Found objects - Travelers' Treasures Collection

These two pieces represent art made from treasures found while traveling. Pieces such as this can be some of the most treasured we have . . . with each bit reminding us of a moment, a place, a person.

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.

Milagro scarf

In my "Creative process" post below, I mentioned how sometimes I head out to the studio to create a piece of jewelry, and something entirely different will happen . . . this is one of those 'different' moments.

I stopped at my favorite thrift shop in Tucson last week, and among the items I grabbed was an eggshell silk scarf for 50 cents. My friend Debra had given me a little baggie of carved bone milagros, and had mused that she thought they would look wonderful lining a scarf . . . and the idea was born.

I bought a $2.99 box of Rit "rich brown" dye, and set about scrunching and dying the scarf so it would have an old 'worn' appearance. It didn't dye 'rich' but the lovely brown-maroon hue was just right.

So I tied the milagros - a cross, fish, raven, hand, and two other charms - onto the ends of the scarf with brown embroidery floss, then tied a sprinkling of metal and glass beads on as well, with gold and brown floss. Finally, I painted swirls, crosses, stars, and dots onto the silk with gold metallic paint . . . and voila, a quick and easy designer scarf.

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.