wing and a prayer in silver

 i love using pure silver for gifts of love.  it so expresses the purity of the sentiment!   

continuing with my heart theme for february, this was last bebruary's heart that i never posted.  i seem to get a little crazy this time of year while i'm gearing up to have plenty of new work for the annual Stutz Artists Open House, in april.  it makes me get off track, sometimes, forgetting the little things like posting.  this is the second version of a piece i designed for my sister.  it has the serenity prayer on the back...a prayer that has special significance for both of us.  she wears in on a 5mm wide silver neck ring on which it is stunning, if i do say so myself!

the original 'a wing and a prayer' pieces were bronze, and a little smaller.  the heat patina here shows up, here, very well.

heart of my heart

eacch year in febroary, i make at least one new heart piece. each new piece has been inspired by a gift of love.   this year i continued with the theme of heart defined by angel wings, which, to me have always meant transcendence, combined with the lotus flower, representing the heart chakra, the center, in the body, of joy and love.  after trying several diffferent things, i finally setteled on finishing these with a heat patina.  the copper reacts with heat from my torch with various colors ranging from intense blue through metallic greens, pinks, rose, and eventually black.  the results are sometimes unpredictable, and hard to photograph.  i said i'd keep you posted, here are the finished pieces, titled 'heart of my heart'.

heart of my heart

here's the heart/wing pendant with the lotus, after contructing it in copper clay and firing it.  the copper finish is lovely, but i have been experimenting in glass enamel finishes, and also heat patina.  glass enamel has proved problematic, i think because the piece is not of consistant thickness, and the design is raised.  i've had some nice results with the enamel, but not what i expected.  soldier on....i'll keep you posted!

new project for the month of love

new project, new month new year!  i'm working on a special project designed for a group of women to give to their yoga teachers.  i am so in love with gifts of love!  especially in february!  this is the design i came up with for them:  wing/heart shape for love and trancensence, and the lotus for the heart chakra.  it will be in copper, and probably enameled, and with a stone in the middle of the flower.  i'll keep you posted!

like a phoenix!

sometimes when i'm working, a piece breaks.  it is heartbreaking, but, then it becomes a test of wills, between me and the broken piece........ with me saying, "you will become something beautifull!"

i figured and i studied and i figured and i studied, and i finally figured it out!  thanks to my poppo, or was it my mother? who always said "where there's a will, there's a way!"  so....i made a third piece out of sheet copper and used it to back the broken and weak parts. then, i added some leaves to bring the two halves back to the same level, some texture to the backing copper, and viola!  

 here she is, resurrected, and stronger than ever, in all her glory!

hooray!!!!!

sometimes there's heartbreak....

i have just made the most beautiful necklace.  i worked and worked on the enameling to get it just right.  it was a repaired piece from te get-go, and the heating and reheating must have been too much for it.......

the poor thing broke in half.  don't know if i can fix it.  oh man!  it is a killer when that happens.  i had to take a picture of the broken carcass.  

it has a title, should it ever be repaired well enough to wear....a lovely title. 

 "the gift from the goddess of the night sky"

doesn't that just about make you want to cry?

did i tell you about the bracelet links????

well.  i've been roling ideas around in my mind for months for a link bracelet, thinkini i wanted something that i could eventually make into a watchband for myself.  this is the design i ended up with.

this is basicly how i did it.  i rolled out copper clay

and made a cardstock pattern the shape i wanted, and cut out enough for my bracelet.

i had a mold of a victorian button and cast that in copper

i unmolded the cast while it was still wet, and used water and paste to bond the two.

dried them and fired them according to the instructions on the package.

the next day i took them out of the kiln, rolled out bronze clay, also two cards thick, then cut it into tiny strips 3/4" long and about 1/4" wide, with one strip an inch and a half long.  i dried them flat and fired them.

next, i enameled the copper links with pink and green enamel, and put them aside to cool while i made 14mm copper jump rings.  then i pounded a little 'character' into them.

all that was left was to assemble the bracelet using the flat bronze strips with their ends curled under to make an oval link, with one end around a copper jump ring and the other around the enameled flower link, until it was long enough for my wrist, and finish with a hook made from the one long strip.  viola!  bracelet!  i can even add charms!