A Few More "Dual Purpose" Pendants

Around the time I completed my Week 3 “Year of Jewelry Challenge” submission, I had also completed these pieces.

First up is a twisted and swirled piece with garnet accents.

 This piece was a lot of fun to twist together, because it challenged me to manipulate thicker wire into looking sinuous. Some hammering on the bail and the bottom of the loop give it a little bit of a textured accent.

There is enough room to hang thicker sunglasses frames from these as well as the more delicate wire framed reading glasses.










No added gemstones on this dual spiral, it is all copper wire.

 This piece was constructed very similarly to my Hammered Hearts pieces. Thick wire, twisted & hammered, then woven together for support and embellisment.

Again, ample size on the bottom loop for various sizes of glasses & sunglasses.










Last but not least we have a smaller piece which is accented with some lovely peridot chips:

The gemstones and smaller wire add extra texture to this swirled & hammered design.










Smaller, yes, but you can still have the versatility of different sized glasses frames.

A new, improved "unabashed" 33 pendant!

To quote one of my least favorite pop tarts... …“oops, I did it again!”

Another “unabashed” #33 Clint Bowyer pendant. Copper, brass and sterling rivets. All cold connection. Made the numbers a little neater, different texture and treatment to the copper. I left it all unantiqued to let it develop a patina on its own. Of course the wearer could keep it looking as fresh as a newly minted penny by giving it a periodic cleansing in ketchup to keep the tarnish off. :)

 Slightly different treatment on the copper. The numbers were derived from an actual typeface rather than a rough sketch like my original “unabashed” pendant. Still it conveys the spirit of the piece, and the wearer would get a lot of attention from it.

This is the backside view of the piece showing how the rivets look. They shine up kinda pretty, like a constellation. Its the Clint Bowyer constellation, baby! Oh yeah! Rising star!!

Year Of Jewelry Challenge: Week 3

This is a Dual Purpose piece. First of all, its a lovely hammered copper pendant, with woven embellishments, and hematite beads.

But wait, there’s more!


It is also an…





EYEGLASS HOLDER PENDANT!!

While this is not an original idea, the design and execution are my own. This stands well on its own as a pendant, but makes a great place to hang your eyeglasses or even sunglasses without having to use the ones that suspend from your ear pieces. While those are great, I personally find them cumbersome.

I like to use one for my sunglasses when I am out at car shows or outdoor events, and I am photographing cars, people, etc. Great place to keep my shades safe since I'm usually wearing a cowboy hat & can’t perch them on my head.

I have a number of these I just completed, and they will be up for sale on my ArtFire page very soon. Phoenyx Arts Artfire Page

Year Of Jewelry Challenge: Week 2

Ok, a little late on posting the Week 2 entry, but that's only because I didn't get it done until well after the Week 2 deadline. The suggested theme for Week 2 was “lunar eclipse” but I will call this one “oh for Peace sakes, my need to get other deadlines finishes completely eclipsed my ability in meeting the week 2 YOJ dealine on time”.  I am working on a baseball related book as a contract job, and its “eclipsing” just about everything else right now.

However, enough whining about that. Here is the peace, er, piece:

I got the idea for the execution of this from Tangocat Gems’ “Filigree Cross” tutorial. Thought it would be fun to do a peace symbol using the same twisting & twining that she illustrated in that tutorial. Copper wire.

GREAT Pinstriping Video!

This is a fantastic example of why I love this art form so much. Kind of hypnotic to watch these guys doing their magic. Enjoy!

Year Of Jewelry Challenge: Week 1

About a year or so ago I started running across blog postings by various jewelry artists I really respect, and noticed they would post "Year of Jewelry" entries. Last month I was lucky enough to find out from Nancy Wickman of Wickwire Jewelry that there was another one starting up for 2011!

The Year of Jewelry Challenge is to create and post a new piece of jewelry every week. My personal challenge is to stick with this and to learn a lot more about the creation of jewelry and its various techniques.

The theme for Week 1 is “New Beginnings”, and decided what I've been playing with in the lessons from Jodi Bombardier's new book "Weave, Wrap, Coil" would be appropriate. The ring is the first woven wire ring I have ever made (and the jury is still out to whether I enjoyed it or not) and the other piece is part of one of the necklace projects. While I'm pleased with the weaving on this piece (and it was a challenge to weave to a narrower point!) the symmetry is off on the frame. So, this will likely become the dangle on a forged copper bookmark or something.

Couple New-ish pieces

Another fun use for the Skull design I created some time back… earrings!

This time I cut the skulls out of copper, and riveted them to brass using sterling wire. Details were added to the skulls using the Dremel engraver. I polished the entire thing to a high shine, then decided to dip them into liver of sulfur to give them that antiqued look.

My friend and occasional coworker commissioned me to make this necklace for his mom for Christmas. Since she is a big fan of the Grateful Dead we decided a Peace symbol would be appropriate. After some trial and error, then going off in a direction that I needed to steer my way back out of, this is the result:

 Woven peace symbol on a hammered frame. Copper wire, with amethyst, laboradorite, carnelian, sunstone & moonstone. All the stones tie in astrologically with the members of the family. Ended up making the chain too, because pairing this piece with a commercially made chain looked, well, wrong. Wasn't originally part of what I was going to make, but it was a matter of pride, and since both my friend and his mom are both really good people, worth the extra effort.

Multiple shots, because I'm experimenting with different ways of photographing my jewelry to see what showcases it the best for the pieces that will be posted on ArtFire soon.

Makes me glad I've held on to these crystals over the years. 

Plain white background is ok, but I'm still at a loss on photographing a piece without any "props". Ah well, its all a learning process.