PMC Class from March....

This weekend Sue gave me pictures of hers and Cathie's PMC pieces from our march class. The flower/leaf 3D pendant is Sues', as well as the moon one. The lovely circle pendant is Cathie's. My piece is the last picture.. it's 2 triangles attached with 2 small cabs. I added the wire bail. the class was a great deal with fun, and I'm hoping I'll get to play with this material again in the future!

MAGE-Con Spring 2009....

This weekend was fun! Mage-con is a gaming convention that I set up the jewelry booth at. Jerry loves this show because he gets to go game all weekend (board games if you are curious) and I get to visit with my good friends Sue and Cathie. What's really kewl is they set up their jewelry also, forming a megabooth ( DH calls it the bead dungeon, we call the fortress of beaditude). We have a huge area on the inside in which to sit, chat, and make jewelry, which is what we did all weekend. This first picture is of "my" side of the booth... then Cathie & Sue's side..

Here is me hard at work...

and finally, all three of us..

Copper and Sterling

OK last post I explored using goldfilled more... while stressing I still love copper and sterling, and in fact I love them together!! Case in point... This large pendant is copper sheet ( I think it started out as 24GA however I don't know for sure.. it's thinner now) cut then hammered until it had this wonderful curvy-Q spiral going on. I had to anneal it once as the metal got pretty stiff.. then I wrapped in in 24GA sterling silver wire and added a bail. the pictures do not do this piece justice! I made matching earrings...

So rest assured, my love affair with copper and silver isn't over......

Tiger Leaf

I love silver. I love copper. Gold.. not so much. It's not just the expense, which it is! - but the color doesn't call to my soul like silver and copper does.

At least that's what I always tell myself, but I'm starting to think maybe it really is the cost. Gold at this moment is $869.oo an ounce- spot price. That's low, last time I checked it was $950.00 or more. But even at $869.00 an ounce, it's pricey. So when I do gold, I don't really do gold.. I use Goldfilled. Even using Goldfilled, at approximately $45.00 an ounce compared to silver at $16 or so. (I"m talking what I would pay to buy it as sheet or wire... it's the spot price plus a refining/milling fee, which varies by company or how much you are purchasing) That makes Goldfilled run about 3 times the cost of silver. Copper is even cheaper.. I buy copper by the pound mostly, for about what the ounce of silver runs.

I was thinking about this a couple of months ago, that maybe my leeriness towards Goldfill is more economy vs. actually dislike. So i purposely decided to design something using goldfilled wire.

I will admit that Goldfilled by it's nature, goes naturally with just about anything, much as silver does. But some stones just look fantastic with gold, better than they do with silver... tiger eye is one of time. I got out my entire collection of tiger eye and spread them on my work table, trying to decide what looked like fun to play with today... I ultimately came up with a sketch for something leaf like. The frame is 18GA, and I used 26 GA to do the wrapping in. I really like it... and using Goldfilled wasn't bad at all. I made matching earrings of course, they are in the last picture.

While I enjoyed this project, I still like silver and copper better. I especially like silver and copper together... but when the occasion calls for Gold, I don't think I"ll hesitate quite as much the next time before I reach for Goldfilled.

Hard at work.... Show Season in 2 weeks!!! YIKES!

Wow! I have my first show of the season in 2 weeks! I've been hard at work doing various commissions, and trying to get all stocked up for shows. I've been "watching" TV when I make stuff.. rather I've been listening while I make stuff, like driving I keep my eyes firmly on the "road" which in this case is trying not to hit my fingers when I hammer! VH-1 has been running a special series called "One Hit Wonders of the 1980's". What fun, most of the songs are fab and I grew up on them... The 80's are truly that magic zone of music for me.. I was 12 in 1980... what you listen to in your teens stay with you.. probably because as a kid you have so much time to listen to music. Beds are burning, Video killed the Radio Star, Turning Japanese, 2 hearts that beat as one, What I am.. great stuff! Makes me want to dig out all my old vinyls and listen to them.. but I don't have a record player. Anyway, if you are an 80's child, you should try to catch it, it's worth the memories!

SO I've been working on inventory... here is a watch with wireworking on it, it turned out very well I think, funky but wearable!

I have a whole line of jewelry this year that is pearls and crystals. This piece has a great Hill Tribe pendant on it also... Crystals and pearl jewelry have the timeless feel, and they are elegant for the money. With the economy the way it is, I want to offer something this year that won't cost an arm and a leg, but will look like it! I will still have all kinds of funky wire pieces, like the watch, but I like to have something for everyone.

Peggy's Pendant

Wow, this project has been sitting on my desk for weeks! The nicest gal at my day job requested a pendant with Peruvian Opal. She didn't really care what I did, she just wanted "something". Trusting sort of gal.. LOL! Well I really wanted to make something special for her, so I just laid out the beads on my desk and they sat for awhile. When I went to Omaha to visit my South Dakota friends, I packed them up with me... but still didn't think of anything that worked. Finally on March 29th, I started to "hear" the beads talk to me. Below is one of the sketches I made that night, and the one that most closely resembles what I ended up making. I worked on it the next few nights, and I"m so glad I waited for inspiration... It really is beautiful and I'm very pleased and proud how it turned out. The 3rd photo shows the project in process... enjoy!

I'm in a treasury on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=51173

Kewl beans, I made it in a treasury, last time I didn't find out in time to see it... so this is the first time I've seen myself in one! Check it out... be do it quickly, it expires on fri!

Girl's Weekend Link and my favorite piece of the moment!

OK, Sue posted the rest of the pics on her photo album, so here is the link...

http://s480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/shadows60/Girls%20Weekend/ You can see the leaf earrings I taught them, close ups of the challenge pieces and generally see us all having a grand time!

I'm short on time this week, so only 1 piece this entry... this sun pendant is made from copper and sterling silver.. I textured the pieces separately and then soldered them together, and then domed it. I think it turned out very well. so well in fact I"m keeping this one and making another one for sale.. the other one will be slightly different, I used a different texture on the sterling silver part... I bought this great cheapo framing hammer at Harbor freight recently, and boy, it gives such a wonderful texture!!! I"ll have pics of it soon, I've got the pieces textured but not soldered yet, hopefully this weekend I"ll get the chance to do some smithing.... I've got a couple of other projects ready to solder, and a couple more ready to polish. I'm also working on a commission for a chain, and I've started to seriously revamp my website. My goal on the website is to have it done by the end of the month.. my show season starts then and I"m afraid if I don't get it done by then, it won't get done this year!!

more to come!