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!

Shiny Things and Food for Thought

This will be a quick post.  Today is a mom day, as I am leaving in a few to chaperone my son's field trip.  I just want to share some pictures of my first attempts at silversmithing.  I am still on cloud nine after my class last week.  My first project was a pair of shiny, dangly earrings...so much fun to wear!

Each project was designed to teach certain skills...sawing, grinding, and lots and lots of soldering:

On the final day, we were able to put a little more of our "selves" into a project as we designed our own stone and wire pendants.  I went for an asymmetrical, dynamic design and was pleased with the results:

Back when I was in art school I remember walking by the silversmith studios and thinking to myself, "What could you possibly do with such a degree?"  It seemed like a lot of  fun, but entirely impractical.  I just didn't know the possibilities.

As I consider this, I realize I have that attitude about a lot of things.  I tend to take the safe road, believing that the "fun stuff" would get me nowhere.  But what if the fun stuff is fun to me because I was born to do it?

Hmmm... food for thought as I take off to spend the afternoon with 300 junior high band students.  Have a great day!

All Over Again

Some days are just so amazingly wonderful that you just wish you could wake up and do it all over again. I knew it would be just such a day when we woke up to a dusting of snow.  Now I realize that to many of you, a "dusting" of snow is not noteworthy, but for us it is a real treat.  If you look very closely at the photo below, you will see what a small amount of white stuff it takes to get our attention. 

To make the day even better, I was headed to day 2 of a 4-day silversmith workshop held at Beulah Land, a local B&B.  (http://www.beulahlandranch.com/ ) This is my first experience in silver jewelry formation and I am loving it! 

Our instructor, Mr. Dan Haga (http://danhaga.hagaweb.com/ ) is a gifted artist and teacher and our hosts, John and Sue Carlson are nothing short of wonderful.  As we worked on our projects today, I had a hard time not gazing at the snow that continued to fall, but I did manage to finish a pair of earrings and a bracelet.  I'll post pictures in the next few days!

Finally, as if this day wasn't great enough already, the snow began to accunmulate as temperatures dropped this evening so I ended the day with a snowy walk in our woods with my son.  What could be better?

I am a happy girl tonight and do you want to know the best part?  It's still snowing and I have two more days of silversmith classes left, soooo, tomorrow I get to do this wonderful day all over again!  Now...if only I could sleep...