This oxidized fine silver ring took me a marathon 12 hours, between carving, casting and finishing.  Inspired by a vintage design, I recreated this piece with 5 tube settings including birth stones of the couple commissioning it (topaz and sapphire).  The oxides on the hand carved band are supposed to reference wear and age.  I think the stones look quite nice against the grey.  I enjoyed the challenge of this ring very much, and was quite pleased with the results.  I hope it fits!  I just sent it off today…more shots below…

I finally finished the sterling rings I started a few months back to commemorate the life of my childhood horse, Beemer.  Here are the two finalized rings that weren’t finished at the last photo session.  I’ve added resin, tiny topaz cabs and horse hair, but of course.  I made the cab in the round ring much more prominent, and the horse hair in the triangle more noticeable.  I think it suits each ring.  I look forward to delivering these to their rightful owners, just in time for the holidays!

Check out more views below:

I made this sweet gypsy-like ring during a recent intro to silversmithing class.  It’s just a quick rough sample made of a lab-dyed “turquoise” and architectural decorative bronze.  I think it looks pretty nifty though!  Too bad I didn’t size it before I built it…it’s much too small for me…but others seem to be able to wear it just fine…here are some more snapshots -

Sadly, I lost my childhood horse this August.  He was 32, and suffered a debilitating neurological incident which I believe to have been a stroke.  Before we had to put him to sleep I kept some of his mane as a keepsake and good luck charm – this horse has been everything to me, after all.  After burying him with his herd mate in our Pennsylvania pasture, I decided I needed something more commemorative than a simple hole in the earth.  I decided to build 3 memorial rings, within which to suspend his mane, inspired in part by a friend’s work in college.  I will keep one of the rings, and the other two will go to Beemer’s caretakers (my family) in PA.  They’re sterling silver, resin and horse hair, though they are in different stages of completion in these photos.  Expect more later when all rings are sized and complete.

So we inherited a new vacuum at my home studio (www.3rdward.com) and I had to test it out.  I made this simple knotted half round wire ring out of pink wax.  It cast so well that I wish I had spent more time fixing up the surface and getting rid of some imperfections.  In silicon bronze this rustic larger ring works great on my forefinger or thumb, it makes me feel like a real badass, not dainty at all!  Check it:

I can’t for the life of me remember what stone I put on the bottom of these dainty 4 stone drops.  I made them for my wire wrapping class when I got bored while everyone else was working…then I lost one and had to make another only to find it on laundry day!  Now I have three.  These quick and easy drops are a great example of wire wrapping at its best, I’ve worn them several times and already got compliments – I’ll post wearing shots too, so you can see their full size- about 2.5″ long, with a 1 cm stone at the bottom.  These also include all sterling wire, and labradorite rondelles.  Here’s one more shot: 

Check out this sample ring cast from my organic sculpture class!  The linear detail on this bronze ring was left from the backbone of a cuttlefish, which I used as the mould for this cast.  Too bad about the gap, because no vacuum or centrifuge is used it can be difficult to cast thin objects like this using this method.  Anywho, I liked this simple band anyway.   Here are a few more shots:

How difficult it is to photograph these things!  Being not a particularly good photographer certainly doesn’t help…In any case, here’s a plique-a-jour leaf pendant I completed about two weeks ago.  Currently I’ve been too busy with commissions to post my own work, but here it is!  I dapped a piece of copper and soldered fine silver cloissonne wire to give me the details and negative space I wanted.  Then I chemically milled the copper off the back.  There was a bit of solder spillage I ought to have cleaned up before I enameled, but as this piece was a bit experimental I didn’t bother.  Next time, I hope to do a little more cleaning before the final chemical milling.  The approx. 2″ pendant came out very ephemeral and organic…I’d like to get a bit more sturdy with this process, we’ll see what I can think of next.  Expect enameled rings in the near future!  Perhaps plique-a-jour…I haven’t decided yet.  Meanwhile, I’ll spend the last days of summer riding, and making, and getting ready for my kids program in the fall.  Happy Hurricaning to all on the east coast!  Today I’m home typing instead of in the studio working thanks to a public transit shut down for Hurricane Irene.  Personally, I expect the public transit shut down to be the bigger emergency, but we’ll see.

Hi All!  You may or may not have noticed my recent hiatus.  My old camera broke, and since I was teaching a summer camp for 3 weeks and on vacation, I didn’t have a very productive July.  But now I’m back in the studio and ready for an end-of-summer rally of activity!  Like these adorable but very difficult to photograph earrings…I was headed out to a show this past week, and I wanted a pair of earrings to match my dress.  I’m currently in the process of chemical milling a beautiful plique-a-jour pendant, so I figured I’d try the process again with earrings.  This process involves filling spaces between sterling silver cloisonne wire or in a cast piece with transparent enamel, and translates to mean “light of day” because you can see through it, like stained glass windows.  I didn’t have the 3 days to wait for a tray of etching acid to chemically mill off a backing, so I fired these over investment plaster, and was fairly pleased with the results.  In just 45 minutes I was able to make a pair of serviceable earrings!  They still need some touching up and finishing – you’ll see visible schmutz on the back of one, but I think they’ll come along rather nicely.  These earrings feature simple sterling earwires with 3 wire wrapped chrysophase (not sure about that…they might be something else) seed stones, and fine silver cloisonne wire supporting 3 colors of transparent medium fire enamels.  These are uber hard to photograph, I want you to see the light coming through, but I can’t get the color balance right!  Here’s hoping I can learn how to use this camera a little better before I finish my next piece…enjoy…

So it’s been a busy couple of months, and then my camera broke!  Here are some images of a change purse I just finished.  I love the aesthetic but unfortunately it’s a millimeter too small for my credit cards!  Ack!  so annoying!  In any case, it’s copper and bronze with leather detailing, and as you may guess has its design origins in the beauty of antique cigarette cases.   Enjoy!