Pinstriped Motorcycle Helmet

I had the opportunity to lay some lines on this flat black  motorcycle helmet at Billetproof. Ended up having to take it home to finish due to high humidity & the helmet owner's desire to leave the show before I was finished.

Lettering by Ron Miller. Pinstriping by me.

Jewelry Photo Blitz

Most of the time I end up putting off photographing the pieces of jewelry I am working on until I have a larger quantity to photograph, then shoot them all in one big blitz. Here is the latest batch of pieces I was working on following a number of tutorials I had purchased to learn new techniques:

First we have a couple pendants made using the techniques in Donna Spadafore’s “Caged Bird’s Song” tutorial.

I really learn a lot about wire weaving from Donna’s tutorials. Here is a piece using her “Woven Wire Cage” tutorial.

And one from the “Odyssey” tute.

Abby Hook’s “Love Pendants” tutorial provided the technique for this Celtic knot pendant. I had attempted the other one in the tutorial, but it ended up residing in my “fail bucket”. It happens.

Had a lot of fun creating this bracelet using Donna Esposito’s “Etruscan Scale Bracelet” tutorial. The blue quartz beads really glow against the copper. Great dye job on those beads!

A large stone bead wrapped playing with the techniques in Danagonia’s “Nugget Bead Framing” tutorial.

Nancy Wickman, aka “Wickwire” share a lovely tutorial for a Woven Pendant on her blog. This is my result.

Last, but by no means least, a pair of earrings I designed and created to complement a bracelet I posted a while back.

The Fall Semester just started up this week, and I am taking the jewelry fabrication class again. I am very excited about what I will be learning in this class. I plan on doing a lot more bezel setting, some enameling, and hoping to start doing more metal shaping too.

In other news, I just started doing some part time production work for another jewelry artist. I am very excited about this because I get to work with a jewelry designer whose work I have been a fan of for a while, and gives me an opportunity to learn more about production work on multiple pieces.

A Little T & A (aka Sometimes I Stripe on Cars)

So far in the past couple months I've had the opportunity to pinstripe a couple fantastic cars.

First we have this really cool 1923 Model T:

Painting down low... its a challenge!

So is painting in awkward places.

The finished product. Striping subtle, but enhancing to the hot rod.

Then we move on to an absolutely gorgeous 1929 Model A:

Cue the “We're not WORTHY” moment from “Wayne’s World”, because that is how I felt.

Then I had to open my big mouth about body lines. Marcus says, “Oh, what a great idea! Go for it!” *Gulp!*

Nice long back piece.

All cleaned up and some outdoor shots:

Special thanks to Marcus Edell for the photos, and for challenging me with these beauties!

33 pendant: “Unabashed”

Valli Hilaire of The Fast and the Fabulous referred to me as an “unabashed Clint Bowyer fan” in her blog entry “To Infineon and Beyond”. Had the opportunity to meet that wonderful woman at Infineon Raceway on June 18.

And its true! I have other drivers I like, but Clint is my favorite.

Only drawback is, there is an absolute lack of really cool #33 jewelry out there. I kept threatening on the forum that I would make my own. I finally made good on that threat:

Copper & brass with sterling rivets. This was the experimental piece, and I have other ideas in mind for the future…whatever number(s) I end up putting on it (them).

Notice all the scratches in the numbers? I kinda lost my temper at this piece at one point, took my file to the brass in a not so loving way. Was having a little issue with the rivets. Almost chucked this piece in frustration. My jewelry instructor basically told me to get over myself and keep at it. I'm glad he did. Future versions won't bear the scars like this one… unless of course somebody orders one that way.

And a slightly less “dramatic” looking shot of this:

Hmmm, too bad its 3 in the morning… I want to go make another one RIGHT NOW!

Some Odds & Ends (Catching Up)

I’ve been neglecting my blog lately, so here's a few new projects to catch up with:

Skull charm. Cut out of brass sheet metal, engraved & polished. My husband claimed this one as soon as he saw it:

Thumb ring. Used loose woven emery cloth and a rolling mill for the texture. Comfort fit (rounded inside, much more comfortable than the “flat” bands):

My very first bezel setting. Cross stone cabochon. Soldered all the links on the chain too:

Working with Connie Tescar’s Sleeping Tree tutorial (for my mom). More of these in the works:

A different variation of Connie’s Tree of Life:

Learning a new weaving technique. A pair of earrings using the wonderful tutorial provided by Nancy Wickman:

I’ve also finally gotten a few items photographed that I will be posting on Etsy. Stay tuned for that!

3 Wire Cuff Unleashed

Jackie of Feeling Stone Gifts created this wonderful tutorial. She gave the basics of the technique, and then basically tells you to ‘have at it’ with the embellishment.
 
A great way to use a lot of ‘stray’ beads I have had around for a while.

My embellishments ended up manifesting themselves on the ends of the cuff. I added extra wire loops, which provided more foundation for the freeform part. Perfect place for one of these heart beads!

If you can't tell I love red, look again! Ok, purple is my favorite color, but red is a close 2nd! Every bead is some shade of red, even the ones that look black.

Even though it didn't call for one in the tutorial, I added a clasp. Even though I put it on to see how it would be without a clasp, I know it would be just one epic flail (haha! Thanks, Lyz!) away from flying off.

All I can say if you make jewelry, newbie or veteran, this is a fun exercise in creativity.

Thanks for looking!

Husband's Water Bottle

During one of our excursions, my husband found this water bottle that was similar in color to his '07 Mustang (aka his Mistress).

Took me forever but I finally got it painted up for him. Skull & crossed pistons since he's a mechanic. I had suggested some lighter blue stripes in a few different shades, but he wanted the yellow & fire red. And I just LOVE striping with yellow. (not) Ah well, he's happy with it, that's what matters, right?

The Wrapshody Continues…

A friend and fellow Clint Bowyer fan liked the coiled bangles so much she asked me to make her one in silver. She has wrists that are a bit larger than mine, so I made a “rough draft” in copper first…

Then made the silver one. Never ceases to amaze me that copper and sterling, while similar in softness, behave so differently. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. (Thanks again, Stacy of Hodgepodgerie for providing such an excellent tutorial on this technique!)

Decided to play with this a bit more and create one with some chunky carnelian beads I found a few years ago. Problem with stone beads is often they do not have straight holes drilled in them. On the entire strand I was lucky to find three that had holes large enough for 12 ga. wire. One still needed a little “persuading” with a bead reamer. Seriously considering an electric one.

I was so thrilled by this one, I had to design and create a matching pair of earrings. Necklace in the works, so stay tuned!

Twisted, Coiled, Wrapped & Linked

This necklace went through a couple revisions, and several months on the back burner before I finally completed it.

A look back to “A Trio of Coiled and Beaded Earrings”  shows some coiled components using seed beads and wire. These were originally created as links for this necklace, but they did not work. At all.

A lot of influence for this piece came from things I learned in the classes given by Lisa Niven Kelly many years ago, and Sharilyn Miller’s book “Bead on a Wire”.