Saturday, March 31, 2007

Bush Floor Pendant


There was a Bead & Gem show here in Perth this weekend and one of the exibitors makes furniture etc from recycled hardwood. He then uses his offcuts to make beads and makes them in all sorts of irregular shapes & sizes.
It's very eco friendly as he uses wood from the forest floor or from discarded timbers.
This pendant was one of a few I picked out .
It was screaming out to me to be teamed with some metal but I intentionally kept it simple so as not to detract from the beauty of the wood grain. I handsawed the the two metal shapes (nickel silver) to the shape of the wood's profile and textured it for interest. Then gave it a good polish. I love the contrast of the wood with the hard edged metal. I'm thrilled how this turned out. Pin It

Monday, March 19, 2007

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New Copper & Carnelian piece




Haven't posted for a week - been catching up on that ironing and housework.
Did manage to fiind time to have a little play though. This time with copper and I teamed it with a little sterling silver and some gorgeous natural carnelian. I just love carnelian :) Pin It

Monday, March 12, 2007

I can't put down the jewellery saw!

It was my day off today and I had heaps of washing, ironing, housework etc to do.
Did I do it? ..............Well of course not - I did this instead :)

Brass with Sterling Silver accents on neoprene rubber.


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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Dove's Mark 1 & Mark 2

Well I've still been playing with my saw. Here in Australia at the moment in jewellery there is a lot of animal silhouette shapes. Lots of swallow necklaces as well as Bambi style deers, cut from various materials such as perspex or wood or a mirror finish material. I think they'd all be laser cut.
This has inspired me to try my own shapes so I thought I'd try a dove.
I started with a dove stencil as my outline and I transferred it to brass sheet and saw cut it.
I soldered a loop on the back and suspended it from a neoprene necklace. I thought it looked pretty cool. I've been wearing it and had lots of compliments but it had a few sharp, pointy edges so I figured it wasn't marketable in it's present form. I guess I don't want my customers to stab themselves with my otherwise peaceful dove. So this one's a keeper - I promise I'll try not to stab myself.

So I set about redesigning the dove to be suitable for wearing as jewellery. This was no mean feat as I can't draw to save my life. After just about using a whole pad of paper and wearing out my eraser I managed to draw the Dove Mark 2.
Not too many differences but lots of soft edges and no sharp pointy bits....

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