Trying to experiment but....

[misspond]

...I still stay within the limits of what I know. But that's okay, I still see myself as very much a beginner.

Most of what I make has a very personal edge, although I'm not always able to explain how. This piece though (much like the Goddess pendant I made a couple of years ago) has been on my mind a lot.

It's a semicolon pendant - if you're unaware of the semicolon as anything other than punctuation it's something that has been adopted by a sector of people who have either experienced for themselves a mental health crisis or who are close to people who have. I wanted to make a little pendant that expressed that experience, but something subtle (I'm aware I'm being a bit cryptic so I'll try and explain - my daughter tried to end her life almost three years ago, she was only 13 at the time, and it's been a battle to get help and support for her since then but she's still here and she's fine, and I use making jewellery as my escape from the trials and tribulations of dealing with everything that the last few years have brought us).

So here's my semicolon pendant, in my (as Dennis has coined it) house style - nothing too obvious and with a design on the back so it can be worn two ways. I etched the surfaces of the not quite perfect oval shape and the back has a partial etch of a butterfly, the archetypal symbol of change and emergence.



It's about the size of a fingerprint and I love the tactile nature of the amethyst cab when I run my thumb over it.

Enough of the emotional stuff, more of the experiments! So in my head what I want to make is a bit edgy - what actually comes out of me is less so. I've recently just been able to start wearing earrings again, so have been playing with earrings I'd buy (this is why I started this journey in the first place, wanting me make things that I want to wear) and I had a sheet of 0.3mm sterling sheet that I bought three years ago. I couldn't afford anything thicker at the time and soon realised that it wasn't much good for backing things other than earrings - which I couldn't wear - when I had my son 11 years ago he changed my body chemistry so I went from wearing up to four earrings in each lobe to not being able to wear anything without discomfort. That changed recently (yes I checked every so often!) and I realised that I could etch the thin sheet and do something with it.

This is what got etched:



I cut out some shapes and did a bit of bending and this is what I made:



Pretty, but not what I was after. They're nice to wear though, lightweight but just enough weight from the labradorite beads to stop them flying around.

Last weekend I decided to try for something less pretty. Made lots of large jump rings, soldered them, a bit of gentle recticulation, joining them to one central ring, added a couple of embellishments in the form of some reticulated scrap and raw emerald beads with some chain to add length, dipped in Platinol and then used red 3M wheels to take some of the patina off to show off the rough silver. These are my new favourite earrings and despite how they look are really comfortable to wear. This is a theme I'll be exploring some more.



I even got the teen to model them for me so I could show how long they are when worn, but you'll have to click down to the next comment because I've reached my photo limit...