This week I was commissioned to make a collar for an energy healer. She has a herkimer diamond that she wears 24/7, and her previous collar (not by me) broke after many years of taking it off and putting it on.
She wanted the new collar to incorporate gold-filled and silver, to represent sun/moon and male/female energy. I added 11 bindings (master number 11 represents intuition), and with the exception of the binding at the base of the “V”, each of the bindings is a multiple of 3.
I’m participating in the Secret Santa on CWJ again this year, and as usual, I’m choosing to work outside my comfort zone. Back in the summer when I was teaching at Haliburton, one of the projects we did was a “freeform” bangle. Now, anyone who knows me and has any familiarity with my past work, knows that I’m not a freeform kinda gal. It was the notes I got for my Secret Santa recipient’s preferences that made me think freeform would be the best approach.
The frame was made out of 16 ga round copper. Then, making use of the miles and miles of Artistic Wire I have, I wound in 20 ga purple and 28 ga tangerine wire.
Gilbert spent literally years working on his necklace, tying and retying the wire knots. Originally, I was intending to make the interweaving more dense, but time is getting short, and the bracelet needs to be in the mail in the next day or so if I have any hope of getting it to its destination before Christmas.
Funny, I haven’t made much jewellery in the past two years, partly because I haven’t felt very inspired. But working on this bangle made me feel very energetic – I have the “itch” to do more work. Unfortunately there are other deadlines looming, so I have to put off making for a little while longer. I’m starting to have ideas for new pieces though, and am faithfully sketching them in my notebook. Feels good…
Here are some process photos I took showing the stages of construction.
I got an email from Angie Simonsen, the recipient of my Secret Santa gift this year:
Hi Dianne,
I again wanted to thank you for my necklace.
It’s is one I will certainly always treasure, especially coming from someone who’s work I first admired in the wonderful book, “Wire in Design”. I’ve always thought it so special and unique to be able to actually converse with some of the people that have really inspired me on thru my journey with wire, but to actually have a necklace from one, well – that’s really, really freaking cool.
I was going to leave a comment on your blog on the Secret Santa post, but it said it was closed for comments…
Stay wired!
Angie Simonsen
Wire Jewelry Artist
http://www.allthingsangie.com
Angie articulated exactly why I love to do swaps: it gives me the opportunity to connect with other people who share my passion. And it is freakin’ cool to get a piece from someone whose work you admire. I know exactly how that feels: I have received jewellery from several people whose style I adore, and I treasure those pieces beyond words.
(NB – I turned comments off on my posts because I was getting a lot of spam posts.)
Once again it’s time for the Secret Santa exchange on CWJ.
As usual, I decided to try my hand at something I’ve never done before. I bought a bunch of stones off eBay a while back – mixed quality for the most part, but still useful for experiments. Caveat Emptor is the rule with eBay, so I knew not to expect top quality. Many of the stones are very very small, and so pose a challenge for figuring out a wired setting. The stones for this project were some very small marquise cut sapphires about 5×3 mm, if that.
It’s been quite a while since I picked up my pliers, so I’m feeling a bit rusty. Also not feeling particularly innovative, so I thought I’d try my hand at some of the techniques that seem to be popular on some of the online forums.
My result reminds me of the marcasite jewellery that was popular in the late 19th century. Hopefully my Secret Santa recipient will like her gift :-). I liked it so much, I made another one for myself, with gold-filled beads.
Sapphire Pendant,
Sterling and fine silver, sapphire,
4.8 cm long x .7 cm wide
Private collection
Back in December I was contacted by a lady who wanted a bridal set based on the Musicali Necklace.
She wanted the necklace and a headpiece based on the necklace.
Since she was getting married in Scotland, she also wanted two Celtic-style pendants for her attendants – one based on a shield with a malachite bead, and another based on a treskele with garnet beads.
I got a follow up email from her at the end of last month. She was very happy with all of the jewellery.
Apparently the dressmaker loved the jewellery so much “she refused to allow me to put any kind of embellishment on the dress, because she said the necklace and headpiece were already the perfect compliment to it, and would take away from the overall effect.”
Here’s the bride wearing the headpiece and necklace, and another shot of the bridesmaids wearing their pendants.
The “young-at-heart” gentleman who commissioned a name pin from me back at Christmas wanted a pair of earrings for the special nurse for Easter.
I should mention, actually, that the name pin had to be done again, because he gave me the wrong spelling. The funny thing was that she refused to give back the original pin.
Here’s the photo of the replacement pin:
