Finishing =]

I know I mentioned that my butt was being kicked in my last post, but not today! I was the one kicking some butt and I am so happy with the progress I made today.  Firstly, here are three pieces for ArtUnleashed, the fundraiser for students and student scholarships.  You see the ring from yesterday finished, and another ring with an oval amber and then earrings with oval amethyst. I LOVE this work, I'm so happy with it, and I can see so many places this can go (including casting to make a whole line of jewelry)  We are going to make breadcrumb work as a project in Advanced, a term coined by the lovely Stephanie Tomczak.  Breadcrumb work is the non-one-of-a-kind and more affordable work you make that either gives people on a budget a taste of your work, and the idea is that these littler pieces are the breadcrumbs that people can follow to find your one-of-a-kind work. I like that term, and it seems to be catching on with all of us.

Here we see my lantern pod finished, whaaaaaattt? It took many hours to etch, but it came out really awesome and I'm very excited about it.  The jade bead is set inside here as well, and all I need now is the rest of the beads to sting. Yay progress!

More Projects in Progress

Sorry it has been SO long since I've posted BUT, here are some updates.  Firstly, my chinese lantern pod has been kicking my butt. I love the way this has come out now, and I am so glad I took the advice of my teacher Sarah Martin and redid the lines.  It has finally hit that Senior Show is in one month, and that I need to actually FINISH projects...which also means I need to START others.  Well, only one that still needs to be started.  Anyways, here is the pod ready to be etched tomorrow:

If you don't know the etching process you're just like me, but from what I think I know about it you hook the project up to one end of a battery and another piece of metal to the other inside a salt water solution, and everywhere where the resist is not slowly is etched away.  Here the resist is the black lines, painted with asphaltum.  One of the beads below (orange jade!) is going inside as the little seady-type thing inside the pod and I want to make a chain of graduated beads for the neckpiece. Yummy!

Also, here is a photo of the ring I made in a gem workshop we had at school with alumns of the program, it's not totally finished, but its close! It needs to be polished a little and the stones actually set in, other than that its done! It's a 10mm amber stone and two smaller (I can't remember the size) amethyst.  I'm also hoping to make oval amethyst earrings and an oval ring in this same fashion.

Craziness is happening now that it's so close to the end, and deadlines are not only coming up soon but more and more are popping up.  I was nominated for the Mary Louise Beitzel Award at UArts, and I'd like to have most of my senior show pieces finished to show during that jury process. However, it is taking place in a week from tomorrow, so we'll see how much I can finish by then!  I'll try to keep you updated on the work, wish me good luck!

Quick Update!

Here is the next stage for a few projects; these carved pieces are getting closer to becoming jewelry.  

New project for senior show

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, things have been busy with the impending senior show (only 44 days until the opening!) Here is another piece I'm working on.  At first I didn't really like this, but now I'm super excited for it! It's going to be a brooch, which...I feel weird that I've made mostly brooches lately.  But I know what I'm going to do with it and its super fantastic =] More picks when its done.  Also, ignore the pink tint it has (haha) and no it's not from the pink pencil in the pic, thats just a coincidence XD I'm really excited for the show and I have so many ideas, now I just have to find the time to make them all!! I don't want to lock myself into anything, but I'd like to have two collections of at least three items each, buuttttt we shall see.

PS: contact me to buy tickets to the raffle, you can win even if you're out of state! 

Senior Pendant Raffle!

Here is the official Poster to the Senior Pendant Raffle, all details in the image =]

Pics of Liam!

I thought I would make a fun little post and show the little guy we brought home a few days ago. =]

Check it out!

I set up my own mini polishing lathe :). Surprised at how well this works!