In Flux
A few in-progress designs and my new workbench
I have a few pieces in flux this week (pardon the jeweler’s pun… if you get it, you get it!).
A few pieces are getting cast in silver/gold and I polished some design tests in silver. Making jewelry is truly an exercise in patience as every piece takes at minimum 2-3 weeks to finish. Especially if I want to make something in gold, it takes several steps:
Make the design in wax
Cast it in silver
Sand and polish it in silver
If I want to make a change, redo it in wax
If I’m happy with it, make a mold of the design
For earrings, I cast it again in silver and then solder on the backings to wear and test to make sure the earring is comfortable
Cast it in gold
Solder parts on the piece if necessary
Sand and polish it in gold
Assemble any chains or other parts if necessary
In addition to the challenge of coming up with designs, the length of the process is why I would say I only have one truly complete piece at the moment.
Pieces in-progress
As part of my little grouping of Mitsuro pieces, I am happy with the initial versions of two earrings (pictured above).
The first one is a stud earring and the second one an open hoop. My next step is to make copies and then solder on backings. I’ll wear the silver versions for a while to make sure they are comfortable and if I love them I will make them in gold!
I am also excited about this knot design for an earring and ring (in fact, so excited that I forgot to take photos with my real camera before sending it off to make copies!). In the pictures above, the knot is in unpolished silver and I paired it with a gold ring and hoop earring that I already own just to get an idea for what the final versions might look like.
For the ring, I plan to keep the band rounded like in the photo. For the earring, I want to have a thinner and more delicate hoop. Hopefully the photos convey what I have in mind!
New workbench
This past week I received a new workbench that I commissioned from a local carpenter. I live with a very supportive partner who encouraged me to take over our spare bedroom and convert it into a home studio. (Thanks, Chris!!) So now I have a very comfortable area to create in.
A few months ago I purchased an antique desk for my wax work, but using the same workspace for wax and metal risks contaminating the wax. This new workbench is specifically for metalwork - soldering, sanding, and polishing.
The workbench is quite tall (90 cm) to reduce hunching as I work and has built-in drawers on the right and open shelves on the left for larger tools. It also has a thin drawer in the center like a real jeweler’s bench to catch metal shavings.
Butterflies
In the fall my boyfriend and I saw an exhibition of Chizuko Yoshida, a modernist Japanese oil painter and woodblock printmaker. You can see examples of her work here.
She is best-known for her colorful butterflies prints and I was inspired to make my own interpretations.
I made a ring and pendant in wax and tried to capture a bit of the kaleidoscope of Chizuko Yoshida’s butterflies. I’m not sure how they will turn out in metal, but it’s fun to experiment with different ideas!