07.20.08
Posted in In Progress, Sketches at 7:31 pm by Jen
So after a break that was way too long due to moving into a new place and getting a new puppy, I am finally getting back into making my jewelry! I have my studio set up in the garage of our new place now! I have a lot more space, and a new work table to put other things on, like my pickle pot and tumbler and such.
I’m working on what I hope becomes a new series of work. I’ve decided to go back to my colored pencil pieces, but do them in a different way and explore the possibilities a bit more. I started some pendants today.
This is a sketch for my first one:
And some pictures of the in-progress pieces:
The backs are brass textured by using sandpaper in multiple directions to rough it up so I can draw on it later. I rolled out some thick square silver wire I had into more of a rectangular profile and soldered it along the edges. I’ll clean them up, then color on the brass, then use either clear resin or epoxy to fill in the cavity and level it off. Hopefully that will work and not discolor the colored pencils, but we shall see - the first one will be an experiment as far as that goes. I wasn’t happy with the results when I just sprayed my last pieces with a clear coat, because it scratches off REALLY easily and makes it impractical to wear, so I’m hoping this will be a good solution to the problem.
These particular ones are going to be eyes, kind of going along with my Cyclopes Coronet, only flat instead of domed. I want to do a few eye pendants with the eyes looking different directions. The pendants are about 1 1/2 inches wide.
I’m very excited about these pieces, and hope they turn out like I want them to!!
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02.17.08
Posted in In Progress, Tools/Equipment at 9:54 am by Jen
I’m finally venturing back into my jewelry making. I’ve been having a hard time figuring out how to make things with my limited equipment and technique availability. I have a few ideas that I’m playing around with. One is etching! I did some in college, but not a whole lot. I went out and bought all of the things I needed to do etching myself and tried it out last night, and am pretty happy with the results! :-D Currently my only resist is Sharpie marker, so the etch isn’t very clean, but I think it gives it a neat effect!
(The contrast in the pictures is more dramatic and darker than it actually looks in real life.)
One the left in the picture below is another piece that shows how I prepared the piece on the right before etching.
I think it will be fun to play around with this technique some more!!
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08.30.07
Posted in In Progress at 8:45 pm by Jen
So I have a bunch of in-progress pictures to show you guys. First, I’ve started cutting out the tiger brooch, which is going be super complicated and may take me a while - I want more practice with the other pieces before I do more on this one, I think. I got the major pieces cut out, tho:
Today I finally got some pieces soldered together. Here’s what they look like after they’re soldered. The backs get rather messy when there are lots of little pieces. First, my mom’s brooch:
And two of the Greek pendants:
Next step is the biggest pain of all. Filing all of it flush!! You always have just a couple of places that don’t want to cooperate and make it take an eternity, hah! But I’ve figured out a few ways to make it go faster in my past attempts :-) Stay tuned to see them cleaned up! It may be a bit, tho, because we’re going out of town this weekend. Everyone in the US have a great Labor Day weekend!!!
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