Jewelry Design: Silversmithing

The last couple weeks in my jewelry class I have been working on silversmithing.  Basically, we use a torch to solder the pieces of silver together to make the different pieces of jewelry.

This is the ring I made, we had a long piece of silver that we cut and shaped into the actual ring portion, then we attached the bezel cup and later put in the stone.

This bracelet is made out of the same type of silver, and assembled much the same way just on a much larger scale.

I shaped the loop of this pendent, again out of the same silver, and then soldered it to the back of the bezel cup.

These earrings are my favorite out this set.  I just drew out a pattern on a piece of paper and shaped the silver to match it and attached the bezel cups for the stones to the inside of the design.  All the other pieces we all had to pretty much do the same, but I loved getting to be more creative with these!

I hope you like these, and soon I will have more fun to share from my class!

Printable: Thoreau Quote

Well I have tried my hand at graphics again, and I want to share!

Just right click on the picture above and select "open link in new tab" to open full size image so you can save it.  If you use this on the web please like back to me and let me know by comment or email where so I can see it too.  Other than that, feel free to use this however you like!

Enjoy!

Watercolor Pinterest Flop...

It happens to the best of us... Pinterest fails.  It's a fact of life for all Pinterest users.  A while back I came across this pin:

                                                                        Source: alisaburke.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

The caption was simply: "Watercolor over white crayon."  And I thought to myself, "That's brilliant!"  Don't you agree?  Well it didn't work out so well...

The root of my problem is that whoever originally pinned this pinned the blog homepage and not the blog post... big pet peeve of mine.  Well I searched for a while on the blog trying to find the tutorial, but I didn't have any luck.  The blog is AMAZING! But it has way too many posts for me to look through them all.

But I forged ahead anyway!  I thought it sounds simple and logical, I'll just give it a go anyway...

I taped down my watercolor paper so that it wouldn't wrinkle too badly, and then began drawing a cute twig/vine and leaf design.  I'm usually pretty bad at drawing these kinds of patterns, but I really liked how this one turned out.  I know you probably can't see it very well though... it's white crayon on white paper, there was only so much my camera could do, haha!

Then came the disappointment, I began doing a light wash on my paper and it was quickly obvious that this was not working the way the caption on Pinterest claimed it would.

This is not at all what I was expecting, you can hardly see the pattern at all!  The crayon did repel some of the paint, but not nearly enough.

I am not giving up on this one though.  I plan to try this again sometime because that original pin is just too cute, I want one too!  I think maybe part of my problem is I used watercolor paint from a tube, I think this might work better with the cheap kid's button watercolors.  I think I will try that next, and I will let you all know when I solve the mystery!  If you have any suggestions please share, I'd love to hear them!

Jewelry Design: Wire Wrapping (Part 2)

First of all, I want to apologize for my long absence from the blogging world.  It is very sad, but I have been incredibly busy with work, classes, and homework :(

Okay, on to the good stuff!

I have more fun jewelry to show you from my class!!  If you didn't see my first post about my jewelry class, check it out here!

These are both more examples of wire wrapping, this time they are pendants:

This pendent is a wrapped black cabochon, and it matches the rest of the set that I posted pictures of from my first class.

This is a wrapped marble pendant.  The picture does not do this one justice (mostly because I'm not that great of a photographer, but I'm learning slowly but surely).  I like how this one doesn't really have a front or back, it pretty much looks good from any angle.

Well, I promise not to stay away as long this time!  Keep checking back for more pictures from my Jewelry Design class adventures!

Free Printable- Micah 6:8

I have been working on my photoshop skills a lot lately, so I thought I would come up with something to share with you all!

This an 8.5 x 11 PDF printable that you can DOWNLOAD HERE!  Just click file, download (or save) in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Enjoy!!