Midsummer haze
Working on my seashell bracelet and enjoying long summer days
The past week was a blur of music, movement, and midsummer haze. With my family still in town and work gathering momentum, I escaped for a long weekend at Fuji Rock, a fantastic music festival tucked into the green, humming mountains of Japan. The songs lingered even after I left (along with a bit of a cold) and I found myself slightly off my usual rhythm of exercise, work, and of course, jewelry-making.
Still, in the quiet between the whir of summer cicadas and catching up, I made small but satisfying progress on a few pieces and had fun experimenting with new tools along the way.
Current projects
My silver seashell charm bracelet is well underway! I decided that I actually want five charms (as opposed to three) so I need to get two more cast in silver.
The linked bracelet features a toggle clasp that I designed using mitsuro (a traditional Japanese wax). The mitsuro creates fluid texture reminiscent of waves crashing on shells at the beach.
I think the bracelet is super cute and I can’t wait to wear it after I finish assembling and polishing it.
I resized two new ring designs in wax and sent them back to the caster. I’m very excited about both of these. They are inspired by the movement of rivers, specifically, the river behind a new house I’m renting soon (more on that in a few weeks!!). These bands will both feature stones and have much more slender, curved profiles than any rings I’ve made so far.
Tools
I played around with making and using some new tools this week.
When shaping and finishing a piece, the order is:
Filing (using metal files)
Sanding (using sandpaper)
Polishing (using rubber, cloth, and polishing compounds)
I’ve found that taking the time to properly sand pieces with multiple levels of grit makes a huge difference in bringing a piece to a professional mirror-finish. Often I use sandpaper bits attached to a rotary tool to sand my pieces, but for jewelry with flat edges I created a sandpaper stick. Using double-sided tape, I added 400, 800, and 1000 grit sandpaper to a wooden stick.
A tool I’ve owned for a while but haven’t used frequently is a doming block. Doming blocks, when used with metal punches, allow metal to be evenly shaped and curved. Particularly when fabricating jewelry (making jewelry directly in metal using files, heat, and solder), doming blocks are essential to create three-dimensional shapes. This past week, I used the tool to slightly dome part of an earring I am working on in metalsmithing school.
Recent inspirations
In previous years I haven’t enjoyed Japan summers very much (too hot and humid), but this year I’m feeling quite inspired and relaxed by the long days. Fuji Rock felt like the epitome of a languid, Japanese summer in nature.
