Year of Jewelry Week 6

The theme of the week is "Flowers", so I couldn't resist developing this design which has been sitting in my journal for quite some time. And since I just came back from a bead show with just the right colored beads (purple amethyst, green and garnet), it turned out very much like it was planned!

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To LEARN how to make this piece, click here

The pin is just about 4 cm wide, which is a tiny bit more than 1 1/2 inches.
What I like about the piece is that it is entirely constructed over a single 8mm jumpring: the amethysts were secured using 24 GF ga wire and then painstakingly coiled and framed with 28 ga gold-filled wire.
The other beads are vermeil (silver with an overlay of 18k gold), an unknown green stone called vansuanite and tiny 3mm garnets. The pin took almost 4 hours to create, but I'm happy with the results!
I was asked if the back of the pin is as neat and clean as the front. I believe the back of a piece of jewelry is as important as the front -- it has always been my own personal technical challenge to keep the entire piece clean and neat.
I have discarded many pieces of jewelry which I didn't think were fit to be sold or even given to friends because the back wasn't neat enough. The backside of a piece of jewelry really shows the quality of the workmanship.

The single jumpring can be clearly seen from the back. There are no messy wires or tucked in loose ends. Also notice how the pin back is purposely a bit off-center, to allow room for the hinge.

Year of Jewelry Week 5

It seems like the little critters are walking all over my jewelry designs lately, I can't seem to keep them off my workbench. It must be my son's influence: he has a million of these plastic animals in his room -- maybe they are magically transforming themselves into silver so they can rest from his antics a bit...

This is another pin that I started at Connie's class but didn't have time finish until now. It used essentially the same technique of a safety pin construction, but the body of the pin is made into a snake wavy design, which reminded me a little lizard...

Gecko, gecko, get out of here...

Year of Jewelry Week 4

Last weekend I just had a BLAST at Connie Fox's Pins workshop. It was just too much fun: we learned not only how to make our own pins out of wire, but also how to rivet, saw and drill sheet metal. I made 4 pins. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to get home to try the new techniques that I FORGOT all my tools and jewelry in San Diego (how could that have happened?).

To find more information on Connie's excellent classes, go to her home page: Jatayu.

Ok, now that I have my tools and jewelry back (Thanks Connie!), here's the picture of one of the pins I made during Connie's class:

It's called BIG FISH, little fish. It reminds me of the strong connection a mother has with a child -- notice how the mother fish is far more abstract (and perhaps for that reason more subjective) than the very figurative and direct child fish. The mother fish also carries a womb, represented by the large shell-shaped bead.

The pin was constructed with 16 ga wire like a safety pin: a triangular spiral hides the clasp hook. The body of the fish was constructed over the initial safety pin structure with slightly thinner wire and hill-tribe beads. The little fish is a charm, sewn on with hair thin 28 ga wire.

Year of Jewelry Week 3

The theme of this week is Serendipity. Although I *did* think of a design for the theme, I was more interested in working right now on this particular bangle, called "Queen of the Desert". The chalcedony beads were just asking to be put in rows with the rectangular double drilled bali beads. When combined with the hilltribe smaller rectangular beads, the entire design just seemed to fit together: geometric, but ornamental at the same time.

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The sketch (below) show how the design can be altered to fit more rows of beads.

Year of Jewelry Week 2

One of the participants of the YOJ posted drawings and sketches of "work in progress", and I liked that idea a lot.

After deliberating a bit, I finally decided to work on the theme of the week, Flowing Rivers. Here are a few sketches for a bracelet/bangle:

As I was working on this bracelet, I found myself adding to my original sketched design: for some reason the little animals were just begging to swim in the cool, opal waters. Note to self: NEVER use apatite again, even if tempted by its blue green color.

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The bangle is 3/4 inch wide, woven with 26 and 28 ga wire around thicker 18 ga structure. Blue opals, sterling silver wire, hilltribe beads and sterling silver charms.