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 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 3-Leather, Macrame and Silver

The theme for this week was Mixed Media so I decided to try working with leather cord. Forty years ago in college I made the obligatory macrame plant hanger but haven't done it since. Thanks to the internet I was able to refresh my memory on how to do a square knot. I started with the silver center which is a doodad that's been hanging out in my spare parts box for ages. The challenge was doing something with four cord ends on each side and the web wasn't much help there. I was able to weave a couple of them in and I used the other two to knot the clasp on. I did end up using some Duco cement to secure the knots. So far, so good.

Earrings for Kim

At the trunk show I did the other night, a gentleman and his daughter wanted me to make something for his other daughter, Kim. Her house was recently broken into and all of her jewelry was stolen so they wanted something special. The only direction I was given was to make them silver with pink in the middle, and feminine. I emailed a picture but I haven't heard back so I don't know if this is what they had in mind or not. When I look at them I keep wishing the bottom element was a tad smaller. What do you think?

The Broken Wing Owl Repair

Remember the owl that I was working on a few weeks ago when I carelessly melted part of his wing off with the torch? I got him out to mess around with the other day along with some thin brass wire and a tourmaline carved leaf and this is what resulted. I guess it's growing on me but I'm still not sure if I'm satisfied with it. What do you think? This can at least be easiliy removed and I could still attempt to solder a patch in there.

Week 41-A Couple of Silver Necklaces

I haven't been very motivated to challenge myself lately so I made a couple of fairly simple necklaces. The circles are fine silver wire that has been balled up at the ends with a torch. For one, I wove the circles togther with some smaller wire and oxidized it.

Week 23-Silver Flower Necklaces

In working on a prototype for a new key tutorial, I ended up with several of these flower motifs in various sizes. The flower shape itself was inspired by Lisa Racine of Julida Designs, an artist whose work I really enjoy. I was trying to achieve one that was about an inch in diameter. Because the size of the flower is dependent on the diameter of the plier jaws where you form them, and there is no way to know in advance exactly how big they're going to turn out, I had to do some experimenting to get one the right size. Rather than consign the extras to the scrap box, I added beads and coiling and chains and ended up with two pretty cool necklaces. Even though I'm still not anywhere close to getting my key prototype done, at least I consider it was a productive day.

Week 52-Woven and Braided Silver Necklace

I can finally post this. This was made as part of a Christmas exchange between two of my Creative Wire Jewlery forum friends and myself so I had to sit on it until after the 25th. It's two 18 gauge wires woven together and then woven again into a braided centerpiece. Whew! I can't believe I made it through a whole year and, although not usually on time, I managed to post something every week. I've really enjoyed participating in the Year of Jewelry and seeing everyone's creations, and I'm looking forward to 2010.

Week 51-Malachite Pendant

This is something I was playing around with while trying to come up with ideas for class projects. It was inspired somewhat by the work of Huan Pham, an amazing artist who uses a lot of loopy elements in his designs. There are still a lot of details to be worked out before I'm ready to teach this but I think it has possibilities.

Week 49-Poppy CZ Pendant

This is the only thing new I that I managed to make this week. At a recent show a lady really liked the red CZ pendant that I posted in a previous week but when she came back to buy it, it had already sold. So this is a special order for her because she's in love with this color. This particular CZ measuers 22mm X 30mm. I hope you enjoy it, Lynn.

Week 46-Vine Earrings

These are some soldered shapes that I pulled out of my spare parts box. I embellished them with fine silver vines and added a small amethyst briolette and a larger mystic quartz briolette as a dangle. The mystic quartz has a purple reflection in the right light.

Week 44-"Anything" Cocktail Ring

This is my version of Dale Cougar Armstrong's "Anything" ring. These are great fun to make as they're bold and blingy and all turn out differently. This one has an 8mm lab created aquamarine in the center with various pearls and silver beads added in.

Week 41-Edwardian Period

I'm a little behind. I've been so busy lately with preparations for classes and restocking for Christmas shows that I haven't made many new things. The theme for this week was the Edwardian period. These have a vintage feel so I think they fit the theme. They're created in sterling silver with cubic zirconia drops for some bling.

Week 40-Druzy Pendants

I have a strand of these fun little druzy beads but they're 1/4" thick so traditional wire wrapping wouldn't work with them. I would end up with a gazillion wires at the top to deal with. So the idea for the woven bezel came from Dianne Karg Baron's celtic band ring. People are loving druzy right now and I get comments every time I wear this so I wanted to make something that would be saleable in a reasonable price range. So the new ones are set in slerling silver stamped and soldered bezels. I have them available in my Artfire and Etsy shops.

Week 28- Druzy and Amethyst Pendant

Ava's recent postings motivated me to dig out this little piece of druzy that I've had for years. The stone is 15mm X 20mm and it changes color from purple to peacock depending on the viewing angle. I usually wrap with dead soft wire but since I knew I couldn't tumble this I used 22 gauge square half hard instead. I find it frustrating to shape half hard wire around small pieces so I used one of Rick's Bezelforms which helped a lot in getting the the top and bottom joins even. The dangles are amethyst.

Week 22-Flower Medallion

I've never seen Edward Scissorhands so I'm going to ignore that theme as well. There are a couple bugs in this design that need to be fixed and I'm not 100% happy with the bail. But I'm thinking about using this for a class project and maybe doing a tutorial. Someone experienced with wire will be able to figure it out by looking at it but I'm hoping it might make an interesting project for an intermediate wireworker. This one is 1 3/8" wide but I want to make some smaller ones for earrings. Thanks for looking.

Week 14-Another Key

I seem to have given up trying to follow the themes. I'm still playing with keys. This one started out as a simple celtic knot at the top, then I wove the ends together and embellished the top (not as neatly as I'd like). After a couple of hours of staring at bright silver, the old eyes get tired. What I still haven't worked out is a good way to finish the end. But I have a another one on the drawing board that may work out better so tune in next week.