My Artistic Vision
I want my designs to be unique, touch­able, beau­ti­ful to see and com­fort­able to wear. I want designs that endure the cur­rent fash­ion col­ors and styles so that it will not end up under a pile of newer things by the end of the year. Finally, I want each piece to have an owner out there unknown when I make it but who will ulti­mately find it and love it.
Subscribe

Latest Comments

Archive for the ‘Design Process’ Category

The Story of My Bracelets

My sta­ple always-sell pieces are bracelets using mem­ory wire, a stiff wire that retains its cir­cu­lar shape,and beads. For some rea­son women really love them and are will­ing to pay $35 to $50 for one. They are com­fort­able and easy to wear. The tech­nique for mak­ing the bracelets is very easy and usu­ally takes about two hours. Simply cut the wire, make a loop with pli­ers at one end, slide the beads onto the wire, fin­ish with another loop. The real work is in cre­at­ing a one of a kind unique piece each time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Working With Silver Clay

In the pre­vi­ous post I men­tioned metal clay as one of the jew­elry media that I like work­ing with. One com­ment asked about it. This post chron­i­cles my first attempts with pre­cious metal clay (PMC). Metal clay seems to be a mis­take when one first hears of it.  Briefly, it is actual pow­dered met­als, most often sil­ver because of the cost but also gold and most recently bronze, mixed with clay and water. The clay can be molded, shaped, and carved then dried. It is then fired in a kiln or with a hand­held torch or small gas fired stove depend­ing on the type of clay. The clay burns away leav­ing ster­ling sil­ver or 14k gold. The clay can be com­bined with wire and with some very hard gem­stones. The ring at left, Twisted Twig Ring, is made from ster­ling sil­ver wire and pre­cious metal clay. The wire formed the basis for the ring and the clay, in the form of a paste, was used to fuse the wire. I pol­ished and shaped and sized the ring with filing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Design Work

I am expe­ri­enc­ing some dif­fi­culty in regain­ing a bit of focus regard­ing jew­elry designs. I have not done any­thing unique for months. I have been think­ing about pre­vi­ous designs, scan­ning my sup­ply sources, and sur­vey­ing all the lovely stones I have in my trove.

Read the rest of this entry »

Northern Lights

I just deliv­ered another bracelet called Northern Lights. It is sodalite with sil­ver foil glass beads, sil­ver, and other gem­stone and glass beads. It has a ster­ling sil­ver Thai Hill Tribe charm.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bracelet For White Mist of Cotter and the Trout Festival

The annual trout fes­ti­val is this week­end, so I whipped up a bracelet for the shop. These mem­ory bracelets are pop­u­lar because they are easy to wear and are attrac­tive. Each is one of a kind. Update: I deliv­ered the bracelet on Friday mid­day and it was sold on Saturday. Time to make some new and wild sum­mer combinations.

Read the rest of this entry »