I Am The Bomb

Yes, it's a boastful title. But I so rarely feel like a design diva, and I've learned to savor the joy of the highs when they happen. Because soon enough I'll be back in the trough of "What Next?" "What Else?" "Do I even have anything else? Maybe that was my last good idea!"

Welcome to the life of a creative. It's full of doubt and insecurity. So if you're not tough enough for it, be sure to keep your day job.  :) 

I'm still very excited about the new design direction I'm taking. And it's great fun (mostly). Why mostly? I'll tell you...but first let me show you some of the other designs I've been working on.

I've mentioned before that I need to supplement my one of a kind pieces with cast items, both to keep costs affordable overall and frankly, to not want to slit my wrists when I can't keep up. Being a one-woman show means there's never enough time to get everything done...and these new pieces aren't helping in that regard.

First, an earring:

It's tough to see the detail in this shot, but obviously my tiny mosaic pieces make up part of the earring. The top will be satin-textured and the back is also textured. How the back texture will hold up during the casting process is unknown at this point. We'll see when I get some pieces back. I really like the elegance of this earring though! I think it will be pretty lightweight and comfortable to wear, but not so flimsy that it doesn't feel like quality jewelry.

Laying out the mosaic pieces on a curved edge proved pretty tricky, but I like the contrast of the jagged pieces with the curved earring shape and the open center.

Next up is a pendant:

Same thing as the earring - it will have a satin texture on the plain metal part and this time I added a bit of beaded wire. I was originally going to add mosaic pieces on the other side, but it either looked too heavy or not intentional. This one took quite a while to come toegether, but I'm so pleased with the end result. I like the earring, but I LOVE this. It's more me.  :)

BTW, neither of these is oxidized to bring out the contrast - it's not necessary for the casting company. Once I get the castings back, they'll be oxidized. Any unintentional oxidation look is simply because they're dirty. I'm still in the cleanup process with these.

So *why* are these designs "mostly" fun? Well....they're labor intensive. That's part of why I'm designing some of them for casting. Laying out the mosaic bits can get time consuming and sometimes frustrating. When I start to add heat and solder all these bad boys down, they tend to shift around. And with these designs, even a tiny shift will throw off the jigsaw effect, so I have to balance the heating and poking at the pieces with my tweezers all at once to keep them in line, as well as keep from melting the whole thing...it's not easy!

Also, I have tremors in my hands. I take medication for this, but it doesn't entirely eliminate the tremors. So imagine that you're playing that old game, Operation (remember it?):

source

For the youngsters who are reading, you use a pair of tweezers to dig out the bones / organs / whatnot from the patient on the game board. If you touch the sides of the holes while removing anything, a buzzer sounds. The first person to get the most pieces out won (or something like that). Anyhoo, laying out these puzzle pieces with shaky hands is a lot like playing that game. Except that I've substituted some choice words in place of the buzzing sound.  :)

So progress is slow. I also had two other prototypes that didn't work out and are sitting in the scrap jar, so that took up some time too...win some, lose some.

But......WHEN the pieces all solder appropriately and they're not shifting and moving and occasionally dropping on the studio floor (and they are TINY and tend to bounce, so if one drops I can never find it again. And of course the only ones that drop are the *perfect* shape I was just getting ready to add to the mix...argh)...when it's all working out I am really enjoying my studio time with these pieces.  :)

I'm having a blast figuring out the design aspects, and once they're finished I'm really pleased with them. I'm itching to design a few more with stones, but I wanted to get the cast pieces done first, because it takes time to get the molds made and the samples back. Later this week though...

Oh YES! What a Thrill!

I recently alluded to my breakthrough in this post. And then I got busy and also took a small vacation. But I'm back and ready to share! I know some of you are eagerly anticipating the money shots, and I won't keep you waiting:

Here's the full shot of the turquoise pendant I posted earlier. At least, it's supposed to be a pendant. I am having bail issues (but no worries, it will be fixed shortly). I went a little crazy with the detail but I LOVE it. I feel like this is taking my work in a whole new direction and I can't wait to make more of these designs.

I'm also working on some pieces without stones, to be cast, but don't have photos of those yet.

Here's the piece that started me down this path:

A glorious piece of mookaite from Australia. Unusual coloring and composition for a mookaite. It was the breccia in the center of the stone that gave me the idea. I wanted to continue the brecciated look onto the metal backing, but didn't want to etch or make a textured pattern into the metal. I felt like that wouldn't have the "punch" that I wanted for this pendant. So I layered metal pieces on top of the back plate, and voila! A whole new design direction.  :)

I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll sell this one. I feel like it might have to be part of my own collection because it represents so much of what I've been trying to create. The asymmetrical design, the jagged-ish edges, the mosaic-look, the soft texture on the plain part of the backplate, and the subtle "pop" of the silver blackener inside the small mosaic pieces. And of course a fabulous center stone. I feel like this piece is so me and I am beyond thrilled.

When my husband came home from work the day I made these pieces, I put them in his hand and was jumping up and down (yes, literally) while he examined them. Brett is not the guy to tell me what I want to hear. In fact, I often tease him - in twelve years of marriage, couldn't he just *once* tell me what I want to hear?? But no. He's honest to the core. He examines things very critically and analytically and often he could be called *cautiously* enthusiastic. So he wasn't jumping up and down...but he did like them.  :)

So...what do you think?? 

Natural Wonders: Shattuckite

First discovered in copper mines in Bisbee, Arizona, Shattuckite is a fairly rare gem mineral. I've been told that it's a form of chrysocolla, which wouldn't surprise me, since it gets its vivid color from copper, just as chrysocolla does.

Until 2003-ish, the Shattuck Mine was the world's only supplier of Shattuckite. Recently it has been discovered in Southern Africa, but so far those are the only two known locations.

I just bought several pieces at a gem show, and can't wait to play with them:

They have a much wider color range than chrysocolla, which tends to mostly be a deep green. At first I thought these were turquoise, but they didn't look like any turquoise I'd ever seen (and you know I've seen a lot!) and then the dealer told my friend what they were and I had to get some. These are all fairly small - most of the larger pieces didn't have as much variation - they were almost all blue and black - so I chose the most widely varied ones I could.

The rest of my stash:

Gorgeous. I've got a ton of design ideas already!  :)

For reference, a bit of chrysocolla: