Etched Metamorphosis

I was recently thrilled to have discovered the right tweaks to get my Press n Peel sheets to work for transferring printed images to metal. I've been an etching fiend ever since! I found some fabulous digital damask collage sheets at Aesthetic Addiction on Etsy and got started creating some things with an exotic feel. The raw pieces above are based on a tube bail I had made, but miniaturized, flipped upside down, and modified for earrings. Here's the result:

Gypsy Festival

This pattern made me think of a gypsy caravan for some reason, so I had to make it colorful! I started with amber and iolite, and added some peridot. Juicy!

Another set of these had a more distinctly floral pattern, with flowers that made me think of sunflowers. I couldn't get a saffron color out of my head for them, so chose some deep golden coin pearls as the central color, and fished around in my stash for what seemed like hours trying to find the right companion color. I wired on two sets of beads in other colors, only to cut them off in dissatisfaction. I tried going a little out of my comfort zone, and I was surprised how much I liked cool iceberg blue amazonite with the coin pearls. It was really vivid, and made me think of a French country house all done up in sunny yellow and robin's egg blue:

Haystacks in Provence

It also put me in mind of many of Van Gogh's paintings, especially "Haystacks in Provence."

I was really thrilled with the color in the copper in this pair--after I etched it, I had to anneal it to make it workable, and then pickle it. That took it back to shiny pink. Before I formed the tube shape, I antiqued it in liver of sulfur to bring out the pattern, and then heated it with a hot clothes iron to bring up the cherry/orange colors. It has a really warm glow now.

This last pair sports beadcaps I've been thinking of for a long time. I had sketched them eons ago but didn't know how to fit them together--and then I discovered tube rivets! So the other day I decided to give it a try. I had some textured copper strips lying around for other uses and so I just did them up really fast. They look kind of medieval to me!

Medieval Spring

I used them with a pair of Alisha White's hollow lampwork globes in taupey-mauve, some Czech glass in olive and lime green pearls. I have some more of these hollow beads and will probably do a similar design with the rest of them--I love how lightweight they are, and yet they have such presence!

I have one more set of etched copper tabs like the ones at the top of the post (the ones at bottom left), and the pattern seems to be telling me "Purple and Red!" so keep your eyes peeled for those!

The Golden Hoard

As opposed to The Golden Horde, a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that was established in the 13th century and formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire.

In this case, it's a strand of pearls, in mingled antiqued copper and old gold, that I've been hoarding forever. I think I used one in a bracelet once.

I've combined them with beads from another couple strands I've largely been hoarding (I think I made a pendant with them in 2009), of azure kyanite spears. I'm in love with both these elements! The pearls are rustic in the extreme; they range in color from old gold to almost dark persimmon, in shapes reminiscent of spilled molten metal--as if they were spewed from a forge and cooled where they lay, with the sooty evidence of their origin collecting in folds and fissures. These kyanite have lovely schiller, like each is home to a tiny, cool flame that lights it from within. They're a lovely melange of viridian and cerulean--two of my favorite colors, and words!

I started out with one of my flower clasps, intent on turning it into something wearable. I originally had very different plans for it, but when I thought of these pearls I had to use them. The clasp fastens underneath the flower itself, making it largely invisible. (I photographed it on my old plank washed up on the shores of Flathead Lake--I drill and hammer on it, and generally use it as a lap-desk. I made all those little holes myself.)

 
I designed it to be worn with the clasp to the side. I am really stuck on this configuration right now, I think the clasp reminds me of a corsage.

They Grow Up So Fast

It seems like one moment they're just lying there, all inchoate and full of possibilities, and the next moment they're all dolled up and hanging off the neck of some exotically gorgeous model at a glitzy party. Sigh. You want to keep them all to yourself forever, but they have to grow up eventually.

My Baby All Grown Up

And I imagine, or at least I hope, that my coppery little bundle of joy won't be under our roof much longer. It will be winging its way across the country somewhere, destined for romance and excitement. With its white stick pearls, garnets, periwinkle glass and deerskin leather to remind it of Mama.

I'm not even going to tell you how long I was in labor. It seemed like forever. Like two whole days. But it was probably more like two half-days. Because I did other stuff yesterday too, and it's not even 2:00 yet today and I finished it a couple hours ago.

Exotically Gorgeous Model

I suppose I should get dressed. It's almost 2:00.

Hearts and Flowers

I haven't made bracelets in a long time. Here are a couple I made yesterday and today. The one above features one my flower clasps, with pearls, turquoise lampwork spacers by Meital, and some kind of mystery stone I can't remember the name of. I'm guessing it's a jasper (if anybody recognizes it, let me know! It has a lot of turquoise veining in it, along with the brick red and cream.)

For the one below, I started out with my double-sided heart charm and stared at it for a long time. Slept on it (not literally). And this is what I had decided when I woke up.

A little handful of ceramic beads by Gaea Cannady (that I have of course been hoarding forever), a couple of Czech glass beads in lilac, and a smaller copper-plated pewter heart lock charm. I love the combination of matte and shiny finish beads in Gaea's bundles, I love to put them together. I used one of my hook and eye clasps (kind of experimenting there) for it, and a bunch of my tiny beadcaps.

Here's the other side of the charm:

I'm in love with rivets. Functional AND decorative!

I'm pretty excited that it's only Saturday. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be productive. Really hoping that the day job will slow down like I think it will and I can take a few days here and there to add some things to the shop. I've been so focused on trying to figure out how to make things from metal that I'm out of practice actually putting a whole piece of jewelry together.

An Experiment

I just finished a necklace for a customer who previously bought a pendant--she wanted a shorter necklace in the same materials she could wear layered with the longer pendant. She asked if there could perhaps be a detachable pendant on it so she could also wear it alone. Here is the original pendant she bought:

I looked through my stash of stuff and just didn't have a commercial pendant that was going to work. I really wanted to do another flower, because the original pendant had a flower. I thought the flower should be in copper though. So I fished out my jeweler's saw and cut out my first flower shape. This had been on my to-do list--in fact, I had already drawn some flowers on my copper sheet, intending to (one day) cut them out and do something with them. I wanted to pin a bunch of them in different sizes to one of my metal bases like I've been doing. But instead my first one became a little pendant.


Here's what I eventually came up with:

I hung a little copper flower charm along with the pendant, just for fun. I LOVE these little flower charms (got them from Magpie Gemstones) but they were too small to use alone. I antiqued it a little and tumbled it to make it match the rest of the copper. For the pendant portion, after I cut out my flower shape and cleaned up the edges with my Dremel and some fine sandpaper, I marked the striations with a sharp wood chisel. After antiquing and tumbling it, I domed it a little and then bent the petals back a little. I had previously flattened out some commercial beadcaps (in a previous spontaneous experiment--"Hmm, I wonder if..."), so I pinned one to the center of my pendant. I attached the whole thing with a ball headpin to a snake-shaped copper base that had a loop at the top. The flower spins freely. I attached the pendant and the charm via a couple little jump rings to one of my toggle bars, so it could be attached to the center of the three connector rings and removed at will. I added some copper chain to the pearl portions so it would be weighted evenly. Et voila!

I think I'm over my trepidation about cutting out flowers. I cut circles around them first as close as I could with a pair of left curve metal shears and that saved a lot of work. (If you're left-handed you can do it with right curve metal shears--they come both ways). I also prefer the shears for plain circles, rather than sawing. I have to clean up the edges with a Dremel, but I'd rather Dremel than saw. It's a power tool thing. But I've not used the shears on anything heavier than 20 gauge sheet--probably wouldn't work very well on 18 gauge.

So that's what I did this weekend. I've been dragging myself around for the past month, sick as a dog, and finally got some antibiotics. I think I'm getting better, so back to the grindstone.

Getting it Out of My System

Apparently I'm harboring some purple in my psyche that needs exorcising. I had this laid out alongside my Easter blossoms necklace and finally put it together the other night. Found these big pietersite barrels at a bead show last year, and loved the colors so much i bought them on impulse. There was so much lilac in this strand, and some of the beads (not the ones I used here) had broad bands of what looks exactly like tiger eye in them. I combined them here with lilac stone, tiger eye, Czech druk beads and freshwater pearls, and of course more of my bead caps (wish I had a metal punch that punched out flower shapes or something. I'm betting Harbor Freight doesn't have anything like that.)



I'm hoping that I'm also harboring lots and lots of blue that is going to be exorcised soon, because I have lots and lots of blue beads now. And a lampworker named Karen Hardy contacted me, asking me where I got my bonefish pendant, and as a thank you for pointing her to Happy Mango Beads she's sending me some of her beads. Blue beads! It's fate I tell you.

Quicksilver

I needed to indulge my hardware fixation, just a little. Hardware like from the hardware store. I have a brilliant collection of assorted steel and bronze washers, and some really killer machine bushings. I don't know what machine bushings are. Some of them are charcoal gray and the ultimate in urban industrial chic. Or so I say. I'm really hooked on this gunmetal/dark silver palette, and I keep returning to it again and again. Maybe because it's been sunny lately, I needed a dose of neutral monochrome.

The pendant below includes steel washers in two different sizes, lightly hammered, freshwater pearls, silver accent beads and spacers, and some fabulous antique silver-plated rolo chain from Ornamentea.



I made the chain ultra long--I felt the pendant and coin pearls were substantial enough for it to be worn at a generous Druid-priestess length, about 28". Perfect with your [urban neo-Druid] priestess garb, or your favorite vinyl Matrix outfit. (Everybody has one of those, right? Good Lord, could they be any squeakier? They must have edited out the squeaks in the movie.) The silver pearls have an oil slick effect, glowing alternately pink, blue and purple depending on the angle at which they're viewed.



I have just the outfit to wear this with, but unfortunately it would involve tights and heels and that's just not going to happen. It's going to have to wait for the right neo-Druid urban priestess.

Tender Shoots

This necklace is something a little new, like the first tender shoots of spring in their delicate celeries, sages and celadons. It features translucent prehnite spheres with their characteristic green grass clippings inclusions, sterling silver many-petaled bead caps, petite button pearls in muted, iridescent sage, leaf and fern charms in silver plated pewter, and hand-forged sterling silver chain and S-clasp. (For more information, CLICK HERE). It measures just over 16 inches, a little over choker length. It is meant to be worn with the fern bead sitting over the right collar bone, but can be worn in any position. (My unfortunate "Marie Antoinette" mannequin below demonstrates).



My first sketch of this design included some irregular jade chips and glass beads as well, but it was just too busy when I laid it out. Ended up with just three elements. I hope somebody out there has a diaphanous (I love that word almost as much as atavistic) gown in asparagus to wear with it.

P.S., thanks to my new followers! welcome aboard.

P.P.S. OMG I almost forgot!!! After my torch/copper debacle (it was a real non-event), gave the micro butane torch Number Two a try with sterling silver. Worked like a charm. What a thrill to melt metal in my kitchen and see it curl up like a little potato bug. It's like I'm MAGNETO!! I have POWER OVER METAL!!! The pearls on this necklace are attached with my very own made-by-moi sterling silver ball headpins!! My little cigar lighter torch worked all the way up to 20 gauge wire. Didn't try 18, probably work on that too.

RIGHT. ON.

A Little Bit Different

I can live with that, but I prefer to be called "unique."

That reminds me. This bracelet I made is a little bit different. From what I usually make, I mean.



I naturally took a cue (inspired by other jewelry makers who have done the same) from Lorelei Eurto and used a couple lengths of chain as a feature in my bracelet, as I felt it was time for another exercise in asymmetry.



I found these great mystery beads at my local bead shop (being in the $1 dollar bin gave them an extra special cachet), and especially loved the matte finish. Couldn't tell what they were at first, but after pawing them for several days with my apparently greasy fingers they darkened and I discovered they were Chinese jade. Now they have great color and they're still matte. And I suppose covered with a fine patina of grime. I combined them with ultra shiny, organic-looking bead caps from Cathy Dailey's store on Etsy, and a bunch of other green stones and pearls.



The stones include nearly transparent green fluorite (a gift from a customer), green aventurine, and forest green moss agate. The pearls are in a pale mint green, and a really stunning gunmetal green. Interestingly, the fluorite appear green under incandescent light, but look more periwinkle in daylight (or daylight bulbs, as in my photos here) or under fluorescent bulbs. So, a two-fer.

I attempted a simple toggle clasp, which actually worked out! The two lengths of chain are hand-forged by Moi. It simply wasn't ornate enough though, so I added some dainty hammered sterling spirals to the jade portion. Phew. This was also my first attempt at messy wrapping with lots more silver wire than I usually use, and I like the effect. It's almost like a bead cap.



It only took me two lunch hours at work, part of an evening and most of a morning to make. And a shitpile of sterling silver wire. Now I have to order more. I really hate doing that. But this order will include some sterling sheet metal, for bead caps. Assuming that experiment proves successful with copper and brass. Haven't quite gotten around to that yet. Just can't find the time. If there were more stoplights on the way to work I would do it in the car. On the way. Although I can steer pretty good with my knees. If I could SEE with my knees too I'd do it on the road. The metal punch and doming block set are just too dang heavy to take to work to do on my lunch hour. And hammering somehow doesn't seem appropriate in a law office. I don't think that would go over well.

Something Fishy

This bonefish pendant is one of the many nifty pewter pendants I got from Happy Mango Beads. Been wanting to use it for a long time, but I was just waiting for the right beads. I was thinking maybe kyanite, but then I saw these petal-shaped Czech pressed glass in a pond-like green and they immediately made me think of fish fins. Found I had some rounds in the same color/finish, and then stumbled across some roundels as well. Realized I had matching freshwater button pearls, and voila! The first bonefish ever found in a pond. The kyanite would have been more ocean-like and appropriate probably, but I was just so taken with these mysterious beads. They make me think of deep, hidden woodland ponds and Ophelia and the Lady of the Lake and moss and wood sprites. I love how this photo turned out--looks like an oil painting to me. Not sure how that happened. I didn't do anything special with it. Slate, plastic tub draped with flour sack towels, and full spectrum light bulbs.

For more information or to purchase, CLICK HERE.

Apologies, and On Being Submissive and Compliant

Sorry everybody for the radio silence. Haven't felt like writing anything. My Grandma passed away Friday before last and we were pretty tight so I haven't been in an entertaining mood. Super busy at work too (day job I mean) so I'm just dog tired. Anyway, figured I'd better surface before you all wandered off.

I am slowly learning to be pliable and accommodating, as I get more custom orders. "I can do that" is my new mantra. Unfortunately this pliability had to come from somewhere, and it appears to be getting diverted from my day job. I feel I am becoming less pliable at my day job ("What NOW????"), while I am becoming more pliable with my jewelry. My pliability is finite, there is only so much to go around. Except for Becky. Hi Becky. I have reserved some day-job pliability for Becky because I like Becky. Although she might have recently gotten a heavy sigh and The Look. Sorry.

So here's what happened recently when some people told me what to do:







These happened when I was told EXACTLY what to do (which was based on something else I made completely under my own direction so it wasn't quite so galling):



And this happened when I was left to my own devices:

I have more of both types of items in the pipeline. My new plan for accomplishing these is to NOT work 16 hours a day and accomplish surprisingly little. My new plan is to NOT make jewelry or do anything jewelry related maybe a few nights a week and just come home from work and do nothing. Maybe read a book or watch the tube. And maybe on the weekend I will NOT make jewelry or do anything jewelry related for a day, or a half a day, and see if I get more productive. I should write a book: "Conquering Fatigue with Rest: a Novel Approach."

Barbarian Princess Royal Neckpiece

I was busy over the weekend (with dang little to show for it except a fistful of cold hard cash) creating items to replace some things in my shops that I sold. (Don't underestimate the power of a trunk sale--I sold, like, eight things out of my trunk right there on the street and one of them wasn't even MADE yet). I have a new list of things I want to make--one of them involves RIBBON. I'm getting WILD. (Good Lord, what's next? CATGUT? Which ironically is not made from cat guts, but sheep guts.) I've crossed off three of them (and did one of them twice, with a slight variation, it was so fun), and am halfway through two more. Look at me!! Getting on the Focus Train. We're riding the Focus Train. Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a! Choo choo! (OMG, I thought those mushrooms tasted funny). Thank God for my mobile studio and hour lunches or I'd never get anything done except daydream about Laurence Fishburne. (Oh, did I write that out loud? Oops. "CSI" has taken on a whole new meaning--Criminally Sexy Investigator. Is it just me or is the man wicked hot?) I was disturbing picnickers at the park with my hammering. ("What in the hell is she doing in there?" It's my Car Band. It's like a Garage Band but it's in your car. It's called Acoustic Squalor. We're doing a CD.) But at least my hammering has a purpose, other than venting incoherent pre-pubescent rage. I'm making crap for people to buy. (Did you know there is actually an Esty shop called "Buy My Crap"? Check it out, pretty cool stuff). And I'm going to stay on the Focus Train (except for right now obviously) until the PMS fires up again in three weeks. I have discovered I am useless during the last week of my cycle, so I'm not even going to try doing anything productive then. I'm just going to lay around and bitch and watch HGTV. (I saw an episode of Color Splash yesterday where a woman confessed her crush on David Bromstad and suggested he work sans shirt. My sentiments exactly. Gay men are so hot. It's a cruel irony. Maybe I will become a gay man...) It's like Really Bad Mojo (PMS I mean). And then...the Good Mojo arrives on a tide of (my male readers may wish to take this opportunity to tune out for a moment) red blood cells and endometrium (sorry, getting all earth-mother) and Less Evil Keirsten comes back full of creativity. Apart from the surreally horrendous cramps it's a magical time.

So, on to the actual point of this post (you've been waiting for the "barbarian princess" to appear, haven't you?). I'm still cranking out the metal wire spirals because it's all I know how to make with metal right now. I have no torch, no kiln, no furnace...just a girl and her hammer. A customer inspired me to continue on my earth tone path (in the hopes of seducing her into buying another pendant), so I created something along the lines of the items she bought (my silver and copper spiral pendants), but in brass. I had been intending to do this anyway, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to make it while she was still in the buying mood. Turned out pretty good. If I were a Bronze Age Barbarian Princess I would wear it. With my pelts and stuff.

(Pictured with included extender chain for more barbarian versatility)

NEXT TIME: Triple Hypnotic Copper Pendant. If the first spiral doesn't put him under, the second one will. And if for some reason the second one doesn't work, then for sure the third one (which is nestled nicely in your tastefully exposed cleavage) will make him putty in your hands. Stay tuned!

Seriously Juiced Up. For Real.

OK, as I told you, I recently decided I hated almost all the earrings in my shop. I deactivated all the lamest ones with the intention of, one by one, pumping up the juice. I was going to just riff off the palettes I already had, maybe recycle some stones or whatever, and just make them a little more intentional and artisanal looking.

(I'm SO enjoying the mind-numbing acoustic squalor pouring out of my neighbor's open garage door right now. It's like an aural rendition of the visual/olfactory squalor inside her house).

So here is my first pair of before-and-after earrings. All metalwork is done by MOI using sterling silver wire of various gauges.

Before--LAME



After--LESS LAME


(FOR MORE INFO, CLICK HERE)

I only ended up recycling the quartz ovals in this juicing. The coin pearls were too big, made it look like two big eyeballs. I'm not into eyeballs, freak me out. It took me literally about three hours to make these silly earrings. Maybe more--I made the hammered circles last night and oxidized them, then assembled the whole thing today. I don't usually do this kind of wire work and I'm a little awkward with it. I'm pretty stoked they turned out at all.

On to the next pair of lame earrings.

Booty from the Itty Bitty Bead Show

There was a bead show today in Kalispell that I went to. Just the other day I told myself, "No. More. Beads." Because I already have so many that one day when my eyes and my wits and my sphincters go I will still have some left. (The eyes and wits aren't what they used to be but the sphincters are still good.) But then I got this little flier granting me free admission to a bead show...

Well, as I expected, it was a pretty petite little show. About 9 or 10 small vendors. But I found some stuff that was reasonably priced, that I sort of had been wanting. I don't generally buy much locally (I prefer the scandalously low prices I find from the Goliath-sized Internet-based stores), but sometimes I find really cool stuff for a good price.

The stuff below was pretty reasonable, I thought, for regular retail, and there was a lot of gorgeous stuff actually. Fabulous pearls and gemstones. The stuff below is what finally hooked me:

Stick-shaped shell beads in deep iris green/blue, two strands of really reasonable blue-green magnesite, a few porcelain pendants (I like Chinese stuff), and some inexpensive metal beads and bead caps.


I grabbed up these pietersite barrels like Cruella DeVille at Puppies 'R' Us, and was captivated by the little tourmaline rounds; couldn't resist the little pomegranate pearls, needed some more amethyst purple glass beads for my Ultra Secret Christmas Designs, and grabbed the copper cones just because I like pointy things. Loved the ornate brass saucer beads--figured I could whip up some eye catching earrings with those without having to try.


Well, I feel cool now that I got to do my own Bead Show Post. I was feeling left out. I better go make something now.

Handy, and pretty too

FINALLY put together my first two hardware experiments. Hit the wall the other night and napped instead of producing. But last night I drank a bottled Starbucks Frapuccino and sequestered myself with the mini vise and a handful of delightfully hammered bronze lock washers. And some steel wire. And this bracelet is what I came up with:


I'm pleased with the way it turned out. Really does a lot for the pearls. I especially like the steel wire, the matte-ish texture really sets off the bronze and the pearls.

I made this the other night but hadn't had the energy to photograph it until last night:

The pendant is made from a hammered bronze lock washer with one of my hammered brass wire flowers hanging from it. That particular flower (made in the car) was oxidized with the ammonia fumes method. I put the item in a little open plastic container inside a ziplock back with a rag soaked in household ammonia, and seal it up. (Don't get any ammonia on the items, and try to keep moisture out of there or it will get black or green spots). Go about your business and come back in a couple/few hours and the brass will have turned a nice reddish shade of brown.

Barring another energy crash tonight I will try and make some more. I have some other washers in a different hue (I guess from being treated somehow), but I don't know if they're soft enough to hammer. Might do that tonight too.

Delicious Booty from the Sack of Troy

No, no, not THAT kind of booty, you pervert. PILLAGING booty. The spoils of war. My friend Alan said he thought the pendant pictured here looked like something pocketed during the sack of Troy. And by golly it is. Yes it is. Yeah. I bought it from a Turkish collector of antiquities for ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Nah, actually I made it. The other day. I disassembled a pendant given to me by an Eritrean woman about 11 years ago (thank you, Meaza). I loved the little house pendant, and wanted to combine it with something really stunning. I adore these bronze pearls and thought that was just the ticket. I made another necklace, sans pendant (since there was only one) with more of the oxidized metal beads and pearls. I like that one too. The chain is hand forged by moi, also oxidized, just so, by moi.



I have lots more of the little metal heishi beads from the original pendant, and I think four more of the large metal beads. I don't really know what kind of metal they are--I'm thinking maybe a copper alloy, possibly bronze. Bronzes are fairly common in Africa, and I can see a lot of copper in the pendant. Could also be brass, as brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. But who knows, they don't really have a lot of safety legislation in Africa. Could be plutonium. Don't let any babies chew on it. And maybe you don't want to chew on it either. I wanted to but I didn't.