Jewelry work in September!

 Rocking my Jewelry studio this week. I had a large list and did not finish it in the limited time I had given myself, but it was better than nothing. I would drop my daughter off at school down the street, have some coffee with my dad, go for a run and then have 2-3 hours left to get some work done before my daughter got out at 12. I was really enjoying it though. I really miss making jewelry sometimes. It did not feel at all like work, except when my fingers hurt.

These are the links being made for my silver, textured link bracelets. By the end of this process I feel very intimate with every individual link. I bend the wire into loop, solder, stretch to be oval, hammer flat, hammer a pattern on both sides, chemically color and them tumble to polish. So much work goes into these. I love mine, I wear it every day and even shower in it. The one I am wearing is over 5 years old and showing very little wear.

 These are the beginnings of my square wire rings. They seem to be a favorite at the Art Hus. I get a lot of requests, but these suckers are so hard to size. There is a mathematical formula, but it does not account for the hammering and texturing, so they are very hard to make for custom orders.

These will end up being my rustic heart pendants, similar to the one I wear. I did not finish them, so I do not know when I will get back to them. I sure hope to get these 3 done before the Queen of Arts show at the Elverhoj Museum, but no guarantees.

 More work on the square wire rings. Here they are getting soldered and then reshaped and later textured on the mandrel. I need to prepare some of them for a bezel, antique them and polish before they are ready.

These are some of the stamps that I use to texture my work. These are my favorites. I actually made these myself when I was in college from cement nails and iron horseshoe nails. I hope to make more some day, but these have really held up through the years. I am very proud of them.