Rutilated quartz pendant in fabricated sterling silver setting, private commission. September 2019. (Wish I had twenty more cabs of this amazing material..!!)
Spectrolite Moonstone Ring
Spectrolite moonstone ring in sterling silver, August 2019.
Art Nouveau Labradorite Pendant
Blue labradorite pendant with Art Nouveau-inspired bail, private commission. March 2019.
Electric Blue Labradorite Pendant
Electric blue labradorite pendant in fabricated sterling silver setting. September 2018.
Green Labradorite Bespoke Ring
Green labradorite ring in fabricated sterling silver setting, gift. February 2018.
Faceted Labradorite Slider Pendant
Faceted labradorite slider pendant, fabricated in sterling silver, August 2017.
A Purple Labradorite Pendant
When I first got this stone in hand, I knew it was something I wanted to keep for myself (I’m a big fan of purple, AND labradorite. Didn’t know it came in purple!!) I made this alongside the labradorite demi-parure in June 2015; a few pictures overlap.
Labradorite Demi-Parure
This is the first demi-parure I’ve made (which is just a fancy way of saying a matched set.) Set completed in labradorite and sterling silver, in June-July 2015.
“A parure is a full set of matching jewelry designed to be worn together en suite. A demi-parure is a less elaborate suite of jewelry with two or more pieces. The French in particular were known to have delighted in wearing formalized and elaborate suites and indeed, the term parure comes from the French verb, parer, meaning to adorn.”
— Antique Jewelry University
A Birthday Necklace
Last month was my mom’s birthday (hi Mom!), and I decided to make her a pendant using one of the stones I bought last summer from a fellow RAGMS member. I chose a blue-green oval, which the club member said was “turquoise” — not entirely incorrect. I believe it’s an Eilat stone: a combination of malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and turquoise (all copper-bearing minerals.) It’s a gorgeous stone, and I thought it would contrast well with Mom’s red hair and fair complexion.
I’m really happy with how this pendant turned out, I think it’s my best to date! I explained my design idea to my mentor, he broke it down into steps so I could work most efficiently, and I completed the piece in about 2.5 hours (a speed record, for me!)
As I was pressed for time, I only took a couple of in-progress photos (and didn’t want to post any more than these to Instagram or Facebook, for fear of ruining the surprise.) I soldered the bezel closed, then soldered the decorative beading wire closed in a ring, hammered it flat and fitted it to just outside the bezel, then soldered both to the back plate at the same time, which saved time, pain and stress. I then cut out a heart shape on the back plate, so the color of the stone would show through. (Definitely something I’d try doing again!)
As I said, I’m pretty pleased with how this ended up, and so was the recipient! ♥
Casting, Part 2
Today was Day 3 of Casting class, so here’s the rest of the wrap-up!
Before class started, I borrowed a coarse file and removed the remainder of the sprue from the bottom of my ring, so it’s now ready to (more finely) file, sand, and polish. (I ran it through the magnetic tumbler, which shined it up somewhat, but also scratched it up quite a bit, so in hindsight I wish I hadn’t bothered with it. Oh well.)
Today we were vacuum casting, and it did seem to go somewhat faster than the centrifugal casting (in part because the instructor took charge of melting the metal.) Each student removed their flask from the kiln, set up the vacuum on the flask, poured the molten metal, removed the vacuum, removed the flask for further cooling, and quenched the flask and cast object. It was, again, slightly frightening to go through the process, and I over-filled my flask, getting metal onto the vacuum chamber (oops.) The excess, I poured into ingots for re-use.
So how did it come out? Well…
The texture cast perfectly, as far as I’m concerned. There’s still a lot to clean up — there’s lots of tiny crevices where investment is lurking — but the zebra plant leaves are sharp and amazingly textured, and the gollum jade leaves are plump and weird-looking. There were a few minor issues with shrinkage and porosity (since the piece couldn’t be vacuumed after the investment was poured in, not every bubble was dislodged), but over all, I’m pretty happy! I need to have someone cut off the bottom to flatten it out (right now it wobbles like a Weeble), so it’ll sit properly.
One bonus to casting this piece in bronze is that I can patina it, using any number of wonderful recipes. Since you can only do so much with sterling, and I don’t really work in other metals that patina well (like copper, or bronze), it’s an exciting prospect!
Thanks again for following along! More posts (with actual, finished, non-class-related jewelry) coming soon.