FSOJ Week 3 - Australia Culture

Okay, this is already late, so I'm really stretching with this. I kept looking at aboriginal pictures and symbols, which alot of people did, but for some reason, even though I love making ethnic jewelry, I kept coming up empty. I also read that although people tend to think aboriginal and outback when thinking of Australian culture, about 90% of the people actually live in urban areas, with only 10% or less living in the country or outback, which leads us to my piece this week lol.
It is contemporary and modernly urban. Yeah right. Can you feel how far I'm stretching here? I made an oval frame of 18ga copper wire, hammered it flat, and coiled 30ga copper wire around. This is the first time I made the bail from the thinner wire and coiled it, then continued on to finish coiling the pendant. I learned this from Magda's pendant tutorial (which I highly recommend) available in her Etsy shop. I strung white freshwater pearls, and dark gray Swarovski pearls on wire which is wrapped onto the pendant.

FSOJ Week 2 - Capricorn

I formed the symbol for Capricorn using 18ga copper wire and hammered it flat. Then I wanted to add stones to it. Since Capricorn runs through half of December, and half of January, I decided to incorporate the birthstones for each month. December has 3 stones, blue zircon, tanzanite, and turquoise ( I chose to use turquoise ). The birthstone for January is garnet. Also, the sunstone for Capricorn is onyx, so I chose black onyx. I used 28ga sterling silver wire to wrap the gemstones onto the pendant. While coiling the stones on I had a weird little space at the bottom of the loop, so I covered it with a Bali sterling silver daisy spacer so you couldn't see the jimmy rigged like wrapping I did underneath to hold the loop together. I had to cross it back and forth for some reason. I guess I will figure that type of thing out as I get better. I hung the pendant from a sterling silver chain, but don't know if I really like it, so I may use black leather to blend with the black onyx. I need to work on my coiling a bit more. In person the coiling looks like it has no spaces, but when I photograph it, you can see spaces throughout.

First FSOJ 2008 Entry

Here is my very first entry for the FSOJ 2008. The theme is - I Can Do This. It is so appropriate, because that is exactly how I feel about this challenge of making a different piece of jewelry to post each week and be on time with it.

I am working on making wire frames and coil wrapping them, and this is the first one I did. The frame is 14ga copper wire hammered flat, with 6mm turquoise beads wrapped on using 20ga 14kt gold-filled wire. I wonder if I should have used 4mm beads. At the top I filled the center of the frame with a faceted orange calcite briolette, flanked by 14kt gold vermeil daisy spacers and 4mm turquoise beads. These are coiled onto the frame with gold-filled wire also. I haven't decided if I want to make a beaded necklace for it to hang from, or use chain, so it is just strung onto suede lace for now. I really like the way the frame looks beaded, and think I will be making a few more with different stones of course.

Welcome - My First Post!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!!! This is my very first blog which I actually designed sometime last year, but didn't have a clue what to write. I have seen some pretty interesting blogs out there, and was so intimidated, I never made an actual post. Well it's a new year and a new me. No more intimidation and procrastination. I am doing a few things that I wanted to do, but was tiptoeing on nervousness. This year after lurking on the Creative Wire Jewelry Forum, and learning about the Year Of Jewelry, I finally got up enough nerve to sign up. I really love all of the wire jewelry that I see and have taken on learning the artform, but haven't done as much as I know I can. I haven't been pushing myself at all and figured if I signed up to participate with the artists who do the Year Of Jewelry, I would be committed to doing my entries, which would force me to do and learn. Now they call it Four Seasons Of Jewelry (FSOJ) because you can sign up for one season or up to all four. We have to post a piece we made each week to go with the weekly theme. Now I have to get to work since I took the plunge, because I do not intend to embarrass myself and not live up to my committment. Plus there are some very talented people I have put myself with, so I've got to get cracking. Please follow me on this and other journeys that I am taking on this year. This one should be fun.

This is one piece that I did awhile back. It is a pair of sterling silver hoop earrings made by a friend of mine, named Jameel Rahman, that I wrapped with faceted iolite rondells, using 26ga sterling silver wire.