Put Weird and Weird Together...

and make it even weirder! New semesters always start out in such a way... Right off the bat we've got an alternative materials project.  I was expecting it to be a full project, and thus designed a big old piece for it:

It's this thing right here1

But it turned out that we were to be given a mystery packet of materials to use for  the project, and it would be due next class (in two days) and all we had to do was make some sort of body adornment, no rings.

I wound up with this foam stuff and thought it would be alright until I tried to scrunch the red sheet into an abstract flower. It was too thick to do it so I wound up cutting petals and sewing it together. That wasnt enough so I added a yellow center out of some other foam I had, and a greenish plastic flower I found on the ground somewhere. There still wasn't enough pouf to it so after flying to the craft store,

I got some ridiculous(ly expensive) green mesh ribbon to make it completly obnoxious. The piece is about a foot or so long, and sadly unloved in our peer rating/jurying thing. Perhaps I'll use it as a Christmas ornament this year, it uses magnets to pinch a shirt between it when wearing it on the shoulder, and therefore also sticks to any metallic surface. Just don't put any electronics near it.

For our next and last go at making alternative material body adornment we got to see what was in the next set of packets, and the majority of them were Lego based. This pic has some of them in it, while the others are arranged into this:

I am liking this necklace so far, but it is so hard to not just mash the Legos together and call it a day. Similarly I'm having trouble working up the urge to ruin the little Micro Machines car, though I have no idea where I'd work it into the piece. The long Legos that make up the drop of the pendant will be spray painted light blue but beyond that who knows? I feel bad that I cannot come up with ways to use more of the materials, like I'm supposed to. Maybe matching earrings? Nothing to do but get back to it, I guess...

Vroom! Vroom!

Summer/Fall Production Pricing

Dull post title but accurate! For those of you interested in owning a piece of jewelry I've got prices listed below on those ready to go. All earring posts and hooks are made of sterling silver, and the entire piece is sterling for the tube and curve designs. If there was something else you wanted from the original post showing off the pieces, don't hesitate to email me, the link for which is in my profile. And if you're not interested in these, there's a small preview after the price list of what I'm developing next.

 

 

 Tube Earrings $35

 Tube Necklace: $100

Triangle Earrings: $20

 "Reverse" Earrings: $10

 Click Clack Earrings: $15

 Curve Pendant: $40

Curve Earrings: $30

For the grand preview, I have finally learned how to drill seaglass! As you can see the ear wires got quite experimental, and because of that these aren't quite ready for sale yet, but they will be soon.

 

The other things I am looking at for production is a few older designs to improve upon and as always using alternative materials and recycling/upcycling. Not pictured are some ideas involving the square studs from studded belts which im still working out, among other things. Stay tuned!

Ancient Fashion of the 1950's

While I take a couple weeks off from making jewlery, let's take a look at the latest random thing I've found on the internet.

It appears British Pathe has been posting interesting clips from its news reel archives for a couple years now and they have enough fashion based ones to have their own youtube channel for them. I'm starting out here with one showcasing costume jewelry earrings from 1955. I'm still impressed by how fast the model changes screwback earrings.

There's at least two that cover 1950s glasses with designs that are way too radical, even for the present. The other one is here if you're curious. I bet there's a few of my classmates that wish they found something this when the glasses project was going on last year.

It starts tumbling into the truly strange with swim cap fashion (shown here) to umbrellas and then probably the wierdest thing to consider:

Dog Fashions. I don't recall the last time anyone gave serious consideration to dog clothing and accessories. I'd like to blame an apparently 1950s obsession with having to coordinate and match everything, but I don't know really.

There's plenty more gold to be had off of the Vintage Fashion channel (can't spoil everything by reposting it here) but don't forget there's also the regular British Pathe channel which has more general news reel footage and links to a couple other sub-channels.

That leads to things like the Dynasphere from the 1930s, which was kind of meant to be the car of the future and whatnot.

Plus footage of the Miss Honeywell "robot" that made the rounds at many technology expos and conventions in the 1960s just before commercially available industrial robots became available, so it it's still in that little dream bubble of how the future was supposed to be. The clip also may or may not have led me to buy a Honeywell branded desk thermometer from a thrift store, it's pretty cool.

Just to get this out of the way, this is a (British?) Pathetone clip thats been on the internet forever showing what 1930s designers thought we would be wearing in the year 2000, in case you haven't seen it before.

And if fashion and vaguely science fictiony things aren't your bailiwick, there's everything from the Hindenburg disaster to Arnold Schwarzenegger winning Mr. Universe in 1969 to how (not) to be a secretary to absolutely grating footage of a "singing" dog.

Alright one more fashion clip, this one's from 1969. It shows off Paco Rabanne's new futuristic designs which are dresses made of unusual materials, and the clip emphasizes the ones made of metal.

Wonder why that material hasn't caught on yet.

Fairly Pretty Pictures

Alright let's do this! I don't have the right backdrop for it, but on with the pictures!

Astro Ring, Sterling and Rutilated Quartz Cabochon

Wing Earrings, Sterling and Black Chatoyant Cabochons

Jupiter Pendant, Sterling, Turquoise, and White Cubic Zirconia

Three Tier Tube Earrings, Sterling and White Cubic Zirconia

Tube Chain Necklace, Sterling and White Cubic Zirconia

"Gladiator" Earrings,  Sterling and Red Acrylic

A Cat in Bamboo? Okay Then...

Reverse Earrings, Sterling with Acrylic

 

Curly Earrings and Pendant, Sterling

Click Clack Earrings, Sterling, Brass, Laserdisc, Record, and Compact Disc

What the? A...crane?

How did these pictures get in here?

Oh I get it! They're building a bridge,

Ha ha he's smoking a pipe while working! Ah hrm anyways,

Triangle Earrings, Copper, Sterling

Brass Capped Earrings, Brass, Black Acrylic, Sterling

Protype Tube Earrings, Sterling, White Cubic Zirconia

Gear Pin, Brass, Copper, Nickel

Sonic Spike Earrings, Sterling, Record Vinyl

Lion's Eye Pin, Acrylic, Brass, Nickel

Cube Pin, Brass, Nickel

Spiral Green Earrings, Acrylic, Sterling

Heart Pendant Protoype, Brass, Copper


There you have it! an entire Summer's worth of jewelry work and distractions. Some of these pieces will even be up for sale fairly soon and if anyone's really interested drop me a line through the blog. Watch for a bit more to come in terms of the tubing based jewelry and the reverse earrings too! In two weeks the Fall Semester begins and so will the unveiling of the new theme. Until then don't forget to double stack your trailers.