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

Productive Weekend

For me, metalsmithing comes in waves. I don't always have the time I'd like to sit at the bench for a couple of hours to work on jewelry. And sometimes when I DO have the time, I'm beat! Since I work FT outside the home, and I have a son (age 7) at home, my evenings are a whirlwind.

BUT, I had the best Valentine's 'gift' - the house to myself on Saturday night - from about 6:30pm on....YAY! My son went to a sleep-over birthday party (his first ever sleep-over!) And I got to finish these, two of which are listed on etsy:








I actually had started the smoky quartz ring sometime last week, but didn't finish it until Saturday night. Then whipped out the other two pretty quick. Its unbelievable how having an totally empty house can really boost productivity! If only the rest of the weekend had been that quiet. :)

Saturday morning my son had a basketball game at 8 am. So we were up and out early. Then shopping for the b-day present on the way home. Then house cleaning and some laundry and then packing for the big sleep-over. Then off to the sleep-over, but not before I accidentally tripped the security alarm! So when I got home, the police were waiting for me. But then, after that, I had the house to myself!

Sunday morning I skipped church, something I so rarely do, to pick Sam up from the party. After that we went straight to the grocery, came home, put away groceries, cooked brunch....finished some laundry and hung out with Sam. Took photos of jewelry, made dinner, visited with my daughter and her friend who stopped by, then gave them a ride home - got home about 9pm and uploaded the pictures. Cropped, edited, posted online. And finally went to bed around 11:45 I think. Somehow the weekend seemed busier than that. All I know is it was over before I knew it!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

OK, here is a late addition picture - to give you an idea about the size difference:


The chrysanthemum stone ring is really big! The setting itself measures 1.5 inches at the long angle. :)

Ringa-dinga....

I can't seem to stop making rings. I've really become nuts about them!

Two sterling rings - one with a nice small citrine and the other with turquoise. Both fabricated with hand textured ring shanks (bands).

Ring Roll

Been on a ring roll - I think I can blame it on the 1,000 Rings book.

If you don't have it - GET IT!


Info on the rings is as follows:


Turquoise and Sterling. All hand fabricated, well I didn't draw the wire. :) This is 4 ga halfround low dome wire with a built up bezel base, fine silver bezel, hand textured base and FS granules. Size- big.





Then there is the charoite and moonstone in sterling. Pretty simple setting, again with the LD HR wire for the shank. FS bezels and sterling wire embellisment.




I have another ring about 75% complete. Its sterling with a split shank and will be filled with resin inlay. :)

Its been a while...

....since I've completed anything. Life has been really busy, lots going on at home. But I finally took some time yesterday and made a couple of things. Maybe I was inspired by the items I picked up at the InterGem show on Saturday. (You can see my purchases here: InterGem 2007) Here is a sneak peek:

Ok, so here are the pieces I made.

First a ring in a new style - a "raised box setting" (don't know if thats a real term or not!) in sterling with a turquoise stone. All hand fabricated and actually made with mostly scrap sterling from my bench. :) Still needs a bit of polishing and I will probably patina it with LOS.

And then a pendant. Hand patterned sterling with a 7mm citrine and some sterling wire embellishments.