Portals

I previously wrote a posting about the source of inspiration and how sometimes, things just seem to evolve.
Such was the case with my new 'Portals' design.
During my frenzied time of jewelry making for the recent holiday shows, I had a pile of brass discs that were being prepared for earrings. I had cut central holes into most of the discs which were then domed or formed into a lovely synclastic shape.
Out of curiosity, I took one of the discs and punched it with my dapping tools.
Hmmmm....I thought that I had an interesting piece, ripe with possibilities, but I had no time to pursue what any of those possibilities might be and set it aside for future reflection.
With the Christmas decorations back in the basement and the tree at curbside, I was able to come back to the disc and liked how it made me think of a portal on a ship.
This would be a perfect frame for....for something.

At first, I thought I would pull out some of my vintage photos and create small vignettes set in resin.
I instead decided to turn my punched, domed disc into a cold connection bezel and combine it with additional pieces to make a bracelet.

Then came the challenge of finding something that would fit!
I did have some cultured disc pearls on hand which, with careful culling and selective filing, were made to fit snugly. I also had some faceted garnets that were perfect in both size and shape.
The dapped discs were riveted to solid discs to complete the bezel. Additional holes were drilled for wire wrap connections which was done with annealed steel.

Once the connections were made, the steel wire and the discs were cleaned with a fine grit sanding block.

The clasp was made with the same annealed steel wire.

Although I was very happy with the resulting bracelet, I also knew that I could make improvements.
The above bracelet is what I consider to be the new and improved version.
Sterling silver wire was used instead of annealed steel making the wrapped connections more lustrous and precious.

I realized that in the first bracelet, I had missed an opportunity to do something with the back side of each bezel component and this time chose to texture the discs with a variety of steel stamps.

While I did like the previous clasp, I thought it might be a better design to have the clasp be similar to the 'portal' components which meant using a toggle clasp. I cut a heavy gauge piece of silver and textured it with one of the steel stamps. A central hole was drilled and a wrapped connection was made with a balled piece of sterling wire.

The new bracelet has faceted garnet, faceted citrine and two pearls- a white disc shape and a champagne colored rounded shape.
Now I have a good excuse to attend the next bead show that comes to town.
I need lots more roundish, flatish gorgeous beads for future portals.

Serendipity

I love those moments when something fun and unexpected presents itself.
A couple of days ago, the weather was unseasonably warm so my sons and I went for a walk.
This token from some kind of family arcade was lying on the sidewalk.

This will definitely be used in a future piece.
I love that 'NO CASH VALUE' suggests a cultural/political message....at least for me it does.
I don't yet know what form the eventual piece might take, but I will be sure to use some form of patina to create an aged appearance.

So much better than finding actual money!

Grandma's Platter Necklace

When I go thrift store hunting for jewelry making materials, I am always looking for old metal platters that might have interesting textures and patterns.
I was so pleased to find this silver plated platter with a lovely embossed floral/ribbon pattern around the circumference for the price of $1.25.

Before I even left the thrift shop, I knew that I would be cutting out each embossed design for use in various projects.
With a total of twelve separate embossed patterns, it was easy to conclude that the $1.25 would be worth the investment.

I used my jeweler's saw to cut out one of the patterns.

I kept my saw lines close to the embossed pattern so that my finished cutout would have an interesting shape. All cut edges were then filed and sanded.

Using my new cutout as a pattern, I cut a slightly larger piece of brass that has an etched pattern on one side. After filing and sanding the edges of the brass cutout, the two pieces were riveted together and a hole was drilled into the top.

This platter struck me as something that one of my grandmothers might have used years ago and I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage to that generation.
Searching through one of my vintage books, I found a photo of a woman sitting on the porch of what appeared to be an Appalachian cabin. She was surrounded by her grown sons.
While she's clearly from a time period that predates my grandmothers, I liked the mood of the photo and thought that this woman represents all grandmothers.
Her picture was set with epoxy resin in a bezel that I had riveted onto my layered piece.

Before I had riveted my layers, I treated the brass to develop a patina.
A disc cut from another of my platters helps to create interest at the rivet point.
A sterling wire wrapped connection featuring a Swarovski pearl joins the pendant to the chain of the necklace.

A hand made clasp was made with 18 gauge sterling wire.

The rest of the necklace is made with sterling chain, hand textured sterling discs and sterling wire wrapped Swarovski pearls, Swarovski crystals, quartz, citrine, prehnite, and amethyst.

Another Wonderful Christmas Gift

A couple of years ago, my one son gave me a wonderful gift- 'The Santa Stimulus Package', an original comic that he wrote and illustrated.
This year, he gave me another original creation:

'How the Legal System Stole Christmas'
by H. Dahmm

Chapter 1

Although he lived in a region where temperatures never reached above freezing, Santa had never felt this cold in all his life. He waddled wearily around the small enclosure, surveying its modest furniture. Against the far wall sat an industrial steel bedframe, which held a deplorably thin mattress that could never support his weight. In the opposite corner, there was a metallic toilet, which was caked in rust. Outside the room’s one window, snow was falling. Between the snow and Santa, though, stood a series of vertical, iron bars.

As inconceivable as it seemed, The United States government had placed Santa on their “naughty” list and had locked him in a penitentiary accordingly. The evening had begun as all Christmas eve nights had begun before. Along with a warm hug, Mrs. Claus had given Santa a thermos of hot cocoa and a laxative (all of the cookies had to go somewhere) and then sent him on his way. Following a salute to his faithful elves, Santa boarded a super jet laden with toys.

Although much of the general public was under the impression that Santa preferred to travel by Reindeer, he had found this mode of transportation to be rather problematic. After Rudolf had experienced an unfortunate run-in with an electric cable, Santa had made the executive decision to transition over to a more conventional form of flight. The plane was secured by armored walls and some twenty chubby elves armed with high powered rifles, which they could barely lift, let alone fire. These safety measures seemed absurd, but the aircraft’s cargo was enough to fill 58 Wal-Marts.

When the jet reached the eastern coast of the United States, Santa and his elves, one by one, began to parachute from the rear of the plane. With packaged gifts in their arms, they gradually descended through the cloudy night, landing on the roofs of nearby houses. The impact with asphalt shingles was unpleasant, and muttered curses of “wrap it!” and “oh gingerbread!” filled the air. Once at their assigned destinations, Santa and his elves tossed some presents under the Christmas tree, took the liberty of “examining” the refrigerator, and made a pit stop by the bathroom. Additionally, Santa snapped a few photographs at every house he visited. These images were intended for his decidedly disturbing blog, titled “I See You When You’re Sleeping”.

As soon as this work was done, Santa and his elves climbed their respective chimneys and loaded onto the hovering jet by launching candy cane grappling hooks that connected with the underbelly of the airplane. Once they had all returned to the ship, the elves, and especially Santa, celebrated a successful round of deliveries with a healthy serving of spiked eggnog.

This process was then repeated hundreds of thousands of times across the country. By the time the team reached California, mistakes began to arise. Due to exhaustion, Santa would on occasion give a young boy a doll house or a ten year old a collection of Spot books, but this night he had made an error of unprecedented magnitude…

What was Santa’s big mistake? What has NORAD really been up to all these years? Is Santa a jolly fat man or a predator?

Find the answers in the next edition of

'How the Legal System Stole Christmas…'

I can't wait for Chapter 2!

Holiday

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes for a creative New Year!

A Real Page Turner

In recent years I have become a huge fan of audio books. When I get in my car, I usually have a book to listen to. I'll have one book going for driving and one book going for studio time. There are few and precious moments when I can actually sit to read a book, but when I do, I definitely prefer an actual book.
I have yet to be tempted by the various forms of e-readers.
I love having the actual printed text in my hands and the actual book on one of my bookshelves.
So old fashioned of me!
Appealing to those other old fashioned readers, I recently made some bookmarks.

These sweet bookmarks have bits of text that I cut out of one of my old, old dictionaries.
The text was then protected with a two part epoxy resin.

I am completely delighted with these bookmarks which came about when a friend asked, "Say, do you make bookmarks?"
I thought of the cardstock bookmarks that our local library gives out, and used that size as inspiration for my design.
Pieces of copper, brass and German silver were cut, filed and sanded. I then textured the surfaces with various hammers and steel stamps.
A selection of quotes were hand stamped onto small pieces of brass which were then riveted to the bases.
A hole was cut in to top of each bookmark for threading a piece of leather.
Bookmarking an e-reader is simply not as fun as having an actual bookmark.

Other Interests

For years I had thought about trying my hand at painting, but always had a reason not to follow though....too busy with an abundance of commitments and a deep seeded fear that I would really stink.
Earlier this year I thought "What am I waiting for?"

It is quite a struggle for me, but working in the 2 dimensional arena does not scare me as much as it used to.