sterling silver – Page 4 – dianne karg baron

YOJ09-21 Viking Knit Torus

Posted on May 24, 2009May 25, 2016 by dianne

Viking Knit Torus (2009)
Sterling silver
Nalbinding
L 55 mm x W 55 mm x D 10 mm

I’m insane.

People who know me are familiar with this quirk in my personality, but every now and again I feel compelled to demonstrate it. Hence, this week I decided – despite numerous pressing deadlines – I absolutely had to attempt making a torus out of viking knitting.

Nalbinding was historically used for things like socks, mittens, bags, hats and the like. In wire, it’s been used mostly for chainwork. To the best of my knowledge, no one has tried using it for sculptural wirework, and certainly no one has tried using it to construct a torus. Loren Damewood, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, has made a toroid bracelet out of string, with plans to attempt it in wire, but his technique is marlinspike knotting.

Thanks to my experience making the Merry Meet necklace, I decided to make the first attempt in polymer coated wire. I have pounds of the stuff, and it’s great for experimenting. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t lend itself to annealing, which meant I could only get as far as shaping the torus. I couldn’t finish the seaming without risking wire breakage.

I’m contributing that first piece to The Metal Arts Guild of Canada’s call for Nuit Blanche 2009.

I’m completely obsessed with this idea, so decided that I would try one in silver. At the Zilberschmuck “Connection” opening a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Charles Funnell about viking knitting. He had been trying to do some chainwork and was finding it challenging. I commented that it would work better in fine silver than in sterling, because the metal is more maleable. Unfortunately, the only fine silver wire I have on hand at the moment is 28 ga, and the idea of doing it in that fine a gauge really didn’t appeal to me. So, I decided to try 24 ga sterling in dead soft.

Well…

It was easier to work than the polymer coated copper, but I still ended up with a blister on my pinky from pulling wire. After a while, even wearing a bandage on the finger didn’t help. Yes, I suffer for my art…

The main challenge of a torus is making it seamless. The rest is just like making tubing. I figured out a way of making the stitches nice and tight, thanks to a tool that Loren uses for his turks head knot rings. Three stitches before the finish, and despite frequent annealing, the wire broke on me! :bang head:

Luckily the repair was easy, and I was able to finish it up. I spent far too many hours on this, but I’m very pleased with it and want to make more as time and my finger permit. The ghost of Frank Hoffmann is whispering in my ear again though: for the amount of work involved, I should be making it in gold.

More photos:

YOJ09-20 Viking Knit Ring

Posted on May 17, 2009 by dianne

Viking Knit Ring (2009)
Fine silver, malachite, howlite
Nalbinding, single knit, constructed, cold joined

I finally got back to writing this week! I have six tutorials to write in preparation for my class in Haliburton in July. So far I have completed writing the draft on one of them. Photos and actually putting the tutorials together are still outstanding. I’m keenly aware of how quickly the time is going, so a few weeks ago I decided to put Tigger into daycare two days as week. That is giving me several hours of uninterrupted work time, since it co-incides with the days that Thumper is in school. What Heaven!

Usually I make the project, writing the steps as I go. Then I put the text aside for a week or so, come back to it and reconstruct it following my instructions. If I stumble on any part of it, that means a rewrite is in order. Refining continues as I take the photos and do the layout. Lots of work… which means I gotta start makin’ like a bread truck and haul buns…

This week, I was working on instructions for viking knitting. I experimented with incorporating 2 and 4 mm beads, which led to a screw up – err… “Design Choice” – when I went to draw the chain. I ended up having to take the chain apart, but salvaged enough to make this ring. It’s been an interesting experiment in timing myself as well – construction of enough chain to make a bracelet is taking a little over 2 hours. Adding the beads was just for my amusement, and won’t be part of the final instructions.

More photos:

YOJ09-19 Mother & Child Pendant

Posted on May 10, 2009 by dianne

Mother & Child Pendant (2009)
Sterling silver, formed, flame-worked
L 5.4 cm x W 2.4 cm

It’s Mother’s Day, so my piece this week is in honour of Motherhood.

I’ve had pregnancy on my mind a lot in the last week, because last weekend I had a miscarriage. That was why I didn’t post anything for Week 18. What bugs me is not that I had the miscarriage – it’s that I had originally planned to wait until May 1 to do the pregnancy test. Had I followed through, I would never have known I was pregnant. Instead, I did the test on the 27th. My husband was completely gobsmacked when I told him the news: he thought I was too old to have any more babies. I had to explain to him that even though I am of a somewhat advanced childbearing age, until I actually stop having periods, I can still get pregnant. On the 30th I went to visit my GP, and that afternoon I started spotting. I spent the evening at Emergency, where they took some blood and sent me home. On Saturday, I started bleeding in earnest, so I went back to Emerg, where more blood tests and 5 hours of waiting confirmed what I already knew: the pregnancy had aborted.

I knew the chances of this baby going full term were very slim. I’m on medication that can cause birth defects, and, in the second and third trimesters, is toxic to the fetus. Even that aside, this would have been an extraordinarily difficult and potentially life-threatening pregnancy because of my various health conditions. I swear, my warranty ran out after I turned 40…

I’m sad, but not as upset as I was with the miscarriage two years ago. More than anything, the experience has left both my husband and I wishing we had met ten years earlier. I am able to take comfort in the idea that I am still “Mommy” to five children: two I cuddle every day, and now three others I cuddle in spirit.

So, here is the Mother, full with her Child. The design is a bit abstract, and I decided that it would not work without a bit of soldering. I’ve wanted to do a Mother & Child piece for a long time, and, I’m pleased to finally have a design I like.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mommies who read this :-).

More photos:

YOJ09-17 Chalcedony Effervescence Pendant

Posted on April 26, 2009 by dianne

Chalcedony Effervescence Pendant (2009)
Sterling silver, fine silver, chalcedony
L 3.0 cm x W 1.2 cm
Cold connected, flame worked

I went to the Toronto Gem Show today – and I was by myself!! Woo hoo! That meant I had the freedom to be able to browse, and chat with friends, and to shop. I was looking for some things for my upcoming classes at Haliburton, but in the end decided that what I’ve found online is still a better bargain. But… I couldn’t resist a strand of chalcedony brios I came across. In a table full of stuff that looked like it was dyed, I found one package that had a beautiful opalescent glow. So, despite being on a buying moratorium for the past three years, I decided those beads had to come home with me. Even the sales lady commented about the package, saying that if I hadn’t bought it when I did, it wouldn’t have been around later – someone would have snapped it up.

Tonight I picked out one of the beads, and made this little pendant. It looks somewhat similar to the pendant I made in Week 8, so I’ve giving it a similar name.

More photos:

YOJ09-16 Beaded Channel Ring

Posted on April 19, 2009April 19, 2009 by dianne

Beaded Channel Ring (2009)
Sterling silver, constructed, cold worked
Size 5 1/2

My lack of energy is starting to concern me. If this keeps up I’m going to haul my carcass off to the doctor and find out what’s going on.

For now, another simple offering this week – a beaded channel ring. The tutorial for this ring was published in “Contemporary Bead & Wire Jewelry” by Nathalie Mornu and Suzanne Tourtillot, one of two projects I contributed to the book.

YOJ09-14 Lame-O Earrings

Posted on April 5, 2009 by dianne

Lame-O Earrings (2009)
Sterling silver, Preciosa crystal

I’m feeling completely tired and shagged out. And I haven’t even squawked!

I’m working on meeting a print deadline this week, so my focus is not on jewellery. I do have an idea for my next major undertaking, and did work a bit on that over the past few days, but it’s still in the prep phase, not the construction phase.

So now it’s Sunday, and I don’t want to be late two weeks in a row. So I’m posting a pair of lame-ass earrings, constructed in about 1 minute. Don’t have the energy for anything more this week.

YOJ09-13 Kaleidoscope Pendant

Posted on March 30, 2009March 16, 2016 by dianne

Kaleidoscope Pendant (2009)
Fine Silver, sterling silver, Swarovski crystal
L 5.5 cm x W 4.7 cm x H 1.0 cm
Cold-connected, formed

For the first time this session, my entry is one day late. It proved to be much more challenging to construct, as I kept changing my mind about what I wanted it to look like.

This piece also doubles as my entry for the Etsy Wire Artisan Guild‘s April theme “Kaleidoscope”. The technique is drawn from a tutorial written by Perri Jackson, a friend and very talented wire artist who makes very intricate pieces from very thin gauge wire. Ever since Perri asked me to test the tutorial for her, I’ve been mulling over an idea in my head for a piece that adapts the technique. I’m not ready for that project yet, but “Kaleidoscope” is an intermediate step.

Perri’s blog features more of her spectacular work, and is well worth the visit.

More photos:

YOJ09-12 Viking Knit Chain (and “Merry Meet”)

Posted on March 20, 2009March 30, 2009 by dianne

Viking Knit Chain (2009)
Fine silver, sterling silver
Chain L 68.6 cm x W 0.35 cm
Pendant L 5.8 cm x W 2.5 cm
Nalbinding, constructed, cold-connected, flameworked, cast

Several years ago, my husband and I collaborated on making a Thor’s Hammer. Malcolm is fascinated by all things Norse, to the point where I’ve joked many times about him being a born-again Viking. He carved the cross for this pendant, but struggled to model the head properly. I came up with the idea of forming the head out of stick tack (aka white tack, blue tack etc etc), and then we cold molded the whole piece for casting. That original was finished, and then remolded and four more pieces were cast.

Malcolm made himself a lovely chain to go with the original. Unfortunately, our studio gremlins made off with it some time during our move, so all he has now are the copies. Wanting to wear his Thor’s Hammer, he recently asked me to make a chain for him.

So this week, on the heels of finishing my competition entry, I decided to whip it off. My hands are not quite recovered from the massive project, so by the time I was half way through working on this chain, I was having to put a bandaid on my pinky. I was developing a blister from all the pulling.

My beloved husband is very happy with his new chain, and thrilled to be wearing his pendant.

Some more photos:

Also, as promised, I’m posting the photo of my competition entry to “Connection”, the National Juried Exhibition being held by Zilberschmuck Art Jewellery and hosted at Shao Design. The call for entry asked: “What is your interpretation of the word “CONNECTION”? Is there a connection part, link or bond? Is there an association or relationship between two or more things? Do associates, relations, acquaintances or friends influence the outcome of the piece? Is it a single connection or one of many types and kinds of connections that make up the piece? How can these ideas be formalized into a three-dimensional piece?” My entry focused on the connection we make with each other, through a handshake. Clasping hands in greeting, in parting, in confirming business arrangements, in offering congratulations, is often the only physical connection we make with each other.

Merry Meet (2009)
Fine silver, sterling silver, glass
L 102 cm x W 7.0 cm
Nalbinding, constructed, cold-joined, liver of sulphur patination

My husband’s comment about this piece: “It’s odd.”

Yes, but that’s “art” jewellery for you… LOL

The hands clasp together just over the solar plexus. If I thought anyone would wear it that way, I would have liked to turn it into a stomacher – I think it would be well suited for that – but it works as a necklace as well.

From start to finish, it took two months of solid work to construct, and is (pardon the pun) hands down, one of the most ambitious pieces I’ve ever attempted. It’s not exactly what I envisioned – that would have taken another three months of work to complete.

As I mentioned last week, it didn’t make the final cut for the exhibition, but I’m not disappointed about that. I am satisfied that I got it done in time for judging.

Here are more detail photos, along with shots taken during construction: