New Earrings and Process Pictures

The long awaited Dragonfly Wing Earrings are now available in my Etsy.

I thought I’d share a little about my process and how these earrings came to be. The idea for them came about when I saw a beautiful dragonfly outside my studio on a sunny summer day. I began by doodling a rough idea. Then I go into a computer program to draw out the design as a vector graphic. After I have a vector design I hand saw it out. In this case I cut it out of brass.

I wasn’t entirely happy with the look of them so I tweaked the design slightly and re-cut them.

Once I was happy with the design, I sent the file off to have them laser cut out of stainless steel. When I get the parts back from the laser cutter they are pretty rough, so I spend some time cleaning them up.

After they are cleaned up I solder the sterling silver posts onto them and do the finish work.

Head over to my Etsy Shop to get a pair, and to celebrate the release of these earrings I’m offering free shipping through the end of the month. Use the coupon code “SEPTEMBER12” at checkout.

Studio Rennovtions

Last week I decided to add a little wall in my studio space. I did this to create a clean wall that didn’t have conduit running across it, and to give me a storage closet.

Here is a photo of the space before the wall. 

Here I’ve cut all the 2×4’s to length and am laying them out. Since the wall isn’t much more than a divider, I decided that I didn’t need a stud every 16 inches.

The wall in place.

First sheet of drywall in place. Since I was building the wall by myself, I laid the drywall horizontally because it was easier to manage. It also creates a nice tight seem between the sheets because you’re using gravity to line them up.

Second layer of mud.

Here is the storage space I created.

Beginning to paint the wall. I had a tiny helper at this point. She just wandered around checking it all out. Making sure the paint job went well.

I taped off the upper half to paint vertical stripes. Vertical stripes give the appearance of height, and give it a clean crisp look. I used

Olympic Interior Eggshell Paint Olympic paint eggshell for the base coat, and their Exterior High Gloss for the bottom half of the wall, and the stripes. Both paints were “Milk Paint” color. Using two different finish options of the same color paint creates this subtle look.

Paint job finished.

And here it is with everything in place. I also created a ceiling on the top of my storage space so that I could display things on top of the wall. Here I have several of my vintage metal containers on display.

Spirograph Basket Earrings in Process

Yesterday I started on several pairs of the Spirogrograph Basket Earrings, and I thought I’d share a few process shots.

Here are the finished earrings that I’m making.

In this photo I’m putting the solder on the steel components using an acetylene/atmosphere torch.

Next I attach the silver rings that will hold the earwires.

Here are the components with the silver rings attached.

Then I sand the pieces to clean up the firescale.

I didn’t have a chance to finish them yesterday, as I teach jewelry making on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Today I will finish them up by creating the earwires and attaching them.

Rustic Dish Earrings

Yesterday was a lovely day. I spent most of the day working in the studio. I made several pairs of the dish earrings in preparation for Renegade.

Also, my show cards came in yesterday.

The day ended with some crab fishing off the pier and watching the sunset. We caught 3 large dungeness, half of what we caught the night before, but seeing that 1–1.5 makes a big meal, I think we have plenty for the moment.

4th of July

July 4th started for me with some jewelry making. I worked on this new design for these earrings. They were inspired by helicopter seed pods. I really love the way that they look on.

Then we went putting around Lake Union on one of Dan’s boats. It’s a little aluminum Crestliner, and Dan has been working on the engine and replacing the seats in it, so yesterday was the first time we got to take it out.

Here’s a photo that I took with my phone of the massive amounts of people at Gas Works park.

Sun set and we were on a friend’s boat to watch the fireworks. I was so happy to be back in Seattle and on a boat for the fireworks display.

Show Display

My letterpress tray display is coming along. I’ve added wires to some of the spaces so that I can hang earrings.

Display

I picked up these old type cases in Kansas City that I’m going to use as part of my display for Renegade.

New Packaging

I’ve been wanting to move away from the poly fill jewelry boxes in an effort to reduce my plastic usage, so I’m pretty happy with my new packaging. Every part of it can either be recycled or composted.