Apopka Art Show is over. 

 

I sold my Sandhill crane piece.  Was hard to part with but a very sweet lady bought it and is someone that I know will truly enjoy wearing the piece. 

Just found out that the Cocoa Village show that was scheduled for May 5-6 was moved to May 19th.  I won't be participating because I already had plans for the 19th.  Good news is now I don't have a show until June which means I finally have some time to spend creating and building my inventory back up.  Stay tuned as I post work in progress!

The Lentil is now whole!

Ahhhh...the Lentil is complete. I surrounded it with genuine white turquoise, intricate sterling silver beads, black velveteen cord & a sterling silver toggle clasp. It's ready to be worn & ready for it's debut at the Apopka Art show this weekend. Now to come up with a unique name for this work of love....

A Lentil is born....

BEFORE:

AFTER....I cut up pieces of PMC silver sheet to create the buildings, windows & roof tops & best of all the dragonfly.  I think I will take a thin strip of genuine black leather with sterling ends to hang this from.

What Lentil.....

My Lentil bead pendant is feeling neglected.  Decided to work on a Sandhill pendant.  (I am in awe of those majestic birds!!)  I used a jeweler's saw to saw out the Sandhill from sterling silver sheet. I created the oval that he sits on with PMC .999 Fine silver clay & carving. I then textured a sterling backplate (I used a flat head screw driver & hammer to create the "grass" at the bottom) and soldered everything together. The patina really brings out the detail. I am having fun now!!!

A lentil is not always suitable for eating

What a beautiful Saturday!  I get to spend the whole day in my studio!!  First project is to embellish this amazing Lentil bead I made in class then fire it in the kiln to create a .999 Fine silver pendant.  This lentil bead looks like it would be simple to make but it was the second hardest project from last weekend's certification class.  Why?  Both sides of the shape must be perfectly made so they match up to give the appearance of it being seamless.  We chose to take the bead home & so we could take our time embellishing it any way we wanted.  Time to get the creative juices flowing....Stay tuned for the final results.

Some silver & polymer clay, silver etching & piercing tidbits

Piercing in Copper with a textured sterling silver back plate.  Stones are Tiger Eye

Etching in Sterling Silver

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties---Eric Fromm

I just spent three intense full days (plus 2 hours driving to/from each day), taking a PMC (Precious Metal Clay- Fine silver & gold) certification course.  I would have preferred a regular class without a certification but I was not able to locate one close to home.  I was concerned that my skill level might not be high enough to jump into a course that certifies the student as an instructor.  The course is very intense and very specific.  But I gathered up all my courage, took the risk, took the course and.....YES!  I passed!!  I don't have any plans to teach, but the amazing amount of information I learned was worth every minute and every $ I spent on the course.  My instructor, Terry, has been working with PMC for 10 years and all I can say is the work he does is mind boggling, incredibly intricate and with detail that I have never seen in any silver jewelry.  He is the most creative person I have ever met and a fabulous instructor as well.  Now to head down yet another road in my journey as a jewelry artisan.....

Chaos vs Memory vs Beauty vs ETC ETC

My workbench status.  I'm grabbing every minute in my studio that I can in between the crazy day-to-day thing we call life so as a result, I have at least 10 projects going that are in various stages of creation.  Problem is my memory.  Gee..imagine that!  The result has been that the end result is not what I had planned in the beginning.  The good news is that I can't remember what I was going to do in the first place so I'm none the wiser.  Ahhhh, there ARE benefits to getting older.  Stay tuned for upcoming pics of what I managed to create out of the chaos.

You never know what you're gonna get...

I just finished this piece yesterday and I have named it *Enigmatic Wonder*.  The mystery is in what each person sees in the piece.  It could be an elephant, a prehistoric forest, I see a giraffe or sci-fi horse on the left or??  What do YOU see??  I used the piercing technique to saw out the main image in brass.  I then soldered that to a copper back plate which I then filed down around the original image.  I then soldered that to a sterling silver back plate.  I textured a strip of sterling silver then soldered a silver bezel cup in the middle.  The stone I set in the cup is a beautiful Leopard Jasper.  The piece measures 1.5 by 2 inches.

Ya gotta love or hate computers

Well, I have spent the last hour trying to figure out instructions to send to friends & family on how to follow my blog and now my head hurts.  So, I've decided to turn over this task to my 27 year old techno son.  I am headed to my studio to spend ALL day doing what I love the most...creating jewelry.  I'll be doing some bronze, copper & silver clay earrings and maybe a bracelet or two which means my kiln will be running for the next two days.  Yea!!!

Outside of my comfort zone

This is an etching I did for the Lake Wales show.  Although I did not win the award, Cindy Alexander (JD Alexander's wife) bought the piece from me.  I created this with a dual purpose.  When not being worn as a brooch, it sits on a miniature portrait easel.  This piece really stretched my skills & creativity.  Due to the amount of soldering, I almost melted it more than once!!  And I walked away and was ready to give up at least 3 times.  But my stubborn nature won the battle and I managed to finish something that I will always remember.

Medium:  Sterling Silver & Copper
Techniques:  Etching, Piercing, Soldering & Cold Connections.

How I created this piece.....
Using heat, I transferred a black & white photo of the JD Alexander building onto a 4x5 inch piece of sterling silver.  I refined the image using a chisel & paint pen prior to etching it into the silver.  Using a jeweler's saw, I carved out the three archways.  I then etched the building name in copper and soldered a decorative sterling border.  I used sterling brads to cold connect the copper back plate to the sterling silver piece.  I added a magnetic clasp to allow the piece to be worn as a brooch.  The miniature easel makes this piece look like a miniature picture.