Wednesday, November 25, 2009

One Ring

I am trying to split my time now between production work and new designs. I know, I know, at this point in the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching I should probably just be working toward that end but admittedly I get buggy making a bunch of one thing with no break.

So I continue working on ring designs. This is where things stand with the carved band.

They're a bit too wide although make no mistake, I am going for bold here. And the insides are too unfinished as pointed out by my daughter with a polite "mom...you can do better than this." (This is a household of artists - we taught the children to critique from birth.) Love the carving! Will be doing more of that for sure!

I am wearing one of the rings daily to test its limitations. The biggest issue here for me is strength and durability. Any material has its limitations and certainly there are varying degrees of sturdiness. Sterling wire can bend. A stone can be lost if prongs wear thin or are bent. So where does a polymer ring fall ? What is it reasonable to expect out of a polymer ring?

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for reading my ramblings!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Feathers Finished

I had a very productive afternoon yesterday! Ah! Productivity! Maybe I am a workaholic.

In addition to starting some other projects (rings and a big necklace) I finished my feather ornaments. They started as icicles - they morphed in feathers. What can I tell you? These things happen.



They are white and silver polymer, textured, cut individually, cured, distress with acrylic and then heat set. I decided to carve the sides as an after thought and I'm happy with the results. I REALLY enjoyed the carving!



This is the first batch. I might change the hooks so that they can slip over branches and hang straight on with no additional tree hook necessary. And I might try some bright colors that would stand out against the green of a tree. My daughter wants one as a pendant so that might happen too.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Get back to work!

I am finally getting back up to speed after the flu. (Thank you to everyone who wished us well and prayed for recovery!) I have been working a bit but there is always that lag time between finishing a piece and posting photos. I hope to be able to post new work all this week.


I've been working on the pendant portion of larger necklaces. Nothing is finished yet but this is where I am headed. With this series I am going to explore box-like construction. I've done it in metal...can I do it in polymer? I remember seeing Donna Kato do this (maybe on hgtv?) and thinking "gosh she makes that look SO easy"!



I made some new feather inspired Christmas ornaments that, upon my daughters instruction may also morph into pendants as well. If our great weather continues here on the east coast I'll be taking photos every day in the lovely, slanted, morning light.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

An Unwelcome Guest

Photos of what was happening here before the flu arrived.



We are on the mend but I would doubt I will have the energy to be back in the studio until the weekend. It hasn't been especially terrible but one of the worst things about being sick is that you have PLENTY of time to lay around and think about all things you wish you could do.