from white to black to color

Just now finished this new batch of pendants - will probably list one in my etsy shop later today.

it's like an avalanche - but in a good way

It's like an avalanche - but in a good way. From all the stuff up top the designs filter down. 

For many months, during the summer, I didn't have that much interest in jewelry making - I wanted to be outside biking and hiking with the grandkids. I worked on jewelry on rainy days or free days but it feels like a switch has flipped. I feel renewed in the studio. The ideas and designs are piling up at the edge of my table. I'm glad it's raining today. 

variations on a theme

Back in March of 2010 I made hundreds of little faces and here it is, over 3 years later, and I find they are still one of my favorite elements to use for jewelry.  I got the idea to make this post when a friend saw the "Honey Heart" pendant (bottom row, second from left) and wanted a similar one but with filigree wire instead of glass leaves for the wings. I finished it today (3rd from the left) and thought I would show the 2 together - Variations on a Theme. Then I thought I might just check and see how many others I have made over the years that I still have in stock. I'm definitely not ready to move away from this theme yet. A face brings these little guys to life - gives them a soul!

Some of these might still be for sale in my etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/marybird

designing and fabricating "elan"

Last week I was contacted by Deb N. a customer on etsy to see if I could make her a pendant with a clear angel face, similar to one I had already listed on etsy that had a red angel face. I said sure! After we decided on a design she asked if I could take some photos during the creation of her pendant. I thought that was a great idea - a wonderful way to chronicle what happens in the fabrication of a piece. So here is the "story".

She had pointed me in the direction of a piece I did that she liked and then after a few more conversations back and forth she sent me this drawing - also saying that she liked peacock feathers. I love to get something like this - it really gives me a direction to go in:

This is the design I sketched from her drawing and another piece beside it that Deb said she liked.

 Here are all the stones that will eventually be in the piece sitting in their bezels. At the top is a simulated white opal, a clear frosted glass face with mirror backing, two 5 mm round pink CZs and at the bottom an 8 x 10 mm simulated pink tourmaline.

 Shown above with a roll of fine silver bezel wire.  I cut the wire to the correct length and then solder the edges together for the bezels. Usually I have to do adjustments to the heights of the bezels - especially for faceted stone bezels.

 Above, a bezel is shown just before soldering. It's being held steady in a pair of tweezers and there is a small square of solder in place on top.

 Some of my favorite and most used hand tools. From left to right: 2 bezel mandrels (for making the bezels a perfect round or oval shape after they are soldered together), chain nose pliers, metal shears for cutting bezel wire, the round white base of a magnifying glass on a movable arm, assorted sizes and shapes of files, a small plastic headed mallet and a larger one with a plastic and a rubber face - at the very top are rolls of bezel wire.

 

Drawing the design onto tracing paper.

 

Ready now to cut the pieces apart and glue onto the sterling sheet.

 Here the tracings are glued onto the sterling sheet. The body of the pendant will be made from 22 gauge and the feathers will be 20 gauge.

Sawing one of the feathers with a jewelry saw. Below the sawing area is a bucket to catch small pieces of sterling that fall - I don't want to waste any.

Close-up of how fine the saw blade is.

 The sterling parts are now all cut out (they still have the tracing paper on them) and I put them in place with the stones and their bezels just to see how everything looks together.

 I use metal stamps to put detail on the feathers after filing the edges. I bevel the edges so it will be smooth to the touch in the final piece.

 Stamping the name, "Elan" and my wood thrush studio maker's mark and a sterling mark on the back.

This shows the letter stamps and the hammer I use. After this stage I also file all the edges smooth on the base piece and sand everything.

 This shows the back of the feathers with solder squares in place for "sweat soldering". First the solder is melted onto the backs of the small pieces, then they will be put in place on the back plate and heated again till the solder flows and joins the top and bottom pieces.

 The solder after being melted into place.

 The feathers are put in the pickle - pickle is the name for the acid that is used to remove oxidation from metal after soldering. The oxidation has to be removed before they can soldered again. Solder will not run on dirty metal.

 My soldering set-up. From left to right: the soldering blocks and fire bricks that I use to support things that I am soldering - they are on a lazy-susan type base which makes it easier for me to get the torch's heat into the right places, behind them you can see the yellow mapp gas canisters that are attached to the torches I use, the "pickle pot" -which is actually just a small crock pot, a bowl of water to rinse the pickle off, and in front of that a torch sparker and assorted tweezers.

My two torches - a pencil torch which has the torch tip on a hose so it is easier to get into small places (I use it for tiny jobs like jump rings and making chain links) and on the right is the bigger torch that I use for everything else.

 I'm ready now to solder the feathers and bezels down. See the little pieces of solder beside the bezels. When the solder gets hot enough to melt it will flow into place and seal the gaps between the base plate and the bezels. Hot solder likes to flow into crevasses. I have put clear flux on the piece to retard oxidation while it is being heated but you can't see it in the photos.

After soldering.

 In the pickle.

 Nice and clean - ready to bend the bail back and solder it in place on the back. After that it is pickled again and then re-oxidized with "silver black". This is a step that I forgot to get a photo of. You will have to take my word for it that everything that looks so nice and white became nice and black after I brushed the oxidizing liquid on it. Next I sanded the black oxidation off of the high areas and did a pre-polish.

 The pendant is shown now with the stones ready to be set in it. I cut pieces of gasket material to fit in the bottom of the cabochon bezels so the cabochons can be brought up to the right height. Inside the faceted stone bezels (the 2 round bezels at the tips of the feathers and the large oval at the bottom) there are shorter bezels that hold the faceted stones inside up to the right height.

 I am pushing the bezel over a stone edge to hold it in place.

 This shows the "bezel pusher" tool. Just one last stone to set - the oval at the bottom.

Final polish done and finished! I think it turned out quite nicely. I like the delicate pink colors Deb choose to go with the angel face for this.

shiva transformed

Hard to believe that it has been over a year since I posted anything on here! It's not that I haven't been doing anything jewelry-wise - I just haven't had the urge to write about it here. So to get back in the habit of posting...

I finished this piece last week and was very happy with it. I call it "Transforming". Here's the inspiration for it and the beginning steps in making it - cutting out all the different parts before texturing and soldering:

Shiva is the Hindu god of endings and transformation. Shiva in the pose of the statue in the photo is called "Lord of the Dance". I chose a red jasper (opaque) stone for the bottom stone and a Orissa garnet (transparent) stone for the top to imply positive re-genesis.

cutting, stamping, doming

Last Friday I wrote that I would get started on enameling the phoenix over the weekend - here it is Thursday and I'm just now at the point where I can start to enamel (things seem to take longer and longer all the time!). Today I finished cutting out, stamping and doming the copper and silver shapes that I will soon (I always say that) be able to start enameling. 

 The shield shapes are going to be potential phoenix bodies and the oval shapes with BE HERE NOW stamped on them are going to be potential rings. The circle on the far left is going to be a pendant for my sister. Generally I like to make multiples of enamels for a major piece so the customer can have a choice which would be their favorite.

phoenix progress

Today we have decided on the final shape of the phoenix pendant and where the bails will go on the back. I'll get started this weekend enameling the "body".

 I really do love the day and age we are living in now. With digital cameras and email it only takes a minute or two to get a photo of a sketch ready to send for approval. The customer can stay home and so can I. Seems too good!

a look at the design process

Here is a photo of an artwork that Chelsea wanted me to use as a design jumping off point for a phoenix pendant - her hope was that it would have purple/blue colors and red/pink colors like the painting along with warm brown/orange colors so she can wear it with both warm and cool colors:

 

First step - start making sketches - even if I don't really like the first ones they are part of the process to find out what works:

 Pick out and play around with colors:

 

 Then put them together to show the client to see what she thinks:

 

 

Chelsea got back to me and did like the design but would like me to adjust the top of the wings. I'll try to keep this journal updated with it's progress!

earrings assembly

Right now I'm working on 5 pairs of earrings - in a batch. It's easier to get all the bezels made at the same time, all the silver cut out and filed at the same time and do each stage's work as if I'm my own little assembly line. Where I'm at today:

Hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I will have everything soldered together and perhaps even the stones set and everything polished...

working methods

Right now I'm trying to finish up some of the things I have had on the back burner for years. I start things - design things, maybe cut out some of the parts and make the bezels for the stones but then quit - I get a commission or just lose interest and never get back to them. The parts end up in ice cube trays so I can keep things separate and (hopefully) work on them later. They just keep building up and building up! So today I'm going to get into them and see what appeals to me to finish. Plus I have a commission to make a pendant for my friend Paula and I like to work on a couple things at a time - so I don't have to get my hands dirty polishing on just one thing...

creation day

Creation, designing and working with one's hands are good ways to deal with sad emotions. I recently lost my little studio buddy - my Anniecat - who shared my studio space with me. She frequently slept on my work table, the shelf above it or at my feet, and was just generally "always there". I did stay in bed for a while this morning feeling numb and thinking about my loss but then decided to come out and try to work on something. I was looking in a catalog and saw a ready made adjustable band which spiraled up around your finger that you could purchase and then glue a cabochon onto. I thought this was a good idea - but I could do much better - make a bezel cup for my cabochon with all soldered connections and make it really secure. Above you can see the result. I used one of my own enameled cabs with Japanese enamels over a copper base with copper cloisonne wires. I named the ring "Creation Day" - it reminded me of a sperm visiting an egg. Thank goodness there is work to turn to in difficult times.