Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Finale

Silver and Brass Filigree!

We wrap up our Project Runway jewelry challenge with "mini collections". Five pieces representing a cohesive collection including a necklace, earrings, ring, bracelet, and another item to chose to make. My collection is inspired by the Getty inspiration piece from a couple of weeks ago. I love how the yellow, raw brass filigree looks against a background of sterling silver, so I went back to my local vintage findings shop and rummaged through their bins for interesting little bits of brass. My five piece collection includes five different selections of brass in five different shapes and sizes.

The necklace is a hollow form curved rectangle with a square filigree and a hidden tube bale on the reverse. I wanted the square piece to be featured dimensionally and it's size to be enhanced. The width on the sides of the brass gives it that enhancement and the convex curve of the front makes in dimensional.

The earrings are made from two parts of a large medallion of brass filigree that a cut apart and soldered to tear shaped silver. They are 1 1/8 inch long and an inch wide.

The ring is a simple 1/4 inch wide band with a single spray of leaf filigree as it's feature. It is suitable for a man or a woman to wear. I considered making a more complicated cocktail ring, but I am happy with the way it turned out.

The bracelet is the piece that I grappled with the most. I thought about affixing these two shapes of brass filigree to a cuff style bracelet. The 'X' shapes are perfectly suited to the diamond shaped filigrees. I decided on the cut out shapes as a link bracelet as I thought It would go better with the rest of the collection. Each of the seven pieces has a slight curve for comfort and dimension.

My final piece is a pair of cufflinks with some small scrolled filigree on circles. I am trying to include more men's and unisex pieces in my line, so this was a great opportunity to put cufflinks in!

Check out my and the other participants final interview and a look at all of our weekly designs here and please take a look at the other fantastic mini-collections!

Beth Cyr

Kathryn Riechert

Thomasin Gurgin (metalriot)

Victoria Takahashi (experimetal)

Rachelle Stromberg (mikeandmary)

Sara Westermark

Stacey Hansen (wildflowerdesign)

And it's a wrap! Here's the EtsyMetal post!

EtsyMetal Jewelry Challenge: Pop Challenge

Before the final challenge - a five piece, cohesive collection for the Project Runway Jewelry Challenge - is due (next Friday), we were given a pop challenge to make something using a 1" by 3" piece of sheet metal and three feet of wire - any gauge or size, copper or silver. I used 24 gauge sterling silver sheet and 18 gauge square wire. This is a two sided pendant. I cut the sheet metal into two pieces and curved them in a forming block. I added the square wire in a geometric spiral on one piece, and a bee's path to a flower on the other. The two curved pieces are joined to make a pillow shape and more square wire and sheet are used for the pi bale. I have a 1"x 1/4" piece of sheet and 2 feet of wire left over. If I had had another hour, I could have used the wire for two more geometric spiral earrings.

More Pop Challenges:

Experimetal

MikeandMary (Rachelle)

bcyrjewelry

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: The Getty!

This week on Project Runway, the designers had their last challenge. They were given the Getty Museum as inspiration. They took a 30 minute tour, and had 30 minutes to choose an inspiration piece and sketch. I'm lucky enough to live nearby the Getty and I could spend all day there and not see everything. It took me longer than 30 minutes to look through their online collection photos and choose something to work on. I found a group of silver bowls of an unknown artist from the Parthian (modern Iran) made in the 1st or 2nd century AD. I selected the Bowl with Leaf Calyx Medallion as my inspiration for this challenge.

My interpretation of the bowl consists of a sterling silver disk, dapped into a tiny bowl and given a brass filigree medallion of leaves similar to the gold inlayed calyx medallion on my inspiration piece. The tiny bowl becomes a necklace with a tube bale and chain. I gave it a matte finish to reflect the aged silver of the Getty's ancient bowl.

More Getty inspired work:

MetalRiot

RubyGirlCreations

Kathryn Riechert

Sara Westermark

Experimetal

MikeandMary (Rachelle)

Kathryn Cole

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Companion Piece

Tall Palm Earrings

These Tall Palm Earrings are the companion to last week's Palm Lined Street Necklace. There wasn't much time for me to devote to this week's project as I am busy with what seems like a zillion other projects, but I think they're cute. These palms are much taller than those in the necklace - they do get super tall, while keeping their skinny trunks - Amazing trees, I think. They don't provide much (if any) shade from the hot sun, but the bushy tips of the trees dot the sky wherever I look.

More Companion Pieces:

Experimetal

Kathryn Riechert

RubyGirlCreations

CatherineChandler

SaraWestermark

MetalRiot

MikeandMary (Rachelle)

bcyrjewelry

idreamicanfly

The EtsyMetal Blog

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Pick a Place!

Welcome to Southern California!

Most palm trees are not native to the area, but they thrive here here and the tree lines streets of Beverly Hills and Hollywood have become iconic symbols of L.A. and Southern California. I am an Orange County native and grew up seeing Palm lined streets everywhere - including the street I grew up on and where my parents still live. On the green belt of the side walk, planted every few yards is a Palm. They don't provide much shade, but I still like them. They have tiny orange 'coconuts' that come down a couple times a year and in the Fall, sometimes the palm fronds turn brown and hang low. As kids we used to swing on the fronds like a Tarzan vine - into the street and back to the sidewalk. Here's a photo I managed to take from the sun roof of my car down the street from my house today.

So the Palm Trees of Southern California serve as my inspiration for my Project Runway Jewelry Challenge. The necklace features a row of palms decorating a slightly curved strip of sterling silver. A 'road' of copper is riveted to the silver along the bottom edge.

Visit some other jewelry places:

Catherine Chandler: Australia

Experimetal: her favorite place

Delias Thompson: Greece

Sara Westermark: Pisgah Forrest (NC)

Mike & Mary Rachelle: Ocean City Beach

MetalRiot: City Park

Cory Howard: Glaciers

&

The EtsyMetal Blog!

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Sparkle, Shimmer & Shine!

Feathery Earrings

Last week's project runway was fun. The designers were to create a glitzy stage costume inspired by Bob Mackie's designs. An over the top garment that would stop the show. The EtsyMetal Jewelry Challenge was streamlined to simply create something with sparkle. I wondered what Mr. Mackie had done with jewelry so I did a search and didn't find much - some Christmas pins was all I found, but Bob Mackie did design a line of furniture, and I've always thought that hardware on furniture is quite jewelry like. There was one piece that I found especially show stopping. Just look at the inlay of wood surrounding the simple hardware on this chest. Very Cher and feathers, right?

I will admit that I left this until the last moment, so my entry may not have pushed the envelope outside my comfort zone, as those projects tend to take time. The feathery earrings do have shine. Using the feather motif, I've attached six pieces of hand cut patterned brass feather or leaf shapes to strips of sterling silver as if they were sequins, pinned with a bit of fine silver. They move freely on their pins and catch the light nicely. I am letting them dangle from ear wires so they can swing with the wearer's movement.

Other Sparkly, Shimmery & Shiny things:

MetalRiot

RubyGirlCreations

Mike&Mary (Rachelle)

Alisa Miller

Sara Westermark

BethCyrJewelry

WildflowerDesigns

experimetal

corbethy

See them all on the EtsyMetal Blog!

PRoject Runway Jewelry Challenge: Weddings

Last week, project runway designers had to re-work a wedding dress for a recently divorced client into a non-wedding garment. Well, our leader re-worked the challenge and gave us the directive to design something for a bride.

I have been intending to make a set of wedding rings for some time now and bought these rough, uncut diamonds a long time ago. I love them and have finally put one into a ring that could be an engagement or wedding ring (or both!). I used sterling silver because with the price of gold soaring to new heights and the current economy, I think many couples might chose silver for their rings. It's a simple wide beveled band with the diamond bezel set. The diamond I used is yellow and is cube shaped. I paired the bride's ring with a more masculine ring for our bridegroom. It is a nice, chunky and heavy, beveled band in sterling silver with a small square of 14 kt. gold. The gold square mirrors the shape of the diamond setting in the bride's ring.

Here's a story about my own engagement ring I like to tell. My then future in-laws had set aside three diamonds; one for each of their children to give or have as their engagement ring. A lovely thing for them to do. All we had to do was to select and buy a setting for it. (No there wasn't a ring present at the actual proposal). So, they knew this guy who was a jeweler for a fine jewelry store and he wanted to give us a deal without the jewelry store taking their cut. So, he met us in the gas station across the street from the store and the three of us sat in the back seat looking at samples of settings and having my finger sized. I selected a very simple white gold four prong setting, and then the jeweler sat back and threw his arms around us and said, "Marriage is forever!" in a heavy Italian accent. The whole scene was like something out of a silly movie and my husband and I have often giggled about it. This was the last time I purchased jewelry out of a car, but as I don't have a storefront, I occasionally meet people in various parking lots to exchange a jewelry order for payment, so it isn't the last parking lot jewelry transaction I've been involved it.

And now for our our other submissions:

Kathryn Reichert

MetalRiot

Experimetal

RubyGirlCreations

BethCyr

IdreamIcanfly

tffnynelson

and the EtsyMetal Blog (thanks Victoria!)