It’s ring week here at the studio!

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to develop an original method for constructing a single bead ring, so this week I spent some time playing around with a couple of ideas.  The one I teach in my course at George Brown College is Mavis Llewellyn’s One Bead Ring (published in The Wire Artist Jeweller, September 1999).  According to her daughter Susan, Mavis developed the design back in the late 70s-early 80s as a quick-to-make-project to sell at shows.

Other single bead ring patterns are easier to make (i.e. 3-minute ring), but the shanks (to my eye) are sloppy looking.  In square wire, they often look tortured. If you’re looking for something quick and dirty to sell for $8 and you work “organically”, then Bob’s Your Uncle…

The thing I like most about Mavis’ design is how elegant it looks, especially the shank.  The ones I produced this week haven’t achieved anything resembling elegance or consistency yet, but I’m happy to have made progress.

I’ve fallen behind with my YOJ postings due to a bout of creative block.  I keep picking up the wire and the pliers in an effort to make something, and end up with nothing but frustration and a pile of scrap.  Earlier this week I joked on Twitter that I was tempted to solve the problem by piling up my scrap, adding fire and Presto! A brooch!

One of my Job Jar jobs this week was to “Organize beads and materials in the studio”.  Translated, that means “Clean up the mess!”  So I started sorting through a drawer where I’d dumped a bunch of finished and half finished pieces.  Some went into a “for packaging” box, some into a “for salvage” box, and some went into the scrap bin.

Amongst the half finished pieces were a bunch of crochet balls I’d made two years ago.  I thought it might be interesting to set one as a bead in a ring.  Since I was just experimenting, I didn’t want to use silver, so I hauled out the copper wire to make the ring shank.

Once the bead was mounted, it occurred to me that it looked a lot like the little puff ball in “Horton Hears A Who” by Dr. Seuss.  So, I added a little garnet bead to represent the Who’s world.

More photos:

For this piece, I took the idea developed in Week 48 and extended it to a bracelet.  The design looks simple, yet it surprised me how much work was involved in adding the copper beads.

I like the bi-metal toning – it’s a nice effect, and would really sparkle on tanned, warm toned or dark skin.

Like the project in Week 45, I alternated the links in mirror image; however, the alternating pattern sets up an issue for sizing.  I noticed it with the Week 45 bracelet as well, but because it’s all one metal it’s not as obvious.   With this bracelet, because there are two metals, it becomes clear that there can’t be an odd number of links: it throws off the pattern.  This design will fit either a very small wrist (like this bracelet does), or a very large wrist.  On my wrist, which is a little thinner than standard, but not small, the bracelet fits comfortably with room to move easily, but I generally like to wear my bracelets loose so that they jingle.

The design would look stunning with the Swarovskis I used in Week 48, but adding them will also add to the price of the finished piece.  If you’re interested in a Swarovski version, please email me for a quote.

Still trying to play catch up on the YOJ, but I’m feeling decidedly uninspired.  So, I decided I’d break out my bench block and do some hammering on copper.  Just playing, nothing serious.

I like pieces that resulted, but realized that some of them resemble the work of Ann Wylie-Toal, a fellow Canadian whose pieces often look like gesture drawing.

To add a bit of visual interest to these, I hauled out my frying pan again and cooked the copper.  It’s so much fun watching the metal turn from orange to brown to red to purple to blue to silvery!  Unfortunately the blue is an oxide layer that wipes off very easily.  Immediately spraying with Krylon would be the only way to preserve it.  Still, I love the possibilities!

During week 2 of my stay in Haliburton, one of the students taking my Wire Jewellery II class, Barbara-Joy Peel, showed us some pieces she had made in copper.  The pieces had a really fabulous patina, which she said she achieved by “cooking” the copper in a frying pan.  On the last day of the class, she brought in an iron frying pan, borrowed a hot plate from the Teen Cuisine class, and we tried out the technique for ourselves.

What fun!  The copper changes colours gradually, going from copper, to orange, to yellow, to red, to purple, and then to dark blue.  The dark blue turns silvery when the piece cools.  If the piece doesn’t lie flat, then the result is a mottled colouration.

For week 32, I decided to try it again.  I made a bangle, and cooked it.  I think this is a really cool technique which I’m going to experiment with more.

Over the next couple of days I’ll be posting the work produced by my students in Wire Jewellery 1 and 2, but for this week’s YOJ entry, I’m posting my teaching sample of the AN Cab Bangle.  This project ended up being quite challenging for the students and took an entire day for the class to complete.  That was something I hadn’t anticipated, so there’s going to be a scheduling adjustment for next year’s class.  What really impressed me was that everyone showed a lot of persistence in doing the project, which had a few tricky steps in it.  One lady, Janice, was so determined to do it – despite how much it was frustrating her – that she refused any suggestion by me to modify it to something simpler.  That caused me to joke that she was channeling her inner German:  “I VILL complete zis bracelet!”  The class cracked up laughing.

The next day, Janice came to class proudly showing off the bracelet, which she had attempted again on her own at home.  She said that she’d found the instructions very clear and easy to follow.  She had every right to be proud:  her bracelet had turned out beautifully!

I’ve been in Haliburton for the last week teaching the Wire Jewellery course, so this week’s entry is one of the projects made during the week.  This is the “freeform” bangle we made on Thursday.

Week 2 and Wire Jewellery II start tomorrow.  Four of the ladies from last year have signed up again, and one from last week is in the class as well.  So there are going to be lots of familiar faces!

I’ll write more about the classes after next week when I’m home again.

I’ve been debating with myself for three weeks about what and how much to write about this week’s entry.  I made the felted heart in week 2, but then discovered that studio gremlins had made off with my copper wire…  I finally found a small spool of it last week, so was able to start work on the project.  The gremlins are refusing to let go of the rest, though, so this is the last copper piece I’m going to be making for the time being.

I spent a lot of time during my hiatus meditating on the direction I should go with my jewellery.  Time and time again I’ve gotten the message that my jewellery needs to connect with the spirit, and express more of my inner voice.

So, my piece this week speaks from a very personal perspective.  The very long story behind it is one that only my very closest friends have known about before now.

Prior to the event, I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something, and finally thought, “Well, it’s Fall, so why not do leaves?”  So, that’s what I did.  It was great fun, and I’d encourage anyone coming to next year’s AGM to join in!