I'll be updating this blog now as new work and musings occur. Thank you for your interest!
Showing posts with label Jewelry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewelry. Show all posts
New website
After many months of work, I've launched the new Desert Rose Design Studio website ~ DesertRoseDesignStudio.com.
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!
Inlaid stones and bone
I love cabochons inlaid with other stones - or bones. One of my favorite lapidary artists and goldsmiths is Michael Boyd, whose creations are astonishing; he layers gemstone over gemstone set in gold and silver, to create lavish and yet somehow organic jewelry.
His work introduced me to Arizona black jade, which is a delight to cut and polish. I think everyone buys it from a quirky guy named Robert at Sweetwater Mine. I regret I haven't kept any of my earliest pieces, but several are with friends and family - and I still have some nice rough to work with. Black jade cuts easily but polishes to a lovely glassy shine quickly; the natural unpolished rind is so beautiful, I often leave it natural and just polish the sides.
When muse-friend Debra gave me a little carved bone moon face and some cubic zirconia to play with, I knew I had to make a "Moon and Stars" piece. Here is my very first Arizona black jade piece, and I hope to return to the cutting wheels again soon; you can see the nice texture of the rind and the highly polished edges above the bezel:
I also made this piece very early in my jewelrymaking, for Debra - combining flat carnelian beads with Arizona Sleeping Beauty turquoise (including a cabachon 'inlay' aided by epoxy) in "East Meets West":
The creative process (3): keeping organized, keeping track
I tend to have a lot of projects going at once, and with hundreds of pieces of inventory (from gemstones to beads to found objects to silver, copper, and gold), I had to develop a way to keep the chaos at bay and yet still allow for my creative process to flow . . .
Developed over several years of full-time jewelry-making (with inventories for online sales, 6 galleries, and several craft shows), this system is based on using my own Desert Rose notepads (5 x 7") and slightly larger plastic bags from a jeweler's supply store.
When working on a project (or an idea, still in the 'bits and pieces' phase), I sketch the basic idea, dimensions, and materials on a piece of the notepaper. If a commercial project, I'll include the prices of the components and where I got them, so I can source them again; a tally of the final cost is simple and helps me to figure out wholesale or retail pricing. The piece above is a great example: a cheap cabachon ($5) because it seems to have a 'flaw' - but I saw it as nopportunity to pair with a perfectly shaped droplet of fire agate that will look like it 'dripped' out of the agate . . . ('GG' as the source is Galarneau's Gems; Jerry Galarneau is my favorite cab maker if I am not able to make my own.)
In between projects I place all the parts in the bag (usually in smaller bags, to protect stones and metal) and store in a tall baker's rack on wheels - the shelves are huge baking sheets; each shelf holds 50 or more bags and there is room for 15 shelves, though I use many of them for bead and found object storage as well.
Finally, I file finished projects in a three-ring binder with a photo of the piece, so I have a record system that makes repeat projects much easier.
The creative process (2): found object bracelet
Earlier in May I wrote about my creative process, and used as an example a collection of found objects (weathered copper and stones from a beach on the Sea of Cortez).
After sitting on my workbench for five months, I finally set about working them into a piece of jewelry today.
The second step for me (after playing with my piles of objects for days or weeks or months, until an idea 'gels') is to lay out all the bits and see if my idea will result - practically - into jewelry.
I wrote about how I envisioned the flat stones and copper as a linked bracelet, so that's what I set out to do. I sealed the copper with satin Krylon clear, to keep it from reacting when in contact with skin (salts and perspiration would cause an adverse reaction, both to the jewelry and to the skin).
I laid out the found stones (flat pieces of shale, in lavender and terra cotta colors) with the copper and started playing with the colors. Musing on shapes, textures, and colors, I then went to my considerable stash of stones and objects and started pulling out other pieces that might work well to add to the storyline: rainbow hematite, amber, amethyst, opal, iolite, copper, and a piece of blue-green glass.
Happy with the colors, I then started cutting out the copper into pieces I thought would work for bracelet links. It is very brittle, so the saw didn't work very well - it worked better to carefully snip with tin snips.
All joins will have to be 'cold' (without a torch or solder, since that would destroy the copper patina), so I marked where I will rivet or use miniature bolts to connect the layers. I like the look, colors, and textures . . . but I began to worry about the fragility of the pieces. The copper is very brittle, and the stones might not stand up well to the abuse a bracelet must withstand.
So I started considering making it a necklace . . . I mused on a metal chain, then started playing with cord and ribbon - I thought the contrast might be nice with the rough stones and patinaed copper.
At this point, I started another project, since I want to mull this one over a bit before continuing . . .
Earth Treasures Collection
Pieces from Earth Treasures Collection, sold at galleries in the West from 2006 - 2008:
- Carnelian twist
- Agate and amber
- Picasso jasper
- Owyhee jasper and amber
- Rattlesnake jasper and faceted citrine
- Old Montana agates; amber earrings
Found objects - Travelers' Treasures Collection
Although created 10 years apart, they ironically were each inspired by focal points found along England's southern coast . . . a piece of green sea glass from near Dover, and a small granite beach cobble worn with a perfect hole.
- Olde England: Hastings bedrock granite pebble bead, made by the Atlantic, found last year (2008); feathers from a garden rook and an African lilac-breasted roller (we were en route back from an East Africa trip, stopping to see friends in Hastings), English coins, blue beach glass, obsidian, fossil ivory (from England), and amber, including an earring whose mate I lost on that same trip.
- Seaside England: Ten years earlier I had found the lovely tumbled green glass on a walk along the Dover shore; I drilled it, and used lilac waxed cotton to string pearls, seashells, and painted/dyed fish vertebrae beads from an old Seri Indian necklace bought along the Sea of Cortez on a trip with the same English friends we were with in Dover.
Do you have treasures from your travels? I will do commissions upon request. Please email me at this address.
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 Fire Collection
Pieces from my Copper Fire Collection (sold, or in my own collection). From the top:
- Rainbow hematite shard, heat-patinated copper
- Ammonite and garnet, heat-patinated copper
- Rainbow hematite on copper disks with iolite and garnet accents
- Ammonite and quartz, heat-patinated copper
Copper shield and rainbow hematite
This is one of the first pieces of jewelry I made several years ago, a heat-patinaed copper shield inspired by a triangle of rainbow hematite from Robert at Sweetwater Minerals. The hematite is a wonderful mix of irridescense and texture, with a clear horizontal slash and surficial droplets of silvery pyrite inclusion. I mimicked the pyrite droplets with balls of silver, slightly flattened, and a top bar of silver balls. The color comes from heating the copper until it is nearly red, then quenching quickly in cold water. The results are never certain, which is part of the fun. Sometimes the color (which is oxidized minerals drawn out in the copper as it heats) flakes off, and sometimes it stays magically in place. In what became a series of copper shield pendants with the purple-blue hematite and cut ammonites, I was always aiming to capture the beautiful blues and purples. The necklace is one of my Bella Bolas, a 15-inch length of hand-woven calfskin with sterling end caps and hooks that can be used on many different necklace types that I developed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
