Tuesday, November 16, 2010

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:
Turritella Rough
I start with a piece of rough stone.
This is a Turritella rough. Turritella is a fossil, a type of shell
Cutting Rough Slab
First I cut through the stone, the next cut will be a thin slab
marked slab
After I've cut the slabs I mark the material to cut on the trim saw, These pieces will end up being cabochons
trim saw cuts
Cutting out the cabochons
trim cut cabochons
I wet the little trim slabs with water to get an idea how the finished cabs will look
grinding the cabs
I grind the cabochons on a disk grinder using a finer grit disk at each of several stages
finished cabs
Here are the finished cabochons
fitting bezel
Next I start preparing the silver
stamping
Stamping my jewelrs mark and .925 Sterling stamp
soldering cavity
Soldering bezel to the backing plate
making pieces
 Some parts, it's starting to look like jewelry, a little bit anyway
fileing
I file and pre-polish areas where parts wil be soldered together
soldering again
Soldering the pieces together
setting stones
After final soldering, the silver is pickled in acid, then I set the stones
polishing
Polishing the silver, It's very nearly done
finished pieces
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

Friday, November 12, 2010

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.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

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.