Playing with Paper and Silver

For some time now I've been thinking of making some bezels for mounting very small paintings and collage images.  I think this would be a nice marriage of my new love of art journaling and the silver work I started doing a few years ago.

So today I pulled out my slightly neglected silversmith tools.  In my perfect life I have a separate area (heck...since I'm dreaming, why not make it an entire room?)  for each of my creative loves, but the reality is that when I switch gears I have to rearrange things a bit, pull out different equipment, etc.  This is one reason my studio generally looks like someone picked it up, turned it over and gave it a good shake.

Below is a bezel in the rough stage.  I actually love the way these pieces look before they're cleaned up.  The pink discoloration you see is called firescale.  It's formed from copper that "cooks" out of sterling silver when it is heated.  This has to be removed with chemicals or with abrasives.  (I use a little of both.)

Here a a few pendants ready for resin.  At this stage you can see the brush marks in the gloss gel medium that covers them.  I apply several coats (front and back) so the paper elements don't soak up the resin and become transparent.

You can definitely see the look of my my journal pages creeping into my jewelry designs these days.  I'm still just playing...seeing what works, what doesn't, what I'd like to develop further.   

The pendents will look a little different once the resin is in place and cured.  The brush marks from the gel medium will disappear and the design will look sharper.  I'll post more pictures when they're done.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  I'm linking up again with Creative Everyday's Art Every Day Month.  Be sure to take a few moments and check out some of the amazing artwork that's being shared there.  It's so inspiring!

Enjoy this beautiful day!

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