New jewelry soon in online store

I will have new bracelets and earrings on sale this weekend at my new online store. Focusing on new metals for me ~ brass and steel with hammered, oxidized and colored finishes, and combining them with pearls and delicate strips of tulle ribbon.

Traveling in southern California

J. and I are traveling in southern California this week, a mix of business and fun.

We're going to steal some time in LA to visit the Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Meanwhile here is an archive photo of a piece I'm repeating (in progress) - I love the nearly transparent carnelian cabochon - I am still on a bracelet kick!

Copper Fire Series - New Forged Fire Bracelets

When I set aside the found-object copper bracelet (or necklace) project, I decided to try out an idea I'd had a while back using copper wire and scrap silver.

I cut 6" lengths of 10-gauge copper wire and took them out to my old railroad tie anvil, where I used a large hammer to forge their ends to tapered paddles, then a jeweler's ball-peen hammer to dimple and mar the surface all over.

Back at the bench, I filed and finished the ends, then got out my jar of silver scrap and chose pieces of wire and bezel strip to wrap around the copper. On goes the torch, and I heated the copper and silver to the point where the silver started to flow and fuse with the copper. Off with the heat and tossed the piece into cold water.

It was a slaggy blackened mess at first, but with some careful work with sanding blocks and detailed work with manicurists' foam-files (with three different grades of abrasive and polishing surfaces), and the colors begin to glow - deep red, bright silver and gold, deep black, and rich copper. 

A few bends on the bracelet mandrel, some Krylon clear satin, and we have a beautiful forged-fire bracelet that has a very organic feel.

These will be going up for sale in a few weeks, after I create an inventory.

Found object jewelry - vintage bracelets

My friend Debra is a wonderful inspiration for art . . . she is a patroness, supporting many artists in the U.S., and she encourages people like me to be creative by sharing her findings on her travels. One of my favorite things is to receive a 'Debra' package, a bag containing beads or findings or vintage jewelry or found treasures, with a note that reads simply - 'for Roseann.' 

How can any artist not love that?

These bracelets and earrings are early Debra-inspired pieces, with vingage findings, old beads, costume jewelry links, and bone spacers. The green bracelet at top is a real miracle, an amalgem of inexpensive (ie: really quite ugly on their own!) plastic faux-pearls and vintage earrings that just  . . . works. 

My favorite kind of jewelry - unplanned, one-of-a-kind, and from the hear.

Copper Bracelet - Copper Fire series

This is one of those really great creative projects that just worked right the first time - I have yet to repeat the method, but will do so for some gallery pieces, part of an inexpensive line of jewelry I want to create called Urban Tribal.

The idea came from a 2007 issue of Art Jewelry Magazine - as soon as I saw the technique, I had to try it, since I had already been working on copper (see Copper posts) for a successful line of pendants and brooches.

In two hours I had a finished bracelet: I cut the form (a simple, squiggly-line bar) from medium-gauge copper sheet scraps; cut the brass-wire circles from more scraps (I have a big scrap jar); soldered the brass rings to the sheet; and punch the metal domes using 2 smaller dome punches, but having to improvise on the larger ones with the handles of a couple of awls held in the vise. I gently formed the bracelet with a wooden mallet over the bracelet mandrel, cupping it slightly over the awl handle, and then came the fun part: heating and quenching to produce the wonderful patina.

I managed to draw out the beautiful dark reds. A quick polish of the brass rings with a cloth, careful not to rub off the patina, and then sealed with Krylon clear satin.