What my Grandfather Taught me about Jewelry

My grandfather was the type of person, having grown up during the Great Depression, that enjoyed life to it's fullest. Every morsel of food he put in his mouth was the best he'd ever had. Every baby he passed was appreciated for it's cuteness. He savored his family and enjoyed our company as much as possible. You can see him in the below picture on the right. My dad is to the left, and my aunt and uncle are in the center. Doesn't he look like someone you'd want to hang with? He was well-known for his love of corned beef sandwiches and would travel a great distance to obtain a quality sandwich.

What does this have to do with jewelry? Well, it's his passion and enthusiasm that was contagious. Sometimes, this passion was a bit misplaced. You see, his birthstone was the ruby, and so, he loved rubies. But at some point, he discovered that garnets were very similar in look to rubies, but A LOT CHEAPER. So, my poor grandmother endured gift after gift of garnet cluster jewelry. And she did not really care for garnets. But she smiled and thanked him sweetly for every piece she received, and he was a happy husband feeling satisfied for his good taste and frugality.

When I create jewelry, I only make pieces I love. I only wear pieces I love; I only buy pieces I love. And when I wear them, it brings me such joy that I remember the spirit of my grandfather, and he smiles down on me.

New Apatite & Opal Set

So today I got some things completed that had been SITTING on my bench for months!! These pieces I had etched at our last Ladysmiths' etching workshop (see past post for details) and I had big plans for them, and finally yay(!) today was the day!!

The centerpiece is a fiery Ethiopian opal I scored from Tucson last year as part of a parcel of 8mm stones. But the real star of this set are the blue apatites. They have a green tinge to them, making them a sort of light turquoise-y color, and are very appealing! The chain is also a strand of gorgeous faceted apatites. The bail looks upside down, but I really did that to echo the pointy shapes emanating from the etched forms.

I think it has a great ethnic and graphic feel to it, with the earrings matching really well but not too matchy-matchy. I actually took advantage of the wide bottom of the bail as a connector- I drilled a hole, then inserted a balled-up wire from the inside. The balled part allows the wire to not fall through the hole, and then I inserted the end through the pendant and wrapped it for security.  Here's a link so you can see more:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/179732937/necklace-and-earrings-set-etched-silver?ref=shop_home_active_1

I also have spinner rings back in my shop!! The exciting part is that I now have brass rings available! So if you like the mixed-metal look, you can now opt for the opals to be set into a gold-tone ring. Here's a link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167820747/opal-spinner-ring?ref=shop_home_active_2

Presents for Friends....

This week I worked on a couple of projects for friends. The first, for my friend Karen, who's relocating across country due to a job re-location.  She's part of my lady metalsmiths group (http://www.theladysmiths.blogspot.com) that meets regularly, and was one of the original and most enthusiastic members! She will be sorely missed! We all decided to make a 'link' for her, so she can connect them all together and wear it to remember us.

I made mine out of Argentium silver so I could fuse everything- no solder. I started with the 2 curved outer pieces to make the shape of a crescent moon. The reason is that Karen's business is called Crescent Studio (http://www.crescentstudio.etsy.com). I also encorporated 'K's' for Karen into the design. And lastly, I set a sapphire, because that's Karen's birthstone! I hope she likes it! I placed the loops on the sides so that she could wear it as part of a linked chain, or, she could attach a chain and wear it alone as a necklace.

This next project is also a link project but for charity- CERF. It's an artists emergency relief fund for when things go bad and artists like me need financial help. It's still in the building stage, but the hope is that this linked chain can raise money in some way. Whether the links are auctioned, or the chain is promoted to bring awareness and donations, the bottom line is it's a community event for us metalsmiths to sink our teeth into.

I'm experimenting with photography- this link is almost finished (stone is not set yet, need to clean up a bit) but what do you think? Which background color do you like the best- white, black, or gray?? Leave your vote in the comments below!

New Beginnings...

So my goals for January were threefold:

1) Create at least 10 items that I could send out to cast, to be my first production line.

Above are the 10 items (I think). I sent them out to my 3rd try on casters- I hope I find this 3rd casting house has the best balance of cost, quality, and turn-around time. Of course, none of the above are oxidized for contrast or with stones set, so I'm not sure how much you at home will be able to tell how the final product will look, but I am hopeful. I can already tell that the ones with lots of plain sheet space do not come out as well as I like. The predicament I have is the darkening of the background so that it is even.

But when they come back from the caster, I have a plan! I am going to throw them in the tumbler with fine abrasive media to create an almost sand-blasted look, then I will oxidize them, hoping that it will be even and not streaky. Then I will buff the tops. Hope I am on to a good solution! I browsed the internet at pictures of others' granulated and oxidized works, and somehow I see more even-ness in the background black than I have been able to achieve. I am hoping this treatment will be the correct one in order to get that same result!!

I also sent in this piece- it is a ring shank. You know how much I love these twisted wire, braided-look shanks. So, I figured, why not make it my signature? That way, my 'line' of products will include ring shanks that are consistent, too. I hope they look good together! Plus, these take time to make so it'll be nice to have a bunch at the ready!

So, these are the new pieces I've made this month, and they will join the other 4 I made last year. I hope I have enough range in scale. These all will become earrings, and some will become pendants and rings as well. I even ordered some in brass so I could see how they looked in 'gold'. That may be a good option too. I did order a lot of calibrated stones. My other fear is I ordered too many and will offer too many choices! Maybe each piece will have a certain limit to options. We'll see- all will be decided when I get my pieces and stones in!

This is illustrative of my second goal:

2) Get the 6-8 pieces that are half-done on my bench DONE.

Originally I had this in an Irene Neuwirth-type design, but it just didn't 'sing' to me, so I re-thought it as you see above, and below. I think it looks kind of cosmic and far-out, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the final turns out. Now that my items are in the caster's hands, I am ready to move on to my second goal- this week! (although they are calling for snow here this week and so my kids may be off for a coupla days... sigh....

And what is my 3rd goal????

3) Work on some new, experimental pieces!!!

Okay, I actually have a few things in mind for new work, and experimental work consists of playing with my kistka, but you'll have to watch this space for more updates about that.....

Happy 2014!!

 Happy New Year All! I hope 2014 is a healthy, happy and prosperous year for us all! I just updated my website- hope you'll have time to check it out. I am in the midst of re-programming it so that it will be more 'readable' by search engines, but it's a slow process....

You can find it here:

http://www.DanaEvansStudio.com

I also managed to get a cache of medium/large Ethiopian opals cut before the kids were home for Winter Break- half of these I recently bought, and half I've had for a while. Prices for rough were down 1/3, and even cut stones have come down in price. Not sure why.... Due to my main supplier having sold out of his opal stock, I've had to rely on other suppliers and myself! I did manage to get a few nice faceted opals at the last International Gem & Jewelry Show, and these will do nicely for those customers who prefer cabochons. Some had a lot of sand in them, but I think once the bezels are on, they'll look great. It's always a struggle figuring out how much stone to cut off, and how much sand is acceptable to leave on, in order to give the stone more weight. Myself, I don't mind much sand, for it reminds me where it came from and that it's a natural object. 

Once the kids are in school next week, I have gobs of projects to finish up- look for more good stuff here soon!!

A Photographic Opportunity

This holiday season I had the opportunity to consign some pieces to photographer/portrait artist Leslie McIntosh in Virginia Beach. She wanted to try to market jewelry from a smattering of different artists and did several shows in her beautiful studio, with creative displays and marketing.

What's so interesting is how she photographed my pieces, above. It's always surprising to see one's work photographed by someone else. It takes you aback because of the way they 'see' your work, and the decisions they make to package it. But there are definite advantages to having a photographer market jewelry!! It's a beautiful photograph. The makeup dots above her eyebrows seems to reinforce the granulated technique of the jewelry.  It has a certain spirit, too, which I think aligns with the spirit of the pieces. As I always am taking extreme close-ups of my pieces, I do seem to want to look closer at each of the pieces, but I have to remind myself to take the image in as a whole.

What do you think??

ABI Profile

Check out this link for a profile of me by the Arts Business Institute:

http://www.artsbusinessinstitute.org/artists/artist-profile-dana-evans/