Thursday, January 28, 2010

January Get-Together- Recent Work

Today's get-together was the first of 2010. We hadn't seen each other for a while- everyone had some really interesting work! This is Bodil's experiment with Colores Resin (from Rio Grande) in Red. It looks like glass, doesn't it? It's very lightweight and framed with a fine silver bezel. She pushed an old Roman coin into Silly Putty, then poured the Resin into this mold for at least 24 hours and viola! An old Roman glass artifact! Great for earrings, too, because it's so lightweight.
Colores comes in MANY different colors. Another thing to experiment with and spend money on! (Great for kids, too??)


This is Patti's ring using a bead set in a cuttle-bone cast shank. Pretty cool!


These are Karen's cuttlebone castings. She carved the bone with dental tools after sawing the bone in half. Then she wired the 2 halves together and poured in the molten silver.



This is Bodil's fold ring. It was created by sawing a pattern in 16 ga. sheet. She then etched the sheet (top of ring around stone) and folded it to produce the shank. The only soldering was the gold bezel to the top.


This is Karen's fold ring- a work in progress. She, too, is cutting away from sheet and will also set the stone using the tabbed prongs.



Karen's been going chain-crazy! Various chain types made by fusing the ends of wire loops together, then using a mandrel to form, hammering, and folding.



Detail of one of Karen's 18 ga. chains. She uses a tumbler to polish.



Dana's viking knit chain. Using 26 ga. sterling wire with a rustic pendant to match.
These could all lead to workshops so we can learn from each other all these techniques and benefit from each other's experience. Fun! See you next month...