I feel like I'm having a very interesting summer. My mind is full of ideas and my hands can't keep up - the clock seems always to be racing. I've been late more times than I can count. I keep trying to start things and then trying to finish them too. Was wondering why all the rush? I don't know. I should be used to not getting much done through the summer but I'm not.
I guess it's the same issue as happens to most creative people. I have more things I want to do than I can do. Does this mean I have to resign myself to eliminating some of these things? I don't want to hear the answer.
I don't answer the phone, or the door some days. I try to shut out the little details. I want to focus. I've got a message coming through. I get little bits of it and then I lose it. I go on to another thing. The signal keeps trying to get through. I guess I'll understand it when I'm ready for it. I need to change the light in the bathroom of my studio. I can't see in there and I don't know exactly how to change the light. I need a flashlight to change the light . . . those kinds of details.
So in my fashion, after an absence from these pages for a couple of months, (I know where the time went but it's gone) here I am with some of my creative memories. I have photos on my computer. Hundreds of them, too many ideas to share, part of a consciousness in some state of disarray. I'm not sure it's worth my time to go back and re-live all those moments. I'd rather be here now . . . focusing on that thing.
Well, I'm going to post pictures of my rings, to catch you up on my contributions to the Ring a Week (going to finish this) Challenge. I'm now finished with #36 and working on ring #37. I'll be posting 52 rings in all by the end of the year . . . maybe more because sometimes I make a series of a few. If you've been following along on my little flickr banner (which takes you to my pages there) on the left you would be able to see when I post a new one to the group even if I fail to post regularly here. You say you haven't? Ah well, this is my orbit anyway.
Anyway, the last one I posted was #27 my copper polka dot ring that I made with traditional metalsmithing techniques.
The next few I made with silver metal clay.
RAW 28/52 - tumbling roses ring - green clay process shot
hand formed PMC with cubic zirconium, scribbled
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RAW 29/52 - peridot roses ring
PMC with genuine peridot, scribbled too
RAW 30/52 - ruffle ring
hand formed PMC - oxidized above
First I tried it with a full rainbow patina but then I decided to polish it to give it lights.
and the way you can see through it a little
Then I thougth I could make cabochons - that weren't stones or gems or fake stones and gems - for some rings I plan to make in the future.
The top two are filigrees and other bits soldered onto copper domes. All the others were made from silver metal clay/PMC.
Look at this mold I made from a previous plastic cabochon that was set into ring #6.
There's a great example of the rate of shrinkage for PMC3.
RAW 31/52 - Dot Daisy ring
I made this for my friend's birthday on July 31st. It's the second ring in this dots series - all sterling silver construction with copper dots.
It looked nice in the velvet lining of the box.
She liked it!
RAW 32/52 Alexandrite and sapphire ring
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precious metal clay, alexandrite cz (with the crown flipped over so the point shows) and genuine sapphire cabochons
Here's a comparison for you:
rings with no patina
and the same rings with the full rainbow colors, unpolished
.
I thought it was interesting.
RAW 33/52 - filigree crown ring
domed copper and brass filigree cabochon with silver bits on top - under the brass filigree there's a dapped copper disc and the cab is 4 pieces soldered together. The setting is the gallery wire on sterling silver sheet cut out with a jeweler's saw.
I'm nuts about this one! I wear it almost every day. It makes me feel beautiful.
RAW 34/52 - the sun ring
I domed a circle of some banged up sterling sheet, depletion gilded it (technical jargon) and fused 24 kt gold with the keum boo technique (more of the technical) to the surface for my "gem". Used some of those craft scissors to cut my bezel strip so it's not your grandma's bezel anymore and cut my rays with a jeweler's saw. The gold was polished with my finger and it got really shiny! It's a nice ring too.
RAW 35/52 - orange crush ring
Now THIS is a FLOWER and also my long planned soda pop bottle cap ring. I read somewhere that every person who makes rings, should make such a ring . . . if only once . . . so here's mine for the record. I was thinking about making another with a coca~cola cap . . . maybe I will.
I dapped a few of these bottle caps and particularly liked the one that was crushed and wrinkled on the C. You can understand why.
And then here's the completed ring from the teaser photo I showed you in my last post oh so many weeks ago. Oh and I'm warning you, I'm going to drag this one out - I have 6 pictures. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!
RAW 36/52 - Jasper heart
A ring I built around the stone (a swinging heart shaped picasso jasper)
with 9 small red jasper stones and some shaped twist wire framing it with panache!
Look, it fits!
Well, I made it to fit me on my right ring finger in the summer when my fingers tend to swell a little from the heat and to fit my left center finger in the winter when my fingers seem to be a size thinner.
I was inspired by the Native American jewelry I've been seeing on ebay from a seller called San Francisco House (they are located in San Francisco), some of the most spectacular, big and intricate designs that are going for hundreds of dollars . . . on ebay!
But you know I'm not a Native American so If I copied those pieces I think it might be kind of a joke, right? Yes, a big ridiculous kind of boob thing to do so what I did was make this ring look like it was influenced by that art - because it was and it had to be to fit this stone in my mind.
It's big and it's beautiful! And the band looks like it has clouds wafting over it.
Shhh, I'm posting this to the group this weekend.
Don't think I've exhausted my ideas just yet. I have pages and pages of drawings
and I just had to get organized recently. I took my daughter off to college . . . threw summer parties . . . stayed alert on facebook - I do love that place - for news far and wide . . . created a page there called "Texture Tuesdays" (that's a link for you that may work only if you are on facebook - I don't know for sure) that has been going strong for about 3 weeks. People from all over the world have been posting photos of textures as inspiration for anyone who is interested. Go to facebook and like this group and you can post your own photos. You can also follow that link on the right.
COME ON!
A new friend of mine, Maggie Bergman, a jewelry artist and Senior silver clay instructor from down under started a sister group called "Coolest Colors" and if it's colors you are into the same rules apply.
Speaking of rules . . . there are no rules . . . we tossed them. People have been posting to "Texture Tuesdays" every day, round the clock and the first thing I do every morning when I wake up is get my iPhone and see what's been happening. I am dialed in and digital, metallic and mainstream . . . and I'm still me but I'm having fun . . . as usual.
Next post will be about my "Custom Settings for Faceted Stones" class. You won't want to miss it.
