual.  I don’t have a design for it yet, but I will.

The setting is sterling silver with various textures that I created with one of my Fretz hammers.  I finished this with a variety of patinas to add contrast to the setting.

So, what do you think?  I always value the thoughts and opinions each of you take the time to write and share with me here.

Aspiring to be more as an artist and a person.

New Growth

New Growth

Earrings from my Soul Searching series, these represent my new growth as a metalsmith.

Lots of different techniques here.  My first venture into Keum Boo. Keum Boo is a seriously cool technique that involves bonding very thin, 24 kt gold, to the surface of your metal.  The link I’ve given is to Wikipedia’s explanation and I think they’ve provided a good description of Keum Boo.

I kept the design pretty simple again.  I’m using Sterling Silver for the background and the ear wires.  The texture I created on the sterling was done with the use of my Pepe rolling mill and a piece of fabric.  I am so into creating textures on metal.  Looking at mesh for screen, lamp shades, artificial flowers, well…I look for pieces I can use to texture metal just about anywhere!

Once I had the texture in place, then I filed the edges so they would be smooth.  I added a line to represent the branch for the leaves.  The lines were created with a very tiny diamond coated bit and my new Foredom.

The sterling needs to be annealed several times to bring the pure silver to the surface.  This provides the adhesion layer necessary for the Keum Boo to bond completely.

Time for the placement of the leaves, which are the Keum Boo part of these.  I traced the leaf design on the paper to use as a guide for cutting them.  Using my Joyce Chen Scissors, I was able to cut out these very small leaves.  If you have need for an ultra sharp pair of scissors, get some Joyce Chens.  They will cut chicken bones and you have to be VERY careful when you use them as they don’t distinguish between bone, fingers, or metal.  I can’t speak from personal experience on the injury front, but I have been instructed to be careful with them (thanks Lexi ) and I want to pass that information on to anyone who hasn’t used them.

Now we’re ready to bond the leaves to the surface.  Truly an interesting process.  Lexi is demonstrating how this is done and I’m watching, completely fascinated.  Now it’s my turn.  Wow.  She has one of those glass cook tops and that was our surface for heating the metal and then using a burnisher to gently rub the Keum Boo as it’s bonding to the surface of the silver.  Who would have thought!  Of course, as with anything, there is more than one way to do this.  I just never expected to put metal on a stove top and that would bond two layers of metal together!

Once the bonding is complete, we decided to add a patina to really have the gold stand out.  Well, after all, it is gold and no matter how small, one should be able to see it.

Another technique Lexi showed me was how to create those cute little balls on the end of the ear wires.  I did have fun doing this on my own and will be incorporating this into more of my work.  I added patina to the ear wires (also sterling silver) so they would match the earrings.

Ever since my Creative Block break through, I have been literally consumed with trying new things and variations on techniques I already know.  Metalwork is truly fascinating to me.  These earrings do symbolize my New Growth as a metalwork artist.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an Artist and a Person.