Flowers for Everyone

A full day in the studio=5 pairs of new flower earrings!

With the sun shining bright today, I managed to get some decent photos of the new earrings.  Here they are individually:

These are 2 flowers, large and small, that I've soldered together with a hammered ball center.  I've suspended them on a standard earwire.

These flowers are domed so the middles are pushed in and the petals are curving outward and back.  These also have a hammered silver ball center.

These flower dangles are shaped with curving petals and lots of silver balls soldered in the centers.  I love the long earwires.

These flower dangles are smaller, with only 5 petals that are also curved and have one rounded silver ball soldered in the center.  Again it's the long earwires that make the look.

Large tumbled, faceted amethysts are capped with the flower caps.  They are made of 2 different sizes of flowers that were dapped and soldered together and drilled through the center.  I inserted a headpin through the bead and cap and twisted it into a loop at the top and suspended from silver earwires. 

That's all for this weekend.  New things are still brewing and hopefully I'll have time in the next few evenings to finish a few more things.  Can you believe there's only 1 more day until December!  How am I going to finish all the things I want to do?!

Sunday Thanks

After celebrating a great Thanksgiving that was full of quality family time and yummy food, I managed to get back in the studio today.  Initially it was difficult to stay inside as the sun was beaming and the sky was bluer than blue, BUT it was 18 degrees outside and that was enough to keep me inside and get started. 

I visited the Center for Maine Craft in Gardiner last week and was pleasantly surprised that a couple pairs of earrings had sold leaving my flower series with only 1 sole little pair of flower studs.  This gave me my direction for today--to design some new flower earrings.  Here are the beginnings of 4 new pairs:

They are all 24g sterling silver that I cut and dapped and embellished with silver round and hammered balls.  The top two pairs are slated for long dangling earwires.  The bottom pair will be studs and the smaller double flowers will cap a bead.  I started wearing a pair of earrings a few months ago and have fallen in love with them and can't give them up, so I fashioned some of these to be similar. 

A nice walk this afternoon broke up my work time and gave me the energy to finish up.  If only the sun stayed up so I could photograph them.  Check back in the morning for photos of the finished earrings. 

Finding Inspiration

I'm back from a couple road trips and really wanted to jump back into the studio, but found I was a little less than inspired.  So I pushed anyway and worked on these earrings that I knew would be great for inventory and also just get me working.  I reticulated the 4 circles at once and then worked on the 1 1/2 inch pair first. 

I cut and bent 20g sterling wire and set in a design on the reticulated surfaces.  I added a few balls and then soldered the  pieces together.

The second pair is made of 1 inch reticulated circles with sterling balls arranged in a simple design that have been soldered.  The look is fresh and they are easy to wear.

More new things coming soon.

November Grays

There's something about November in Maine that makes you wish you lived somewhere else.  It has been gray and cold and rainy since the calendar flipped and now that we've turned our clocks back and it will be dark by 4pm.  Motivation runs thin, as the chores to prepare for winter stack up.  But, there are happy glimmers about upcoming holidays and events that will wash away the grays in twinkling white.

Well, I guess that's all of my November complaining--back to creating.  I'm still stuck on cuff bracelets and thought I'd vary the theme a little.  I've reticulated silver discs and joined them together to form the body of the cuff.  I then shape the body around the mandrel and embellish the seams with silver balls. 

I've been playing around with a large, beautiful amethyst cabochon and think I'll probably set it in this cuff.  Here's how it looks from the front after soldering a fine silver bezel and more silver balls.  I've cut out the back for the light to shine through the stone.  This is it from the side. 

The center disc is 2 inches, which is followed by a 1 3/4 inch disc and ends with a 1 inch disc.  The stone is 18 x 25mm oval.  Here's how the piece looks finished:

I started this other cuff and I'm not sure if it's finished or not.  It's 7 one-inch circles that are reticulated and fused together.  I formed the cuff shape and then embellished the second, center, and sixth discs with bars and balls. 

I like the repeating shape around the wrist, as well as the simplicity of the design.  I'll continue looking at it and decide if any changes will made. 

More rain and gray today and we had (and survived) our first power outage--November, it's a real challenge!