Sacre Coeur!

This piece is now ready for grouting, after I glue back on three pieces that popped off during cleaning. (Is Versa-Flex less effective in a dry climate, or am I mixing it wrong, or what? Oh, and I just realized this pic shows two of the three loose pieces misplaced.) I think I'll use dark gray grout with shimmery black acrylic paint for a darker and slightly lustrous tint, and I'll probably re-paint the frame, too, probably a shimmery navy blue. I work the gallery tomorrow and will be able to grout this and a few other pieces, because THE KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL!!! And both kids are now on full-day schedules, which gives me more daylight time for my own schoolwork and a bit more leeway for projects like this one.

August Flight {sold!}

I've been fancying this chain-with-danglies style lately, and even though summer is still in full swing I find myself trending toward autumn colors already. This necklace could be seen as a continuation of the mosaic dragonfly keyholder I showed a few weeks back; in fact that piece would make a perfect little holder for this necklace. I used sterling chain; a Hill Tribes Thai silver leaf and large dragonfly bead; and faceted citrine, smoky quartz, carnelian, jasper, and Hessonite and Tsavorite garnets, and then oxidized the whole thing for a darker, richer color that, to me, evokes the lengthening shadows of late summer.

In the studio this week: earrings, a few blue fluorite pieces to match the exquisite Smithsonite pendant Dean faceted for me last month, and... mosaics!!! I did prep work today for some serious mortaring tomorrow... only got four small gashes on my hands from the glass, and then I remembered I'd brought my nitrile gardening gloves after all. I also figured out a great technique for pseudo-tumbling glass to remove the worst razor edges: cut the pieces, then throw a bunch in a lidded jar with water and sand, and shake by hand for five to ten minutes. I've prepped the surfaces and glass for five pieces and hope to finish mortaring them tomorrow... grouting can happen when the kids START SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY!!! Yippee!!!

Some Like It Hot

Ah, Sonora Sunrise. This Two Cranes pendant is almost all cuprite and has wonderful color texture thanks to the flecks of chrysocolla and even some green malachite. I don't usually hang out in the orange-red range of the color spectrum but had the two small Sassy Silkies on hand and just went from there, adding in dyed pearls in several shades along with carnelian (of course), smoky quartz, brass dragonflies and Celtic knots, and a winding strand of tiny size 15 Delicas. This piece spent four months in Albuquerque at my friend Paula's gallery, but I kept thinking about it and just had to bring it home to my own gallery. August is here, and it's time to heat things up -- I have another red Sonora Sunrise pendant in the works (my very own lapidary work this time!), so I'm pulling out the red and orange again to see what happens....

Another Lapidary Day

Wednesday is now lapidary day, I hereby declare, at least until I finish some of the pieces I started last year. Here are six of the seven pieces that I finished today. From left to right: two pieces of Gaspeite (I may have to keep the bottom one; it is SO beautiful and even has some crystal quartz running through it); Nacozari (Mexico) turquoise (top) and No. 8 turquoise (bottom); and Kingman turquoise (top; I may also keep this piece!) and Bacamite (bottom). I also finished a small Lepidolite pendant, but girl child ran away with it... I guess that one stays here, too. Next week I hope to finish two chrysoprase pieces, a green aventurine drop, the fossil coral repair/reshape, and the red Sonora Sunrise pendant. They need a few extra steps and will totally be worth it.

One Small Step

We have had some intense electrical storms the past two days -- this afternoon I got to drive the kids up the mountain through a totally cool 360-degree lightning show -- so I wisely kept the computer off and have been occupying my time with various mosaic-related tasks and experiments. Basic tasks (power tools again - RAWR): drill holes through Hardibacker for hangers, and sand edges for a more finished look. But my most pressing task is to figure out how to make my own word tiles. The Sculpey tiles I made a few weeks ago worked okay but were fairly labor-intensive and probably are not durable enough for outdoor or heavy use. I'll save that technique for ceramics or Precious Metal Clay, which will be kiln-fired and thus truly durable.

So here's my current, affordable and time-efficient idea: print (or hand-write, for a really personal look) some words on paper, glue the paper to the back of a clear glass tile or shard with a clear-drying clue, shellac the paper side (once completely dry) to make it waterproof, and use the tile as I would any other glass fragment in my mosaic. Seems way too simple to really work, doesn't it? Well, I'll put these rough trials to the test later this week. The cool part is that I can make any words I want, on any paper I want, any time I want, essentially for free. Come to think of it, this technique might also work for photos, pressed flowers and leaves, fabric scraps, bugs...

My other main experiment tonight: making hand-wrought copper hooks for my key holders. I used 12-gauge copper wire from my dad's workbench (I'll replace it, I promise) and my metal hammer and bench block. This was a definite success; pictures at 11 (tomorrow, if my lapidary day doesn't wear me out). (What a life, huh?)

Mosaics for Home Decor: Keyholders (in progress)

I now have an amazing selection of stained glass to work with and can finally *make* mosaics! These two pieces will be keyholders (they're finished except for key hooks, which I might make myself out of copper), and I think I'll do the same for the other small pieces I have in progress. All use Creekmore-Durham glass/copper focal pieces and stained glass; I'm trying to figure out whether and how to frame them simply so that they look a bit more finished. I started the heart piece (at right) today and hope to finish the background and grouting this week. For the really small glass pieces I used Superglue instead of Versa-Flex, and it worked well when I "drew" the spiral pattern in glue right on the Hardibacker and then laid on the pieces. How shall I grout this piece? I'm considering using the dark blue I got for the New Moon sign; it will blend in the blue background and really make the heart and spiral pop. Or should I use alabaster for a totally different look? We shall see.

A Lapidary Day

I spent a good part of the day at the Two Cranes lapidary workshop today, where I expanded my skillset to include use of the lapidary saw and diamond-bit drill. I guess if I can use a table saw (YEAH I rock... but my 68-year-old mom who taught me rocks even more), a lapidary saw isn't much of a stretch, and in fact it was quite simple. Then I moved to the grinding wheels for shaping the pieces I'd cut; the hardness of the gemstones I was working with (pictured above; I'll detail them in a moment) varied quite widely, so some needed a good bit of time on the roughest wheel whereas others just needed a quick zip there to take off edges before moving to the next two wheels.

So, what I worked on today, from left: a repair on an agate pillar whose top had broken off; next row (top to bottom): a stunning red piece of Sonora Sunrise, and a piece of fossil coral that had lost an edge and needed reshaping to a single-hole pendant; next row: lepidolite, Calico Lake onyx (the tiny piece, much more interesting than this lame camera-phone pic shows), and Bacamite (the big piece on the bottom, a chrysocolla-cuprite blend from the local Kelly mine area); and green aventurine (the hardest to grind). (The stone way on the right is a piece of turquoise in matrix that keeps breaking apart as I work it, so I'll let that one go.) The next step on these will be sanding, to remove scratches and prepare for final polish. I have eight or so other stones at the sanding/polishing stage also and hope to finish everything in two weeks (finding a full day for anything is nearly impossible, but this is SO worth it!). I love how meditative lapidary is, and of course Conne and Dean are wonderful company.

Tomorrow: mosaics! A local friend *gave* me a huge load of glass left over from her stained glass work, which she has given up due to chronic illness. Thank you so much, Aleta; you have no idea (well, you probably do!) how much it means for me to be able to jump into this new venture with both feet. So a New Moon Gallery sign will surely begin taking shape this weekend... all these wonderful things in my life. I am SO grateful.

Smithsonite Necklaces (Part 1)

Here's the Smithsonite I mentioned earlier, done up freeform into another woven-bail pendant (28-gauge on 24-gauge sterling wire). Sorry for the less-than-optimal photo; I took it at home in poor lighting because I just had to share this tonight. Dean (of Two Cranes) generously gifted this to me recently, perhaps because my eyes bugged out when I saw the amazing crystallization in the piece's center. These calcite crystals often grow in, on, or around Smithsonite, sometimes forming rosettes such as that in this piece (not very well shown here). I'll put this 1.5-inch pendant (yes, it's small) on a necklace of apatite, seed pearls, and small Thai silver cornerless cubes, perhaps with some multi-strand sections but otherwise fairly simple.

Dean has been bargaining for Smithsonite from Magdalena's old-timers, who now seem inclined to pull out at least a few samples from their "back-room collections" that most people never see. Smithsonite is a source of pride, secrecy, and family lore around here; generations-old specimens from the nearby Kelly mine comprise an important part of the mineralogical collection and are sometimes called "copper smithsonite" because their turquoise-blue coloration comes from, yes, copper. Other forms are purple, yellow, pink, or green depending on the minerals that "contaminate" the zinc carbonate (ZnCO3) base. The piece at right (another gift from Dean) shows this gemstone's globular formation that typically grows as a sort of crust on base rock. On this piece, which makes me think of a rain cloud, I'll do a different kind of freeform wirewrap, perhaps with small crystal quartz briolettes to evoke, what else, rain.

Hand-Wrought

I do so enjoy making these earrings: cut wire, file ends, shape, HAMMER, adjust shape. I hammer out in back of the gallery, and as an experiment I left my metal bench block in the sun for a few hours to see how the sterling silver would hammer on a hot versus a cold block. I loved the results; the hammering went more quickly and the surface was a bit smoother, though I'm still going for a somewhat "roughed-up" look. Friend and gallery associate Nicole has a pair like these that inspired me; I went with a thinner-gauge wire (18-gauge instead of 12- or 14-gauge) so these would fit in more ears and be lighter. So that's all for now. Tomorrow, however, I will show a diminutive but fascinating piece of Smithsonite that I'm wirewrapping into a pendant. Not just any wirewrapping...

 I've made two more of these nameless-jasper (the "African turquoise" I wrote of a while back) pendants with the sterling silver basket-weave bail and like how they turned out. I kept them simple -- no crystal quartz briolettes this time -- and am thinking of putting them on simple necklaces of mixed-size glass beads with some combination of bronzite, smoky quartz, and jade accents. On the second piece (at left) I might unwrap the bottom swirls a bit to loosen up the look; I like how the first one came out. It's all about experimentation, which is a good bit of the fun in making anything. For these woven bails I used 22-gauge and 28-gauge sterling wire, which is a good combination but does require a fair-sized hole through the focal bead. I'm also trying a spine of 24-gauge wire in a new, entirely different sort of piece and it's working well... more on that one in a few days.

Sold! (Wow!)

Yesterday was a great day at the gallery for all three of us; Conne sold a beautiful turquoise necklace and some other pieces, Nicole sold lots of tie-dyes, and I sold a necklace AND a mosaic along with several pairs of earrings. A local woman bought this mosaic -- I finished this and another one (my second and third pieces, officially) on Thursday evening and, despite feeling shy about them, went ahead and put them up for sale. Many thanks to Sara Creekmore and David Durham for the beautiful glass; I have many more pieces like these and will put them to good use soon. I figured out a pretty cool process for making letter tiles without a kiln: I formed some Sculpey "boards" and gave them a wood texture by rolling a small twig over them, baked them, then carved the words into them with a Dremel. I used acrylic paint, which took a bit of a beating during grouting but was easy to touch up. Eventually I do want to do letter/word tiles in ceramic or precious metal clay, but this will work for now. A kiln is a long way off, logistically speaking; books for school and clothes for the kids do need to come first, for now.

Now that I've sold this piece, of course, I have a space to fill in my gallery. Ah, gee, that's too bad... ;-)

"She Gathers Rain"

Okay, I'll be brave and show this: my first mosaic ever, made in Laura Robbins' Placitas, NM studio on May 16 of this year. My critique: the composition isn't great (I was rushed to finish it, and am definitely a novice), but it's an interesting start AND (most importantly) was just a blast to make. It was a good day for me overall -- a sort of rebalancing since May 16 now marks my college graduation (Penn 1988, summa cum laude thankyouverymuch), marriage anniversary (1998; it lasted 9.5 years, most of them very rough), and huge divorce case setback (2008; my relocation bid to take a GREAT job back in Philly was denied, leaving me with no income prospects beyond, say, Walmart). This day evened the score, so to speak.

The theme is actually an old one for me; the song "She Gathers Rain" by Collective Soul came out in 1995 just as I was breaking up with my then-boyfriend... now ex-husband... and the themes of cleansing and starting anew apply so much more now than they did then. (If I'd known then what I know now...) Rain imagery comes out often in my jewelry and takes up a good third of my mosaic sketchbook, so I consciously chose this theme for my first mosaic. I haven't finished any mosaics since then (materials shortage; bills come first, dangit), but I have several in progress. In fact, I am about to start shaping gemstone scraps for a "personal mandala" mosaic that also includes some beautiful glass pieces generously given to me by Sara Creekmore and David Durham, who live just up the mountain. This image shows the glass pieces (mortared into place on the Hardibacker), a sketch of what's to come (rain, water, reeds; kind of a circle of water thing), and the "fringe" of copper and glass beads. That last part... well, what did you expect?

My next (ad)venture

... will be something along these lines:


I've had the idea to create gemstone mosaics for a while; the lightbulb went on above my head one day early this year while rooting through some of Dean and Conne's gemstone scraps for lapidary possibilities. I am getting pretty good at working stone, and I love mosaics... now I just need to find the time to put these two obsessions together. The ideas have been no problem; I've already filled up half of a notebook with sketches and notes. I also now have the Hardibacker, Versabond, and grout waiting down at my studio. I've started picking out turquoise and other scraps from a 5-gallon bucket Dean brought me one day, and am even marking some (Sharpies work well for this) for shaping at the lapidary wheels as I "sketch" out a pattern on an 8-by-8 inch piece of Hardibacker.

This, I know, will be very, very cool. I can't wait to get started, and to start posting pictures of the process.

Fire and Rain {sold!}

My latest jewelry creation is often my new favorite, and I may need to spirit this necklace away into my permanent collection. The focal piece is a 20-cm jasper stone that reminds me of a waterfall or rain against a fiery sunset, hence the piece's name. I made a modified basketweave bail using a "spine" of 22-gauge sterling wire wrapped with 28-gauge sterling wire, and on the three ends of the "spine" I then added five wirewrapped crystal quartz briolettes. The necklace is a simple composition of dyed pearls, Thai silver cornerless cubes, and more of the briolettes.

I'd never seen this stone before; after some Googling I learned it is sometimes called "African turquoise", although it is unrelated to turquoise in any way except appearance and is usually found in Australia or North America, not Africa. It's not a common find, unfortunately; two weeks after purchasing a strand of these at Mama's Minerals I returned to find the whole hank gone, with no more on the way. I have maybe a dozen more of these beads (at left is a bracelet I made with [real] Mexican turquoise rounds to enhance the blues) and will probably make several more of these pendants. This one, though, seems most special; although I currently have it for sale in my new gallery, I might need to wear it home one day.

Summer eye candy {sold!}

More treasures from February's Tucson trip have made their way into the showcase: cane glass! Lots of it, in summer brights, hand-wired onto sterling silver with Swarovski crystal and finished with a sterling sun clasp. I had never quite known what to do with cane glass until I added them, sparingly, into the bracelets posted earlier; this time I didn't stop at a few but just kept going, and going... I haven't counted but figure I have a few dozen on this bracelet. This piece is not exactly sophisticated. Like summer, it is bold (almost overbearing, yes) and unabashedly colorful, and looking at it makes me smile.

Troubadour

Just a simple bracelet in turquoise and sterling silver; it's all I have time for these days. I've had these beads for a few years and like how they came together here; maybe it's all about re-learning how to fly, be free, reach for the stars... Or maybe sometimes a bracelet is just a bracelet.

Spake the Raven: When in doubt, go rockhounding

Spring fever has driven me to distraction (not a good thing as I try to get a good start on three new courses) and so, possessed of a stunning spring day and a restless dog, I decided to hoof it a few miles up the mountain to the old mining town of Kelly. This mineral-rich area is one of Magdalena's (few) tourist attractions, and both the remains of the town and the man-made hills and valleys of weird rocks dredged from deep in the mountain are actually quite interesting in the rugged, silent, do-with-it-as-you-will way that so characterizes this area. Arguably the world's finest Smithsonite came from here, and although I'm sure the area has long been picked clean by hikers you never know what a hard rain might uncover. And so we keep coming back up the mountain.

 I found some very pretty rocks, large and small; I use most of them to add some interest to my gardens, which are also rugged and spare not by design but by necessity. A few are tinged with what appears to be chrysocolla (which has more intense coloration than turquoise and is relatively common in this area); many more are a mix of quartz and other minerals, like this strangely compelling specimen. Next trip up, I need to put a backpack on Lucy the dog so I can bring more pretty rocks home. (Don't worry about her; at 94 pounds she can handle it, I'm sure.)

O Spring... {sold!}

I had so much fun in Tucson... and found some wonderful components, of course. This bracelet uses a few lampwork glass garden beads I picked up at the Best Beads show along with a sterling clasp and unusual Thai silver bead caps from Ands Silver, my neighbor at the Renaissance Bead Show. Tucson in early February is a blessed respite from Magdalena's not-so-southwestern winter weather, and I was so pleased to make the pilgrimage with two great friends. I'll be back next year, paid or not, if only to feel a warm breeze and find more beautiful stuff and talk to more great people, especially the glass artists.

Welcome back, jewelry mojo

Spring fever is hitting hard this year... and just how does this differ from any other year? Well, this spring I have a lot less time to "play," so when my most recent quarter of coursework ended (I'm charging full-time through a graduate counseling program) I was happy to cut loose from my 50-hour workweeks and spend more time again at my jewelry workbench. My current obsession: bracelets.

These pieces mix things up a bit: amethyst (a perennial favorite), pearls, cane glass, fluorite, and sterling. This and the one below add in some Sassy Silkies from jewelry/fiber artist Kristal Wick. My friend Conne gave me a few of these, and like so many things that intrigue but also baffle me I simply set them in view, but out of the way of works in progress (usually a chaotic scene), to ponder. Essentially, I look at them every now and then, which seems to allow them to work their way into my imagination over time. Then one day I find myself pulling them down and making two or three or even five pieces in a similar style. Indeed, in addition to these three bracelets I made three in labradorite with some grey silkies that I'd gotten along with the purple ones.

This batch of bracelets will debut in Albuquerque, at my friend Paula's wonderful gallery that is currently at Central and University but will soon be moving downtown. Thank you, Paula, for asking to show some of my jewelry in your amazing gallery. I wish you much success and continue to be inspired by your artistic and personal journey.

More amethyst (of course)

Among (many) other things, I found some beautiful, good-quality amethyst briolettes in Tucson to replenish my depleted supply. These cascade-type earrings sell very well, and I'm glad to have higher-quality gems to offer this time around. Amethyst is a quartz (silicon dioxide) colored by traces of iron and manganese. The amount and proportion of these trace minerals determines the color's hue and intensity, with darker, clear varieties considered the highest grade.

I use sterling headpins to wrap and attach side-drilled briolettes (a faceted teardrop shape) to sterling chain, and stepping the briolettes down the chain allows for the "grape cluster" effect. My variations on this theme have included darker amethyst on oxidized sterling (shown at right), which I'd love to repeat if I could only find those briolettes again. I suppose this is the downside of an eclectic approach to building one's supply, focusing on the unusual and one-of-a-kind. This simple earring style works with any briolette, of course, but we always seem to crave that which we cannot have... and so the quest continues.

Slices of heaven

Tucson was a wonderful experience for me; apparently, though, business was way down for everyone this year. We still did well, and I was fairly busy most days I worked. During lulls, I was more than happy to make jewelry, of course, and passersby seemed to enjoy watching. I made this bracelet of rough-cut blue lace agate, pearls, and sterling to complement a stunning Two Cranes blue lace agate pendant that had the characteristic striations on the side and full druzy in front. I put that piece on three pale lavender, blue, and ivory silk cords and presented it on black velvet, along with this piece and one other pendant on a single silk cord. That drew some attention, and both pendants sold by the end of the show. Technically a chalcedony, blue lace agate is found as nodules primarily in Namibia (southern Africa) and is relatively rare. I love the large, irregular pieces that show off this stone's unique coloration and texture, particularly those with druzy.

Now THIS is my kind of tourist attraction

I am in Tucson at last, having been invited to The Big Dance by Dean and Conne -- not only to make this pilgrimage, which would be amazing enough, but to actually work one of their shows for them. What a way to shake off the winter doldrums -- they have fallen away as I've roamed around taking in as much of the show as I possibly can. My favorite attraction so far: this huge amethyst geode from Brazil, where the world's finest amethyst specimens are found.

I believe (gemstone addict that I am) that all spiritual malady might be erased permanently if I simply crawled inside this amethyst geode to nap for an hour or two. Yes, I would actually fit in there. I could sit or recline, my choice. Amethyst, a quartz, ranges from pale lavender to the cherished deep violet that you can see is abundant in this sample. Found in geodes from alluvial deposits, amethyst crystals grow from a base of humble rough stone, nicely illustrated in my photo above, and gain their coloration from iron or manganese, sometimes in combination. Its name derives from a Greek term, "not drunken." In Tibet, amethyst is considered sacred to Buddha, and in many cultures it has long been thought to bring clarity, serenity, balance, peace, and unity. (Although I am basically an agnostic about gemstones' purported healing properties, I largely agree with the folks at JewelrySupplier.com who write, "We don't necessarily promote or believe these claims, but we think they make for interesting conversation.")

I wonder if they wheel this beast inside overnight... it would make a lovely sleeping chamber, albeit a bit hard on the bones.

Celestial {sold!}

Turquoise and copper appeared on my workbench again recently and this time came together in a charm bracelet of sorts. The turquoise is from all over, mostly from China (the source of most commercial turquoise these days). It is stabilized (impregnated with resin, a common treatment for mid- to low-grade stones) but not dyed. The copper came from the local hardware store; it's so much cheaper there than at many jewelry suppliers for exactly the same stuff. I also used some handmade copper headpins from a favorite Etsy supplier and pure copper spacers I had found at the 2007 Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta. Copper wears nicely for most people (I wear it fairly often and haven't ever turned green), and this bracelet will darken a bit as it ages. Buffing would keep it bright, but I like the darker patina and would, at most, buff some highlights to enhance the contrast.

That's all for now... final projects for my fall quarter are coming due soon.

Turquoise and copper, again {all sold!}

This Mexican turquoise bead from Two Cranes has a lovely green-tinged hue and rich brown matrix that work very well with copper. I kept the necklace simple, using more Mexican turquoise along with some rough copper spacers and a copper clasp that I scratched up a bit on purpose so it will darken up more quickly during wear.

I love turquoise with copper (obviously) and have sold several pieces that I've been tempted to keep but, well, when I sell one, I can buy stuff to make more. The piece at left is another Two Cranes Mexican turquoise pendant that I put on an adjustable leather cord finished with copper wire and some handmade copper headpins. This pendant has a more striking green hue which, to be honest, I couldn't figure out how to match, hence the leather rather than beaded necklace. Turquoise with leather and copper seems a quintessentially Southwestern combination, though, and I'm surprised that I don't see it more often. I have one piece made in this style that I've kept for myself (despite the frequent temptation this is actually a rare occurence), and the leather has worn very well for well over a year, darkening along with the copper as I wear it. I use a high-grade Greek leather, which surely makes a difference.

The necklace at right uses a Chinese turquoise pendant (not Two Cranes) with a beautiful "cascading" matrix. Turquoise matrix features so often look like water features, which is apropos given how the stone is created. I set this one on 16-gauge copper with wirewrapped leather and a front clasp that I shaped and hammered myself. I've used this clasp style in several pieces (including the aforementioned piece in my personal collection), but I later found (after conferring with the buyer) that it doesn't work well with a smaller, lighter stone: it pulls it off balance. I re-balanced this necklace for the buyer by adding some small copper-wrapped turquoise "charms" to the other side; she was pleased, especially when I threw in some matching earrings for free.

A little lapidary: "A fragment of the starry firmament" {sold... alas...}

I have very little time for lapidary work or anything else now that I've started school full-time (an MS program in counseling, my answer to the question pondered earlier this year), but I do believe my limited time at Dean and Conne's workshop is well spent. Still in practice mode, I worked this freeform lapis lazuli piece from a scrap left over from a recent batch of beautiful Two Cranes beads. I made it expressly for wirewrapping, and the gold-fill wire was an obvious choice given the beautiful pyrite that emerged as I ground and then polished the stone. I kept the wirework simple (improvising as usual) because, really, the stone is what we all want to see. The pendant measures a little over 1.5 inches (33 mm) and is on a necklace of lapis chips and rounds with vermeil (sterling silver plated with 18-karat gold) spacers and beads.

(BTW, the quote in this entry's title comes from Pliny the Elder, referring, of course, to lapis lazuli. Such an apt description.)