Bottoms up!

Or "culets up" My latest thing is setting faceted stones upside down.  Hey,  maybe I'll start a new trend!

Can metals marry?

Why yes!  They can!!!

I'm learning some different methods of marrying layers of metal to make patterns!! 

The one below is called multi-metal lamination.  It's a type of faux married metal.   This is done by cutting strips of silver, brass and copper and melting solder between them.   I put the stack through a rolling mill and slice off layers with my saw, then put the striped slices side by side and solder them until I make it as wide as I need it.   The result is multi stripes of color.

There are Many different ways to do this.  

ganskin has a nice article on it if you care to learn more. www.ganoskin.com/bori sat/Neman/metal-overlay.htm 

or ask me about it and I'll be happy to share more detailed instructions with you :)

Every problem is a chance to learn

I decided to add my multi-metal lamination slices to my hollow formed ring... Well oh boy- did Iearn a lot!

It's a very ambitious endeavor to try to solder a bezel on to a married metal piece.   Every time your piece is reheated the solder may move, leaving gaps between the slices.  

After my ring was joined I added the bezel and got gaps- but someone encouraged me to try and fix it, and I'm glad I I did!   I melted off my bezel in the process, but replaced it with a larger one.  In the end it was a lot of work, but I excelled in all of the troubles!  If only life could be that simple, huh?  

Here's the ring I ended up with:) 

Hollow Forms!

More and more I'm moving away form mixed media and falling in love with metal.  I find myself easily bored with everything but metal, and metal clay and enameling,  so these are the mediums I'll be focusing on this year and making some on line classes for many who have been asking.   Yesterday i made this lovely hollow form ring. It's massive and I really love the shape.  I have to let it set aside until i find the inspiration for the front of it :)  Hope it inspires you!

What? More hearts you say?

So I thought I'd give prong setting a try to mount this pretty heart stone. 

Since this was a new technique for me and I was in uncharted territory,  I started with copper, was good practice but didn't look good with my stone.. So I decided to make the back plates with nickel sheet and use sterling for the prongs and balls.  The fire scale was no fun but it cleaned up nicely :)   Hope it inspires you!

And here is me trying it on.. Heh

Go big ;)

Love me some sterling! It's the only metal I want I my fingers. This one is simple,elegant and BIG.  You can stick it front of your face and say "Fabulous Daaahling!"  Silly me... Having some fun with this one:) might need to put in on my Etsy Shop- Hope it inspires you

From scrap to art-

Hey! Remember that nasty old pipe someone gave me?  It just keeps on givin:). Made another bracelet with it today.. Hope it inspires you!

Caged wire choker

Made with a little inspiration from SLK... This one is fabulous .. The design possibilities are endless, could add some enamel here an there...!!

Resin heart druzy!

I love druzy's. The bigger the better. This is a faux druzy made from resin and glass glitter, set in a hand made silver and brass heart shaped bezel with a hammered silver choker.  Hope it inspires you!

Wings and hearts..?

I've always been attracted to wings, hearts and crosses.   I managed to get all those things into one necklace!  I made all of these bronze elements by hand.  I love the rough citrine nuggets with it.  Hope it inspires you! 

REPRESENT.. yeah go for it.

I needed  a drop dead gorgeous  statement piece to wear  with a black maxi dress to a black tie event. 
After all  I can't just wear some rhinestones..  I MAKE JEWELRY!  I need to wear my own work..uhh don't I?  It's awkward when you meet someone and they ask you, "So,what do you do"?  Umm, "well I make jewelry".  Immediately their eyes take inventory.  First my ears, neck, fingers and wrists..looking to size me up.  See?  So i have to R E P R E S E N T!  

 Hmm.. well I've been looking at the beautiful crown I made from Goldie Bronze Clay for months now trying to decide how to finish it! It's regal enough for the event I'm attending. 
   I love the beautiful look I got from my Goldie bronze pieces but they looked flat and boring.   I cringed at the though of darkening all that pretty gold color.  But, on the other hand, I wasn't feeling the love the crown I made deserved. So whats an artist to do?  I dipped my brush into some Novacan patina an applied it  sparingly to selective crevices of my crown and brass bullet casings :)  The results are, well..quite pleasing and give the crown a much richer appearance.  Combined with the hammered wire shank and beads, yeah  I think this will do nicely.   

Here is the back side view of the bail .. equally as important....

Hope it inspires you :) 

Hope it inspires YOU!

Shabby Chic, Just a visit to the hardware store!

So I was at the hardware store buying a can of mapp gas, and a guy comes in and says to the cashier, "hey do you recycle old copper pipe? This one has been nothing but frustration to me!" No.. the cashier said .. we do not!.   I saw the bent and wriggled pieces in his hand, looked like they came from under his sink. 

I replied, "Well Sir, I'll take it and make it into somethin purdy"!  He handed it to me and said "here ya go lady, good luck!"  So I took it home, cut piece off hammered it flat, and torch fired some enamel on to it.. and now its pretty!

Where is your current inspiration coming from?

So where is your current inspiration coming from?     I'm loving choker style necklaces with large focals and long dangles .....This one is Palm 23 set in resin with touches of enameled rings, pearls and wire wrapped beads.....

And,  this one was for  Easter!   I love the message of the cross and God's love for us all.    I also love fashion!  I've been trying to master enameling (which for me was NOT as easy as it looks) and was very inspired by Susan Lenart Kazmer's enameling DVD and her recent Elle magazine shoot.  The  look of her long pendants with large focals sent me over the moon :)  . Here's the result ...some robins egg blue enamel, prenite stacked beads and a very large copper etched  cross.....

I revamped some resin set pieces, adding long dangles and enameled elements using Susan Lenart Kazmer's cone shaped copper looks and mixing kiln firing with  Barbara Lewis immersion enameling method..which is much easier than traditional torch fire enameling since you do not need to counter enamel!

Hope I've inspired YOU :)  !!!!! 

Be blessed!

Love complete:)

Happy valentines day!

Every year I struggle to make a valentine piece with hearts and something "red" in it.  In fact I've been through a few vdays and Christmas holidays dragging out my garnets, and ruby beads, only to return them to their closet.

  This year was no exception.  I loved creating the focal a with Goldie Bronze. And when I pulled the metal out of my kiln the patina colors stirred my soul!   Combing over my red gemstones again I knew they needed a friend.  I introduced them to the Carmel and blue of my  faceted fire agates and fell in love.  BINGO-  putting them together like an oil painting with the garnets and rubies, some sterling and etched bullet casings was magical.. Hope they inspire you:)

Here they are fresh out of the kiln..

A new place for my old rugged cross

I made this cross by hand.. formed the backplate from bronze -soldered on the bezel filled with resin and applied the stamped key hole piece and aged it with patina and looked at, just looked at it - for a very long time About a year in fact!   It needed something fabulous- a big chunky chain- but not blingy, YES YES that's the ticket.  I found these beutiful beads in my stash that I purchased from my very first gem show.  Now they found their place on this beautiful necklace.  They were just made for this big cross :)  Hope it inspires you!

Wrapping up the old into the New Year

Wee!  The beginnings of a new necklace and a new life! 

Feeling so blessed to finally be  cancer free! 2014 is certainly a year of NEW beginnings and a fresh start. I am truly loving the freedom to create again. I usually make my pieces from a collaboration of inspiration of items I've made through different seasons of my creative process.  I'll experiment with a new technique and then make several things with it, then add them to my collection of TBC  ( to be continued ).  This is a piece of annealed wire that will progress into a necklace. I felt kind of drawn to it with all the negative space.  I had to leave it like this for a while.

 But not for long!  Dived into my TBC stash collection of mixed media, I found a lovely brass daisy I was holding onto for a few years, some pearls, crystals and this stainless steel stamping I made from Hadar's stainless steel powder and a TCHULA postage stamp imprint… all wrapped up from previous years of learning and collecting- This too will go to the TBC pile and eventually it this will be the focal for beautiful necklace.

Well- heh that didn't take long- finished the chain today.. Once again from  things and links I made on my art journey last year and have now found their place. Hope it inspires you!

Adventures in Bronze fired metal clay

So doing some experimenting with different clays. The charms ( stamped coin and heart) were made from fast fire Bronz clay   And was the easiest to Fire but in, wet clay mode it wasn't as easy to work with as Hadars powder Bronze fast fire XT clay.   However Hadars clay is more difficult to fire than fast fire Bronz (from metal clay adventures.)  The thinner rings on here are made from 12g wire. The chunky 6g links toggle and doughnut assembly  are from Hadars powdered clay.  I do love it! I plan on trying Goldie bronze also.

Base Metal Pmc and powders!

Oh so much to say, and still so much to Learn!  There are stainless steel , white bronze, Goldie bronze (wowza!!!) 

powder formulas and they are amazing!  While silver is the easiest to fire, the others require a sintering process in charcoal and some kiln temperature experimenting us necessary- the possibilities are endless. I'm defiantly moving forward to Learn more skills in this medium. Here are some of the fun pieces made with base metal powders in my kiln. Hope they inspire you! 

Copper anyone?

I don't usually work in copper, but its great to practice on.  I was making a practice pair and fell in love with the look of these hoops!  Hope they inspire you!

Earrings !

Shifting gears to the earlobes! Working like a busy bee..are your ears itching for adornment? 

I'M BACK ART IS YOU PETALUMA WAS AWESOME!

It feels so great to be back on my feet!  First on my list was  ART IS YOU classes ~  JOY!!!!!!!

Spending two fun filled days with art sisters from around the world was like 2 days in heaven!  I made a beautful sterling rings and charms from PMC. Even mastered some stone setting:)  I'll be going back next year for sure!  What a lovely group of artists I met! Back to doing what I love ..making da jewelry!