Working without acetylene

It is possible that there will be more woodcraft and fabric/costuming/propmaking creations featured in this space than jewelry for a while.  It is very hard to melt metal by willpower alone.  There should, I suppose, be a post sometime soon catching up with some things that I have finished, and posting what I have for sale, but that is not for today.

Soldered chain and lost wax.

Until recently, the only chain that I had made was one with enough links that each link did not to be soldered to keep the thing together.

Then I made this:

Which is a bracelet and a thank-you all in one, modelled after the design of a necklace that I noticed being worn by its new owner

These have chain too, but I didn't make it.

It does make them dangle really nicely though.

Lily pads: hammered oxidized sterling, freshwater pearls, sterling half-rivets and wire, chain

I also recently completed my first lost wax casting.
The process is:
 - create items out of wax
-attach them via sprues (rhymes with screws, which made for an interesting conversation cause I had not idea what I was saying) to a central was rod
-mount said rod in a canister (not Lannister) and fill in around the wax forms with a super heat-resistant plaster
-burn out the wax in a kilm overnight
-mount the canister of plaster and empty space in a centrifuge, and melt metal in a crucible, then use the spinning prowess of the crucible (not Tituba's kind) so send the molten metal out into the plaster canister
- cool, cut, and voila!

Gemütlichkeit:

Raw garnet in silver:

There is a larger project that I also cast pieces of, but it's not done yet, so just you wait.

Love and beauty!

Pearls and Screws.

Yes, I'm writing several posts on one day, and maybe that's tacky... but this is all backlog of things that should've been said before, when I was still sure that posting pics on ol' FB was enough.  By the same token, maybe it's pretentions to assume that people give a crap about why or how I made things.
If so, color me pretentious.

Anyway.

There was an art exhibit at the University of New England, when we still lived in Kennebunk, that revolved around the art of the afterculture - where aesthetics would go once technology had failed and our society had collapsed (and this was before iphones and the social-media tempest that both threatens actual human interaction and allows me to post this), and where the world could or would go after civilization.
The promo postcard to this exhibit hung on my wall for years, until I moved out of my cabin in december, actually - it depicted a stone, shell, and moss venus ascendant.  The exhibit itself was full of trees grown through highways and buildings, and art created out of the mundane and technological.

I really appreciate the utilization of objects that are industrial or technological as a counterpoint to the very delicate and beautiful.
This series, which is yet ongoing, is based on that dichotomy: destruction and delicacy, harsh edges and smooth opalescence.

Pearls and Screws.

Distress: beaten sterling band, rosy freshwater pearl in a bezel setting, computer screws.

Same ring, in living color

Infinity: twisted beaten sterling band, with hints of copper plating, computer screws.

Infinity earrings.

Love and beauty!

In the cold and the dark, with warmth in the heart!

Fairbanks in the end of January- the sun doesn't so much shine as tease and run away with its tongue out.  This year, this cold, dark segment of the year was made more difficult for me (and for my family) by my inability to walk, and the physical and emotional pain associated with that inability and the accident that caused it.

My solace was, and still is, spending time in the studio, where I can sand a piece of silver for three hours, and let that be the sole piece of existence that matters.

or, I can use this baby

 To make things like these:

The stones are green jasper, the settings sterling silver.  The chain I made last semester, with the idea that it would be super cool to make a clasp that I could then hook pendants onto at will.  It's true!

Copycatted necklace - kinda. Also, first stone that I cut with facets!

Redux of some shell pieces I had made before, cause, you know... More is better, right?

Then there was Valentine's Day.

I usually dislike hallmark holidays.  I really do.  But this year I've been feeling so grateful to the people in my life who have disrupted their already packed schedules to help me deal with my physical situation, and I figured... Valentines are to say you care, right?  Well.  I care.  And I am so thankful.

Sterling and brass.

Remember in elementary school when everyone made their valentines cards except for those very few cool kids who had the TMNT or My Little Pony ones?

And yes.  That is from Hamlet.  Cause, you know, there's a character called Valentine, so I couldn't resist.

Love and Beauty!

Facebook is for cat memes: a backlog of photos

These images are of work I've done over the last six months or so, in large part as I was figuring out how to do things.  More recents things will follow, with more descriptory nonsense.

My first semester's production: all in one place.

Sterling Byzantine chain, clasp designed to allow for suspension of S-hooked pendants.

My darling sister (of Bunchberry Farm) makes an unintentional habit of losing the earrings that she loves the most.  I remade them for her.

How Long Is Now?

Rose Quartz and fine silver pendant for my dearest friend.

New semester began this january with finishing the pendant above, and these opal studs, the stones of which were dug out of some family cranny and given to me for the holidays.

Forged stainless steel burnisher in a hand-shaped koa handle (hawaiian hardwood).

That's kinda how it started - getting things sorted, making holiday tokens for the ones I love.