Doodle Ring

I'm so excited to be back in metal class making jewelry. Our first assignment was a linear ring from a drawing or to be more exact, doodles that I drew during one of my other classes :-). Cast in Sterling Silver from a wax model.

Silver Gemstone Necklace

I saw these origami gemstones on http://www.minieco.co.uk/paper-gems/ which inspired me to make this necklace

Hollow constructed Sterling silver and sterling silver plated with custom paperclip hinge.

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I constructed these silver gemstones out of sheet metal, hollow and light to wear. Then scored them, folded them and soldered the seems together pretty much using the same idea as when you work with paper - just a little harder.

My class just finished and I already sold one of my pieces (not pictured) It was a smaller and single silver gemstone in a necklace. Pretty exciting :-)  Happy 4th of July \!!/

My First Casting

Final finish of the earrings - Sand blasted Sterling Silver cast and freshwater pearls

Wax model

Plaster mold with liquid metal

Raw Casting with stem and spruces.

Irregular Sterling Silver Pentagon Rings

This week we've been learning different methods of setting stones, how to texture metal and create different patinas. I made these rings from sterling silver sheet metal. One of them is polished on the outside and brushed on the inside. The other one is made by reticulation, which means to heat up the metal with a torch so hot that it almost melts but only starts wrinkling or distorting. Tomorrow I'll be going to a gemstone show in KC. I'm really excited to start adding stones to the metal.

Hammered Brass Gold-plated Bracelet

Our first jewelry project was due today ( the other one was just for fun or because I wanted a bangle:-). The "Gypsy" piece is what our professor called it. There wasn't really a design strategy or an idea from the beginning, just start hammering, rolling and soldering. I started with a foot of 16 gauge round brass wire, hammered like crazy, annealed, soldered, sanded and polished and ended up with this leafy shaped bracelet. Gold-plated it. Finally getting excited about metal work!

Jewelry Class

I started my jewelry class this week. Things were kind of slow in the beginning getting to know all the tools and techniques, but I finally made something; A ring and a bracelet out of Sterling silver wire. Brushed on the sides and polished on the outside and inside. I also got to stamp it Sterling. Pretty simple for now, but I'm working on it;-)

DIY Project - Origami Bracelet

Inspired by the book Folding Techniques For Designers, I started folding a bunch of these and decided to turn one of them into a bracelet. I painted it, which added structure as it got wet and dried stiff and then I added a silver clasp... I've posted the folding pattern if anyone is interested in trying it out. The blue lines are valley folds and the green lines are mountain folds. The pattern can be stretched for different variations.

As promised, here is my super amateur tutorial :-) Let me know if you have any more questions.

Jewelry On My Mind

I am so excited to start my Jewelry class in June... This triple ring combination by Andrea Morgan, a KU student, is absolutely gorgeous! I want it please:-)