New life
Silver bracelets, new rings, and circling back to ideas
A fun aspect of making jewelry is that since the process takes so long (dozens of hours per piece spread over weeks or months), it’s possible to have a lot of projects going simultaneously. Some days I carve a new wax model, other days I solder metal or sketch designs. Ideas cross-pollinate, evolve, and sometimes circle back . This rhythm naturally leads to through-lines and themes emerging from designers that you see as a cohesive collection or body of work.
For example, as you will see below, I am reincorporating a motif in a new design.
It’s fun experiencing how new ideas emerge from old ones, giving them new life and myself new excitement.
Current projects
My clamshell charm bracelet is underway. I did an initial polish of the charms and now I need to solder the links together. Originally I debated changing the design a bit, but I think I will stick with my plan of using three charms in the bracelet.
I also made silver prototypes of a heart clover and two flowers. I’m not sure what I will do with the flowers (if anything) but I have a few ideas for the clover:
Solder a row of them together to make a silver cuff bracelet
Make a gold pendant version to wrap over an Akoya pearl
I finally finished a fabricated silver ring that, even with its simple design, I spent probably 20 hours or more making! I fine-polished every element prior to soldering them together (as opposed to making the piece and then later polishing everything) which added time but ensured a perfected finish. I particularly enjoyed the final gratifying step of pushing the prongs over the stone.
My brother is visiting me in Japan for a few weeks. He said he likes simple geometric designs so I made two rings in wax for him that I will cast next week in silver. Making these rings really highlighted how much larger mens’ rings are! The width has to be much wider and thicker than for a woman and of course the diameter is much larger. One of my mentors previously shared with me that making rings for men as a small designer is challenging because their knuckles vary in size a lot more than women’s knuckles - so if you have a physical store, you need to keep a wider range of sizes in stock.
My little Umi figurine now has fur! Hopefully the texture will look good in metal. Since my dog is mostly black, I think the silver piece will actually look better as it oxidizes and the nooks of the fur darken. Next week I will add detail to her face.
Recent inspirations
Upon the recommendation of one of my mentors at ileava jewelry, I visited Goodwill Vintage Jewelry. It is a lovely Tokyo boutique selling a gorgeous assortment of fine vintage jewelry and watches. Most of the pieces are Western because, interestingly, Japan doesn’t have a long history of jewelry. Instead, Japanese metalsmiths and artisans often made household items or adornments for kimonos.