SWAT Earrings

This afternoon, I worked on making these little dangles of faceted garnet beads wire wrapped with balled copper wire.  I love how the beads look like luscious pomegranate seeds, and I love that garnet is the official color of my son's college.

These dangles are going to be used for some jewelry that I'm making for the campus bookstore.

The students refer to themselves as Swatties and will affectionately call the college Swat.  I thought it made sense to combine the garnets and the Swat nickname in a pair of earrings.

If the earrings don't sell on campus, I guess I'm going to have to find a police elite tactical unit with jewelry deprived women. 

Vintage Tin

During my thrift store searches, I am always keeping an eye out for interesting, vintage tins. One great find several years ago inspired my 'Ghosts of My Past' necklace.

I recently bought this tin, loving the patterns, muted colors and even the scratches.

Using my metal shears hand tool, I cut out a section.

Not wanting to damage the colored surface, I gently tapped the cut section with a plastic mallet to flatten it before cutting a variety of discs.

The edges of the discs were sanded with a foam sanding block, creating a nice, smooth finish, again taking care to minimize any damage to the colored surface.

I thought that the discs would be perfect for earrings, but wanted to pair them with another metal for an interesting contrast as well as for more substance.
I cut some silver nickel discs at a slightly larger size and textured one side with different steel stamps.
Instead of just drilling at the top and bottom to allow for connections, I soldered on copper jump rings which were them hammered flat.

I originally planned to connect the tin discs to the textured side of my soldered bases, but thought it would be a shame to cover up most of the stamped textures, so ...change of plan.
Connecting on the other side meant that I had to deal with the the dimension of the soldered jump rings.
No problem.
I domed the tin discs, but domed them very carefully.
Not wanting to damage the surface, I used my wooden dapping block and created only a slight curve.
The slight dapping not only let me clear the jump rings, it also added enough dimension to make the earrings slightly more interesting once the pieces were riveted together.
Honey jade beads wrapped with balled copper wire hang at the bottom.

Bonus....the textured surface on the back is nicely visible as the wearer walks away from someone.

Soldering In My Future

My brand new stash of cabochons from S & S Lapidary:

Here's hoping that these beauties will inspire me to improve my soldering skills.

Landscape Painting

Third Session

All right....looks like a 'Fourth Session' is necessary.
Those flowers in the foreground are an unfortunate garish blue. I hope I can figure out how to tame them.

New Opportunities

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, but as 2012 began, I did make a pledge to find more business opportunities this year. As family expenses increase, I am headed toward a bad mathematical equation if I don't find ways to increase my income.
Time to seek out new opportunities.
When I recently accompanied my son to his college's bookstore, I saw that there was a display of "Made in Pennsylvania" items. Hmmmm.....possible opportunity.
I sent an email to the bookstore manager with images of my jewelry and we scheduled a meeting.
Kathy, the manager, is delightful and I was delighted that she liked my work. When I returned with pieces that I made in response to her preferences, she bought almost everything which definitely exceeded my expectations.

Some of the jewelry that I made is very specific to the college.
For the above necklace, I searched for images of the college and found a vintage postcard that features the landmark building on campus (which also happens to be where my son lives). I reduced the image to fit it within a silver plated bezel, added the word 'learner' that was pilfered from my 1930's dictionary, and filled the bezel with 2 part resin.
The bezel pendant hangs from a chain that I made with wire wrapped amazonite, Swarovski pearls, vintage crystals and etched silver discs.
This necklace will soon join the other items already at the bookstore, and I will be joining the bookstore's outdoor display for the upcoming Arts Weekend.

Landscape

My attempt at a landscape in oil based on a photo that I took at Chanticleer:

First Session

Second Session
I'm feeling satisfied with parts of the painting like the shadow under the tree.
Overall?........not so sure.
I think I need a couple more sessions of working on this before I can decide if I like it.

More Lunar

Inspired by my recent 'lunar' pieces, I made more textured discs this morning.

Brass discs were cut and then placed on the concrete steps alongside my driveway. Using my old, beaten up household hammer, I pounded away on the discs which left a wonderfully irregular, pitted surface.
The discs were then filed, sanded, torched, domed, sanded again and then drilled and sealed with Renaissance wax.

A simple sterling earwire, and the new earrings were completed.
They are 1" in diameter, lightweight and fabulous!