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
