Mixed-Media Bracelets?

So lately I've been thinking (and the thought won't leave my mind) -- I rarely wear bracelets anymore (except for my awesome geisha charm bracelet that I traded to a customer for some item descriptions), because I spend my day writing and typing and digging in the dirt and it's a very rare bracelet that doesn't impede my work. However, I love the look of a big, rattly, gorgeous bracelet (not a cuff, a bracelet-bracelet).

I also have a whole lot of single-strand bracelets that I've made to sell from a bowl at shows ... and have never sold a single one in person.


Lots of 5 at a great low price available here.

Since those are adjustable bracelets made with nice beads, here's my plan: I'll add one to three strands to the original (parallel, wrapped, or braided), then secure a cluster of unbreakable/break-resistant charms, buttons, and beads to the lobster clasp so that both sides (strands and clasp) can serve as a focal element.

Some methods I'd like to try:

1. Braiding some of my massive overstock of vintage pendant chain to make up a strand (this may be too stiff; we'll see).
2. Strips of cloth/lace/ribbon secured to a base cord with a wrapping of fine wire, as shown in winter's Belle Armoire Jewelry.
3. Leather cord -- which I've never done a thing with, ever, and feel a vague responsibility to try.
4. A wirework element making up one strand.
5. Interactive elements, like sliding beads and similar worry stones.
6. Handmade wire chain (another Belle Armoire project I've been itching to try).
7. A chain made of two-hole buttons (which shouldn't be too fragile if it's not especially load-bearing).

A necklace I wanted to talk a little more about

Available here.

I named this necklace Arc of Ages, which is supposed to be a cleverish allusion to Rock of Ages (still a'rollin, rock of ages ...).  We got the vintage (I date it to the 1970s based on style) necklace base from Grandma's Antiques and Things, a fantastic little store run out of a garage in Pendleton which has become my primary steampunkerie supplier (the octogenarian proprietor is really having trouble figuring out what those nice girls are doing with all that weird hardware).

What I wanted to point out, because my blog, not my item descriptions, is the place for annoying self-congratulation, is the rather coherent symbolism that forms in the strange combination of materials here.  (Note that M deserves the majority of the credit for this.)  The large watch face, of course, aligns it with the sf-clockwork look.  The rectangular shield has an odd, delightful filigree pattern reminiscent of a somewhat mechanized paisley -- and of course, nothing is more neo-historical than shamelessly appropriating the motifs of other cultures (see here.)  The arrangement of the subtle gears (really, they're barely visible in person, the light picking them up for an instant before they vanish for a moment in the harmonized chaos of the design) arcs gracefully around the watch face like an event horizon.  Also suggesting the passage of time and the "message of ancient days," as the sole quote I know from Cicero pontificates, is the centerpiece of the watch face: an antiqued silvertone pewter connector in the shape of a Celtic knot, representing infinity.

Multicultural, neo-Victorian, time-traveller-esque -- I think I found steampunk, honey!  Two different thicknesses of triple-link cable chain (vintage) complete the necklace in a statement-goddess-waterfall shape.

I'm also proud of the rather slick wirework on the piece.  See the back:

Business Chatter

Business-minded readers may wish to check out a recent Bullish column here: Doing Business with Friends and Still Having Friends (and a Business), by Jen Dziura.  You can find me "joining the discussion" (i.e., rambling to the faceless 'Net; that site doesn't have much comment activity and I was excessively lengthy) at the bottom of the article.

And check out some of the new jewelry items in the Steampunk Assemblage section of the shop.  Shown are a pendant, a necklace, and a brooch, ranging from clean utopian styles to gritty post-apocalyptic assemblages:

Most inspiring drinky things

So, do you think the folks at the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen would mind if I turned everything they've ever photographed into a pair of earrings or a pendant?


Admire these fruity beauties!  The depth of field in this photo is just stunningly handled.  The gorgeously casual, utterly perfect tumbled look could probably be replicated with various sizes of Swarovski Cosmic Freeform Diamonds, dice beads and Simplicity cut beads:






The fruity shades and the very organic look of the skewers in these Watermelon Basil Martini Jelly Shots could be replicated with a stack of varying shapes of frosted resin and polymer clay, plus a messy, twisted spiral headpin in plastic-coated or nylon-coated wire.


These are their mimosa shots, glossy and tempting in this well-styled photo, and the minute I saw them, I thought that I could mimic that exactly with ball-end headpins worked into spirals (or, heck, just wire) supporting a stack of three lentil-shaped beads, maybe a lemon quartz or a nice glass, spaced with squares of thin yellow fabric.

The glory that was Rome

A necklace heavily inspired by Gradiva, the novella by Wilhelm Jensen based on a Roman bas-relief; the artwork and book jointly inspired some of Freud's ideas about fetish and a Dali painting.

Here's my interpretation:

Available here.

The cameo is a vintage glazed ceramic piece I've had for donkey's years, worked into one of my nest-type bezels.  When I'm making those I'm always convinced they're not working, but they almost always do ...  The wirework on the chain is not just decorative, but secures the connections between the chain and the beading in a graceful, textural manner.

Cameos are an old art form.  In the pre-industrial age, cameos were not the molded-resin pretties we are familiar with today, but were hand-carved from ivory, shell or stones.  There is some (possibly apocryphal) record of Alexander the Great presenting his Persian lover, Bagoas, with a ring containing a portrait cameo of himself carved in chalcedony.  You can still find some natural-material cameos, like these black lip shell examples, but hand-carved ones are rarer than ever.
More on cameos, plus multiculturalism in Victorian accessories, on Monday!

Vintage-styled photos and vintage cooking

Hmm. So now that I got all excited about the vintage shots for the bridal jewelry back in March, I've apparently been doing that for a while already:


Available here.

I b'lieve what I did there was jack up the shadows and desaturate a bit. It's a great way to handle white-on-white, and works beautifully on the raw silk backdrop; the texture is interesting but regular enough that it doesn't distract from the organic wire-wrapping, and the curves of the backdrop give the corners an old-photo darkening effect that is much more subtle than the applied version on the bracelet photos.

On an almost totally different note, I felt the urge to link to this. It's an interesting post from yonder at Steampunk Cookery discussing Orientalism, that old "using every part of the buffalo" tripe (haha, I'm so punny) and why it should only ever be used ironically, and the reason that my 1950s cookbooks have an organ-meats section but that fades away in the mid-70s.

Tutorial: Wire-Wrapped Earrings

I figured I might as well do a free jewelry tutorial at some point, so why not the wire-wrapped bridal earrings from February?  They're a lovely simple, graceful, infinitely customizable design that can be made more or less casual.  And maybe I can get the photo onto Craftgawker (unlikely; they like their straight-on hero shots at Craftgawker, though it's much easier to be vetted in now, either because I've improved more than I realize or because they're no longer permitting Etsy post photos so there's drastically less competition).

Anyhow.

Free Handmade Jewelry Tutorial: How to Make Hand-Brushed Wire-Wrapped Earrings
suitable for bridal, formal or casual wear, with a subtle 14k brushed gold finish.

You will need:
- 8 inches (or so) 21g 14k gold-filled wire, dead soft
- 2 round 10mm beads
- 2 contrasting round 6mm beads
- 1 pair gold-filled earwires

- flush cutters
- round-nose pliers
- chain-nose pliers
- sanding block
-nylon-jawed pliers

The sanding block can be acquired inexpensively at your local hardware store.  As for the rest, get the good stuff.  Instructions after the jump.

The Chopping Block

Every so often I find it necessary to pull something from the shop for one reason or another.  The vast majority of things that disappear from the listings are still in my inventory, I've just let them lapse because their photos are subpar or they weren't drawing traffic in or I was tired of editing the listings.

Occasionally, though, "test driving" or a more appraising eye reveals that I actually need to remove something:


This weird updated-1960s-tribal-safari-ethnic-thing necklace, an experimental piece where each bead is rosary-linked to a charm -- arguably an earlier step in the evolution that led to the found-object button necklaces -- works fine and looks awesome if you're willing to take the time to make sure the rosary-linked chain is hanging straight ... but it turns out that all your care will then be undone, because by some accident of physics if the toggle is sitting where it's supposed to, it slips right open.  The pewter elephant ones are usually secure, it's just a strangeness of physics.

Speaking of a strangeness of physics: It takes about three point five to four inches for seven-strand stainless steel jewelry wire to equalize its own tension sufficiently to lie flat.  Shorter bracelets will almost always have a slight curve.  Aren't you glad you know this now?

Mixed Media and Urban Decay

Just wanted to share about a picture from one of my favorite fellow sellers, Fanciful Devices:


Photo copyright Fanciful Devices.

That's a filigree that she's glued paper to -- apparently at the expense of her floor -- she says it was quite stiff.  But I wonder, if one papier-mached and then top-sealed newspaper instead of standard print ... possibly over one of those wire frames which one has ruined in plier overenthusiasm but has not the heart to be rid of ...

I also love how that artist uses cameos: infrequently, but without feeling bound to make them girly when she does.

Further eye candy of urban decay and material culture: We Sell Used Gods.  Further further eye candy of urban decay and material culture: 99 Rooms. 

Have some time, and maybe some earbuds, handy before you click that latter.  You'll want them.  It's insanely cool and deserves half an hour of your full attention.

(oh crap I just realized I left the bread dough on the counter overnight and now I'm at work and I can't save it.  I guess that's one way to use up whole wheat flour that doesn't quite work in the recipe ...)

I dream in black and burgundy

My customer's wedding was at the end of February, so time to show off the jewelry I made for her party!

Her earrings, wire-wrapped 14k gold fill with a hand-brushed finish.  I'd never actually done a brushed finish, so I allowed myself an hour or two to devote to learning the technique on inexpensive wire, and purchased a nice fine wire brush and file set.  I soon discovered that: (a.) it's really easy, and (b.) five minutes and a sanding block works better and looks better.  We live and learn.



I'm contemplating making up a tutorial for those.  Look for it at the beginning of April!

The bracelets were three-strand Bordeaux Swarovski pearl and black onyx with pewter toggle clasps and silver-plated charms made of crystal pearls with bead caps.
Lessons learned here:
(a.) Get the wrist measurements before ordering the supplies -- I think this customer may have gone handmade partly because she couldn't find anything ready-made to fit her very small bridesmaids.  I have a bunch of extra pearls.  But this is okay because I also learned:
(b.) Allow "wiggle room" in your pricing for stuff to sell out two minutes before you place your order.  That is not the originally planned clasp.  And I had to get the 6mm pearls much more expensively from Beadaholique when Fire Mountain Gems sold out of them since they were having a sale.
The clasp: an adventure.  I highly recommend this shop and this one for supplies; neither of them were selling multiples of the clasp, but they were both very prompt in telling me so!

I couldn't resist doing "vintage" styled shots of the jewelry.  This is the "winter" version, styled with browned leaves of flowering kale -- I desaturated, soft-focused and upped the dynamic color range for a sense of time and nostalgia:



And here's the "warmer" version, half-sepia-filtered, graduated-tinted, and soft-focused after styled with a litter of the deadheads from my apricot violas, for a sense of nostalgia, the warm blush of the beautiful and impermanent:


Pruning makes for great props. Also, I definitely want to do some more sanding of metal for the nice matte finish. 

The total of the jewelry was five bracelets and a pair of earrings: all in all, a good-sized commission, though if I hadn't been custom-sizing each one and thus redesigning a little, I'd have naturally gone stark raving mad on bracelet four.  But as it was, getting the same design with varying wrist sizes was an interesting challenge.  Much fun!

Meditation upon Chandeliers

Surely someone must wear chandelier earrings these days.  Right?

Chandelier earrings have seemed since I started my Etsy shop to just be not worth the effort.  They consistently get lower views than similarly tagged earrings in other styles, I've never sold a pair, and they are actually harder and more repetitive to make than even many-tiered drops.


Available here.

The wholesaler I use is having a sale on a bunch of Swarovski stuff and I ordered some of their silver-plated pewter findings, but found myself hesitating over the chandelier findings.  "Chelsea," I said to myself, "these are the best deal they have.  Chandelier plus post plus clutch.  If you're trying to get the most for your money this is what you should be doing."

Then I said to myself, "But it's foolish to throw good money after bad getting things that won't sell.  And the likelihood of someone requesting a pair of chandelier earrings, let alone a single pair in the specific color you're getting, is apparently slim."

Then I said to myself, "I need to stop talking to myself.  It alarms Megan if I do it too often or earnestly."

So really, which is worse?  Passing up a pretty good opportunity to get discount supplies -- or getting supplies that I know are slow sellers?

The pair above was for the wedding collection, mind you, and wedding jewelry sort of across the board seems to be largely the same stuff so I felt obligated to have some "classic" boring pieces.  I don't think they're especially boring, though, and I'm really proud of the photo, where the slightly darker clay sets off the rainbow effect of the AB crystal quite well for this neat sort of carnival effect.  Still, they were meant as a complement, not a showpiece.  This pair was more intended for actual, y'know, coolness, sort of a Steampunk Atlantean feel:



Available here.

Possibly the slow selling is because people are highly aware that anonymous chandelier earrings are a staple of the cheap import fashion jewelry market and the look can be gotten for a lot less -- for which I can't blame people at all.  It's a little ludicrous to try to compete with dollar-a-pair outfits at their own game, and the look has to be significantly different for jewelry to not be a futile market.  The look has to be different (unexpected bead and finding choices); the quality has to be higher (I wire-wrap the elements together, because that's a whole lot of a small, fine-gauge jump rings to put so much trust in and wire-wrapping is much more secure).

I did take the trouble to list another set this week, because I've had these forty-year-old curtain rings in my hardware box for ages, then found that it is remarkable how much grey transparent glass will take on the tones of the metal it's nearest:

Available here.

Still, ones like the second photo seem like they ought to be going better than they do ... which leads me back to my original question.  Is it just that I'm the only one who wears chandelier earrings anymore?

Texture in jewelry photography

Staged photos (style shots; the opposite, with item alone, is called a hero shot) in newer shops are often something of an object lesson in contrast. Which is not the owners' fault. Considering.  Have a look at these covers from Bead Unique magazine for the example new jewelry businesses have to follow:



I think that vine is the actual beaded piece on the left side ... though mostly by process of elimination ...

The cover shots are better now -- those seem to date from the early days (2005ish) when they clearly had no idea what they were doing -- and I call them out with all affection, because I love that magazine, but the insides are often no better what with the backgrounds being the same color or texture as the jewelry being photographed.

Which brings me, slowly, to my point: I think that texture difference is actually just as important as color difference in showing jewelry.  Here are some of my earlier photos, in (as best I remember) the order I took them:

The first one, the necklace, could be interesting, and I still think it's a neat composition, but it's really flat. The reason? There's not enough contrast between the construction paper and the metals, so those fade out, and the glossiness of the silk coin purse matches the glossiness of the beads too well. The sandalwood fan, the construction paper and the metals dominate the image with their softer, earthy texture that is appealing but not flattering to this piece, while the shiny silk and the shiny cloisonne compete, dragging the eye in different directions at once.  The white pearls then pop too much.  They're nice color choices, but the texture is all wrong.  I'm pretty sure that was the first jewelry photo I ever took.

The bracelet draped on the shell was one of my very first good photos -- and, not coincidentally, my first actual Etsy sale.  This one works because the color contrast is strong and the texture contrast is nicely layered: strong background to very soft shell to in-the-middle bracelet. The fade of the ivory silver desert sun beads (which apparently are made by firing a ceramic glaze over a sterling plate; pretty!) into the shell works because at the image's focal point, that rough grey debris forms a soft, but sufficient, color contrast and a much more marked texture contrast.  The black glass stands out because it's so silky and smooth next to the shell.

The pendant photo was after I switched to my pottery background but just doesn't work at all.  Part of the appeal of the piece in person is the way the organic wirework (that's still my favorite piece of wire-wrapping I've ever done) complements in shape and contrasts in texture with the matte Ching Hai jade it's wound around; unfortunately, the jade and the rim of that broken pot?  Exact same soft, earthy matte smoothness so you can't really see it.  The gleaming, saturated glass color and smooth wire work okay, though.  It might have worked if I'd laid the pendant in the concentric circles of soft grooves at the center of the dish.

That last one of the earrings isn't bad.  Now, I'd jack up the highlights a couple thousand times for more contrast, but the unique highlights of the pearls and their almost-smooth surface contrasts nicely with the soft brush lines in the pot, which also carry the eye back and forth between the earrings and causes their slightly different clusters to be perceived as a unit.  That one works.

I still do staged style shots, but mostly for Flickr and the blog:

This one follows that same rule of layered textures, both in the jewelry itself and the photo composition -- from the concrete ground through the table to the piece itself, it's grainy, glossy-smooth, soft, grainy, glossy-smooth -- and it's one of those that I am really and truly happy with after almost no editing, which is rare enough to be noteworthy indeed.

Style contemplations once again!

Today, I was setting out to do something with my shop announcement on Etsy that would give people some framework to experience the stuff I make.  As I'm sure I've said before, my style is sort of all over the place and you have to view a couple dozen pieces before you see the common threads.

I wound up with "Here you'll find handmade jewelry in an eclectic style that includes organic freehand wirework, found objects and (mostly) symmetrical glass-bead designs. Steampunk assemblage and bright vintage-inspired pieces are my particular forte."

*inspects it*

That looks pretty accurate to me, right?  "Vintage-inspired" is such a vague term that it does pretty easily net everything that's not covered by "steampunk assemblage," "organic freehand wirework" or "found objects," right?  Of course, I just wrote an article explaining why people shouldn't use blanket terms, but I was talking about individual descriptions.

Other style elements I contemplated noting but tossed out:

Medium-length earrings.  I don't make a lot of short ones but these are the longest I've ever made, bar the ones intended for belly dancers, like the tassels and those sweet shell and pewter leverbacks I made for M's tribal-gothic-fusion outfit for the Azkatraz ball last year, which were eight inches long and laid on her lovely collarbones.

Available here.

These are more standard for me, though still a little longer than average:


Available here.

My fondness for brass and copper.  It's still unfashionable to genuinely like these.  This is partly because everyone is now convinced that they are allergic to everything.  That's not actually the case.  Unfortunately, antique and gunmetal brass treatments do contain enough nickel to irritate some people -- but usually that's not the case in a necklace or bracelet.  I had to (stop reading if you are, M) have a crown replaced a couple of years ago and the dentist called in his entire staff to show them what a really severe nickel allergy inflammation in the mouth looks like.  I wear nickel-containing brass treatments all the time.  I just can't handle them as earwires for lengthy periods.

I'm not saying people aren't really allergic to jewelry metals.  It happens.  It's just that everyone thinks they are and it's really not the case for many of them. 

More to the point, I like brass and copper.  They weather beautifully.  All metals tarnish, people, with the sole exception of gold.  All of the metals.  All of them.  The copper-brass-gunmetal spectrum does so with a beautiful old-world grace that, in my opinion, is better than looking like it was just made forever.


I do, however, use a germanium sterling on my coral and such, because I don't want my white coral branches to stain.

Sparkle!  This is weird, because most of the other designers I really like oxidize the shit out of everything.

Really bizarre interpretations of other styles.  Even if I try to do Southwestern or Cutesy Chic or Meaningful Assemblage or something, it all comes out looking like me playing with elements of those styles.  And there's no way to put that in a description without sounding like a narcissist ("Tee hee, I'm SO unique!!!") but, on balance, I think that's something to be proud of.


And a final note.  I didn't set out to do any of this.  It just happened to be the way in which I do things.  Maybe that's my early materials influencing everything else I've ever done, maybe it's that the beads and components I pick contribute to it, maybe I'm influenced by my grandmother's crazy 60's jewelry she let me wear, but -- all those "develop your style" posts had nothing to do with this.  So anyone who's landed here by Googling "how to develop a personal jewelry style" or some such -- just do it.  It happens this way.

But if you're like me you'll have to make a blog post three years later before you get a firm idea of what your style is.

Contemplating ethnic identity ... plus a pic

Actually, in the opposite order.  Here's the pic: first version of a necklace based on the Castellan Necklace for a custom order.  Vintage hinge plate, new and vintage brass chain, vintage buttons and an embellished clay bead.

 
Purty!  But rather weird.  I normally don't go that asymmetrical, largely because M doesn't like it.  I'm actually going to switch out the bead for a button that pulls the nice brassy yellow over to that side of the necklace.  Great customer, by the way; when I asked if she wanted any specific colors she said brownish metallics with possibly some rust, mustard or maybe green.  That is an awesome way to commission a piece.  Tells me exactly what sort of corroded metal tone is being asked for, there are just SO many shades of it, but here I knew what she had in mind ...  Hooray!  I can't get a photo that shows how cool that jeweled button above the hinge is: it's got this lovely smoky silver depth ...

Now for the contemplation.  Last week I got confirmation of something I've suspected for a long time: I have Native American ancestry.  Specifically, I'm part Dakota Sioux.

See, I learned in one of my archaeology classes that one of the ways to identify what cline (which is a little like race but more biologically based and less socially monolithic) human remains represent is to check the shape of the incisor teeth.  Shovel-shaped incisors indicate either Native American or Asian ancestry.  By the simple expedient of shoving my fingers in my family's mouths, I discovered that my brother Andrew and I, like our father, have the shovel incisors, while Mom doesn't.

I knew my great-great-grandfather, Clifford, was the captain of a Chinese tea clipper and a Civil War blockade runner, so either option was a possibiliy.  Last week I finally got a chance to check my grandparents' teeth and, as it turns out, my paternal grandfather's grandmother was related to one of the followers of Sitting Bull.

Now this is cool.

Conveniently enough, it's also Native American month over at Multiculturalism for Steampunk, which is probably part of what got me thinking more deeply about it.

You see, it's also a little startling because I've never thought of myself as having any Native American blood -- and also because I've read Boas and Sapir and Whorf and to ascribe excessive significance to an ethnicity goes against everything I've been taught for four years at university.

Further ponderings after the jump.

A meditation upon plastic

Available here.

I generally avoid plastics. I once posted a spirited defense of them on someone else's blog, noting that they were often very elegant-looking, stood up to hard wear much better than cheap glass, and their lightness for their size made them extremely useful for applications were weight was a concern. Besides, a lot of people love vintage plastic. That said, I do tend to worry that they'll make my work seem cheap -- and I charge relatively low prices and am, you know, a beader, so I get that a lot from the apparently endless supply of incredibly rude browsers.

I hate to use my own work to prove my point, but ... I think I have here proven my point.

All the beads in this brooch are either plastic or vintage brass.  The almond-shaped beads are vintage too.  They have an AB finish (which is why this thing was so bloody hard to get a photo of that wasn't green).  This is a use where the lightness matters -- beads of that size and this brooch's dimensionality in stone, ceramic, even glass might have made this impossible to wear on any but the sturdiest weave -- and the design is gorgeous.  They also, because of the secure wrapping and their flattened shape, can't have their mold lines turn the front, which is something I hate.  I'd use more plastic if there weren't those visible seams.

I'm not going to become a vintage plastics hound -- there are many people in that niche, and more power to 'em -- but I need to work on not treating my cool plastic stuff like a red-headed stepchild.

Bridal Collections 3: Ocean Branches

This is the collection that was actually requested for consignment -- longtime readers may remember another white coral piece with wire-wrapping which sold last Christmas, and around the same time I showed the photo for consideration, which is why I was asked to do a whole beach-wedding line.

This collection is the only one that's 100% sterling silver, and it involves a lot of fine wirework. The wire is used both to adorn the coral branches and to create a smoothish surface against the clothing or skin -- coral is a lot smoother than it looks, but it never hurts to be sure.


Available here.

Two pieces broke in their return shipping, one irreparably and one just depressingly. The rest, however, is now in the Etsy shop. This elegant one-of-a-kind coral and pearl bridal collection for classy ocean-themed affairs is now on sale:

Through October 18, purchase any piece from the Ocean Branches bridal collection and get 15% off a coordinating item. If only one item is purchased, I'll send you a pair of pearl earrings as a free gift.

Discounts are before shipping and given after purchase through PayPal.  Just mention this post to get your deals!

On another note, that piece on the lower left is in an absolutely amazing number of treasuries.  I'm not sure if it's because I've been making a lot and people are reciprocating with the first image they like in the shop, or if it's the white-on-white closeup that people like.

Navel-gazing: wire edition

I really need a name for my wire-wrapping style.

See, it's not that I can't make neat, perfect little wraps. Except on briolettes. I will cheerfully admit that I suck at briolette wraps. But I genuinely can do the tiny little snug spirals. Forgive me if I sound defensive, it's just that, you know, I am.

And it's not that they always look mechanical when you're perfect. I know this is the same example I always use, but my cousin from Gridley Designs does amazing work with smooth, tight, even wraps -- and trust me, the stuff on Etsy is the tiniest portion of his artistry.

But somehow when my work is tight and even -- I don't like it. Even if I'd probably love it from someone else. To go for a weird metaphor, I'm going for "overgrown English country garden," not "jardin a la francais." Jungle, not park. I love a wrapped loop where the spiral laps over the bead on one side, I love a curve of wire that stands out from the body of the object it cradles, I love careful little kinks and wiggles and uneven spaces between wraps where the beads have room to breathe.

So what on earth do I call it to express "no, this is deliberate Grandma Moses primitivism, not lack of skill"? Am I way too concerned with others' opinions of my skills to begin with? Should I just stop worrying about it? What do I call it?

I've mostly been going with "organic," but that's such a loaded word now. "Primitive" bugs me in a way that has nothing to do with jewelry and everything to do with my postcolonial studies. I use "freehand" or "freeform" sometimes. I dunno.

Doing the custom order dance again

I'm pretty sure I've talked about both of these orders before. But now they're done. Which is exciting.

Here's the full wedding-party set that started with my teeny teeny pink cameos.



See, what happened was, after I made the little ones the customer asked if I could do a slightly larger grey one, and then I made a big one as well to match the original I was matching the others to. The grey had to be hand-painted, because I ordered it from a new source and said new source was apparently unclear on the difference between white and dark ivory. Which was interesting, doing the small delicate paint work, since that was right after it became suddenly and painfully obvious that my wisdom teeth had to come out and I was drugged to the gills. But off they go.

When I was "posing" the photo I was actually thinking heavily of Rossetti's The Beloved. I'm not sure it comes through. Hmmm.

And here are the diamonds.



It's really ... immensely flattering to be trusted with precious stones. And they're so incredible to work with, diamonds. No worries about wrapping too tight, no bloody fingerprints (bloody in the swearing sense, not the exsanguination sense). Gorgeous flash. And the planes of the uncut stones are just made for wire.

Other than these, I've been listing on eBay. And listing. And listing. And listing.

Oh, and now that I think about it, I really oughta link to Jewelry Findings Online. I got all the cameo settings from them. Don't be fooled by their catalogue, their products are great and high-quality, and they're very speedy. I've used them for a bunch of designs.

The tiniest thing I've ever made

One of two tiny cameos I set into silver-plated necklaces for a pair of bridesmaids. They're only 8x6, about half the size of a dime. Very delicate!

I'm also working on a diamond necklace for another customer, though she's in no hurry so it will be completed after we return from SC (leaving Tuesday to house-hunt!) I'll be wrapping the diamonds in fine-gauge sterling silver wire and connecting them with S-curves. It should be quite lovely.

I am extremely happy with this.

Available here. Sold!

My high school art teachers would have loved this. I love it. Without realizing it, I followed all the rules of composition that they gently ground into my skull. The round vintage metal bit at the end balances the same-color round charm that makes up the lower layer of the spinner. The heavier wrapping balances the wider spinner end. The color layering alternates almost exactly. And every metal color appears in the patina of the key.

Right, right, supposed to be doing the marketings, precious ... this is one of the pieces that will be at the greatly talented Roland Gridley's booth at Costa Mesa/Southern California's WyrdOne this weekend, June 11-13. Mr. Gridley is actually my cousin, who plays in my RP with me, so anyone in the area can meet him and his very lovely girlfriend while shopping his exquisite work.