2014 Series Challenge: April

Twin Flowers Pendant: heat treated copper flowers, fine silver accents, Sterling silver bail and accents, sterling silver chain

Dangle Earrings: Sterling silver pierced dangles, sterling ear wires

Sterling and Copper Ring: Sterling silver ring, Pierced copper accent  

2014 Series Challenge: March

This month I stuck with the same series style and made a fun flower pendant, dangle earrings and post earrings. 

Flower Pendant; heat treated copper, sterling silver findings, sterling silver chain

Dangle Flower Earrings; heat treated copper, sterling silver ear wires

Button Post Earrings; heat treated copper, sterling silver backing, sterling silver post and ear nuts

Raulston Blooms! Saturday April 5th

Saturday April 5th I will be selling at the Raulston Blooms & Birds Garden Festival. They will have Gardening Demos, Artists, Craftsmen, a Bird House Competition, Plant Sale, children's maze and programs, Food Trucks, and the J. C. Raulston Arboretum waking up for Spring. 

$5/person, $10/family
Free admission for JCRA members

2014 Series Challenge : February

February series, Copper, Sterling silver (wood) and Rivets 
This month and last month are part of the same series.

Copper sterling silver and Amethyst  necklace

Sterling silver ring

 

I made this very cool brooch a Tim Lazure's workshop 

Copper and wood brooch

2014 Series Challenge : January

This past years challenge was a great success for me. Although you may have noticed I did not post the last 5 earring pairs. I have found it much easier to make things than to post and take pictures of them. I will include these last pairs in the album I am putting together, and they will also be featured in May at the Pullen Arts Center. 

I have been taking a small break, spending the Holidays with my family and friends. But February is about half over, and I guess it’s time I get back to work. This year I am working on a new challenge with Betty McKim. The plan is to make 3 pieces a month (earrings, ring, pendant, brooch, etc.) that work together as a series. I hope to make at the least 3 different lines of work over this year.

January series, Copper, Sterling silver and Rivets

Copper and Sterling Earrings with sterling silver rivets and ear wires

Copper and Sterling Pendant with sterling silver chain 

Copper and Sterling Earrings with sterling silver rivets ear posts and nuts

Week 47 of the Earring Challenge

Bubbles!  These fun earrings are made mostly of cut tubes. They are sterling silver with an oxidized finish and sterling silver posts and ear nuts.

Week 46 of the Earring Challenge

The end of the year is coming up fast. I have been working extra hours at my bench to get ready for the Boylan Art Walk on Sunday Dec. 8^th (More information on that to come).

With these earrings I pierced out little flowers then used the hydraulic press to form them. The copper and sterling are pressed together then fitted with rivets. The edges have a chased texture and oxidized finish that was polished to a nice shine. These earrings have handmade sterling silver ear wires.

Week 45 of the Earring Challenge

This past weekend I was in Amy Tavern’s Bezel Setting 101 and we had such a great time. What a great class. I learned so much and ended up with a pair of earrings I’m very proud of.
These earrings are sterling silver with a pierced flower on the back. They are set with carnelians and when the light hits the back you can see the flower pattern on the back through the carnelians. These earrings have handmade sterling silver ear wires.

Week 44 of the Earring Challenge

 This week I worked with more wire and came up with these fun dangles. These earrings are sterling silver wire with a green peridot set in the center. They also have handmade sterling silver ear wires.

Week 43 of the Earring Challenge

I really wanted to make more snowflakes this week and this is what I came up with. These earrings are made from sterling silver and fine silver wires. They have blue topaz centers and sterling silver ear posts and nuts.

Week 42 of the Earring Challenge

 Staying with an industrial look, these earrings use tube rivets to keep things together.  They are copper and brass with sterling silver and copper tube rivets in varying sizes. These earrings also have handmade sterling silver ear wires.

Week 41 of the Earring Challenge

This week I did what I like to call industrial snowflakes. They are made of copper and brass snowflakes with sterling silver rivets holding everything together. They also have handmade sterling silver hoop ear wires.

Week 40 of the Earring Challenge

This week’s earrings are a spin off from a few weeks ago. They have two heat treated copper discs and one sterling silver center disc. The copper has been waxed to protect the color. The center sterling discs are pierced and set with spacers to float above the back copper discs. These earrings have handmade sterling silver ear wires.

Week 39 of the Earring Challenge

This week I wanted to work with some of the tin I had used in my husband’s cuff. I really like how these earrings turned out and hope to do a few more, maybe different constructions. I love that they will all be unique as the designs on the tin will change depending on how I cut it.

These earrings are cut out tin discs that have been tube riveted to a sterling silver disc. The ear posts and ear nuts are sterling silver. 

Week 38 of the Earring Challenge

Last week I think I spent a little too much time sawing and hurt my back in the process. With rest and a little stretching I am feeling much better now; But my blogging was postponed a week for a little recovery (oops once again).

These earrings are pierced copper discs. They have a heat patina and have been coated with a wax to keep their color. They also have handmade sterling silver ear wires. 

Week 37 of the Earring Challenge

These earrings are cutout copper discs that have been heat treated to bring out different colors. They have been riveted with a spacer so they float above the sterling silver disc, casting small shadows.  The copper has a waxed surface to preserve their color. These earrings have sterling silver ear post and nuts.

Week 35 and 36 of the Earring Challenge

The past few weeks have been very busy. I did my first show of this year at the Sertoma Arts Center and it was a beautiful sunny day. That was a lot of fun; it was great to see everyone that could come out.

These sets of earrings are part of a small series of colored pencil flowers I’m currently working on. They are copper cut out flowers that have been decorated with colored pencil then glossed to hold their design. The handmade hooped ear wires are sterling silver.