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.

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.

Phase 2 ~ Making a Chain

I’ve been working on designs for the next link in the chain. I had LOTS of drawings of leaves. This photo only shows a small portion of the little leaves I sketched. I’m drawn to this delicate little leaf pattern. Yet, it doesn’t seem very practical for a necklace or bracelet. I’m concerned that it would catch on clothing or other things. What you see here is my experiment or prototype of the pattern. I used some brass wire I have to see how the drawing could be translated into wire. I think if I pursued this, I’d need to solder all of the leaf joints so the design would stay in tack.

This picture shows how I’ve worked a little more with the wire to come up with the actual leaf shape.

I’ve run these past Lexi and she agrees. The current design has some issues that can be addressed. One great thing she saw in these was a pretty pair of earrings. Ohhh I like that! I will definitely be following up on this. We discussed other possible chain link patterns and she had some suggestions, so I’m running with those and working on the link design some more.

I thought it would be fun to continue to post how the progression of this chain takes place. This afternoon, I’ve been soldering all the rings I made in my last session with Lexi. She’s right, you get very good at soldering when you are working on something this small. I’m having a lot of fun with this.

The design for the next link in this chain is underway and I’m working on creating those links. Right now, it is fairly labor intensive for me because I’m learning this technique. However, as I said in my last post, I really do see this as a great way to make a truly unique chain that goes with a pendant or just to be worn by itself.

Now, Lexi has some great ideas and she has been so generous with the suggestions of where I can go with the look of this chain. Rest assured you will be seeing some form of this leaf pattern in the necklace. I hope it turns out as cool as I envision it in my mind. 🙂

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person. Make it a great week of creativity.

Angel Wings Earrings

Angel Wings

I was doodling this week and this design evolved from those doodles.  I wanted to add a little extra interest so I added tear drops.  The materials used were brass for the wings and copper for the tear drops.  I added a couple of different textures; a piece of fabric created the texture on the wings and the copper tear drops have imprints from one of the flagstones next to the house.  I really like experimenting with textures and thought it would be fun to combine a couple of different textures in the same piece.  I felt it was important that the textures didn’t ‘fight‘ with each other, that is, that they were complimentary rather than two drastic opposites.  I’m happy with how these two metals, with their own textures have blended to create these earrings.

I also experimented with patinas to create the coloration on the metals.  As Lexi has told me, she often goes back and keeps working with the patina of a piece.  I think I will do that here too.  I knew this would happen, but I find it interesting how the patina on the brass is so different from the patina on the copper.  Each metal takes on color differently and with the mixed textures, I’m fairly certain that influences how the patina appears too.

As a final step, I used my dapping block to form a delicate curve on the brass pieces.  This way the wings sort of bow with slight arch.  I like the look.

One of the things I wanted to do with these was work out another design to help me get ready to set glass in earrings.  Size, shape, heaviness all play a role in how I will eventually create earrings from my glass pieces.  These were fun to make and I believe I’ll continue to work on variations of this theme.

Remember, continue to aspire to be more as an artist and a person.  Til the next time, happy creating all.