Thursday Workshop at Riverwalk Bead Shop

Thursday’s workshop at the Riverwalk Bead Shop and Gallery with Fredericka, Dale and Nancy.

 Dale and Fredericka did more fold-forming with Maggie. Both completed earrings and Dale is working on a pendant. I will follow up later with photos of what they made.

 

Nancy completed the jasper pendant she started working on at my house on Monday. Here it is!

Tuesday Night Fold-Forming Class

Put a bunch of people in a room with lots and lots of tools, add sheet copper, silver wire and beads, a measure of creativity, and stir. That’s Maggie’s Mixed Metal Jewelry and Metalsmithing class on Tuesday nights at North Shore Community College! The first week, we fold-formed copper sheets. The process involves  folding and hammering a copper sheet to create interesting textures.  Most students are nervous using a torch for the first time, but very soon, they’re confidently firing it up and shutting it down and heating and annealing their metal. Next week, I’ll post photos of the torch setup.

Pictured above are two sheets of fold-formed copper after it has been worked. Now it is ready to be cut into shapes for jewelry.

Nora let Sue try out her Optivisor. Makes a huge difference when you can see what you’re trying to do!

Not sure what story Denise was telling, but it made Donna smile!

Denise is working on these lovely earrings and pendant. The aquamarine beads will be wired to the center of her pendant.

 The class wasted no time getting down to jewelry design.

Diane hurried to complete two pairs of earrings for her sisters. The three sisters are meeting in Washington D.C. on  Thursday for their birthday celebrations.

Aren’t they lovely? I think the sisters will be very happy with their gifts.

Donna cuts apart her sheet in preparation for sawing out the shapes.

Joan cuts out her shapes. Look at all the lovely jewelry pieces she’s getting from a 3×3 1/2 inch textured sheet.

I promised to include this photo. Doesn’t everyone wear their fur coat to make jewelry? (Sue does, while waiting for the heating system to warm things up!)

Leslie’s Ring?

Here’s a possibility for you Leslie. It’s sterling with a eudialyte stone, which was mined in Canada.  The size is more comparable to your larimar. A little longer and narrower. The stone has some interesting spiritual qualities:

“Eudialyte is considered a personal power stone that increases and revitalizes one’s personal power. Psychically, eudialyte helps with clairaudience, manifestation, and psychic resonance and abilities, and is a psychically protective stone. It is sometimes considered a “fine tuner”. Eudialyte is also a stone of the heart, bringing harmony of heart matters, and dispelling jealousy. As eudialyte combines pink and red, it also brings the root and heart chakras into alignment, as well as activating the heart chakra. Emotionally it is helpful for learning to trust oneself and others, and eases compulsive behavior and thinking. Physically, eudialyte is good for healing the emotions, increasing vitality, eye problems, pancreas, thyroid, and purifying the blood.”

Mondays at Maggie’s

Monday is workshop day for Maggie and Nancy at my house, from October through April or early May. My dining room table is where all the cutting, filing and soldering happens. It may look like total chaos, but  is very functional.

Here are today’s projects.

Nancy worked on a simple, but very nice sterling silver ring for her husband made from 18g sheet.

After it was done, she started another bezel for a picture jasper cabachon.

These copper pendant and earrings were made by Maggie using a method known as fold forming, developed by Charles Lewton Brain.

It’s a series of folds and hammer blows with  annealing in between shape the metal into interesting shapes.

I also completed a couple of caged pearl pendants today.  I’ll put them on silver chain and sell them for Christmas.

These are just a couple of the other projects Nancy has completed during our Monday workshops:

 Look at this lovely lapis penant…

…and her gorgeous chrysocola ring.  

Nancy makes her rings completely adjustable. Only one side is soldered so it can be sized to the wearer.

Here are some of my past Monday projects:

A larimar and tourmaline bangle was a commission for my niece Amanda.

The teardrop shaped larimar stone is paired with tourmaline and amethyst.

A tiny peridot stone perches at bottom of the opal, which has a decorative cut-out on the back.

The rectangular stone is called Super Seven with an amethyst tube set. 

Not sure what the stone is on the last piece, but it’s definitely minerals in quartz.

Rings, rings, rings…

Here are a few of the new sterling wide-band rings I’ve been playing with recently. The red one is a large middle-finger dinner ring with a moukite cabochon. Next to it there’s a faceted topaz. 

 

The ring with the blue stone is actually three minerals, one of which is pyrite. The ring on the right is rutilated quartz.