A Talent Sampler from JCUIN

I was going through the artists of the Jewelry Creators Unite in Numbers (JCUIN) to create my last collection, Swarovski Holiday Sparkle.  I kept seeing pieces that I really liked, but they just didn't go with the collection theme.  So for my blog, I decided to feature a few of those pieces, thinking they really didn't have much in common other than I think they're cool!  Then I realized, most of the pieces I admire are because they involve some sort of technique that I don't know how to do, or haven't mastered yet.

Take soldering for example.  I even took a two day class in it, and succeeded in making the pieces I was supposed to make.  My torch at home isn't the same though.  I keep telling myself I just need to practice.  Anyway, that's why I love looking at Southern Exposure.  Patricia Warner has apparently mastered it.  Just look at this gorgeous turquoise and pearl necklace:

And she uses pearls, which makes it that much cooler!  I think I need to go solder some jump rings now.

Wire-wrapping is something that I can do, but I don't have the patience to do it on the scale that some of these artists do, like this Dragon Charmer Bracelet by Haute Nouveau:

This bracelet is made of steel, not sterling.  But at the price she's asking, I think it's also a steal!

Here's another thing that I really don't have the patience to do:

I love the bright colors and intricate designs you can get with these little seed beads.  But I can imagine how many hours it takes to do something like this because I've dabbled in this too.  This lovely bracelet of watermelon slices (complete with seeds!) was made by Mortira of the Sage's Cupboard

Here's another variation of a beaded bracelet:

I love the Southwest look of this beaded bracelet by Laura of Pink Rhododendrun.

Another thing I keep saying I'm going to practice is metalwork.  This is what Gaelic Forge does, and in my personal opinion their specialty is patinas.  Here is a good example:

 

These are called Handmade Merlins Silver Earrings with a green patina.  That is such an awesome patina.  (I wish I knew what their secret was!)

Resin is something that would be fun to try.  This next pendant I really like, partly because of the colors and partly because it's goth:

I guess I've liked Goth ever since my son went mostly Goth at age 13 (he was so cute!)  It lasted about 2-3 years.  Anyway, getting back to the pendant, it's made by Dixie Dazzle.

Enameling is something I have wanted to do for a long time to combine it with precious metal clay.  And I recently got the materials I need for my first easy project.

Here is a pair of enamel on copper earrings by Sally at Crystal Bazaar.

Here's a technique that I am sure I will never aspire to.  This sterling pendant is handmade by Andrea of ANZ Jewelry Design:

This oxidized sterling Serra Mezzo Tondo Pendant is made using traditional Florentine engraving techniques.

Finally, here's a technique I can do:  fused glass and precious metal clay.

This pendant is called "Cerulean Wave" and you can find it in my ArtFire studio Shanghai Tai.  It is made of dichroic glass and silver precious metal clay.

Well, I'm sure there are more techniques out there, but they will have to wait for another installment.  Right now I think I need to go solder some jump rings!

English Inspiration

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't been around for the last couple weeks.  We took my son to visit a college in England, and didn't have a lot of internet access while we were travelling.  Since it was his trip, and he is planning on studying British and Roman military history, most of the places we went involved the military.  We put 1200+ miles on our rental in a week.

I thought I would share with you the places we went.  Since most of you are interested in art in one way or another, I thought I would challenge myself to share some inspirational art with you from each place we went.  I'm using the word "art" loosely, since art and military don't usually go together, but you might be surprised.

London:

Of course, while in London, you really ought to see the Tower of London if you haven't seen it.  It's kind of morbid, but it gives you a sense of how old everything is.  The first time I went there I realized all of America is pretty much temporary.  Anyway, this time I got a picture of this very beautiful foliage design on a suit of medieval armor:

This was done by a process called "mercury gilding".  It is a form of gold plating.  Apparently it had something to do with a mixture of gold and mercury, and somehow the evaporation of the mercury bonded the gold.  The evaporating mercury would be extremely toxic however.  It may have taken many craftsmen to complete this entire suit of armor.

Canterbury

While in Canterbury visiting the University of Kent, we visited the Canterbury Cathedral.  This is the head of the Anglican church in England.  Although not military, there apparently are stories of murder and drama here as well.  I found lots of really interesting old architecture to photograph.  This one I like because of the two different types of arches:

What I have learned about arches is that the smaller arches with the rounded tops are Roman arches.  These were no doubt influenced by fact the Romans who were in this area prior to this era.   The arches with the pointed tops are gothic arches, which were popular during the late middle ages.

Dover

We went to Dover for the sole purpose of seeing an ancient Roman lighthouse that is attached to a medieval abbey at the Dover Castle.   This is a picture of one of the doors in the castle:

I guess this is a medieval design, but to me it looks like something from a cartoon.  Maybe the cartoons I watched as a kid had some medieval influence!  Anyway, it's an interesting design.

Portsmouth

The HMS [Her Majesty's Ship] Victory was number two on the list of things my son wanted to see, and it is in dry dock in Portsmouth at a Royal Navy Base.  It is famous for the Admiral Nelson and Battle of Trafalgar.  Even though the battle was in 1805(?) the ship is still commissioned today, and even has a crew assigned to it.    You can also see the HMS Warrior, which was the first armored ship, and lots of other things pertaining to ships and the Navy.

This is a masthead from an old ship -- I don't know which one.  It does kind of remind me of pieces I have seen online by various talented PMC artists.  Can't you just see this in silver on a locket?

Leicester

We were actually in Leicester to see relatives, but there are some ruins from a Roman bathhouse there, and the ruins of the home of Lady Jane Grey (who was Queen of England for nine days).  The former Grey estate is now on public land called Bradgate Park.  The park is very scenic with lots of wild deer and ducks, and the trees are very twisted and gnarly.  Legend has it that when the woodsmen in the area found out that Lady Jane Grey had been beheaded (at the Tower of London), they were so upset they went and chopped the tops of all the trees on the estate in her memory.  Some of the trees there are very old, and it sure looks like that could be the case.  You can follow the long, long, winding sidewalk back to the ruins.  I say long because the first time we went there many years ago, we had to turn back before we reached the ruins because it was so cold and windy.  The weather was much better on this trip however, and we actually made it to the ruins.

There was one building that was actually still standing among the many partial, crumbling walls.  Inside we found this crypt.  I'm pretty sure somebody is still buried in their.  There was an inscription in the floor with several names & titles, so I'm not quite sure whose grave it is.  It appears to be all carved out of marble.

Haltwhistle

Number one on the list of things my son had to see in England was Hadrian's Wall.  This was the wall the Roman Emperor Hadrian built along the border with Scotland.

Maybe calling this a work of art is a bit of a stretch, but my son would beg to differ.  From what we saw at the nearby Roman Army Museum, this seems to have been very similar to the Great Wall of China, complete with the same notches along the top.  That's quite a coincidence that they are so alike.  Or maybe it's not a coincidence at all, but I don't know the reason why.  Anyway, this picture is a little deceiving.  It was raining and the wind was blowing like crazy when I crossed a sheep pasture and climbed to the top of the ridge to take this picture.

Leeds

OK, now I'm grasping at straws but this is the best I can do with this one.  We did a quick stop in Leeds to see the Royal Armory -- more weapons than you can shake a stick at.

This is a big, eight-sided vaulted ceiling that is covered in various kinds of weapons.  They had so many weapons they didn't know what to do -- it's like these are the extras.  Anyway, there is a multi-sided mirror down below so you can see all the weapons easier.  Art?  Well, at least it's creative.  (I told you I was grasping at straws with this one.)

London

Back to London just in time for our flight out the next day.  All we did was eat dinner, but I think pubs are artistic:

This is the Rose and Crown, where we ate dinner our last night there.

Well, it was surprising how many creative and inspirational things you can find on a military tour.  I hope you enjoyed my pictures.  If you would like to see more you can find them at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2506071299417.145888.1482068528&type=1&l=15201281d9

New Web Site

It's been a long time coming -- since I got mad at Yahoo and stopped my website -- but I finally set up a new one.  You can find it here:

http://shanghaitai.home.comcast.net

Soon I will have my domain name www.shanghaitai.com  routed to it.  Right now it goes to my ArtFire shop

I plan on adding more to it, including my Mutual of Omaha Aha Moment, and information on materials that I use in my jewelry pieces, but for right now I just wanted to get it live.

Anyway, please check it out and I would love to hear from you with any suggestions you might have on information you would like to see on my site.

Thanks for looking!

Jasper in all your favorite fall colors!

When I was at the gem show, I kind of fell in love with this Red Creek Jasper.  I don't believe I'd seen it before. There are so many different kinds of jasper, I thought it might be nice to do this month's JCUIN post and collection on jasper.  Jasper is a form of Chalcedony, which is made of silica.  It is always opaque and comes in almost any color, but usually warm colors: browns, reds, yellows, etc.  The different varieties could be named after the area they come from , the country, appearance, etc.  The variations seem endless.  Here are a few different types.  Click on the picture to go to the actual listing for the piece.

First up is Ocean Jasper.  Here is a really nice example:

The picture above is a beautiful rectangular Ocean Jasper bead that Marian at M Davis Designs has made into a copper wire-wrapped bracelet.  That's a wonderful color combination by the way.

A totally different look from the Ocean Jasper is Brown Picture Jasper, shown here in a pendant made by Strega Jewelry:

She has used 14K gold filled wire and added interest with a small burnt orange Mexican opal.

Here is a very pretty jasper called "Blue Sky Jasper" that has been made into a bracelet by Emily of Southern Emma's Boutique:


I think the blues and browns make a nice, comforting color combination.

Here is a beautiful pendant that is a kind I'm not familiar with. I've heard of picture jasper, but this is called "Owyhee Picture Jasper" shown here in a  "Rectangular Puff Pendant":





I just love this pendant!  You can find this necklace at Axcessorize Plus.

Jasper also can be found in green.  Can you guess the name of this jasper?



If you guessed "Snakeskin", you're correct.  I love the snakeskin pattern.  You can find these earrings at Daly Craft Works.

Here is another type of jasper that is different from the norm:



this is Sesame Jasper, shown here in a necklace (with matching earrings) by the three sisters of Buttermilk Sky Designs.  As you can plainly see, Sesame Jasper looks awesome with black!

Another similar type of jasper is Sesame Jasper:



You can find this "Get Spotted" statement necklace at Libby & Liam.

Here is a cute necklace made by Nature's Gems:



The type of jasper is not listed, but if I had to guess I'd say it might be zebra jasper.  Here is some Zebra Jasper in black and white by Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs:



Here are some earrings that feature a gorgeous pair of Leopard Jasper beads:



Leopard Jasper is one of my favorites.  You can find these earrings in the shop of Pretty Gonzo.  And Gonzo is really pretty -- check him out in the bio page.

Not too far removed from the browns of the Leopard Jasper is the Red Creek Jasper that I fell in love with at the gem show:



The cabochons and the roundelle beads are both Red Creek Jasper, so you can see the variation in the colors.
These sterling post earrings can be found in my shop, Shanghai Tai.

Lastly, Scorpio Stones is not in our guild, but she has a kind of jasper I haven't seen before, that she calls "Insect Jasper".  Here's a picture:


I found this on her facebook page, where according to Maryann Sieler, this is also known as  Crinoid Marble.  It comes from the China Seas area (which is actually four seas), and is made up of fossilized plant material.  Jasper or marble, either way, that is one cool cabochon.http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/naturesgems/3271363/jasper_flower_necklace/handmade/jewelry/necklaces/gemstone

Well, I am no where near running out of kinds of jasper to talk about -- but I am out of time.  If you have an item with a different type of jasper than what is listed here, feel feel to add a link, and a picture if you can. (I don't know if you can or not!)  Anyway, I think I will make some more jasper jewelry this weekend.

The # AFPounce Daily

The # AFPounce Daily:

'via Blog this'

Ok, I'm not sure how this is going to work because I'm posting from paper.li. The AFPounce Daily is all about my shop today. Hopefully if you click the link you'll see the addition I'm trying to share, because tomorrow it will be about somebody else.

AFPounce chooses one Artfire shop everyday that the other members promote on twitter. Paper.li creates an online newspaper from your twitter posts. The newspaper looks pretty professional! I started one too, but so far it only has one item on it, which I guess is how many tweets I did yesterday, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, check out the AFPounce daily link above.

Sparkle overload!

I just went to the Gem Show in Chicago yesterday.  I'd been to a small one before, but nothing like this!  Since I was looking for stuff to make jewelry with, I didn't go shopping at the many booths that were selling finished jewelry.  Still, there were so many vendors, and so much cool stuff that I would like to have, that it was really tough to decide.  I mostly bought semi-precious gemstone beads.  I probably could have used some silver too, but the prices have been going up so rapidly, I didn't really know if the prices were good, but they didn't seem to be any better deal than I normally get.  Anyway, I wanted to share some of my finds:

These are little tiny faceted roundelles:  black spinel, green onyx and rhodolite garnet.  I like the fact that the green onyx looks like emeralds and the rhodoite garnet looks like rubies.

I love blue lace agate, and here are some very pretty faceted rounds.  The ones above are larger, and then there are some smaller ones below, along with some tourmaline and agate.

Crysoprase is something I had heard of but not really familiar with.  It is a rare form of quartz, usually the color of green apple, but can also be a dark green.  I didn't see a whole lot of it, but I did pick up these roundelles, which are a pretty green apple color.

Chrysocolla sounds similar, but it is a "carbonite copper" gemstone.  Apparently it has copper and is often found mixed with malechite, turquoise and azurite.  I did find a very pretty pendant made from chrysocolla and picked it up along with a florite one.  I usually don't like to buy pendants that are already made, but I thought these were really cool.

I also picked up some cabs, which you won't be seeing in my pieces for a while, because I have to perfect my soldering skills first.  I got some some turquoise cabs:

In addition to the turquoise cabs, I also got some jasper cabs.  These are all red river jasper, except for the large square one which I was told is "mushroom jasper".

There's a lot more, but I'm only going to show you one last thing.  When I saw these, I really wanted them because I'm thinking I can have a lot of fun with them.  This is called "Suchoo Jade".  I have no idea what that means, but I bought them for the Buddha heads:

Ok, now that I have shared some of my finds with you, I have to go get to work.  I need to make some pieces and hopefully sell a lot of stuff before my husband sees what I put on the credit card!

Handmade Copper Jewelry from JCUIN guild

The temperature here has started to cool off at last.  It reminds us that fall is coming soon, with those beautiful warm oranges and browns.  So I went looking for a few copper pieces from the members of the ArtFire JCUIN guild and I found some very unique pieces.  With the price of silver rising at exponential levels recently, copper is becoming a more attractive medium to many.   These pieces are all handmade, and some are one of a kind.

I love the exotic look of this Peruvian Opal Necklace above by Epicetera.  In addition to the Peruvian opal triangles, it has lots of copper and little turquoise accent beads.  And the price is a steal.  By the way, Epicetera, I love the banner in your ArtFire shop!

These unusual earrings above look like they have gemstones, but they're actually Czech Picasso glass beads.  They are called Swinger Earrings, and you can find them in Catherine's shop of Shadow Dog Designs.  I hope Catherine's East coast studio has ridden out the recent storm ok.

The above necklace is called Rain On My Window, and it features a rather large copper focal piece with a wonderful turquoise colored patina.  The turquoise beads appear to perfectly match the patina on the pendant.  This necklace is from the ladies at Faye Lyn Adornments, who are neither Faye nor Lyn.  I'm wondering about that patina, and whether or not they used the used kitty litter method (lol!).

I like the necklace above because of it's simplicity and it's soft colors.  It is called Jasper Bead Necklace, and you can find it in the Strega Jewellry shop along with a matching pair of earrings.  The artist says jasper is protective, and you will feel warm, safe, and secure when you wear this necklace.  The nice warm colors certainly convey that.

Here are some Domed Copper Earrings with hematite beads by the artists at Gaelic Forge.  These earrings have  a gorgeous patina.   I think patinas must be one of their specialties.  

These Copper Heart Earrings, above, are made from copper clay, and can be found in my shop, Shanghai Tai.  Another thing that's interesting about these earrings is that even though the ear wires look copper, they are actually annodized niobium.  Niobium is a relative of titanium, and is actually extremely hypoallergenic.

This is just a small sample of all the handmade copper jewelry that is available by the members of the JCUIN (Jewelry Creators Unite in Numbers) guild on ArtFire.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Learning the hard way

Is anybody out there?

This is my first post here.  I'm moving my blog from my Artfire shop to Blogger so that people can actually subscribe to it.  (Imagine a blog that people could actually subscribe to!)

I would like to do a blog for my customers, but I realize that right now I am mostly followed by other jewelry designers, so I will try and have something for both of you.

The last few days I spent working on a piece to submit to Holly Gage's 2012 calender, the Art and Design of Metal Clay Jewelry.  I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.  The problem is I'm a procrastinator.  I spent too much time planning, and didn't leave myself enough extra time for all the unplanned problems that I always run into.  So, I didn't get it done in time to submit it, but since I didn't, I guess I have no problem showing what I'm working on.

Here was my inspiration, Crescent Moon Lake at Mingsha Shan (Singing Sands Mountain) in the Gobi desert outside Dunhuang:

Crescent Lake at Mingsha, Dunhuang, China

Anyway, I was looking at pictures of Mingsha online, some better than the one I took, and I could just see the bronze sand, the copper pagoda, and the silver crescent lake.  Wouldn't that make a great pendant?

So anyway, I drew it out a few times until I got the design the way I wanted it.  First I made the pagoda in copper.  I started with a mold and ended up modifying it.  I let it dry.  I had considered firing the copper pagoda first and then firing the bronze, but I found online an article by Judy Weers from the 2010 PMC conference about how to fire copper and bronze together.  

I wanted a layered look, so I cut out the foreground and the background out of bronze clay.  I carefully inserted the dry, unfired pagoda where I wanted it and cut out the lake by hand with a pointy tool:

I then let them dry.  Aren't the colors beautiful?

Meanwhile, I realized what I had overlooked, which turned out to be my downfall here.  The instructions for firing bronze and copper didn't necessarily apply, because the new package of bronze I had just opened was Fast Fire Bronze, which I had never used before.  Apparently you have to test the crap out of this stuff!  You have to fire it, then check it for blisters (which means it got too hot), and bend it to see if it got fired all the way through.  I had to end up doing three firings -- the first two weren't hot enough.  

Meanwhile I put an edge around it and made the bail.  Here it is, ready to go in the kiln.  You can see two sand dunes behind it and the sun setting.  I also made some little waves in the sand and the bail.

Now, I finally got this fired and it came out of the kiln looking good, but by now it was 10:30, and my deadline was midnight, and I still had to put silver in the lake.  After brushing it, I put it in my tumbler to clean it up and burnish it.  It was looking good, but I didn't have time to take a picture, because I had to get the silver in it.  The only weird thing was that the copper pretty much looked like the bronze.  You really couldn't tell the difference unless you looked closely.  I don't know why that is, unless the fast fire has more copper in it than the regular?  But even my test pieces looked more golden colored than this did.

Now, I am very ADHD, and I lose everything that can't ring when it's called.  I had seen an article in Art Jewelry Magazine about inlaying silver solder into copper or bronze.  Of course, I couldn't find the article.  I even looked online.  Turns out it's in the January 2010 issue.  I was sure it was more recent than that.  Meanwhile I misplaced my wire solder after having it in my hand (found it while writing this article).  So I decided to use paste solder because I didn't have time to mess around.  I'm not very good at soldering yet.  Apparently this is NOT a good use for paste solder.  I fluxed the inside of the lake well and stuck some dabs of paste solder in there.  I probably should have heated it from below, but apparently the real problem was the paste solder.  Instead of flowing, it tried to ball up into a ball.  I freaked out when it started rising up off the pendant like it was growing.    Anyway the only thing I succeeded in doing was balling up the solder and turning my pendant black.  By now it was about 11:30 pm and there was no way I was going to make my deadline.  Here it is after the disaster:

So right now it's in the pickle, trying to get the black off it.  If I ever get it done (which might be a long time from now if my soldering skills don't improve) I'll post the picture.