Retreat (obscenely image heavy)

JAR 2009:

It went off without a hitch - we had a GREAT week! YAY!!!!

I am already planning for next year - and thinking about tiny ways to make it even better! We had 10 people and it was PERFECT. One change for next year is that I am thinking we will cap at 10 rather than 13. It provides a little more breathing room and allows us all to set up in the garage.

Its great to all be in one room and just feed off each other. You get to hear all this hammering and flexshafts whirring, and sawing, and lots of talking and laughing and we can't forget the music on the ipods. And all the materials - metal and rocks......great stuff.

Good times. For sure. :)

And the view.........its lovely, isn't it?


Now for some down to business photos:

And then some pics of a few things I made while there:

This is a rather large pendant - turquoise, aquamarine, citrine, and onyx. . . I completely chased the background, intending to LOS it, but just haven't gotten there yet. The entire piece has a lot of different texturing. It has been a royal pain to try to get a decent photo of this - its much prettier in person.

I luv it.

This is a ring someone there showed us how to do Christy? Saree?...mmm, Saree I think. She had found a similar one in a book or magazine and a few girls made them. Mine is a bit different than theirs but they were all really neat. This is the most comfortable ring! It began as 10 ga sterling wire - I forged it down a bit, stamped, formed, LOS'd. After I got to looking at it - it began reminding me of our life's journeys - so that is what it is - a Journeys Ring. I will be making more of these.

This one is up on Esty.

This is one of my favorites.

A flashy little ring (comparitively speaking) featuring a little garnet and custom cut jasper.

This ring is a direct reflection of creating on the lake - as it reminds me of the meandering shoreline of the lake we were on.


Available on Etsy.

LOVE this ring too! lol This features a very large red ocean jasper stone that is cut with generously sloping sides which allowed me to keep the bezel really low and still provide for a good secure setting. This stone is highly polished, as is the setting - the whole thing just glows and its super comfortable to wear!

Available on Etsy.

This next one is totally NOT me, but it was a GREAT experience to make. The little prong settings are pre-fab, not something I usually do, but they came to me in a studio buy-out, so I'm using them! The ring has a handcrafted scroll base and then features a large blush topaz and 5 3mm amethysts. Totally bubble gum, candy, sugary sweet. Not me.........and yet, this ring has really grown on me - its just so PRETTY!

Finally a little pendant - for practice. I was supposed to demo bead setting but never got around to it. This was my little practice piece to ensure my gravers were sharp and that I could still raise a bead! I then went round and round with a milligrain wheel a couple of days later, just for fun.

Other stuff:

H1N1 has arrived at our houe. Its thrown quite a wrench into our lives this week. LG has had a temperature ranging from 99-103.8 for most of the week but he is FINALLY fever free today Strike that - phone just rang - temp is back up to 101.3. Hopefully that will continue and he will begin to feel better each day. Unfortunately others are not recovering quite as well. A young man in our are just lost his life from H1N1 and complications - he was just 18.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/21363895/detail.html

There have been other deaths in our area. Its almost mind boggling to me. I tend to think that w can 'fix' or sustain or work around most 'common' illnesses - flu, colds, sore throats, that sort of thing. To know that someone can be 'healthy' and then in a relatively short period of time be gone......sort of unreal.

There is a very real possibility that someone you know will end up with H1N1, in fact it is more than possible - it is probable - at least here in the states.

So watch for symptoms, stay healthy, and get treatment if you begin to show any signs of flu-like symptoms.

PSA done. :)

Take care

~Janice

TFT - 05.27.09

Last night worked surprisingly well. I am finally about over my headache which made things much easier than they have been in over a week. We had leftover food, from Memorial Day, ready to go so when I got home I threw it all together, we ate, then I slipped off to the basement. (I'm getting good at this!)

My son did join me not too long thereafter, and he continues to want more of my attention than when I began this Tuesday night studio thing. He's so cute, I can't get mad, I try to engage him and I take brief (I mean really brief) breaks to watch him or do something with him. Its all fun. I enjoy it. :) Last night we danced and huggled (somewhere between a hug and a snuggle) and generally chatted a lot while I was working.

Despite my best intentions to complete some of my pieces, I really began a couple new ones. . .I can't seem to make myself stop! But I've publically committed to doing just that, stopping any new creation until I finish these and I've determined to finish everything I have in various stages by the end of the month. Oy. But seriously, remember the necklace, with the beads and bits of chain and whatnot? Thats STILL not done. So, its high time I get serious and then get some of these listed for sale.

Last night I began this sterling and charoite ring. I like how the stone is set on horizontal and the setting is no fuss. its kind of sleek which is different from a lot of my other work.




The setting needs to be cleaned up, polished and then the stone set. Right now its just in there for a test drive/fitting.




And here it is on my hand. Whatcha think?

Does it stand alone well or do you think it needs some embellishments?

I also did some work on this 'far out' pendant.



It reminds me of something from the solar system. Its sterling, fold formed, hammered, soldered.



Needs clean up and then some LOS, then the lapis and amethyst (bullet) will be set.



And by far my favorite........this ring.

Its going to be SO hard to part with this one. This is sterling, fold formed, with 14k gold balls. It just really appeals to me.

Right now it has a very rough finish and I'm not sure how high I'll take the polish...then definitely LOS to really pop the gold.





Finally, I've been remiss at sharing about the class I took with Loren Damewood on Saturday. I made a cuff bracelet and a ring (ring picture coming, along with full details of the WONDERFUL workshop)

This is a knotted fine silver cuff. It is created from ONE uninterrupted strand of fine silver wire. Cool, huh?



I ordered some fine silver wire. I don't normally use fine silver but the knotting really requires a soft wire to work with. Sterling would kink and break I am sure.

I also ordered...dun, du-dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

14k gold sheet, bezel strip, and wire. OY. I want to make an entire ring of 14k gold. I am not sure I have gold solder though so I may have to go back and place another order. I finally ordered from Rio. . . . I had been resistant to Rio as I think their prices are higher than one needs to pay, however, that was looking at tools and other supplies. Their metals prices are very competitive, so I was pleasantly surprised and I will be back to Rio on a regular basis now. I happened over there as Thunderbird doesn't have fine silver wire or sheet. (who knew??? lol) So I tripped on over to Monsterslayer and as I was getting my order together I decided to just price out the same metals at Rio. BINGO! Just about the same on sterling and fine silver - but considerably lower on the 14k gold. So it worked well.

I'm a bit nervous about using the gold but I'm also excited. Stay tuned, hopefully there will be a success story showing up soon!

~Janice

TFT - Part II - new pics

After a busy evening running two towns over to check on my daughter's 'wrecked' car and having a bite to eat out, and shopping for a birthday gift and teacher present and some odds and ends, dropping off friend, driving home....put little guy to bed, let dogs out...yadda yadda yadda....

........*deep breath*...........

snapped a few pics of the schizo ring......

On one side - light and airy - 'filligree-ish'.(from bottom - shank)

On the other side - solid, contemporary, heavy - scratch finish and a bit of bling. (from the top)

Schizo Ring.

~Janice

A trio

I really have been working on some pieces! But I've been doing a lot of sketching and slowing down in the whole process. The first was to be a pendant, then it turned pin....got some design modifications along the way and right now I'm feeling somewhat ambivalent about the result. Its a mystery stone with onyx and its set in sterling:

and the stone up close with a flash:

and the back:

(still needs the pin stem)

Then a pendant.

Seraphanite and sterling:

Finally I am working on a new technique - this ring is a prototype. Its amethyst and sterling. The sterling wire is forged on both ends then soldered at the base of the shank. A hole was drilled in the top for the amethyst bead and another wire to go through. The wire was balled on both ends:

The ring is really dirty - it hasn't been cleaned properly yet - I was itching to test drive it, check for comfort etc.

added a turquoise one...

C&C Welcome!

~Janice