Contrariwise ramblings

I blogged about working on this double helix (or double spiral) design in copper earlier. It took me a while longer than I thought, but I think I finally got the design to where I want it. Here are the finished earrings in sterling silver:
I find the sterling easier to work with than the copper. It's harder, and it take more forging to get the sterling shaped, but it tends to go where you want it to. With these earrings, the longer end of the earring gradually widens as it spirals, and it encirles the shorter end.

To put them on, you thread the shorter end in the hole in your ear, and then it goes in using a cork-screw motion.

A lot of people have said that my designs seem organic. I think that's because I like the jewelry I make to look like it flows. This particular design has eluded me for too long. I've been working on it for several days, but the idea has been in my head for much longer, and I think that I am almost there.

What you see below is not quite the final product, but I'm so close. I think I'll finally achieve the final design when I switch from copper to silver. This will be my next step. (Forging copper is different than forging silver. Copper is softer and a bit less "trainable". I always feel that I can more easily direct the silver where I want it to go.)

The longer end of the earring widens as it gradually spirals, and it encirles the shorter end.

You may ask, "How do I put them on?"

You thread the shorter end in the hole in your ear, and then it goes in using a cork-screw motion!

I had an idea in my head to create some new swirly silver earrings. But try as I might for the past several days, they just didn't come out right. All of them eventyally went into the trash. It was really frustrating.

So instead of new swirly for my Day 12 design, I'm submitting some earrings that were made with my daughter's help.

Emma was rummaging through my bead boxes, putting together different combinations of beads and she came up with this lovely spring-time combo:

It's her design, I just put them on wire. The beads are czech glass, cherry quartz glass, and lampwork. The colors all go together perfectly. I think she did a great job!

(Now I'm off to put my bead boxes back in order. And to work on those new silver swirl earrings.)

This is just a concept that I had - ring with just a single swirl incorporated in it. This design definitely still needs some work before I would consider listing it in my online shop.

Because I was just playing arround with some ideas, I used copper because it's so much less expensive than silver. Somehow, swirls don't seem to want to behave for me as well in this metal. It's a bit softer than silver, so it wants to bend more quickly and tends to create more angles.

I might play around with this concept a little more, or I might not. Either way, this is the reason why this Design A Day challenge is a great thing for me. It gives me incentive and motivation to create new designs. (Whether or not they really work out well!)

I actually worked on this necklace while I was on my business trip to Boulder. Did I mention that my luggage didn't arrive with me? Yes, I got to Indy, but my bag didn't. (It could have been worse - it could have been waylaid on the way to Boulder. Then I would have been with out fresh clothes and - God forbid ! - my makeup for my meetings.) Well, I finally got my bag back yesterday and was able to finish this necklace and take a photo of it this morning. (Yes, I am officially behind on the Design-A-Day challenge and I doubt that I'll be able to catch up. Especially since I'll be traveling again next week.)

This is a necklace I've been thinking about doing for a while. The pearls are vintage and came from a 3-strand graduated necklace that I picked up for a pittance at a Flea Market. (They were really lovely, but one of the strands was broken.) The chain is a vintage piece that I picked up on Etsy.

The pearls were put on brass headpins and clustered somewhat assymetrically on the chain. I really like the way this piece looks on. If I can talk my daughter into modelling it, I'll post another picture later.

I wasn't sure about what to name it, so I asked my 12 yr-old, Emma what she thought it looked like. She's been really helpful at naming some of my other jewelry (like my Unraveling Earrings and my Unfurling Earrings, and the Unicorn Horn Earrings). She looked at the necklace, thought a few moments, and said, "Why don't you call it 'Fish Eggs'!"

I think this time I'll figure out a name on my own.

I spent most of Thursday in transit. I got up at 4:30 AM to catch a cab to Denver airport. I was supposed to have a 3 hour layover in Detroit (again!) but when I got there, I found that there was a flight leaving for Indianapolis in 30 minutes. They had seats, so I was able to get on it - this meant I could be home more than 2 hours early! It wasn't until I had entered the plane that I realized that my luggage wouldn't get to Indy as quickly as I would.

Sigh. No luggage for me. At least I got home early. But I won't be able to pick it up till Saturday. Hey, who needs make up and a curling iron anyway!

So, this preamble has been an excuse for why I didn't post my Day 9 design yesterday. (Cue the violins.) I was just too tired to do much of anythign last night. I vegitated and spent some time cuddling with my daughter and watching TV.

But I'm really really pleased with this design for Day 9. It's deceptively simple: a single piece of silver and a round gemstone. BUT, I think that simple is hard to get right.


Yes, it's just a single piece of wire, but it flows well with the stones and has a graceful curving design. And hammering the wire in different areas of the wire gives the earrings depth.
(Only problem: I can't remember what the heck these stones are! Does anyone know?)

OK, so today I'm at a business meeting in Boulder, Colorodo. No, it's not that wonderful; I spent the whole day holed up in a hotel room. But during the 2 breaks and lunch I did have the opportunity to look through hotel windows and glimpse some mountains in the distance! Whoo hoo!

Ah, a far cry from the corn fields of Indiana, eh?

Tomorrow my cab picks me up at 5:15 AM for the ride to the airport, to get me back home.

As I said before, I'm trying to keep this Design-A-Day commitment going for as long as I can. So I prepared ahead a bit to ensure that I have something to post.

So what do I have for today? Well, it might not seem as much, but it took a while to get it to the stage it's at.

I started with this idea a couple of months ago, but it never got off the ground beyond the preliminary stages.

What you see are vintage beads made of ostrich eggshells. These types of beads are amongst the oldest found on earth. (You can see more info about them in an earlier post of mine.) I've shaped them a bit with a file to give them a bit of a square shape, then added a swirl of silver to contrast with the square shape.

Eventually these pieces will become earrings. (You'll see. I swear.) One of the squares will comprise the post, and 2 others will dangle below.

Sorry, that's all for today. But I promise to post their progress later this week.

Today I am blogging from the terminal at the Detroit airport. I have a 4 hour layover until my flight to Denver. (Long story -I missed my connection so I'm stuck for a while. Thank goodness for laptops and WiFi.) It's a quick business trip this time - I'll be back home in a couple of days.

Over the weekend I did a lot of creating and taking pics. I was hoping that I wouldn't break my streak of posting a new design every single day for 30 days.

So here is my day 7 design, a jade and copper pendant:

This pendant started out as a practice piece that I did a while ago. I wanted to create a bracelet with sterling silver wire-wrapped beads. But of course I didn't want to waste silver, so I practiced with copper first. So what you see above is my first attempt at this type of wirework. These 2 beads went into my box of unfinished work and had been there for a couple months.

I pulled it out this weekend and decided that it would work well on its own as a pendant.

The copper, which has darkened on its own, really contrasts well with the jade, which is a creamy light green.

Not only do these look good enough to eat, but they should supply your entire day's requirement for Vitamin C!

The teardrop-shaped faceted beads are carnelians. The rondelles are wound glass that match the carnelians PERFECTLY. (I brought the carnelians to a local bead shop, to look for matching beads for a different design I was planning on. But when I found these orange rondelles, I couldn't pass them up. As soon as I saw them I could visualize the earrings I would have to make.)

The earrings may look simple, but I spent a long time this weekend trying to figure out how to combine the two beads just right to create a cohesive design.

The earrings are now available at my online store.

I've been really good with this Design-a-day challenge, trying to create new jewelry designs and photograph them everyday. It's been a stretch but it's been good for me too. I've had a ton of ideas running through my head for a while, but I've never really took the time to start them. This challenge has really given me a kick in seat of the pants to get up and create!

Ah, but now I have a problem. I'm leaving for the next 3 days for a business trip. I've tried to work a little ahead - I've got some new items and I'm trying to take pictures. So we'll see if I can continue this while I'm gone.

My signature earrings in my online store are made of a single piece of sterling in which the earwire is incorporated in the design -either as a post or a hoop. (For examples, look here.)

One of the swirls falls just in front of the earlobe, and one of them falls directly beneath and slightly back. I think it creates a interesting and dramatic look. They're a good size too, being about 2 1/2 inches from top to bottom.

If you're interested in seeing more Design-a-Day creations, you can visit the group on Flickr.

Today I decided that I would try making rings.

I'd never made rings before but I really wanted to try. I bought a ring madrel a couple weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to using it.


I thought I would start with copper for my first attempt (since silver is almost $18 an ounce these days). I love the look of copper combined with silver, so I used a silver bead as the focal. I don't think it turned out too badly:
I oxidized the metal and then polished it with fine steel wool, which gave the ring an antique look. It also gave the silver bead a satiny finish, which I think looks good.

My 17 yr old woman-child came into my work room and saw my first ring. She really liked it. Unbelievable! (Really, she rarely likes anything I make. So I was pretty amazed.) Since she was civil enough to talk to me (another remarkable circumstance) I gave her my first attempt at ring-making.

Next I wanted to make a variation on the first ring, so I thought I would add more silver to the ring. This is what it turned out like:

Let me know what you think. Do you prefer the first ring, or do you like the ring with the additional silver accents?

(If you're interested, the Flickr photostream for this challenge can be found here.)


FEBRUARY 2 EVENING UPDATE: I just listed the silver and copper ring in my Etsy shop.

Blue chalcedony, sterling, and swarovski - caught in the last light of a winter's day.

I'm tired.

I came home early from work because 2 kids are sick and we have an impending snowstorm. (The kids phoned me and begged me to come home. Why did I bother? When I got home, they were either asleep or engrossed in the computer. Sigh.)

So now the kids are fed. I played cards with them. My husband is still working and I'm holding his dinner for him. He won't be home for a while so I'll thought I'd post in the blog. Here goes:

I started these earrings last night and there wasn't much left to do to get them finished today. The gemstones are wonderful; really large faceted lemon quartz that I bought a couple of months ago and never got around to using: I took the photo on a window ledge to take advantage of the last bit of the winter's light. Otherwise, it would have meant me taking the photo in the dreaded "light box of doom". (Da da da DUMMMMMM.)

Day 3 is already planned. Stay tuned!

FEBRUARY 1 Update: These are now listed in my Etsy store.

I made these earrings last night, although I had been thinking about this design for a while. In fact, I bought the pearls this past weekend with the intent of making these particular earrings.

Very simple yet very elegant. I used three different sizes of cream-colored pearls, connected with sterling silver loops which are lightly oxidized. I'm really surprised at how well the photos came out. Usually I have to take dozens of photos to get some that are tolerable. I think I can actually list these earrings on my website soon.

Notice the headpins on the bottom pearls? I made them by melting the silver wire using my gas grill. (Check out my adventure about making them here!) I've been saving them for a while to use for something.

I really don't know how I'm going to make a new design everyday for the next 29 days. Tonight I had to work late at my regular 9-to-5 job. The only reason I was able to finish these earrings is because we had leftovers for dinner and my kids weren't in the way. (One was in gymnastics, the other had the day off from school and was contentedly vegging in front of the TV all night. Am I a bad mom?)

Not too bad of a start but, oh yes, I can definitely see these "designs-a-day" deteriorating rapidly.

JANUARY 31 UPDATE: These earrings are now listed in my Etsy store.

Gemmafactrix, a wonderful jewelry artist, has started a flicker group called Design a Day. Here is her challenge:

"Your challenge is this: make something new every day for a month. You can continue on for longer, of course, but the idea is to create a new design, however simple, every day for a month. Often I get so caught up in selling my work - taking photos, packaging, shipping, updating my website - that I forget to just enjoy creating. Hopefully this group will help me - and you - do that. :) "