Week 21-Bronze Viking Knit Necklace

The theme for this week had something to do with red. I've been involved in the campaign to recall Rick Snyder so I'm so far behind I don't remember. :D So this is a bronze single Viking knit necklace. The center decoration is wired to the chain. I pictured it in my head as bigger and blingier but I wasn't about to do it over. The centerpiece is keishi pearls with garnets in the center. The spirals are wired with black spinels that have a nystic coating. I first photographed it leaving the wire bright but later decided to oxidize it. That was a good move because that's when it sold. People seem to like patinas lately.

Week 20-Copper Tubing Necklace

Trying to play catch-up. The theme for week 20 was Three Feet of Wire and for once I managed to stick with the theme. I ran 16 gauge sterling silver wire through some 1/4" copper tubing which I then beat with a hammer. The spirals were formed and forged with a hammer. Then I spent about two hours dragging out half of my stash to try and figure out what to hang from the bottom. I finally gave up and just attached a vintage skeleton key. I've heard it said that we should charge for our design time but I think charging someone 30 bucks because I can't make up my mind is a little overboard. LOL Someone thought that the key was okay because they bought it at a show already.

Week 19-Snidely Whiplash Owl Pendant

The theme for this week is "Round and round". This is something I was playing around with the other day and it comes closest to fitting the theme with it’s round belly and round eyes. It’s an inexpensive glass cabochon that I wrapped with square copper wire. Then I wired a piece of brass wire under his body to represent a branch and some feet. Where I got stumped was trying to give him a beak and some cheeks to close the gap between his body and eyeballs. I’m not happy with that part. I think he looks more diabolical than whimsical-hence the name Snidely Whiplash. LOL If anyone has a better solution, email me a sketch!

Week 18-Victorian Key in Bronze

This was made on request from my Victorian Key Pendant tutorial only with bronze wire and silver beads with amethyst gems. It's been so long since I made one I had to get out my own tutorial to do it. :D Since the bronze oxidizes a lot faster than silver, it got very dark in the crevices. I wish I knew of way to remove some of the patina from the bronze without removing it from the silver.

Week 17-Dancing Leaf Necklace

This necklace is my version of a spectacular silver piece in Sharilynn Miller's new book Wire Art Jewelry Workshop. She calls hers the Dancing Man necklace. Since mine was constructed to showcase a gorgeous lampwork glass leaf by Jacqueline Parkes of Gems in Bloom on Etsy and I stink at thinking up clever names, I think I'll call mine Dancing Leaf necklace. :D My necklace is made of bronze wire with paraiba quartz and labradorite as the main stones. It's accented with smaller gems of paraiba quartz, iolite, pearl and chrysoprase that pick up the colors in the leaf.

Week 16-A Bit of Bollywood

Nothing too complicated for this week but I like the bright colors. I think they give these a bit of Bollywood feel. They’re made of bronze wire, purple and red hydro quartz, and peridot briolettes. I used LOS to oxidize them.

Week 15-Bronze and Turquoise Earrings

I finally had a chance to sit down and actually make something with my supply of bronze wire. The lacy edging on these earrings was inspired by Yati Salem. The brios and dangles are turquoise and they're topped with a 4mm pearl. I haven't added a patina to these but I kind of like this wire shiny.

Week 14-Revisiting Keys

It just occured to me that I forgot to post Week 14! I hadn't made a new key in a while so I thought up this one using an oval faceted lemon quartz in the center. I haven't had time to oxidize it but that will probably happen.

Week 13-Complementary Colors

Most of you probably know that complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel. The pair that I put up for Year of Jewelry are primarily andalusite but I sprinkled in some green vessuvianite and red garnets. I think of them as representing early spring when the first green shoots appear....something we're still waiting for in Michigan, although almost all of the snow is now gone. Then it occured to me that turquoise and sunstone could represent the complementary colors of blue and orange so I put together a couple of pairs and decided I really like that combination. I tend to get stuck in a rut of monochromatic so I'll think I'll pull out the color wheel more often.

Week 12-Two Feet of Wire

This weeks theme was harder to stick to than I thought it would be. You would think we would all be motivated to use less silver considering the current price. But when I finished the zigzag earrings and weighed them, I about fainted when I saw they contained about $9.50 worth of silver. In spite of that, they're very lightweight and comfortable. The copper donut pair ended up using almost 4 feet of silver wire but I like them nonetheless. The copper pair are not the lightest earrings ever so I will probably take those to shows so that people can feel the weight and decide if it's too much for them.

Week 11-Spring is Sprung Bracelet

The theme for this week is Spring Has Sprung. You couldn't tell that where I live in Michigan but hope springs eternal. This bracelet was inspired by one in Sharilyn Miller's book "Arty Jewelry". However, I wrapped the apatite and mystic quartz beads and the keishi pearls around a length of 1/4" copper tubing from Homeowner's Hell. Of course, they slid around like crazy. So to hold them in place I ran some wire through a tube wringer and wrapped it around the copper tubing to secure the beads. I added a larger copper core wire, some silver spacers domed into caps, coiled silver wire and a clasp to finish it.

Week 10-Solder Inlay and an Accidental Patina

How did I get two weeks behind? These pieces were done the same day as the etching class. I made them specifically so I would have impressions in the copper to inlay with silver solder. I found it a little tricky to get the right amount of solder in the grooves. If you get too much in, you end up with a lot of filing to do. If you don't get enough in, it's harder to get it to fill the area which is what happened in the squiggly lines pair of earrings. I moved the solder around with my pick but still didn't get it all the way to the edge in spots. The bracelet was etched with the intention of doing solder inlay on that as well. But I accidentally ended up with such a colorful patina that I didn't want to touch it. I'll describe what I did to it in case you want to try this at home but I have no idea if I can duplicate this result. For the resist I used strips of adhesive labels that were cut out with various scrapbooking scissors. Of course it went into the ferric chloride and then soaked for a few minutes in 50/50 ammonia and water. The paper came off but left a sticky residue. So I put Goo Gone on it and let it sit for a while before wiping it off. I still had some sticky residue so I then cleaned it with a soft toothbrush and Barkeeper's Friend. Rinsed it well and set it on a towel to dry. I came back later to find this rainbow of colors.

Week 9-Granulation Pendants

Last Saturday I took a great class in granulation from Debbie Fehrenbach. I had no choice but to part with some of the sterling silver sheet that I've been hoarding. We learned how to melt all of the little same size fine silver balls. They were then glued to the sterling silver sheet with a mixture of gum tragacanth, Handy Flux and blue ammonia (ammonia that copper has soaked in). When that's dry they're fused to the silver with a torch in a tricky operation where timing is everything. I had a couple of little balls come off of each one but not where it's really noticable. I added a small bezel cup to one and set in it a blue lab spinel. Debbie is a wealth of infomation and I always learn a lot in her classes. I actually finished these on Monday when I got to try out my new Knew Concept saw. I bought it hoping that I might learn to enjoy sawing. The saw is so good that there's hope that I will.

Week 8-Peruvian Pendant

This week's theme was godesses, specifically Freya, who is a Norse godess. This pendant is more suitable for an Incan godess though. It consists of a large citrine colored hydro quartz brio wrapped in a sterling silver Peruvian inspired frame. The dangling beads are iolite. I'm not feeling the color combination though. Maybe it's because I graduated from Michigan State and these are U of M colors. LOL Maybe I would like it better with amethyst. Or maybe I should oxidize it. Opinions?

Week 7-Eni Oken Style Bracelet with Pearls

The last week has been so busy I haven’t been able to get any new pieces made. Between metalsmithing class, Euchre club, a retiree's dinner, going to Ann Arbor to see my favorite band, and the death of my best friend's mom, I couldn't get much done. One thing I did do was sort through old work and inventory. Some things got recycled for scrap, some taken apart for the components, and a few things got donated to a charity. This bracelet is a rework. I made the centerpiece of this bracelet years ago early in my wire adventures from a tutorial by Eni Oken. I orginally made the bracelet with some purple jasper beads. But I never liked the way it laid so about a year ago I took it apart and replaced them with these large pearls. Then I didn’t like the closure on it plus it was too big. So this time I made a new hook and eye closure for it. It’s a pretty huge bracelet, measuring about 2 1/8″ wide so it needs to be a little snug to keep it from flopping around. I probably could have made a fancier closure but I just wanted to be able to finally wear it after all these years. So what do you all do with your older inventory?

Week 6-Amethyst Stalactite Necklace

Here's the stalactite that I got stuck on last week. The stalactite is set in a Margo Farrin O'connor style. I had started this at metalsmithing class trying to solder all of the wires together. But I wasn't happy with my solder joints so I ended up wiring them together with half round wire. Quicker, easier and just as strong. The necklace is somewhat inspired by Emily Gray. I used amethyst and labradorite rondelles above the stalactite, and the larger rondelles holding the chain are paraiba quartz. I ended up cutting off a couple of the rice pearls after I took the pics. I'm not sure about the pearl drops on this. It's one of those things I have to look at for a while before I decide if I like it that way. The pearl drops are actually a natural lavender color although they look a little peachy in some of the pictures.

Week 5-Solar Quartz and Copper Necklace

This isn't the project that I was working on for this week. I had prong set a beautiful stalactite slice and had a vague vision of what I wanted to hang it from. So I got out the copper wire to play around and instead found myself channelling Gosia Domanska and Mary Tucker and bending little leaves in the wire. It wasn't what I had in mind for my stalactite slice so I added some green tourmaline and vessuvianite beads, and hung a cool solar quartz pear briolette from it. I'm not sure about the addition of the keishi pearls but I felt like it needed something to echo the white.

Week 2-Aqua and Lemon Quartz Necklace and Earrings Set

The theme for this week is Eclipse so these don't really fit the theme, or I'm not up to the stretch needed to get them to fit the theme. The song Blue Moon? Nah, never mind. These earrings are not for the faint of heart. They measure 2 3/4" long and 1 1/4" wide. They're composed of aqua hydro quartz, lemon quartz, apatite, moss aquamarine and keishi pearls. The stone in the pendant is slightly larger and the pendant is about 2 1/4" long