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: 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!)

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Surf's Up!

Project Runway was fun this week! The designers were asked to create a garment suitable for surfer girls, and then also asked to to create an avante garde look to go along with their more casual fashion. This week for the Project Runway Jewelry Challenge, inspiration was easy and I have several pages of sketches that may turn into more jewelry!

The Wave Necklace

I made three pieces to go along with this theme. The first is my more avante garde look. I didn't have time to make it more avante garde, but I imagine about 30 more of the sterling silver wave curls on that chocker to make it so. It's fabricated from 18 gauge sterling silver. The outside of the wave is hammered and distressed to look like the surface of the water. It is oxidized black for depth. The inside of the curl is smooth and shiny, like the glassy surface of a tube wave. The bail mirrors the curl of the piece and it is on a sterling silver choker cable. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Spiral Shell & Waves Necklace

This next piece is a more casual look. My family and I make a habit of heading to the beach at least once a week during the summer months. When I am not relaxing on my chair chatting with friends, I am in the water, where the waves lap the shore searching for shells. This is a shell shard I picked up this summer. The perfect spiral looks like the waves at the beach and so I've set into sterling silver and carved the bezel out to look like a set of waves crashing all around the shell. The back of the pendant is stamped with a flock of seagulls in "V" formation, and my mark. The bail is a spiral, and it hangs from a lovely deep blue silk cord with a handmade hook clasp.

Surf's Up Necklace

Finally, I've made a surfboard for our surfer girl - or her boyfriend! This unisex pendant is fabricated from sterling silver with a center line of copper. The leather cord it hangs from makes it another great casual piece. Look for all three to appear shortly in my shop!

Other Participants in The Project Runway Jewelry Challenge:

Metalriot

Bijougirl

Kathryn Riechert

Sara Westermark

Experimetal

Rubygirl

Cynthia Del Giudice

bcyrjewelry

wildfloweresigns

Please check out the EtsyMetal Blog for photos and information!

Blog Carnival: First Piece of Metalsmithed Jewelry

The very first piece of finished metalsmithed jewelry I made may have been this piece. It is certainly from my first class. My mother has another piece I made which may have been slightly earlier, and I was unable to photograph it, so I'll talk about this ring.

What did it mean to you?

This ring would have been one of the first times I worked in sterling silver and I remember being terrified of making a mistake. I had purchased a very small piece of sterling silver sheet and making a mistake meant driving an hour to only local store I knew of that sold jewelry supply.

What materials?

This ring is made with 20 gauge sterling silver sheet, a purchased prong setting, and a blue faceted stone (I don't know what stone). The assignment was to make a band ring.

Were you in class/home?

I took my first metals class as an undergraduate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. I was a Theatre Arts major and looking to take an art class as an elective. I saw "Beginning Jewelry Design" in the coarse catalog and didn't hesitate. I didn't even read the description, and when I showed up for class, I remember being slightly surprised that I would be working with metal. My instructor was Sue Dorman who talked about materials as if she were in a dream. I loved it.

What would you do different now to it?

Oh, so many things! If I was making this ring again, it probably wouldn't resemble this ring, but if I had to re-make it to do so, I'd use much thicker metal to fabricate. I would clean up those saw marks. I've never had much patience for sanding, but it doesn't look like I did any at all here. It looks like I had some trouble with the sizing as there are lots of hammer marks on the back, like I needed to stretch the ring. So most of the things I would do have to do with clean up and finishing, but the design isn't very interesting. I think now that when you're learning a new technique, that simple is better - first, learn how to do it, then design around the technique.

What did you learn making it?

I would have learned band ring construction - how to spring a ring and solder. I had learned piercing on practice sheets of copper and brass, but that was new as well. Here's a picture of my first piercing and sweat soldering exercise - not a finished piece of jewelry, but fun to look at.

Here is a list of other wonderful jewelers who are participating in this blog carnival!

Sara Westermark

Danielle Miller-Gilliam

Beth Cyr

duckduckGoose

Caitlyn Davey

Laura Crawford

Tamra Gentry

andes cruz

Cynthia Del Giudice

Libby Rosas

Nina Dinoff

Clare Stoker

kerin rose

Quercus Silver

Delias Thompson

Tangerine Treehouse

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge: Red Carpet

Season 6 of Project Runway has begun and Victoria will be leading participants through the EtsyMetal Blog in a jewelry challenge - although we hope for wider participation than just EM members. The first challenge - Season 6, Episode 1 -for the designers was to create a look suitable for a red carpet. These sterling silver post earrings are made using square wire to make the top bit and chain with some light blue topaz wheels to add some extra sparkle. Why are they suitable for the runway? Well, they dangle two inches in length, and so would be great with an up-do. The chain element gives them a great deal of movement. They are subtle enough to leave the attention on the face while drawing it there.

Check out some other fantastic designs from this challenge and stay tuned for next week!

Shannon, Maggie, Kathryn, Sara, Victoria, Beth!

Charm Swap Four

EtsyMetal's fourth charm swap is underway, with 20 members each creating 22 charms for the swap - one for each participant, one for the bracelet and one to be sold singly in the shop. It's exciting to participate in the swap, but also nerve-racking to come up with a design. I was limited by funds this time and couldn't do them in silver. I love the warmth of copper and have used that. I'll post some process photos showing the production of the charms.

The copper is cut into rectangles, and the silver tubing into tiny lengths and the tube rivets are placed.

These are the punches I will use to stamp the dandelion design. After stamping, the metal is all curved and needed to be pounded flat with a mallet.

Here they are before I've added the oxidation to blacken the design and after. The jump rings are left unsoldered so they can be added to a charm bracelet. I also added a tiny seed pearl wire-wrapped in fine silver - a tiny escaped seed of the dandelion.

Calder Jewelry

When my husband was scheduling our summer trip to San Diego, I told him, "Any time after July 25th!" so we could see the exhibit of Alexander Calder's Jewelry at the San Diego Museum of Art. There are 92 pieces on display in two rooms, which represent only a small example of the 1,800 plus pieces he made! There was no picture taking allowed inside the exhibit, but I did sneak a photo outside the exhibit, which shows the portrait of Anjelica Huston wearing The Jealous Husband, which appeared on the cover of New York Times Magazine shortly before Calder's death in 1976. There are also some large photos of Calder hammering wire on an anvil and in his studio on the walls between the jewelry displays. The collection includes many initial brooches that he made for his family and friends. The jewelry is made with continuously coiled wire, sometimes riveted and wrapped, but never soldered or treated with heat. The exhibit really underscores his love for family and friends as most of the pieces shown were gifts to loved ones especially his wife, and the artist is evident in each piece, through visible tool marks from hammer and pliers. I think my family enjoyed the exhibit, maybe not as much as I did (I went back for a second look while they looked at paintings).

I was struck and inspired by the elements I didn't expect, like a wooden box with a brass spiral closure, which Mr. Calder used to transport and ship his jewelry inside of.

He would put a bunch of pieces into these boxes and send them to friends and shops with a book that included pencil drawings of the unnamed pieces for jewelry parties trunk sales. A red check mark indicated a sale and sometimes a name was included. The host of the jewelry party would pack up any unsold pieces and the cash back into the box and send it back to him. Calder also made his own jewelry bust displays, which were very Piccaso-like in facial feature, and suit his earrings perfectly. These are the elements that indicate the business side of his art. He received several offers to duplicate and mass produce his jewelry designs, but rejected them, wanting his pieces to stand on their own as one of a kind objects, like his sculpture. And I couldn't leave without stopping by the gift shop for the Calder Jewelry book, which I have been coveting and have been studying every since. So, if you are in the area, please go see the exhibit, which is on until January 3, 2010. If you can't here's a video I found showing a little of what I saw, while it was in Philadelphia.

Project Runway Jewelry Challenge

This week, on Project Runway...

We went Canadian! All the fun without the painful scrutiny of Iman - she's mean! Mean and Great! Our challenge this week was taken from Season 1, Episode 8, where the contestants had to chose their models based on iconic period costume dress as their inspiration for swim wear. The choices were Marie Antoinette, Greek Goddess, Gypsy, Flapper, 80's debutant, British Punk, or Geisha. The hardest part for me was choosing the period. I have a number of sketches that I may work on at another time, but I landed on Greek Goddess.

The earrings I made are inspired by ancient Greece, Mycenae. One of the motifs I saw while looking up the jewelry of this period was the coil. I used copper because that was what was at hand, and the geeks did use copper, but I see these coils in bronze or gold more likely. So, I played a little in photoshop with metal choices. You can tell me what you think:

The coils are hand formed and hammered, and attached with a simple wire wrap. Interestingly, the shape of the earring turned out similar to the shape of the earring I sketched for the Marie Antoinette style - only that would have been made in platinum and diamonds in floral motifs (sorry I was fresh out of both platinum and diamonds). Once they were made, and I looked at them I thought of Alexander Calder's jewelry and now I wonder if he was thinking of Greek goddesses, too.

Other Participants:

Lora Hart

Rachelle

Victoria

Alisa

MASSC Demo Day 2009

The Metal Arts Society of Southern California held their annual demo day on Saturday. This is an event I've been attending for the past few years and it's always a fun and interesting day. I apologize for the awful quality photos I took with my phone, but I'm sharing anyway. It's great to be around people who have like interests, to network a little, learn a little, and be in a college metal studio with all their big and yummy tools. It was held El Camino College, which is equipped with several rooms full of tools, which makes me want to go back to school just to have access to everything. Thanks to all the volunteers who hosted demos and organized the day! I saw 5 demonstrations throughout the day:

Broom Casting - Fold Forming - Kumihimo (Japanese Braiding) - Acid Etching - Electrical Etching (Etch & Kvetch):

Leaves

I was looking at my "Green Garden Necklace" the other day, which is a one of a kind piece. I really liked the leaf element to the pendant, and decided that part could make some great, but simple earrings, which aren't so one of a kind. So "Leaves" which are inspired by the "Green Garden Necklace", but are not made to necessarily go with it, came to be. I love them and they are perfect for today's New Release Thursday!

New Work Thursdays

I have been participating in the Etsymetal New Work Thursdays and this is the first one of the New Year!

This ring is a new addition to my garden series and the first ring I've made for it. The Cabochon is a vintage milk glass made by the Cherry Brand Co. in occupied Japan. The molten glass was pressed into a floral mold by artisans more than 50 years ago and I've set this one into oxidized sterling silver. It is now listed in my etsy shop here!