More adventures in metalsmithing

What: Ring
Materials: Silver, copper, brass, hematite cabochon

Like the Ouroboros bracelet, this is a project from the metalsmithing course I took in college. This was our first major project, and the assignment was to design a ring. We had to have a cabochon and I think we also had to choose more than one metal to make the ring out of. The design is fun, but as far as practicality is concerned the ring is too tall to be used on my fingers, at least. It was made to be a thumb ring, and the height of the ring does constrict the mobility of my thumb's knuckle. This didn't count against the final score, since nothing was said about it having to be a wearable ring, but I was hoping for a little bit of functionality.

As far as motivation and artistic choices are concerned, I knew going into the project that I wanted to use three metals. I've always liked the look of stacked rings, but I wanted to play around with having infrastructure between the stacked rings. In retrospect, I would have played on that idea more in the design process, but I'm okay with the ring as it is because of its simplicity. I chose hematite as the central cabochon to tie the piece together because of its metallic luster and sharp contrast to the other three elements, as opposed to other metallic stones such as pyrite. I'm certainly a fan of pyrite, but the color would have been too similar to the brass and would have thrown off the balance of the piece, which I did want to maintain. Onyx was an option, but again, I liked the theme of metallics and wanted that unification to continue into the stone.

Truth be told, I'm not sure I ever actually named this piece. Not that every piece of jewelry needs to have a name or title, I just suppose that as my very first metalsmithing venture I should have been a bit more commemorative in its naming. I've had this ring for almost three years now, though, so it seems pointless to name it now. There will be more rings for me to name in the future!

Other Uses for Clothesline

What it is: Choker-length necklace with matching earrings

Materials used: Copper wire and findings, Swarovski bicones, 12mm cubic zirconia drops, focal component, clothesline

Process: Lots and lots of wire-wrapping. I started by cutting lengths of clothesline (with heavy-duty wire cutters, don't try to use good jewelry cutters for this!) to the length I wanted the necklace to be, then wire-wrapped the ends individually and connected them using a handmade toggle-style clasp. (Hint: I tightly pinched the first couple coils so that they would grip the cord securely) Once that was in place, I wire-wrapped the main focal component into place, continuing the wire-wrapping halfway up the length of the necklace and ending in coils. Off of the main wire-wrapping I attached one of the cubic zirconia drops to create an asymmetrical feel to the piece (Actually, I just had some cubic zirconia drops leftover from another project that were begging to be used and I felt like this was a great place to throw them in, but shhhhh! I planned it this way all along!). I then wire-wrapped the top half of the necklace in a couple of places to lash the clothesline together so excess movement wouldn't distort the wire-wrapping towards the bottom. With that done, I took a smaller gauge of copper wire and that's when I added the Swarovski crystals, wire-wrapping the small gauge around the larger gauge and threading crystals as I went along to give the piece some extra sparkle. I went through a similar process for the earrings.

Revvin' up the WABAC machine!

In the interest of doing things with my life like updating this blog, I think I'm going to cheat a little and post a couple pictures of old projects while I get around to photographing more recent jewelry adventures. The subject of this photo is titled "Ourobouros" from the mythological serpent consuming its own tail signifying infinity. It was designed to be worn as a bangle bracelet, but it works better as an arm cuff. It's made entirely of copper with a liver of sulfur patina, and it was created during a semester of jewelry making and metalsmithing taught by a graduate assistant at the university I attended. I wish I could give more detail about the construction, but I'm not sure I could do better than "texturing, sawing, hammering, soldering, anticlastic raising, more hammering, swearing, more soldering, more swearing, patina, polish, finally get some sleep before the class presentation."

*Note: "WABAC" is indeed pronounced "wayback," and if you recognize that particular acronym, you've watched entirely too much Rocky and Bullwinkle.

**Extra note: This photo was not photographed by me, but rather by the university photographer that frequently photographs student artwork for the department's use. The bracelet, however, is my design and construction.

Steampunk heart!

Materials used: Old wristwatch gears and parts, Kato Polyclay, jump rings, hinge, large fabricated gear.

Process: After conditioning copper and silver Kato Polyclay, I combined the two colors and repeatedly rolled out the blend until I got an arrangement that looked like old scrap metal with enough variation to be visually appealing. I hand-formed the heart shape, then sliced the heart in half in order to press in the gear to be used for attaching the finished heart to a cord or necklace. I also added other embellishments at that point in time (the jumprings and the spiky end of watch crowns). After reattaching the heart and smoothing out the seam, I then sliced out the front right quarter of the heart using an X-Acto knife. I hollowed out the main body of the heart as well as the inside of the quarter heart to make room for gears. Texture was added using carving tools, and the gears were pressed into the clay. I attached the hinge to the body of the heart and baked the two pieces separately. I baked the clay on foil and tissue in my toaster oven according to Kato Polyclay's directions, then once the heart pieces cooled I marked out the drill holes for the hinge to be attached to the quarter heart, pre-drilled the holes, then attached the hinge using the screws that were packaged with the hinge (I did have to trim the tips of the screws to prevent them from poking through the clay).

Notes:
This was my first time working with Kato Polyclay (or any other polymer clay brand, such as Sculpey or Fimo), so I'm thrilled with the overall success of the piece (i.e. I didn't burn it to an awful-smelling crisp, though the piece did do some ominous smoking and emanated an unpleasant odor during the first several minutes of baking). The edges did do some minor cracking where I tried to blend the seam, but it's held up well so far after at least one drop onto parking lot pavement. Overall, I think I'll continue to use Kato Polyclay for now. If I ever give Fimo or Sculpey a try, I'll post the results here!

The photograph is of the incomplete piece before I attached the quarter heart to the hinge.

Other things I do for the fun of it

Sometimes beading just isn't enough. Sometimes there are just times in life when you look in the mirror and say, "Self, I need to make a silly hat."

Or, rather, the hat was needed for a game for a good friend's bridal shower, but still. Who needs a reason to make a silly hat, anyhow?

I took a plain white bucket hat and glued and sewed and painted to my heart's content. The painted script reads "Let me eat cake!" There is also a glow-in-the-dark fabric paint halo on the top seam of the hat.

A very similar design will be making its way onto my hard hat in the near future.

Creativity on a schedule

One of my greatest challenges as a jewelry artisan is my schedule... I work full-time, have an apartment to help keep up, plus other hobbies that also like to suck up my time. This means that I have scant little time to make jewelry, let alone blog about my artistic escapades. This would be why I have a very loosey-goosey update schedule (read: there is no schedule, I write when I can for now).

I try to sneak in jewelry-making when I can, and of the several projects I have on the docket right now I have a chainmail necklace that I carry around in my purse. It's easy for me to add a couple new rings to it during things like my lunch break at work, and I don't have to lug around my heavy bead tote. I also carry a small Moleskine sketchbook with a full 12-pencil set of Prismacolor Turquoise drawing pencils in my purse as well, which is why I've recently had to upgrade to a much larger purse to carry at least some of my hobbies around with me!

Also on the agenda while I sort out this whole not-enough-hours-in-the-day thing: Sorting out and organizing my hobbies!

The way things come together...

One of the things I do to challenge myself as a jewelry artisan is take advantage of assortments and mixes to expose myself to materials I would not normally purchase. Some of the things sit in my sorting bins for years, only to wait for the right counterpart to come along and complete the design. Such was the case with this necklace/earring/bracelet set. I had the rough chips of this as-yet-unidentified stone that came in a chip assortment I purchased, and while the color and texture was appealing, the inspiration wasn't there.

Lo and behold, some years later my sister-in-law contacted me and said that she had a bundle of beads and materials that she had no idea what to do with, and would I be so kind as to give these wayward materials a home? Of course I would! So a happy bundle of beads showed up on my doorstep some weeks later, and included in the mix were these gorgeous red faceted stones in approximately the same shade as my lonely chips! Add in the focal bead from another assortment of mixed stones, with some silvertone filigree beads, and voila, a design!