Saturday, March 29, 2014

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Repeat: Playing Catch Up

Time to play catch up. How two weeks went by while I wasn't looking I will never know. Time slippage (is that a thing?) is a strange phenomenon that plagues several areas of my life including how long it has been since I've called my mother, brother, best friend (insert all other people waiting for phone calls here), the last time I remembered to pay the garbage bill (we have a quarterly system), as well as a number of other things that I can't think of right now. hmmm.....

At any rate, I've caught up with the 3xR challenge this week!


Lets call this Sunbeam Pendant Week 10:

Sterling Silver, Brass, and Green Onyx Pendant

The silver portions were left over from a piece with many long tabs (which I think I actually scrapped as well so look for that in the future!), the brass was left over from a project that involved  many large rectangles and that I had given up on ages ago as evidenced by the other cut out form, the bezel was partially melted on the bottom, and the stone... well I guess a stone is never technically scrap, but hey, I wanted to use some stones!



And for Week 11 a Rain Drop Ring:

Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, and Lapis Ring
The scrap was a mixture of melted bezels, small wire pieces, and piercings from previous stone settings. The band was rolled down from a very heavy piece of wire (not pictured) that was purchased for a college forging project and never used, which means I've been holding on to it for at least 5 years. 



Week 12 Silver and Turquoise Ring:

Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, Turquoise Ring

I completely forgot to take pictures of the scrap for this one! The back plate is left over from a piercing on an older workshop piece and has a roller printed texture on the back, the bezel was salvaged from a much larger bezel that I accidentally melted years ago, and the rivets were extra "just in case" rivets from previous rings. The turquoise in this ring and the lapis in the ring above were purchased from my college prof about 5 years ago. She had cut them herself maybe ten years prior to that. I'm still not sure they could be counted as scrap, but definitely count as components that were already on hand.

Thanks for reading! I promise to try to keep up with this challenge from here on out.

You can check out what the other 3xR artists have been up to over at the 3xR Flickr group.

Monday, March 24, 2014

3xR Update: Weeks 7, 8, and 9

Whoops! I've neglected the 3xR challenge here on the blog. Can't have that! So lets play catch up and take a look at what I came up with for weeks 7, 8 and 9.

Weeks 7 and 8 had me revisiting the scrap posts.


 I love that you can really see the scrap if the final pieces.


 For week 8 I made 4 sets!


After all those scrap posts I wanted to change it up a bit. So I pulled out all the tiny bits of left over chain I could find as well as some discarded parts from an abandoned project. 


Resulting in this totally funky pair of chain earrings. 


I actually made a pair for myself and have worn them 3 out of the last 5 days. For anyone that knows me in real life, this is a shocking turn of events. I rarely wear anything but posts, but these are so light and fun that I just can't stay away from them!

You can find many of these eco-friendly pieces in my Etsy shop. Now I'm off to look around for more tidbits to use this week.

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

New at No Roses Gallery

I'm very excited to announce that my work can now be found in the Los Angeles area at No Roses Gallery. I was so excited about working with No Roses that I created a collection of work specifically for them full of one of a kind pieces from the Orbital and Beach Pottery Collections!


Sterling Silver Necklaces from the Orbital Collection
 
Right now the only place you can get your hands on a pair of earrings from the Beach Pottery Collection is at No Roses Gallery!  

Sterling Silver earrings from the Beach Pottery Collection



Located just over the hill from Beverly Hills and West Hollywood on Ventura Boulevard, No Roses Gallery and the surrounding restaurants, brewpubs, and boutiques make for a great day trip.



I hope you'll stop in and discover what No Roses Gallery and the surrounding neighborhood has to offer. If you can't make it person, you can visit the No Roses website for a look at "Distinctive Artisan Jewelry Crafted by Hand and Heart" and more one of a kind work from the Orbital and Beach Pottery Collections. 

Thanks for reading! 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Spring is in the air!

Spring is probably my favorite season. This will of course change at the start of summer and then again at the start of fall... What can I say. I like variety.

Best part of spring is dusting off my macro lens and rediscovering my garden.

Peach Blossoms

Second best thing about spring is the inspiration from the garden that flows over to the studio.

Silver and Carnelian Ring

Every morning I tour the garden with my dog and a cup of coffee.

Clematis Buds
Later, I pull out my sketch book or sit down at the bench and create.

Silver and Aventurine Earrings
I'm never sure what will stick with me or how it will influence my work

Elysium linifolium veriegatum
and it's always fun to find out.

Copper and Silver Variegated Leaf Earrings

Thanks for Reading!