YOJ10-03 Marquise Series: Pendant 8

Marquise Series:  Pendant 8 (2010)
Sterling silver, fine silver, tourmaline
Constructed, cold-joined, woven
L 5.0 cm x W 2.25 cm x D 1.0 cm
(Update: SOLD June 2013)

One of my new year’s resolutions was to start using a Job Jar.  My family and friends, who know me very well, know that I’m hopeless about housework.  I think it was Erma Bombeck who said “Nature can’t abhor a vacuum as much as I do.”  That kind of sums up my attitude nicely.

However, I do live with three other (messy) people, so some token effort to maintain order must be made.  So… enter the Job Jar.  I wrote all the various chores on the little slips of paper, and included some fun things, and every day I pick one out of the jar.  The choice is completely random, although I like to think of it as leaving it up to God/the Universe to pick the task that is right for me on any particular day.  Some days I have more energy than others, and interestingly enough, each task so far has been perfect for the day it was chosen.  I do my Job Jar job early in the day, and then the rest of the day is mine to do as I please.

The net result of doing my housework this way is that I’m being much more productive with my jewellery making as well.  So, I feel good because my house is slowly getting cleaner, and I’m getting to work guilt-free on something I love every day.  Bonus!

The studio gremlins paid a me a visit this week and stole this piece for a few hours.  I noticed it was missing after my husband had done a sweep through the house collecting detritus to put out in the garbage on Monday night.  He tends to be somewhat brisk and indiscriminate when he does this.  A frantic search turned up nothing, and I was resigned to it having disappeared into the mass of trash.  On Tuesday, my job from the Jar was “Clean the livingroom.”  It was like a bunch of angels were standing around saying “We want to help you”.  LOL

So, I set to work, cleaning, sweeping and reorganizing the room.  When I picked up and moved one of the toy boxes, lo and behold, there was the pendant!  With a quick prayer of thanks, I put it in a safe location, where I knew I’d find it again.

Like the previous pieces in the series, the pendant is formed using a marquise shape.  When I was first shaped the wire, I thought the pendant looked like a moth.  The form evoked a very strong Art Nouveau influence.  As I added the weaving and the beads, the moth form persisted, and I noticed that the pendant was starting to look like Rainbow Wrapping.

Originally, I was going to hang the pendant the other way around, from the point.  It reminded me of the Star Trek logo.  I didn’t like how the tourmaline drop looked hanging from the long tail though – it threw off the balance.  So the drop was moved to the point, and the tail became the hanging point.

While photographing the piece today, I started seeing the form of an elephant face.   How cool!  I don’t remember ever seeing so many different influences in one piece.

What do you see?  Let me know!

More photos:

YOJ10-02 Marquise Series: Bead Cap 1

Marquise Series: Bead Cap 1 (2010)
Sterling silver, fine silver
Constructed, cold-joined, woven
L 2.7 cm x W 2.6 cm

Last week’s project was about going beyond a simple marquise shape to a compound shape.  This week, I’m going a step further and moving into working in 3D.

The original germ for this piece was a project I made in 2003 as a Secret Santa gift.  The Cathedral Egg Pendant was made of two pieces, connected with bead links.  Cathedral Egg was inspired by a piece, called “Gluttony”, which I had made for the “Heavenly Virtues/Deadly Sins” exhibition presented by Object Design Gallery the same year.

The ladder weaving here was very time consuming to do, but the effect is so nice!

I think this really needs to grace a fabulous lampwork bead by some superbly talented artist.  The problem I’m finding is that I need a big bead:  the base of this bead cap is almost (2.5 cm (1 inch) across.  So, I’m on the hunt for something appropriate.  It still needs to go into the tumbler to shine it up, but I wanted to get it posted.

Other views:

YOJ09-01 Needle Felted Circle Pendant

Needle Felted Circle Pendant (2009)
Sterling silver, wool
Needle-felted, flame-worked, cold connected
L 5.2 cm x W 4 cm

Back in 2006, when I was working with the Bonsai Rings one of the challenges I faced was to create realistic looking foliage.  A technique I thought might work well was felting.  I signed up for a felting course, but unfortunately various circumstances prevented me from taking it.

So recently, when I was putting together a Treasury on Etsy.com, I came across a shop that sold needle felting kits.  The price was good, so I took the plunge and bought one.

I decided to experiment first with the least appealing colour for foliage:  pink.

The technique is quite simple and fun.  On the first night, I made two little balls.  The next night I had a meeting with Maegen Black, a colleague who works with me on MAGazine.  She was wearing three felted bangles made by a BC artist whose name I didn’t catch.  (Edit: Maegen let me know the artist’s name is Deb Dumka). Intrigued, I tried a version of my own the next night.

Since I’m now working on my YOJ projects, I decided to use this little circle for my week 1 submission.  To jazz it up, I broke out the torch and made a bunch of sterling silver studs to decorate the circle.  Remembering the mess I got myself into during the previous YOJ, I did all of the finishing prior to assembling the pendant.

The Year of Jewelry Project 2009 (YOJ09)

After a two year hiatus, I am rejoining the Year of Jewelry Project.

I participated in this project in 2004-05 and 2005-06.  The summaries of all the pieces I created during those years are here and here.

I’m both dreading and excited at the idea of having to complete one piece every week for the next 52 weeks.  Having participated in this project before, I know exactly what kind of commitment is involved.  As always, I do seem to have a lot of other things on my plate, but I don’t foresee any difficulties with completing the year.  In fact, as the year progresses, it should get easier.  All of my heavy deadlines are in the first six months of 2009.

This year, the themes are focused on movies, periods of history and artists.  I’m undecided about doing a weekly piece based on the themes, but if something strikes me I’ll give it a try.

So… now I just have to write my goals for the year.