Mirror Mirror on the Wall ...

Who's the fairest of them all? This pendant makes me think of the magic mirror in Disney's Sleeping Beauty - thanks to Christine from the Art Jewelry forum. She pointed out that it seems reminiscent of the Magic Mirror - and as soon as she said I could see it without a doubt. The shape, the scrolls ... it's totally there!









This is a simple tumbled Amethyst transformed into somthing beautiful. I wanted to take a more symetrical approach and make another pendant like the Golden Swirls pendant in a mirror image - so that the right side matched the left side. The Golden Swirls pendant with the botswana agate stone demanded something more organic to match the freeform shape of it. I chose this tumbled amethyst specifically because of it's shape.

It was a bit of a pain trying to manipulate the coils just so. Of course they aren't EXACTLY the same on both sides, but that only shows that the piece is handcrafted by a real person, so I'm okay with that. :)

Something New ... Golden Swirls

Here's the pendant I've been working on for the last few days ... on and off, of course. It's something I've had in my head for some time now. I've been browsing the metalworkers.org site drooling at all the wonderful wire work there and many of the artists there use similar coiled swirls such as these to some degree or another in their work. So I guess that I have several sources of inspiration for this piece ... especially the numerous artists specializing in these coiled loops from metalworkers.org. I browse that site all the time for inspiration but there's so many different artists there that I can't site just one as the source. Finally, mhead (sorry I don't know his/her real name) whose site I stumbled upon recently. She made a pendant using a similar technique which motivated me to 'get on the stick' as it were.

So here's the results of my experimentation:





Back shot:
Showing the woven bail.


Side view:
Even though the pendant has the appearance of being so 'substantial' you can see from the side that it is not bulky at all.


It's really a beautiful pendant! I am pleased with the results of my experimentation over all. There will be more of these... little ones, big ones, and in-between ones. Guaranteed!

Adding more content to the Egyptian Coil Tut

Okay, okay .. if you've already bought it don't sweat it! I'll send you a copy of the altered file free of charge when it's ready. I've decided to add more concise instructions on the flattened coil bracelet, such as the one shown below.




I think the orginal tut material creates a more feminine version, while adding this one will create a bracelet with both masculine and feminine appeal.

I'm going to finish up my bezel weave tut before going back to add the new content to the egyptian coil tut though, so be patient!

Changes to the horse pendant

Forgive the horrible pic ... it does not do the pendant any justice. Suffice it to say that while initially I was very disappointed with the way this pendant was turning out, I am now madly in love with it. This is a clue as to how much lovlier the pendant is ... though the photo does not really show this. It really breaks my heart that I will not have a good pic of this pendant ... I finished it up at about 1:30 a.m. lastnight and then rushed out to hand deliver it in the wee hours as Wendy and Tonya were leaving at the crack of dawn for the Egyptian Event horse show.

Changes made:
I bent the ear forward to make it look less like a horn. Not a big difference but a slight improvement. Secondly the mane - this made all the difference. Thanks to all of my collegues for critiquing my work and offering suggestions on how to improve upon it and most especially to my friend Cammy for the coiled mane suggestion.




I will be making another one of these soon. This time I will have a clear idea of what I need to improve upon BEFORE starting, which will ensure that I have a far lovlier piece in the end. I WILL get a good pic of that one before I let it go! Rest assured. ;)

More for Azalea Arabians and the Egyptian Event Art Auction

Well, as I have already mentioned in my previous blog I was working on some comissions for Azalea Arabians. I wanted to create a pendant with a horse motif for them. This is what I've come up with so far... it's still a work in progress and there's much I'd like to change, though I am not sure how many changes I will be able to make in the short time I have left. Here's what I have thus far ...



Not bad ... but the changes I would like to see are 1) make the ear not look so much like a horn. I'm going for horse, not unicorn. 2) give him a stronger jaw line while keeping the muzzle slim as is characteristic of the Arabian horse and 3) give him a mane that gives the impression of movement ... flowing mane.

Now I am not sure how much I will be able to change this since I have very little time over the next two days to work with it before it's off to the art auction, but even if I am not able to implement all of these changes in this pendant, I will make another one and make the changes then. I can see the potential here, even if my first one was not the best one. :)

I will update after I've made a few changes to my horsey, so keep an eye out.