"Daydreams in oil spills"

OK, see the lovely sketch? LOL. Quite a few of my projects now start out as a sketch that only I can read, as my drafting skills lacks, well, skill. But my translation skills, ah, I think that's a project with improvement! This necklace is made out of Titanium that I shaped, pounded, textured and colored in my class. Then I added in the pearls. You know how you see things in clouds? I see things in clouds, in flowers, in the recyling bin, and in water puddles with oil in them... and I sketch. I didn't always sketch, it's something I've been doing for 3 or so years now. I wish I had sketched when I started making jewelry, 12 odd years ago! You see, as an artist I get ideas all the time. Sometimes they happen in inconvenience places... say at one's day job. Old me would most likely forget the idea... new and improved Sketching me won't. I write it down or do a quick doodle. Just something to capture the idea. I don't always remember to get it down... but I loose fewer ideas now. Not all the ideas bear fruit, like this one did, but it's good to get them out of my head... sometimes when I can't get it sketched out, I go CRAZY! until I get something of it down on paper!

OK, this piece is approximately 21 inches long, and I stuck to "oil slick" type colors. Coloring titanium isn't an exact science, but I"m pretty pleased with the results. I got a good range of colors on the pieces. Each piece was dipped separately, and then I put it together with the fresh water pearls. The larger pieces are 18 and 16GA, I wrapped the pearls on with 28GA. This was a fun piece. I'm hoping the titanium and Niobium pieces do well this summer, so I can buy me an anodizer and experiment some more!