Archive for the ‘year of jewelry’ Category

I’m on a roll. I made the top of this ring from bronzclay, soldered on the shank, and then silver plated the piece. I really love the textures that you can get with the clay but I didn’t want a green finger… hence the addition of silver. Okay, and DH and I really wanted to try silver plating. Although the video that came with our tools was a little scary. Apparently some types of gold plating involve cyanide which needs lots of special care. Don’t think I’ll be doing that any time soon. I’m usually a “Let’s just try it!” kinda gal but with the plating I’ve been very methodical and followed all the directions carefully. Happily it has worked out pretty well.

Okay, off to the Coast for one last hoorah before school so no clay this weekend…

You saw this coming right? Of course Dude wants his own necklace too. Won’t we be so cute?! I love the bronzclay, but I’m more of a silver girl. So on this piece I added a fine layer of silver by plating the pendant and then of course I antiqued it a bit with liver of sulphur. I’m pretty happy with the results and I’ve got a few more ideas… Stay tuned!

Here is another pendant that I made from bronzclay. Once again I set a cabochon that I made. This pendant is actually an earlier one that I forgot to photograph. I was messing around with using the small silver balls… which I love! And then I set the cz in and embeddable prong setting. I think it is kind of fun. Anyway, I’ve got sooo many ideas for this metal clay floating about in my head, and even tools to try but with the dreaded illness running amok in our house I have not been getting much done! However, I have high hopes for this weekend. DH is scampering off to San Francisco with the girls to visit family so I plan to play and experiment! Wish me luck!

I am still having lots of fun playing with this bronzclay! I made this rather large ring which is quite fun to wear.

I am also having lots of fun making cabs to set in the clay. This ring uses a boro cab that I made which has a nice golden sparkle to match the bronze.

Nice soft focus on my wrinkled hands don’t ya’ think?!

For my next project I think I’ll make a crazy “brass knuckles” style ring… what do you think?! Ha!

I’ve just found time to play with some bronzclay. It is pretty cool stuff! I’m pretty happy that I got it to work right out of the package and it fired in my kiln without incident! Yeah! Now that I’ve made this test piece I need to get busy because I’ve got a few more fun ideas that I’d like to make. Stay tuned…

I just love these big ol’ Lucite beads. They are big and… light. I love necklaces to make a statement but I don’t want to have a tired neck at the end of the day so Lucite works great for this! It is a fun necklace that I love to throw on with a t-shirt and jeans, not to mention it was quick to whip up. Sometimes simple is nice.

Did you think that YOJ – Year of Jewelry had died? I know… it certainly has slowed down. I tell ya’ sometimes I just don’t know where the time goes! But I have been making a few necklaces lately. This one uses black cord and knotting. I kind of like it! I really like the focal bead which is why I snapped it up from the Mart. Anyway, I’ve got a few more pieces to share so keep watching!