Branch cuffs

A sampling of some of the Branch Cuff bracelets I'll be showing and shipping to galleries this month.

New Copper Necklaces

This is a group shot of a few of the new copper necklaces. I'm putting everything on leather now and offering the chains as a separate sale. I've had great response to this idea. This series of pendants and earings is colored with patinas and heat and coated with acrylics. The color in Photoshop is blue green, in this post it's green so I don't know what your seeing but the actual color is greenish blue turquoise to sky blue. The red copper is showing red magenta and actually it's more red orange. If interested I can do better with individual shots of pieces you might be interested in. This is just a sampling of some of the new designs.

Well gold is at an all time high of 1040.00 per oz. That's the size of a the current gold dollar coin but twice the thickness. We can't make a whole lot of jewelry with that much gold. I think you'll be seeing the prices go up sharply. I ran my gold sale as long as possible but now the gold is worth more than I was offering the jewelry for. If you bought something I thank you and you got a great deal on gold jewelry. If not you missed said chance. I wont be making gold jewelry with out a custom order, but anything you I do in silver can be done in gold. If you have a special project or a set of wedding bands you want made let me know. I still do alot of that but the prices will be a little higher as long as gold stays over 1000.00 an oz.

gold sale

I'm still having a few request to leave this up a while longer. New fans on face book haven't had a chance to see it yet so I'll leave it up a while longer.

From the bench

Here's one for the techies that like to see the process. This is a shot of my bench after 2 or 3 casting sessions. These are all silver except for the gold hearts in the upper left corner. They are still attached to the sprus and casting button. All the others have been cut off but nothing else has been done. This is what sterling silver looks like after casting. Now the fun begins. Figuring out what to do with it all I have a few ideas. But first it's grinding, sanding soldering on parts buffing and tumbling for a high polish finish. Antiquing (oxidizing) for contrast. Most of these pieces will be used in combination with other castings, stones or beads for color. The little gold hearts will be soldered onto the cross. These are part of my hearts line and part of a wholesale order. The trees will get finished and put on chains. There are a couple of leaves in there that will get the same treatment. Just a nice simple statement about nature and the beauty of curved line. Everything else is up for further design. The branches are molded from actual sticks that were drift wood found on the beaches of the north fork of Long Island. The texture will pop out with finishing. The leaves are all one of a kind as is the rose. Not sure what I'm going to do with the rose. Any ideas? Stay tuned to see what comes out. It looks like a mess now but some beautiful jewelry will emerge after I wave my magic wand over it.

Link Bracelets

Diamond shape links with graduated balls dancing around the links. solid sterling

I'm still looking for a name for this one. It's a little heavier than the one above and below and it has 14 gold balls in each link. I haven't done this a while since the cost of gold is so high but I love the contrast of metals

This one I call Sting rays but it could be stars too. These are nice light weight bracelets. Great for summer. Silver shows off you tan

New Buckle and Bracelets

Here's a new lab buckle in sterling. this one is shown on an 1 1/8 in. belt but will fit on 1 1/4. I also have a bulldog and a corgi buckle that are profiles like this.

Two views of the first of a new series of bracelets I'm calling "Blue Ridge"

Three new bracelets made of bronze and silver. Wrapping the bronze in silver keeps the bronze off your wrist and wont give you a green mark. the bronze will ozidize to a nice dark brown and have a nice contrast with the silver vine.

Bronze Patina buckles

Salmon bronze Patina This is a salmon head that I did the same patina to. Again this is a one of kind finish. They always come out different and there is no predicting how they will look. This is the actual buckle you will get. 58.00 including free shipping. This patina is not shown in the collection for sale on my website www.jewelryartstudio.com but I have all the other designs shown there in polished bronze and siver and the patina can be applied to any of the other designs.

Here's another idea for dad's day. I'm offering a free belt with these bronze buckles. These are one-off buckles because of the patina I applied. They have an almost iridescent quality. The bronze takes on a crystalline surface when lightly etched with a certain mild acid. This effect is permanent but the color will darken. However it just increases the contrast and makes them look better with age. 58.00 including free shipping.

bronze

I am working with with bronze more lately, since gold is at almost $1000.00/oz. and silver is at $15.00/oz. That's about triple for both in about 3 years. We are in a squeeze between high material costs and low retail prices. Bronze is a great alternative. It has long-standing value as an art metal and it ages beautifully. It's great for buckles. I have been using it for my fish-face buckles and in other jewelry for many years.A free $30.00 belt is included with these buckles.


This is a cast bronze salmon or trout that fits on a 1 1/2 belt. It has a high polish finish but will patina to a golden brown with greenish highligts. Shown on a brown belt. This is one I can do over and I'm selling this first one on the blog and to my facebook fan club for 45.00 Free belt and shipping

The belts I use are snap on so they can be used with other buckles. The 1 1/2 inch belts are all dark chocolate brown. These pictures look a little blue greenish on my lap top but teh actual color is a very nice dark brown

This buckle is cast and then forged. It's a heavy duty buckle with a nice weight to it. One of the nice things about bronze is I can use more of it. This buckle in silver would have to be 170.00. (I'll be happy to done like it in silver for you ) It's about as heavy as one of my fish head buckles but actually has more hand work in it. This is a one off buckle. No mold was made. The wax for the casting was hand manipulated and formed into the basic shape. After casting the final shape and finish was done with a hammer. It has a bright, high polish finish but will patina to a beautiful brown.

If you want it before it goes on my website or to a gallery it's 55.00 That includes the 1 1/2 belt and shipping. If you want it without the belt it's 55.00 (that's what I mean by a free belt)

I also finished up a silver buckle I started long ago. It's much smaller and lighter than the bronze one and has more of a dress look. It also fits on a 1 1/2 belt. This one is totally forged from a piece of silver rod. Another fan club deal I'm offering this one for 95.00 with belt and free shipping. Call or email for details on belt size and paynment opptions.

Gold Rings

The 3 gold rings cast in white gold, yellow gold and rose gold

casting steps

First step is tomake the wax modles. Here I have the silver bezel cups already made so I can place them and build the wax ring around the stone

This is the rough casting still attached to the spru and button. The spru is the feeder gate for the liquid metal to flow to the design. The button is extra metal to allow for shrinkage as the hot metal cools and contracts. You can see 2 gold casting here also one in yellow and one in rose.

The fishished rings

Here a some new shell pendants. These are cast in solid silver and come with a chain. These, are made from molds of shells I found on beaches in Florida as are all my cast shells.

This is called a "baby's ear" shell

This is the top of a conch

Here is a pendant I made as a demo for my "open back and odd shapes" pendant class. This is a moon shell I found over New Years on the beach in So. Carolina. I ground it down on the back until it was flat and made the bezel and added the wire. It's also a demo for the "Bails" class to show creative ways to attach chains.

New Ideas

These 3 new pieces are demos for a new class on what to do with your scrap. It's a combination of melting and fabriating using found metal and scrapes

Cast Gold Ring

Another custom wedding ring. This is a man's ring carved in wax and cast in 14k white. the edges on this one are very rounded for extreme comfort and easy removal.

A few years ago I get interested in making a series of these painting pendants / pins. Every series seems to be inspired by the paintings and by the desire to try new way of making them. This time is probably the 4th or 5th series and I'm using epoxy as a way to cover and protect the image. The images are actual, one of a kind, original , miniature paintings in watercolor, watercolor pencil and gauche. I really like the addition of bronze to this series.as well. It works with the colors of the paintings and has an arty quality about it. Bronze has been used in art for centuries and I've been using it for my fish buckles for not quite that long. pieces are priced without chain.












#238
This is one of the smaller ones from this series. This painting is pretty subtle and almost abstract. Pinks , yellows and blues. The frame is silver with a bronze backing and a silver bail. I used some green patina on this one and it nearly matches the color of the bottom of the painting which you can't really see in this shot. this pendant is about the size of a reading glass lens regular price 65.00 special blogger price 45.00






#234
This one is a little different. This is more like the style of pendant I made in the last series. It's still one of my favorite ways to do these. The frame is silver and the backing is copper that I heat treated to get a red enamel like finish, however there is no paint or enamel on the copper. It's held together with little brass bolt/rivets

The painting is a small abstract color field of clouds, island, water. It is not covered with epoxy but is coated with several layers of acrylic medium and varnish to protect it. The silver frame stands up above the picture with give more protection. This would fit on half of credit card
reg. price 120. blog price 100.00




#242
This is the most elaborate and biggest one I did in this series. The leaf is cast in silver. The frame is made of bronze with silver branches and leaf. The branches and backing are hammer textured. The painting in this pin /pendant was mostly done with watercolor pencil. I re-worked the clouds with white gauche back at the studio. It's hard to see the subtle colors in these photos because there is a fairly think coating of clear epoxy over the image interferes with the lighting. However you can see some of the pinks in the clouds. There are many layers of color.
I wanted to do some metal work on this painting and not just a simple frame. Even though this is a totally made up scene, it has a nice narrative. I haven't really titled these but if I did this one would be " It's Only May and I'm Thinking of the Tetons Already".
It is probably 2 inches wide and 3 inches high. It would fit comfortably on a credit card. ( in more ways than one). The colors at the bottom in the tree line has more greens and yellows with a gray/violet mountain in the background. reg price 145.00 blog price 125.00



#243
This was the first one I did in this new series. It has an all silver frame with a pin back and pendant bail. The painting in this pin /pendant was mostly done while in my booth at the Cedar Key show. So it's an open air painting but of a totaly imagined scene. I started it with watercolor pencil and re-worked the clouds alittle with white gauche back at the studio. Again, it's hard to see the subtle colors in these photos because of the coating of epoxy. There are many layers of color with some pinks and violets in the clouds. This one is a bit bigger than a match book. About the size of box of dental floss . reg. price 95.00 blog price 75.00






This is a shot of the parts before building the pendants. The painting in the background is the one used in the piece above. Lot's of cropping and adjusting the composition goes into deciding what the shape of the frame is going to be. I like to use the rounded, asymmetric rectangles but I decided to try some regular ovals on this series . Just to keep it simple and focus on the painting instead of the metal work .
















#239
I can't resist making these weird shapes. Many more light greens in the grassy area and light yellows in the tree tops and nice pink on the left that don't show well in the picture. This one is in a bronze frame with a copper back. A little smaller than half a business card.
reg price 65.00 blog price 45.00













#241
This is a nice little painting in a simple bronze frame. About the size of half a business card. reg price 65.00 blog price 45.00





#240
Here is another one where I got into the metal work a bit more, adding forged silver elements around the bronze frame. Once again , you can't see the subtle colors in the clouds I think because of the epoxy resin. It's just hard to get good lighting with out reflections off the high shine of the coating. This is one of my favorites. I love to paint clouds and stormy weather. Throw in the ocean and it's perfect! About the size of half a credit card. sold

Went to Cedar Key for the show last weekend. Such a cool, funky little fishing town. The weather was great. The show committee is the best. Great food and drinks layout for the artists on Saturday night for the awards ceremony and Tony's chowder is the best. True New England style with a little southern spice. Worth the ride over there just for that. Sales were off. No big surprise, but mainly because the crowds were off. Not as many vacationers in town and not as many Gainesville people made the drive over. Still a real good quality show with excellent prize money.

I got a new project from a friend in Va for a tie tack .

cupcake 3 the finish

I got er done! came out great. Went thru the various finishing steps of sanding , greystone (tripoli) and zam using brushes, hard felt and moslem buffs. The color in these photos is a little odd. The piece is all one color of gold. The reflections and textures make it look tri color.

cupcake3

Here it is with the all the stones set and ready to finish. I had to make a couple of tools to accomplish it but that's half the fun!

cupcake2

I set the first stone, which was the biggest, in the base of the bail. All the stones will be flush mounted
This is how the rough casting looked after I did a little prefinishing. the wholes are predrilled in the wax and cast in the gold to save time and effort when setting. I had to do a fair amount of wax work because the customer had teh holes fro the stones too close together.

cupcake 1

Hi
I thought it might be interesting to the customer and other potential customers and students of my classes and other friends and random art followers to see what the process is about. After all, the process is what's it's all about for the artist at least it is for me. Of course I want to see a good outcome. Have something to be proud of when it's all done but the doing it the important part. Figuring out the solutions, applying the tools, working out the order of steps, that's the fun part for me. It's also the interesting part of other peoples work for me too. I always want to know "how did you do that".? What lead me to start this blog is the most recent project which is a gold pendant carved in wax by the customer. It's to be cast using the customers gold and set with his stones. I thought of this after I cast the piece so I don't have a picture of the wax but I will take a picture of the semi finished piece before I start to set the stones .
I'll also try to keep track of painting in progress and post them here also. I'm generally a studio painter because I paint at night and in the early morning but I should be able to keep track of the paintings in progress. ( if I remember to photo them). I don't have much time for this so these posts might have lots of spelling and grammar errors. I apologize in advance. Please don't judge me too harshly by this blog