How I make what I make

A visitor to my booth at a recent art show looked at my jewelry and asked if I cut the stones as well as forming the metal. When I responded in the afirmative he said he was totally amazed that I could make these items from raw materials and asked, "But how?"

The following is the condensed version:

I start with a piece of rough stone.
This is a Turritella rough. Turritella is a fossil, a type of shell

First I cut through the stone, the next cut will be a thin slab

After I've cut the slabs I mark the material to cut on the trim saw, These pieces will end up being cabochons

Cutting out the cabochons

I wet the little trim slabs with water to get an idea how the finished cabs will look

I grind the cabochons on a disk grinder using a finer grit disk at each of several stages

Here are the finished cabochons

Next I start preparing the silver

Stamping my jewelrs mark and .925 Sterling stamp

Soldering bezel to the backing plate

 Some parts, it's starting to look like jewelry, a little bit anyway

I file and pre-polish areas where parts wil be soldered together

Soldering the pieces together

After final soldering, the silver is pickled in acid, then I set the stones

Polishing the silver, It's very nearly done

Some finished pieces. I hope you were looking at the jewelry insted of the mess  :0)
You can see more of my jewelry and sculpture too at my web site: http://www.lunarksies.com 

And also at my etsy shop (where I'm currently having a 25% OFF Sale): http://www.etsy.com/shop/LunarSkiesJewelry

The Dancers Giclee Print

This is a digital collage I created and coned my brother into printing a giclee print for me.

I wanted to find out if the image quality was good enough to make a fairly large print. He's made the print at 17" x 22" and said it looks really good. He's sent it to me, I can't wait to see the actual print.


I'm not sure if I'll try to market this as a limited edition print. I'd love to get some reaction to the image.

Fairy & Flower Sculpture

Fairy & Flower Sculpture

Handcrafted Copper and Cholla Cactus Wood Butterfly Sculpture on Oak Base; approximately 9-1/2" high, x 2-1/2" x 7". Fairy and flower are hand forged from top quality copper stock. My art is usually inspired by nature but sometimes it takes a flight into fantasy. I visualized the size and movements of fairies, then let my imagination take over. I left the flower unpolished as I did with Paisley Butterfly. 



I just finished this latest piece. It provided new challenges, but I welcome that. I'm pretty pleased with the result. Each sculpture I create is a unique work which allows me to grow as an artist.



To view larger pictures of this work follow the link below
http://www.lunarskies.com/pages1/fineart.html




My 25% OFF Jewelry Sale continues on my Etsy and Artfire shops: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LunarSkiesJewelry
http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies
These pieces are real bargains considering how much silver has gone up in price. 

 

I haven't made a decision about my next sculpture but I feel compelled to do one of these with a hummingbird at some point. I'm sure that I will encounter a new set of challenges with that project.