Studio Notes: Vol. 2

I am constantly busy working on new lines and pieces and wanted to share my new favorite. When I need an escape from jewelry making, I often find myself going back to my favorite medium, water color. I fell in love with them in high school, during Major Art, one of the biggest inspirations in my life.

My favorite subject to paint was clear glasses filled with colored liquid because of their abstract quality. These days I tend to create the abstracts more in my own head and recently discovered using drips of color and my own breath to manipulate them across the canvas.

Once I have these small paintings, I trace the lines, delete the intersections, and manipulate the final drawings into different sizes. This gives me many options when looking for a design to trace and cut. I then transfer the drawing to the metal, and begin sawing.

Sawing is a jewelry process that you either love or hate. It is time consuming, and you can often find yourself frustrated with the amount of saw blades that you break. I find it to be very zen, a repetitive process that I can zone into and lose myself.

Once the piece is cut, I spend some time refining the shape with files, a rubber wheel and finally sand paper to give it a smooth finish.

There are many possibilities with this design as each one created is unique, and slightly different. This is a constant theme in my work, one that keeps me from having these cast or laser cut. The journey, the individuality and the personal experience each one shares with me, I hope to transfer in some way to the wearer or observer.

I’ve also been working on a bit of my basically non-existant men’s selection for father’s day. In progress check out these cuff links for the Dad (or soon to be Dad in my husband’s case!) in your life. I wanted to just give a sneak peak of these new pieces, from the Topography line, Puddle line and a new Splatter line that has yet to reach the table.

In other news, the heatwave is not good for a pregnant jeweler, but that’s ok, things are exciting enough with all that is going on with the store, the line, and future developements with Bullfrog EATS to distract me enough.

Until the next time,

-Becca