Summer energy
New product photographs and clam shell pieces in-progress
Thanks to early summer sunrises (and sharing a bed with my early-rising dog), I start my days recently at 4:30AM, allowing a few extra hours of personal time.
Beginning my mornings with an hour or two of creative work is one of the most energizing ways for me to wake up. I particularly love playing with new wax designs as I either listen to a podcast or let my imagination wander.
As you’ll see further below, I am making several new pieces. Unintentionally, my jewelry work seems to follow a creative cycle where new pieces are batched together: I naturally gravitate toward making new designs for a few weeks and then shift to finishing pieces for a few weeks. These extra summer hours seem to encourage the exciting phase of designing.
New photographs
I finally finished re-photographing my pieces! It was quite the time investment and there are still a few that I would like to redo again, but I think overall they are an improvement from my previous product photos. I have a feeling that taking product pictures will be something I continue to iterate. So there will likely be a future re-photography project again! In perhaps a year I may even hire a professional photographer once I have more pieces.
In the meantime, my favorite new jewelry photography trick is how to photograph rings standing upright. It’s not difficult (just a little sticky tack) but makes a ring photo very eye-catching.
Current projects
I have a lot of new projects in the works that I’m excited about! Many of them are also of a different style than my existing pieces.
I did a flush setting for the first time and made a new silver ring for myself featuring a baby pink tourmaline. I learned a lot through making this ring (like how much metal to leave for the bezel) and can’t wait to try again! Overall it turned out alright, but in my next attempt I have some new learnings to help perfect the rim of the setting. In my opinion, a setting like this really needs the right tools. Once I bought more burs I was able to cut out the seat for the stone quite quickly.
I am also very pleased with how the clam shell charm for a chunky link bracelet I want to make turned out. Once I refine and polish it, I will solder on jump rings before casting the rest of the charms in silver.
I have two new rings with center stones that I sent off to the caster this past week. The tear-drop zircon is meant for myself to wear in silver. If the round sapphire ring turns out well, I would love to add it to my formal collection in gold. If not, I will try again! :)
I refined my little figurine of my dog, Umi, a bit. I will make a smooth outline of her before adding fur texture. The back looks pretty good, but I need to define her legs further before I can focus on her details.
I also created a new clamshell ring in wax. The ring is an experiment with texture and shape for me. I purposefully made the ring’s lines organic and imperfect as I think it could suit the overall style. I am interested to see how it will turn out in metal!
Recent inspirations
Summer! And the feeling of being by the ocean during summer.
