Week 29 & 30: catch up

Argh! I"m behind again, and I"m not in the mood you know? so here is a few items I've done recently:
I really do love to play with wire. Both of these designs are from a mag, with modifications. The Paula and crystal necklace I shaped the Fleur's free hand off the pliers using 20Ga sterling wire. I gently hammered the loops for strength. The chain that goes around the neck is purchased. The 2ND piece is from 18GA? and again free hand forming. To keep the spiral segments as even as possible, I cut the wire first in equal lengths. I made the hook on the bracelet.. I think it looks pretty good. The spirals are gently hammered, the loop connecting each link I hammered extra for strength. This piece is long gone, I think it sold in the first show I had it in.

YOJ Week 28: Copper Fields

This was so much fun to make!! I'm still playing around with copper and sterling together. I started out with 24GA sheet copper, cut out the lily shapes and leaves, filed them so the rough ends were smooth, and shaped and textured them. Some of the leaves I used hammers on, one of the leaves I used my punch block to shape. I used pliers to give some of the leaves crinkles on the edges.. I tried to make each leaf different. I got out my letter stamps and used o's and x's on the large lily on the bottom lip. I really want to get more stamps and punches, it's really fun to texture metal using them, and it amazing what different patterns you can up with just using the letters! The Chain is alternating open sterling links with closed copper links. I used sterling wire ( probably 20GA) to attach the leaves on the chain, and look.. I used spirals! I love spirals!! then I used LOS and polished and cleaned the piece until I liked how it looked. I left more LOS on the copper.. I just really like brighter silver I guess. I lost most of the color variations I had with the LOS.. one of the silver links turned a lovely green/purple, but the LOS was coming off in my hands I figured it was better to polish it all off. This piece took a significant chunk of time to do, even with using the dremel as a short cut for some of the filing and polishing. The lily and leaves are from a design from Janice Berkebile, she is a fabulous teacher! The copper links and spiral attachments are me playing around. You can see her classes here: http://wiredarts.net/jbclasses.html If you get a chance to take a class from her then do it!

YOJ: Week 27

Again I'm not actually following topic, but I"m continuing my explorations of mixing sterling silver with copper. I've never actually made this type of bracelet before, so I"m very happy with how it turned out, and I think it looks extra special snazzy with sterling accents. I did something which I don't do alot, I followed the instructions exactly, and it came up kind of short.. so I added the change and the hook. ( The directions I had called for 7 inch pieces, in the future I think I"ll try it with 9 inch pieces) I think it looks rather nice even with the chain and hook. 2ND piece is a copper heart embellished with craft wire in a couple of colors. It's sort of a dream catcher that is heart shaped.

YOJ: Week 25th & 26th

I'm behind, so it's time to get caught up. The amethyst cab in this pendant is very special, my friend Anne's Dad cut and polished it. She gave it to me last year, and it's taken til now to wrap it. This is a pattern from Step by Step Jewelry, by Liza Niven Kelly. This first picture is pre- LOS, I usually prefer bright silver, but in this case it looks very nice with the patina. My 2nd item is a very simple pendant in snowflake obsidian. Sometimes simple is best.

YOJ: Week 24th Winter Queen's Crown II

I have to be honest, this year's themes for YOJ just are not catching fire in my head. It's me, not the subjects. There are several things going on in my life, things I can't really explain but it's effecting everything about me, including my art. It's been a major effort to make any jewelry, let alone try to hone in on a particular theme. Normally art is my therapy, it makes ALL things better, like your mom kissing your boo-boos as a child. I'm not saying my art is only a band-aid for my mental wounds. Rather it acted like a balm, healing me in the moment and making me healthier, stronger for the next time. I miss that feeling. I guess I just spent a paragraph to say I don't feel very creative right now. I will just keep forcing myself to make things, and hope that I'll recapture that feeling. I need that Feeling back!!

Anyway, I looked through past projects to see if there was a theme I wanted to revisit.... and I found my first series of Winter Queen's Crown. ( http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/2007/04/week-17-happy-fish.html#links )I felt at the time I wanted to explore this further. I think this bracelet turned out even better than the first one did. I think 1 year of practice and new skills shows. The hinging on this is much better and smoother than the first bracelet. Matching earrings of course. I felt better after I made this, it's the first thing in a month that felt right. I want to create a whole series of this: Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer. Time is an issue as always, and my wounded heart.

YOJ: week 23: copper and sterling experiments continued and other goodies

I'm not really on topic again this week. Again I've been playing with mixing copper and sterling for interesting effects. This Time I've used copper wire in 18 GA and sterling wire in 22GA, twisting them together. I really like the effect, especially when paired with gorgeous silver mist jasper. The pictures really don't do justice on the stones... they have an almost tiger-eye effect in some places. My guess that's why it's called silver mist....

I've been playing with doing more Cabs with the "wire sculpture " style of Reuther Preston and others. Here are some examples, the cameo is actually a vintage plastic piece. The purple square is vintage glass, and the stone is I believe lapis.. but not sure.

This next piece is about color. I have this great big chunk of "cherry quartz" which is a fancy name for dyed.. anyway, the cut is pretty, and I really wanted to mix it up color wise. So some turquoise and vintage glass helps spice it up. The purple stones are fluorite. Last of all is a heart pendant. I really like this, and I guess my customers agree it's already sold! I think I used18GA or 16GA sterling silver wire, shaped and hammered to my heart's content ( yeah, I meant that pun) and and wire wrapped a pearl on the bottom and a bail on top. I need to make more of these!

YOJ: Week 22 First Date

I've been playing with copper and sterling together. I really like the look of mixing these 2 metals together.

These earrings are named first date". Ok, it wasn't really the first date, it was the first formal date with my now Husband Jerry.. just about 15 years ago infact. I had a wedding to go to, and I had been dating Jerry for approximately 5 weeks.. so I asked him to be my date at this wedding. I had this absolutely gorgeous dress .. all in dark navy lace. One of my favorite pictures of us together is one taken at the wedding, me in my dress and he in his suit. Anyway, I was totally gonzo nuts over this man, and the fact he was willing to go to this wedding with me, it meant I had him in the bag! No way is a guy gonna go to a big fancy frilly wedding unless it's his family or he really digs you!! LOL I kept this dress for years... but a few years ago cleaning out a closet I discovered the dress had gotten wet and damaged in storage, and ruined.. but I clip off abit of undamaged lace from it for remembrance sake. Fast forward to now, when I buy a rolling mill as the newest toy-- er, tool in my studio. I dug out the lace and used it to pattern the copper, then I shaped and polished it. The sterling swirling around the copper represents the happiness of that day. I'm not totally satisfied with how I connected the swirl to the earring, but making these made me smile. And I spent a very pleasant day remembering when Jerry and I were new at this relationship thing. For the record: in July we will be married for 14 years.

Final Tally of the damage..... and yet more pearls!

Well I've gone through all my jewelry and displays, and the final tally of damage from the storm in Hannibal and the tent falling apart is (drum roll please) :
1 tent
1 table
1 display bust
4 pieces of jewelry damaged.
so really, I got off lucky!! We bought a new tent for this weekend's show, I've cleaned all the displays and jewelry, and I've even fixed 3 of the 4 damaged pieces. The fourth piece I decided I didn't like that much anyway, and just took it apart for the usable bits that were left. So really really lucky!!

Since I've been on such a pearl kick, I thought I would share a few more pieces with you. This first pair of earrings I call "pearl tree". Next is a traditional Crystal and pearl set, done in creams and sterling.. my sister saw them and fell in love, so she's got them now. Last is a lariat, with matching earrings and bracelet. I love this!! I can remember making long linear lariats like this 8-9 years ago, and it looks like long is in right now, so I had to make one with pearls and liquid silver. The matching bracelet sold already... I'm sure the necklace and earrings will soon follow.

I'm especially happy with the earrings. I've been experimenting lately with handmade ear wires, but not your typical french hooks. I'm really pleased how these turned out. To have a wider platform to add the pearls to, I actually ran 20 GA wire half-way through my rolling mill, trimmed it and then filed the rough edges away. Then I shaped the ear wire part... I think these would look great in any one's ear!

YOJ: Week 21 Ring of Fire becomes Ring of Ice...

Actually it's more accurate to say ring of wind... sign.... Right now it's 3:22pm on Sunday as I type this. Original plan: I would be wrapping up day 2 of the Hannibal Arts Festival in Hannibal Mo, hopefully making money hand over fist... In stead, 4 hours in on day one ( Sat) the wind picked up my tent and broke it. In the process, it knocked over 1/4 of my tables and displays, dumping them all on the hard, cold, and wet cement. All of my back stock was on that table also.. they got dumped to the ground. I don't know yet what extent of damage I have, I know I"m out my tent and 1 table. After I type this I'm going to check my jewelry and displays.. I suspect I'll have some damaged pieces I"ll have to fix and jewelry busts I'll have to replace. As the wind howled around us we scrambled to throw displays and jewelry into cases, just trying to get it all picked up before I lost more to the storm. Jerry ( my hubby) just carried all that to the studio.. today and tomorrow I"ll unpack, clean and repack our show stuff. I have another show in Saturday, so I need to buy a tent by then.. at least I've got extra tables around the house!

I know at least 3 other artists lost tents to the storm, and 1 pottery person's tent took out her whole display, and broke most of her stock. The tent next to ours also suffered damage... he was staying at least the rest of the day, while we packed up we kept watching his tent sink further down. So I know I"m lucky... what's more, during the worst of it ( mind you, this tornado like wind lasted maybe 15-20 minutes) I realized what's really important... no one was hurt. I lost sight of Jerry for about 10 seconds.. and I couldn't hear him... He was trying to hold the tent from flying, I was trying to keep the front displays from flying.. the tent sides were flapping like crazy, the Velcro pulled loose and enveloped him. I was scared for 10 seconds that something had hurt him... My 11 yr old daughter who I could see.. actually got lifted off the ground for a moment, trying to hold the tent down. I've told her in the future if her feet ever leave the ground again holding my damn tent, she's to let go... I don't ever want to see that again. And my tent didn't fly into something or someone else hurting them. None of my flying displays or jewelry hit or hurt anyone else. So I count myself damn lucky. I'm out a tent, a table and probably a few displays and jewelry. I'm not happy about it, but but it doesn't matter in the long run... we are all safe.

It's pretty upsetting to me to leave during a show, if you do shows at all, you know it's just not done... and it can get you black listed from some shows. The only other show I've ever left early, was at show like 3-4 years ago.. because the police told us to leave as a tornado was heading in our direction. The Hannibal people were real nice about it.. one of the volunteers actually gave me a hug, cause at that point I was pretty emotional, and she could see that. She told me it would be all right, and I really really appreciated that. But without a tent, displays etc, what else could I do but leave?
So we picked up the pieces and headed back to the hotel... it was 2 late in the day to cancel the 2ND night, so we just lazed around and watched TV, and the kid had a good swim in the pool. We even called around and checked the Internet, looking for another EZ-up tent to try to do Sunday. No go. So we got up early on Sunday and left for home b4 9am in the morning. So here I am typing.

Anyway, I made this pendant a week or 2 ago, it's based on pendant I saw in a newspaper add for mother's day pendants. The original sold for 499.99 with diamonds all around a pearl. I used crystals and sterling to recreate the look. I like mine better. I've also included 3 different pendants I made back in march.. trying to catch up on my photos for the blog here... and 2 pearl bracelets I made. I've been in a real pearl kick of late, if you couldn't tell.

YOJ: Week 20 "South Dakota"

Rats. I have really good ideas for this week's theme: Chinese Culture. Unfortunately I don't have any spare time, and I refuse to get behind on the weeks. So instead here is a piece I made 3 weeks ago, but has great meaning to me. I've named it "South Dakota" partly due to the color scheme.. it really reminds me of the painted canyons we saw last summer on our South Dakota trip.. and partly because I was with my very good friends ( Hi Cathie! Hi Sue! ) from South Dakota when I bought the beads. I could just as well call it " best friends" because that is their company name and well, recent life events make me realize just how important good friends can be.

Periodically I get together with Cathie and Sue to bond and bead for a weekend. We got together in Omaha in early April, at a bead show and Sue bought these 4 different colors of pearls. She didn't buy them with any peculiar plan in mind, but I was looking through her goodie bag and realized they were drop dead gorgeous together!! Thus the plan was born.. She went back and bought another strand each, and I bought 2 strands each and we decide to have a friendly competition: both of use would make a necklace using the beads and show off our work in 3 weeks when we got together again at MageCon. This is the necklace I made. I was thinking gypsy necklace, lots of layers almost choker like, with the long strand with the pendant hanging down to the chest level. I used almost all 8 strands of pearls, lots of sterling spacers and the lovely pendant is Duck Creek Jasper.. Sue came up with a multi strand necklace also that was gorgeous, and used a honking huge crystal square as the pendant... unfortunately I don't have pictures. But we had a ton of fun!!

The last 2 pics are recent jewelry pieces made spirals of various sorts. I really like spirals.