Having Bitten off More...

...Than I can possibly chew at one time, I've reorganized some priorities to bring you the process of making my latest jewelry piece.

We begin with forging the lower half of my necklace out of quarter inch copper rod as they are just about to be annealed again for more hammering.

Once I shaped and drilled the ends of the piece I riveted them together. Some how I always wind up having to rivet on top of a dapping punch since the pieces have just enough of a curve that a flat anvil or bench block won't work.

Because I learned my lesson with the Pac-man necklace about how rigid riveted pieces are the top half of the this one is a normal chain that I twisted into a sort of curb chain, which doesn't lay right with the rest of the piece but eh live and learn? Also notice that you cannot see the solder seams on the chain since I used a copper solder I got from the Rochester gem show. It's a lot like low temperature silver solder and actually flows with out using flux. It means however its easier to stick feed it than to use pallions. Still want to get more of it and keep experiementing with it though.

Here's how everything starts to line up so far for the necklace. Once the chain was attached and the clasp made and put on it was time to start adding the plastic.

I had to have help slicing the tubing since there are difficulties involved in running it through power saws. After that it was time to begin fitting the pins that hold the plastic to the metal necklace.

While I started working on the plastic part of the necklace the Nor'easter Iron Conference was happening, specifically they were doing their big 1,000 pound iron pour outside next to the jewelry studio. Such a lovely smell from the coke furnace, indeed.

By now I have the top and bottom circles fitted to the plastic rings and its time to start gluing.

Gluing even with some practice proved to be messier than I had anticipated but here are the pieces half assembled and filled halfway with aquarium gravel, some Monopoly houses, miniature dice, and random key knockouts plus tiny rhinestones.

Look at that glorious strat-o-sheen shine! Anyway, not only does the gravel make a falling water sound it looks a lot like flood water especially with houses floating in it. The dice represents the chance of rain since the whole necklace is supposed to be a modern tribal attempting to summon the rain kinda thing.

Here it is finished! Photographed on the world's worst background in the vent where I glued it together with quite caustic acrylic cement. It's not as wonderful as I hoped and I haven't had a chance to try it for weight since I have been letting it to cure for a full 24 hours but at least it's finished and ready for a likely brutal critique.

 



And there was one more benefit to the glue practice, expect to see this piece as a background enviroment in CAD which the entirety of my Thanksgiving break will be spent doing in attempt to bring that project to fruition.

Non sequitur noise time, how about another Cyriak animation, Welcome to Kitty City?

Its amazing what some people can do with a copy of Photoshop, After Effects, and Fruity Loops while I continue to look askance at Illustrator, but the Adobe Suite and I are getting along better now, thanks for asking.

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.

Half Baked and Not in a Good Way

Completely uninspired, I've been messing about with wax and a couple other things to no real avail. Did start on a small tree sculpture I have wanted to make for a while, in hopes that it would lead to some sort of inspiration.









Before embarking (ha ha!) on making the tree sculpture I made this pendant and earring sample which look pretty bad, along with an agressively mediocre chain sample. I just can't seem to come up with any good production ideas, particulary ideas that come in a full set of earrings, necklace, and pin.



After six hours of sketching in front of classy television shows from the 80s all I could come up with was this pendant (which does have matching earrings by the way) rendered here in a new stiffer blue wax I bought to play with. It looks distressingly famliar to me though, like I've seen it somewhere before.

I also came up with the design for my last rubber mold making project: the ring. Initally I was going to make it out of wax first but it requires some tight bends the wax doesn't like doing no matter how much I heat it up. I have a little rutilated quartz cabochon I will set into this ring, can you guess where?

Welp, this creative block is no fun, and usually I solve them by going to a museum or some such place to look at other people art. Unfortunately, I am largely stuck at home next week due to honorably jury duty. At least I may be able to finish these projects I've started if the weather's cool enough to use a torch for long periods...