Sold pieces

It's been a busy, whirlwind summer with personal projects, birthday parties and all kinds of other things, so I haven't had too many chances of updating the blog of late. But I have been wanting to post an update for a while on my recently sold pieces. Business was pretty brisk the early part of the summer, which was exciting. My metals were particularly popular. I was also very excited when the Uhura bracelet sold! I worked hard on this piece and loved how it turned out, so I was happy to know someone else shared my love for it.

Experimenting

Post earrings, made of lapis lazuli cabochons in a bezel setting.

A tulip

This pendant happened quite by happy accident. I was making the two pear shapes for earrings, and noticed that if I placed one on top of the other they make a tulip, and would serve as a pretty cool-looking pendant. And so I did, and it did, and Adeline came to be. She's named after one of the characters from the book I just finished, The Thirteenth Tale (highly recommended as a can't-put-down sort of a book).

Rings

I made these stacking rings as an experiment, and I'm now debating whether to offer them on Etsy because they took me forever to make! They make up a total of eight individual rings in different gauges, and look like a thicker ring when stacked together.

Chains

The new Tameka necklace isn't named after Usher's soon-to-be ex-wife Tameka Foster, but rather after my good friend Tameka, who also happens to be a fellow Twihard. At first I debated how many circles to include, and settled on three as a good number for now. I like this design a lot, so you might see more variations of this in the near future.

Another one

I had complete fun making this necklace, with all of its contrasting textures, shapes, and neutral shades. I also like how the circles form a mini-link that looks like they are a found vintage necklace from someone's grandmother's trinket box. And then, while thinking up of a good name, I realized I've never named a piece after Princess Leah. How remiss of me! So here is the Leah necklace.

More

We celebrated the 4th of July a day early with a pool party and steaks on the grill, so yesterday I was able to devote about five hours at my workbench, a rarity indeed in these busy times. My back and hands were very achy by the time I was finished, but it was worth it. This one is Skye, after a family friend's daughter whose name I really love! I deliberately made the circles not be perfectly formed and with different sizes so as to give them an organic, slightly messy, unplanned look - though the "unplanned" part is certainly a misnomer, as they were all very meticulously planned.

Circles, circles everywhere

Notice a theme emerging? This is another new piece from the weekend's creativity burst, named Stella. The necklace is similar to Audrey but with an extra circle pendant. For my next project I'm envisioning something similar to these two, but with even more circles bunched together, maybe with a thinner gauge wire, some hammered, some not. We'll see how that works out!

Also, in case you were looking for the Uhura cuff bracelet, I've temporarily taken it down from Etsy to administer some suggested improvements from a couple of friends who did a test run for me. Uhura will be back up soon!

Cuff bracelet

I made a cuff bracelet for the first time. I've been thinking about the design and construction for a while but didn't have the courage to actually pick up my torch and start creating one lest it ended up in the discard pile, like a lot of my metalwork attempts. But on Sunday I spent the whole afternoon at my workbench, and this is one of the fruits of my labor. My sister has been bugging me to name a piece after Star Trek's Uhura, but I've been waiting until I made something sufficiently funky and sassy and space age-y. I think this one finally looks like an Uhura, doesn't it?

New necklace

I just posted a brand new item at the shop, the Bethany necklace. Turquoise nugget, smoky quartz, and one of my hand-forged sterling silver circles. I think this is a great piece for summer, especially with the earthy color combination. Also, something exciting. My mother-in-law was out and about this weekend wearing her Astrid necklace, and a stranger complimented her on it. My MIL then promptly gave her one of my cards (actually the old version that Alissa happened to have on her). How's that for marketing!

Tools of the trade

Chemicals for metalsmithing: paste and liquid flux, pickling solution, and liver of sulfur.

Hoops, redux

I've been slowly re-taking photos of some of the jewelry listed at the shop to make them nicer, like these Audrey metal hoop earrings. The original pictures were flat and didn't have a lot of texture or contrast, so it was hard to tell much about the piece. I like these shots better. But I just realized that I overlooked taking photos that accurately show the scale; I'll have to remedy that.

Film noir

I took new pictures of the hand-stamped metal disc LOVE earrings listed on Etsy a few months back. Don't they look kind of film noir?

Lessons learned

Two rings, one set with a red coral and the other with a pink coral. The bands are made from 12g sterling silver wire. At first, I was pleased with the results. And the photographs came out well. But after looking more closely, I realized the gauge I used for the band was too thick for rings that are meant to look delicate. Also, my soldering job isn't as good as I initially thought, owing to the fact that thick wire requires more solder. Some parts underneath the bezel cup got a little bit globby, requiring extensive filing.

I'm a little annoyed that I seem to have wasted the cabochons, but I'll chuck it to a learning experience and hopefully the next rings will be even better because now I know what works and what doesn't. After all, a little experimentation never hurt any (except maybe for Dr. Frankenstein).

Red necklace

Ha - I just realized that when I really love a background I use it ad nauseum, like with this necklace. I am calling her Natalie, after Natalie Portman, whose picture I just saw on Perez Hilton. I also realized that depending on what you wear with this necklace, the length could be somewhat awkward (like the tank top in the pictures - it sits right on top of the neckline and some people might not like that look), so I'm offering the option of having it shortened by request. Check out Natalie's Etsy page for more details!

Productive

I had an extremely productive day at my workbench today, making a total of six circle links and three bezel rings. Here they are, fresh from the tumbler. A lot of the designs I'm playing around with in my head call for these circle links, so I made a whole batch in one sitting to save time. The rings are going to be set with different cabochons - one of them is a custom order for the Alice ring that sold on Friday, and the other two will have a rhodonite and a red coral. I can't wait to finish them.

I also spent a couple of fun hours at the bead store looking for stones for a large custom order. I found several cultured freshwater pearls in different colors, which I think will work beautifully.

Hand-stamped silver disc pendant

I finished this new stamped sterling silver pendant but I haven't listed it on my Etsy shop yet because I am unsure about the quality of the photos. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to photograph something this shiny: one, it reflects the sunlight back something fierce, creating a bright light that obscures the details of the pendant, and two, if you look closely enough, you can see me and my camera reflected on the super shiny surface.

But actuallly, now that I look at it again, this photo actually ain't too bad.

So while I go experiment some more with the lighting, I'm also going to mention that I need to really gear up for the coming holiday shopping season. This coming one will be the first for my shop so it's hard to predict how much I will sell, but in any case, I need to start preparing my inventory.

Machinery

As I mentioned a few posts back, I broke out my new tumbler to use on a few pieces. I've been putting off unpacking it for the longest time because I was too afraid I might do something to break it (and I actually almost did, until Mr Hazel rescued me, mostly because I'm no good at following written instructions - I am too impatient).

I love this thing - it's magic machinery! My silver pieces come out looking super shiny.


And here is the tumbler alongside the slow cooker that I am using as my pickle pot.

Battle wounds

I emerged from my last metalsmithing session with all kinds of scrapes and bruises on my hands. Including, but not limited to, bringing down the hammer hard on the bones of my index finger.

&*#(^*$!

At first I thought I broke it because my finger turned purple and swelled up, but to my relief, I found that I could still move it so I figured it was just badly bruised.

My nails also got banged up. No pretty manicures for me for a while, it seems. I also have a red mark on my finger where I had brought the hammer down (a second time) and messed up the blood vessels under the skin.

I told you I was clumsy. And, apparently, dangerous to my own health.

Speaking of wounds and battle, I thought I saw Saddam Hussein on the train today. He was dressed in army fatigues and had a mustache - a dead ringer. I bet he isn't really dead, but hanging out with Elvis on a beach in some tropical island.

Shiny finish ring

Here is another ring that I finished, named Rosalie. She's made of a slightly smaller sterling silver disc, hand cut from sheet metal and and then domed. The band is hand-forged from 16g sterling silver wire, and the exciting part about this ring is that it has a different finish from my previous metal pieces.

I used my new tumbler for the first time with this (plus a few others), so instead of a satin finish like previous pieces, this ring has a super glossy high shine.

"Rosalie" is available in size 5 1/2 in my Etsy shop.