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After my disastrous deleting error last night, I’ve now got the most important blog posts back up. All I can say is “Thank Goodness for Facebook!”. I have my Facebook account set to import all the posts from this blog, so, while they were abbreviated, I was able for the most part to reconstruct them.
Lesson learned. Note to self: Don’t delete anything without doing a complete backup of everything, including the sql files.
I was originally supposed to give a presentation on the History of Wire Jewellery on October 3, 2007 at the Gem & Mineral Club of Scarborough.
Unfortunately, my husband was involved in a car accident two hours before I was to give the presentation. (Thankfully, he’s fine – it’s wasn’t his fault and the car’s damage was relatively minor.) When it first happened, I phoned the President of the club to let him know that I would likely be late, because DH had to wait for the police. Luckily they were able to arrange another speaker on short notice.
So… the date has now been rescheduled. Mark it on your calendar!
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, 8:00 pm
Past Links – A History of Wire Jewellery
Dianne Karg Baron
One of the forms of metal available to the jeweler is wire. The art of creating jewellery from wire is popular with many craftspeople, particularly those of us in gem and mineral clubs. The popularity among clubs can be explained by the availability of beads, cabochons, polished stones and other lapidary products that are commonly used as attachments. Wire has been used in jewellery going back to ancient times. Dianne Karg Baron will trace its history, from its earliest known beginnings to modern times.
The presentation will take place at Knox United Church Hall, 2569 Midland Ave., Scarborough, ON.(located on the northeast corner of Midland and Sheppard Ave.).
Guests are welcome to attend!
Back in December I was contacted by a lady who wanted a bridal set based on the Musicali Necklace.
She wanted the necklace and a headpiece based on the necklace.
Since she was getting married in Scotland, she also wanted two Celtic-style pendants for her attendants – one based on a shield with a malachite bead, and another based on a treskele with garnet beads.
I got a follow up email from her at the end of last month. She was very happy with all of the jewellery.
Apparently the dressmaker loved the jewellery so much “she refused to allow me to put any kind of embellishment on the dress, because she said the necklace and headpiece were already the perfect compliment to it, and would take away from the overall effect.”
Here’s the bride wearing the headpiece and necklace, and another shot of the bridesmaids wearing their pendants.
The “young-at-heart” gentleman who commissioned a name pin from me back at Christmas wanted a pair of earrings for the special nurse for Easter.
I should mention, actually, that the name pin had to be done again, because he gave me the wrong spelling. The funny thing was that she refused to give back the original pin.
Here’s the photo of the replacement pin:
The wire jewellery classes I’ll be teaching at George Brown College have been posted to my Upcoming Classes page.
Other classes will be listed as they are added, so please check back regularly!
I’ve recreated the tutorials posts again, but I’ll repost the commissions and upcoming events tomorrow, or in the next couple of days.
Add a little colour to your finger with this fun and funky prong ring! For those interested in developing their skills, this project introduces some advanced calculating and measuring. It incorporates an innovative prong setting technique pioneered by Jorgen Greftegreff.
15 pages, 46 photos, 44 steps, plus design notes
USD $8.00
Voted “Best Advanced Tutorial” & “Favourite Piece” by the Members of the International Guild of Wire Jewelry Artists, Ring Tutorials Contest 2007!
(FREE to IGWAJ members, login to the guild’s website to access the tutorials library. Note: IGWAJ version does not include all of the design notes)
A little bit of a story behind this ring.
I originally submitted this project to Lark Books for their book “Contemporary Bead & Wire Jewelry”. One day I got a call from Nathalie Mornu, one of the Editors of the book, saying that they loved the project, but could I shorten down then number of steps needed? The original project was something like 40 steps long.
I didn’t see any way of simplifying the project. While I was talking to her, it occurred to me: “Hey, isn’t this book going to be called Bead and Wire Jewelry?” Nathalie said yes. Well… there was nary a bead to be found in this project. When I made her aware of this fact, we both started laughing. None of the editorial staff – about a dozen people – had noticed that the project didn’t use beads. She asked if I would be able to submit another project. I asked for 24 hours to come up with an idea.
The replacement project was the Illusion Prong Ring, which together with the Beaded Channel Ring, ended up being published.
The surface of the ocean shows only the smallest hint of the turbulence underneath the waves! This is a great project for practicing precise measuring and mirror images.
11 pages, 35 photos, 39 steps, plus design notes
USD $5.00
This tutorial was voted “Best Advanced Tutorial” &”Favourite Piece” by the Members of the International Guild of Wire Jewelry Artists, Earring Tutorials Contest 2007. IGWJA decided to put it into the advanced category for the purposes of the contest, but in my opinion, this is an easy project.
(FREE to IGWAJ members, login to the guild’s website to access the tutorials library. Note: IGWAJ version does not include all of the design notes)
Available now from my Tutorials Page.
This bold, geometric design was inspired by the work of Max Froehlich (1908-1997), a Swiss-born goldsmith who was part of the “Modern” school of jewellery design. With one change, it is possible to make two variations of this ring! In heavier gauges, it makes an appealing men’s ring! The ring is named after Micki Bleily of Parma, ID, for whom it was made as a Secret Santa gift in 2002.
Project instructions contain both variations – 11 pages, 52 photos, 43 steps, plus design notes
USD $5.00
Available now from my Tutorials Page.
This quick and simple ring creates an illusion prong setting for a 6 mm bead. A modified version of this project was published in “Contemporary Bead and Wire Jewelry” by Suzanne Tourtillott and Nathalie Mornu.
5 pages, 16 photos, 14 steps, plus design notes
USD $5.00
Available now from my Tutorials Page.
