Intentional Stones

Garnets and Circles

This is another pair in progress.  They need the tumbler to get shiny, then who knows.

I never realized how challenging this would be!  Just finding the time to design something new each day, wow!

These earrings are the result of playing with my new disk cutter, just a little one, but fun all the same.  Drops and filigreed jumprings make them sparkle. 

Tomorrow I have to hit the welding supply place for some more torch fuel.  Yesterday's earrings have had to wait. 

This is fun!

-Simbelmynë

 

 

Work in progress

Today's pair of earrings is not finished yet. These copper wires will be soldered down to silver sheet and pressed. I think I'll put a stone in the middle of the design. I looked through my stones and didn't find one yet, but there are more I haven't looked at.

Mixed metals are fun, but they take a little longer.

-Simbelmynë

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Bits and bobs

I'm still working with old things.  These stud earrings and a couple of the evil bezels make a cute little pair. 

-Simbelmynë

Earrings Day 2

 

Today I just made tiny studs.  They are green Catseye cabochons, about 6 mm tall.

One of the challenges of these simple earrings is the bezels.  They are a prefab product I picked up very early in my metalsmithing carreer.  I just want to use them up, rather than melting them down.  But they are an odd shape (to me) and it is sometimes hard to get them closed over the stone.  They are made by forming the cup shape into a flat piece of metal with a press. 

I have a few more pairs laid out and I'll keep working at them.  I am still trying to figure out whether the problem is with me or the bezels.  Probably, they will get less and less simple as I work thougheach pair. 

Look at me, working on a simple project to solve a problem.  Normally I drive myself mad with the most complex thing I can imagine!  Maybe I really am learning.

-Simbelmynë

Gearing up for 2013

I know there are a few weeks left to enjoy of 2013, but I am already pretty excited to see what it brings.

I'm always looking for ways to challenge myself, and since I will need to make more than I ever have before, I've decided to set myself small daily goals. For practice I want to make a oar of earrings for each day in December. I'm starting at a bit of a deficit, but today I snuck in a pair to start with.

I went to a little (hopefully growing!) Steampunk convention a couple of weeks ago, where I got to see many friends from the Renaissance Faire. So today I was playing with that inspiration. These earrings will go with a necklace in progress.

How are your holidays shaping uo?

-Simbelmynë

 

 

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Winds of time

Nice dramatic title, eh?

The Wheel of Time books that I'm Still reading, (Yeah at just about 800pp per book and 13 books, it takes this slow reader a while.  Especially checking the Wheel of Time Wiki every time a character is mentioned, And listening to the podcasts a bunch of delightfully foul mouthed geeks are producing, spoilers abound, so if you're not up to date, don't go to either.  I'm a true geek.) start each story with the Wind.  The Wind is almost a character.  It carries the threads started in the prologue into the main part of the book.  A fun literary tool.  Especially when it clues in characters we've been wishing would get a clue.  Like a little gnat biting them.  Ok, maybe it just adds to the frustration.  But if I didn't love these characters, I wouldn't be on my 5th re-read of the series, nor would I be cheering on Brandon Sanderson to get the final book done. 

Anyway, the reason I mention all this, is that the past few months have flown by.

How does time do that?

Since starting the school year, on top of Show Season, on top of finishing the remodeling of the kitchen, on top of everything else, I haven't had time for anything.

I've been disappointed in the studio.  When ever I'm there, I can feel my skills growing and my work getting better!  But I can't spend nearly as much time down there as I'd like. 

I have a number of small commissions I picked up over the summer and fall that are nearly done, but they've been inching along!  (Thank you, if you're one of the people I owe work to.  I know you're looking forward to your pieces.  I wish I was working at any kind of decent pace.)  And I'm only barely making my deadlines.  I have been careful to explain to people that I'm severely limited in my work time, but it doesn't help me in feeling like I'm way too slow. And I have a big set I've been working on for months.  Since the beginning of the year.  That's still not done.  I work a little at a time and try to show my work when it's gotten somewhere.  And I just got a key to the biggest piece, so I hope to get a bunch done this weekend.  It's not that I'm not thinking about these things constantly, it's that I just can't find time to do everything!!!

There.

It's off my chest.

I'm terrible.

I'm not going to take any more commissions until the ones I have are done.  I'm hoping I can clear up 90% of them this weekend.  Putting them ahead of everything else. 

I'm certainly not making excuses.  Time is just moving way too fast lately.

-Simbelmynë

 

 

Monday Traffic

I figured it out a week ago, then the blog post was stale, now it's fresh again.

Mondays are like tunnel traffic. 

Living in Pittsburgh gives one a unique perspective on the concept of tunnels.  Tunnels and bridges are a way of life here.  There are something like 700 bridges and fewer tunnels, I've never counted.  But I live with a view of the Squirrel Hill tunnel.  It goes over 376, the main path from east to west through Pittsburgh.  When I first moved here, 12 years ago, I didn't understand why people don't like to cross town for gatherings, shops, events.  And then a few seasons of heavy construction on the bridges and tunnels showed me what it was. 

Tunnel traffic.

There's nothing quite like the psychological effect tunnels have.  Someone once told me that if the Squirrel Hill Tunnel was just 1 foot wider on each side, (East and Westbound each has it's own 2 lane tunnel), then the psychological effect of the tunnel would be lessened.  People automatically slow down when entering the tunnel.  There's a tendency for fender benders near and in it.  Most are very minor, but they can stop both lanes for a couple minutes at a time.  Stopping everyone else for 15-30 minutes.  And that's just for minor problems.

Construction is just that much more fun.  Removing lanes, putting up signs for slowdowns, rerouting exits (there's one right after the tunnel on either side).  It's all fun.

And on a busy summer weekend day, you can lose a huge chunk of your free time by braving these hazards.  Even I have started mentally assessing the construction situation before I commit to something across town.

My point, that I've gotten distracted from, is that Mondays are like my tunnels. 

Weekends are a time when I get to participate in a lot of my artistic pursuits.  I get to take classes, get together with friends, family, fellow artists, go shopping and hunting for materials in other ways.  I get to recharge. 

I also get to spend free time with my family, I get more rest.  I'm generally reenergized when Monday morning comes. 

I wake up and I feel like I could do anything.  Get through the school day, take on 2 new projects as well as finish all the old ones.  Clean up the house.  Have a great time. 

By noon, I realize that it's just like every other weekday.  School is hard work and it's using up all my energy.  Jewelry and household projects are going to need more than I have left at the end of the day.  And every day things like cooking, cleaning up after ourselves and keeping myself fit and healthy are going to take up even more of that energy.   The rest of the day is spent in that weirdly lighted, tightly enclosed space where if anything happened, I wouldn't be able to back out and I'd be stuck there forever. 

Every week.

I need some kind of alternate route through Monday.

Any ideas?

-Simbelmynë

 

Dragonfly

This piece turned into a crazy interjection of heavy and lightweight elements.  The assignment "necklace with a forged element" really seemed hard to me.  It was an assignment for Jewelry Making I.

I like to make delicate things- bubbles, bugs, chain...  But the shapes you get forging wire-long and thin, pointed pieces, weren't speaking to me.  All I could think of was hooks and curves, and those are fine as part of a necklace or bracelet, but not as a focal componant. 

And then the dragonfly idea struck me.  Forging a piece of grass, the long spindly tail of the bug, the legs.  Perfect. 

I started having so much fun I forged out the clasp as well!  And it all balances the heavy metal with delicate light elements. 

For class I've been working to challenge myself.  Not only to learn each technique as thoroughly as possible, but to encorporate as many techniques into each project as possible. 

Turns out this philosophy is crazy.

The extra parts- the chain, endcaps, intricate cut work wings-those took up time and when I hit a snag-getting all those pieces soldered together almost ended everything.  A bit of the tail burned off, I slightly damaged the wings.  Fortunately, the benefit of working on it for class, I could take it to my teacher, repeatedly, and she helped me get it down and all of the damage was repairable. 

I've got several potential designs that spring from this one.  Yay for education!

-Simbelmynë

 

Catching Up To Do

Everything's been going simultaneously and it seems like it's all paused.  Woven chain was a big hit with family this holiday season and I'm about to start on project number 3!  I've been working constantly on these: 

The amazing learning experience necklace!  I love the result, it will be a special item only concept.  Azurinte malachite pendant and lapis, malachite and black tourmaline on the chain. 

This one is fairly simple, a thin chain with Botsana Agate pendant.  I just have a couple of findings to complete. 

The last will require increases in the chain, so I'll have to do a practice version.

I feel soooooo slow!

Lemons and Lemonade

 

That soldering thing I was nervous about? 

It didn't go well.

I reforged the body of the dragonfly.

Packed the whole thing up and I'm going to ask for help once I get to class. Hopefully, the teacher will be able to get this whole mess together. 

It's learning, I just need to be patient.