pendant – Page 2 – dianne karg baron

YOJ09-52 Marquise Series: Pendant 6

Posted on December 31, 2009 by dianne

Marquise Series: Pendant 6 (2009)
Sterling silver, ribbon
Constructed, cold-joined
L 9.8 cm x W 3.4 cm/Ribbon: L 52 cm x W 3.0 cm

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My ex-husband used to say “Go Big or Stay Home”, so I’m finishing off the Year of Jewelry 2009 with a super-sized version of the Marquise Pendant. This started off as an experiment to see if the basic marquise shape would translate to a bangle, but I haven’t worked out the kinks to that yet.

I also decided to give the ribbon necklace another try, although again, it’s technically uneconomic to make. Ah well, I wanted to finish up the year in style! LOL

Here’s another shot of what it looks like on:

And so this very challenging year comes to an end. I’ll have a look back over the year and post some thoughts about what I achieved.

Until then, I wish you and those close to you a very Happy New Year, filled with enough challenge to keep you interested, and enough joy to keep you inspired!

All the best in 2010!

YOJ09-51 Marquise Series: Pendant 5

Posted on December 30, 2009 by dianne

Marquise Series: Pendant 5 (2009)
Sterling silver, fine silver, Swarovski crystal
Constructed, cold-joined, nalbinding
L 6.5 cm x W 1.3 cm

This pendant is made of two “recycled” pieces from Bracelet 3, which didn’t match the other links. Initially I only added the Swarovskis as embellishment, but the pendant looked unbalanced. So I decided to add some viking knitting – nalbinding – and create a ribbon-like effect. The work involved in adding the nalbinding bumps this up from production piece to a “couture” One of a Kind or Limited Edition.

I’m not completely satisfied with how it turned out, but I’m also not able to define what is bothering me about it. It might just be that it doesn’t work as a pendant. The design would certainly make a fabulous pair of earrings. Comments are welcome!

YOJ09-49 Marquise Series: Pendant 4

Posted on December 27, 2009December 28, 2009 by dianne

Marquise Series: Pendant 4 (2009)
Sterling silver
Constructed, cold-joined
L 3.6 cm x W 1.6 cm

Here is one more variation in sterling silver. The original idea was to add a 2 mm Swarovski crystal, similar to what I did in the Week 47 project, but I ended up deciding against it.

YOJ09-47 Marquise Series: Pendant 2

Posted on December 27, 2009 by dianne

Marquise Series: Pendant 2 (2009)
Sterling silver, fine silver, Swarovski crystal
Constructed, cold-joined
L 3.4 cm x W 0.9 cm

I’m still working along the lines of “quick and simple” for this series, but this time, I wanted to add a tiny splash of colour.

Still trying to keep the cost of the pendant down, I didn’t want to spend too much time on the coiling, so I added only one little Swarovski, strategically placed.

I bought a bunch of these 2 mm Swarovskis back in the late spring when I was preparing for my class at Haliburton. I hadn’t intended to buy them, but when the supplier I was visiting only had half the tools in stock that I needed, I had to choose some other things to bump up my purchase to their minimum order requirement. (It’s incredibly irritating when the stuff is shown in stock on the website, only to discover empty bins when you get there. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual occurrence with this particular supplier, which is why I always go in person, and I don’t shop there unless absolutely necessary.) They are one of the few officially sanctioned wholesale suppliers of Swarovski and Preciosa, so I picked up a few packages.

After several different attempts, I also finally came up with a nice bail that compliments the marquise shape of the pendant.

YOJ09-46 Marquise Series: Pendant 1

Posted on December 23, 2009 by dianne

Marquise Series: Pendant 1
Sterling silver, fine silver, cord
Constructed, cold-joined
L 6.1 cm x W 1.0 cm

One of the jewelry groups on Facebook is currently running a design contest to “overcome the economic crisis”. The idea is to use cheaper materials to reduce the price point of the finished piece. The problem I see with the contest is that the value of the physical effort involved is completely discounted. The cost of the labour stays the same regardless of the materials used.

The only way reduce the cost of the labour is to simplify the designs so that they take less time to make.

There are two challenges to making simple designs: one is to make them well, because the simpler the design, the more important the finishing becomes; the other is coming up with an original concept, something that will appeal to the customer without looking like the same old same old that someone else has produced.

I think the latter is the harder of the two to overcome.

This was the background I was thinking about while making this pendant. The goal was to produce a nice, quick-to-make design, that could become part of my bread-and-butter line for next year. As much as I like making the complex one-of-a-kind pieces, most of my sales fall in the in $20-$150 price range.

Without the neck rope, the pendant on its own would fall easily in the lower end of that range.

It’s been my experience that chains are uneconomic for me to make from scratch, and that was proven true again with this piece. The labour involved in making the neck rope bumps the price up substantially, and the change to the cheaper material (polymer cord) has a huge impact on the perceived value. I end up with a piece that is not sellable at the price I need to sell it at to recoup my costs and actually pay myself.

It’s perverse. It’s also why I don’t generally use “cheap” materials. I want you to feel good about what you’re buying from me, so I make high quality jewellery, with high quality materials. It’s worth every cent.

YOJ09-42 Playing with a Hammer :-)

Posted on December 3, 2009December 4, 2009 by dianne

Copper Pendants (2009)
Constructed, hammered, cold joined, heat patination
Copper
Various sizes

Still trying to play catch up on the YOJ, but I’m feeling decidedly uninspired. So, I decided I’d break out my bench block and do some hammering on copper. Just playing, nothing serious.

I like pieces that resulted, but realized that some of them resemble the work of Ann Wylie-Toal, a fellow Canadian whose pieces often look like gesture drawing.

To add a bit of visual interest to these, I hauled out my frying pan again and cooked the copper. It’s so much fun watching the metal turn from orange to brown to red to purple to blue to silvery! Unfortunately the blue is an oxide layer that wipes off very easily. Immediately spraying with Krylon would be the only way to preserve it. Still, I love the possibilities!

YOJ09-39 Oblong Purple Jade Pendant

Posted on November 22, 2009November 22, 2009 by dianne

Oblong Purple Jade Pendant (2009)
Constructed, cold joined
Sterling silver, fine silver, purple jade (dyed)
L 2.2 cm x W 2.5 cm

Okay, so life fell apart for me two months ago, and I’m just starting to recover. I have not been making much new jewellery, but I am going to still try to keep up with the YOJ postings.

I got this purple jade cabochon through a Bead Box swap several years ago. Those Bead Boxes were lots of fun: the idea was to put in things from your stash that you weren’t using and swap them for beads that other people had put in from their stash. I was the Bead Box Mama who organized the whole shebang for Bead Box North, which traveled around Canada and the Northern US. It was a lot of work, but every time the box arrived on my doorstep, it was like Christmas Day! I managed to keep it going for about three years.

Purple is my favourite colour, and I’m always drawn to it. For this pendant, I wanted to work with the same sort of weaving I did on the Moonrise pendant, but on this smaller cab. Well… the cab’s shape proved to be quite a challenge: getting the wire to fit around the pointed ends was very tricky. After multiple attempts to get a pendant that hung lengthwise, I gave up and set the stone sideways. It ends up looking a bit like a genie bottle 🙂

Other views:

YOJ09-36 Green Sprout Pendant

Posted on September 7, 2009March 16, 2016 by dianne

Green Sprout Pendant (2009)
Constructed
Sterling silver, fine silver, prasiolite (green amethyst)
L 4.6 cm x W 2.2 cm

This week, I’ve been thinking alot about growing things, regeneration and rejuvenation. Unfortunately, spring is a long way off, so I’m sort of out of sync with the cycle of life. It’s the colour of prasiolite beads I bought in Bancroft (the only strand of beads I bought there). It’s such a sweet, fresh green, and it reminds me of spring, seeds sprouting, life bursting forth anew.

So, I used the bead as a sort of seed, with “roots” growing around the peak, and a little plant “sprouting” out from the roots.

Prasiolite, commonly called “green amethyst” as a marketing ploy, does occur naturally, but is very rare. Most prasiolite is created by heat treating amethyst or citrine. Just to confuse things, there is another stone called praseolite, also green, which is created by heat treating iolite (cordierite). This latter stone has a greasy luster, which may help in distinguishing the two.

My copy of Love is in the Earth by Melody (Sixth Printing 1993) doesn’t include an entry for either stone, but I found this entry just now on another website while writing this blog entry (added emphasis mine):

Prasiolite brings one appreciation, approval, and acclaim (and occasionally) fame. It further promotes the recognition of ones accomplishments and furthers the completion of same.

Prasiolite has been known as the “celestial root”, bringing the ancient knowledge of illumination, germination, and growth. …. Prasiolite further provides for sufficient tranquility of the minds to assist one in contemplating metaphors without vulnerability to the unknown.

Prasiolite has also been used to bring forth a polarizing prismatic energy, which engenders a spectrum of energy to clear and to activate all of the chakras……

Prasiloite has been used to stimulate healing on the spiritual level and to assist one in regaining the connection with the perfection of the self and the physical body….

Ha! How’s that for connecting with stone energy!?

More views:

YOJ09-35 Moonrise

Posted on September 6, 2009September 12, 2010 by dianne

Moonrise (2009)
Pendant, Sterling silver, fine silver, rainbow moonstone, indicolite (blue) tourmaline
Constructed, cold joined
L 6.4 cm x W 1.8 cm x D 1.2 cm (widest point)
SOLD to a private collector, September 2010

On my annual trek to Bancroft this year, I decided to focus on buying cabachons. I have a huge stash of beads, but I’ve been moving away from working with them. The last time I was in Bancroft, I bought some really nice cabs from one particular vendor, and was really happy to see them again. This year, I scored a bunch of beautiful tourmaline, prehnite, kyanite, garnet and rainbow moonstone.

As a member of the Etsy Wire Artisans Guild, I’m supposed to make a monthly “theme” piece. Well… I’ve been a bit lax about it because of my other commitments. So I’m playing a bit of catch up.

It’s been a couple of years since my last attempt at a multi-stone pendant. That attempt was… adequate… but really not up to the standard I like to set for myself. So, for the EWAG’s “Blue Moon” theme, I decided I’d take another stab at it.

Back when I was single, I lived within walking distance of Woodbine Beach in Toronto, and would regularly stroll along the water’s edge. I always loved watching moonrise over the water. The reflected light from Luna rippling over the waves was so peaceful. The Moon is the ruler of my astrological sign, Cancer, so I feel a special connection with it. With my feet in the water, I would say prayers of thanks to the Creator for all of the blessings in my life, and listen for the messages in my heart of what direction I needed to go.

For quite a long time now, I’ve been getting messages telling me I need to reconnect my spiritual side with my jewellery. I feel really strongly that doing that is going to resonate with others. So, in the past few months, I’ve been making and posting work that draws from my inner life.

I gave conscious thought to the stones I chose for this piece. The calming, balancing energy of the 11.7 ct moonstone helps connect with intuitive promptings, and the loving, powerful energy of the 24.42 ct blue tourmaline helps bring awareness and communication of those messages.

The wavy line coming down from the moon was always part of the design, but I also wanted to incorporate the shimmering and rippling of the water by incorporating weaving into the bezel of the lower stone. I’m very happy with the way it turned out, and the energy that comes off the piece is wonderful.

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Other views:

YOJ09-34 Stocking up for Christmas

Posted on September 5, 2009September 6, 2009 by dianne

The week 34 project isn’t a specific piece of jewellery, per se, more like a bunch of things I made in preparation for Christmas sales on my Etsy shop.

Not really much more to say than that. Oh, and if you’re interested in purchasing my jewellery, click this link.

YOJ09-33 A Boulder Opal from a friend

Posted on August 18, 2009August 18, 2009 by dianne

Boulder Opal Pendant (2009)
Sterling silver, boulder opal
Constructed, cold joined
L 3.7 cm x W 1.8 cm
Private collection

I used to be very active in the Gem & Mineral of Scarborough, and developed many good friends there. One of them, David Bellamy, gave me this stunning Australian boulder opal as a Christmas gift. We were at the club’s annual Christmas Sale, and one of the vendors was selling self-cut cabochons. Most of them were stones from Nova Scotia, but a few, like this opal, were from rough he had bought. I was completely enamoured with the stone, but put off by the price: $60. At that point, I was still trying to recover financially from my first failed marriage, and couldn’t justify spending that much on one stone. So, I was absolutely speechless and overwhelmed when David presented me with the stone.

I made many trips up to the Bancroft Gemboree with David over the years. He’s an avid collector of “species” thumbnails, and consistently creates some of the most interesting displays at the club’s annual show.

I used this stone for the prong set pendant tutorial I wrote for Haliburton, but the setting really didn’t do the stone justice. So this week, I took the setting apart and remade it. This one is staying in my personal collection, as a reminder of a passionate rockhound and generous friend.

YOJ09-31 CZ Solitaire Pendant

Posted on August 13, 2009 by dianne

CZ Solitaire Pendant (2009)
Sterling silver, cubic zirconium
Constructed, cold joined
L 1.5 cm x W 0.6 cm

Getting caught up after a couple of weeks away. I kept up with the projects, but didn’t have a chance to photograph them until today. My entry for week 31 is an adaptation of the solitaire prong setting by Jorgen Greftegreff. My husband gave me a solitaire pendant for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I’ve always wondered if the setting could work in wire. This version, while successful in the sense that the adaptation worked, is a bit too messy on the back for my preferences. It was worth the experiment though :-).

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