Bits and pieces

[misspond]

Some simple things I've played with recently.



I made the top ring in this picture for my next door neighbour after I showed her some of the things I've made and she fell in love with it - but because I'd neglected to make proper notes about how that twist is really easy to make I mangled my first attempt, so the second two rings below it are how I salvaged the wire - a couple of undulating rings, one of them with a metal clay doo-dad. The bottom row is made up of (from the left) a metal clay piece that just looks like a spider to me (it was pressed into a carving I made but it's too odd looking, even for me), another metal clay piece pressed into a carving and platinol applied with some teeny spinel beads at the bottom and a pair of earrings that I wear all the time, also metal clay pressed into a carving with some platinol.

Here's a close up of the ring from the middle row. It's not quite how I want it to look, I've only got a v-tool for carving and it's a bit "sharp", I need to play with other ways of making texture sheets. And it looks like what it is, a piece of metal clay soldered to a shank. I need to spend more time on combining metal clay with bullion so that I lose the, "this got soldered to that", look.



This next piece is more metal clay, a pendant I made from a carved sheet impression and I'm still channelling the MacDonald sisters here - on the back I pressed a piece of a teeny fern that grows on the wall opposite my kitchen. This is a gift for someone so I hope she likes it.



And today I set myself a challenge. How quickly can I make a delicate and fashionable thing (even if i'm late to the party because I hate to follow fashion) - stacking rings. The long kyanite ring is one I made a couple of years ago and it's a favourite so I needed to make things that would work with it. I've got lots of these 4mm stones so there's one with a moonstone (that I made last week) and today I added the green onyx, the amethyst and yet another shank topped with a torch fired piece of metal clay. I think they're really pretty together so I'm glad I broke through my dislike of fashionable things! And I finally used a tool that's been in my stash for a while, the much maligned cheap bezel setting tool that you rub over the top of small bezel settings. Having read about how horrible it is here I had polished the inside of the bigger punches and used them to push down on and give a final set to these little stones after initially securing them with a pair of pliers. Worked a treat I think?



Deb