Work in Progress

I'm BAAAAAck! I'm back in the saddle again!

Yeah, and my radio station is still classic rock. It's the only station i can pick up, but luckily I have inherited some country cds from my Grandma, so I'll be honkeytonking around my bench soon enough. Anyway, I spied some sexy stones over at Handleys the otherday and decided to pick them up...plus an extra stone. Join me as I design a piece.

Let me say about myself, I am not formally trained in design. I grew up surrounded by fine art and have a pretty keen instinct as to what looks good, but the process of design is pretty organic. Sometimes I know right away what I want, like this piece, othertimes I'm not totally sure so I design as I go. This is how I work some of the times.

Three matching calcedony and a lovely rutilated quartz

At first I was thinking maybe putting the rutilated quartz with this fantastic set of calcedony, but eventually decided on garnet.

Hum....im thinking something along the lines of this....

Alright, i wasnt totally sure about the design, something wasn't groovin'...so i decided to do the main piece first, then the settings for the two smaller stones depending on how everything worked out.

The other item i got was a planishing hammer. I LOVE the mark that a planishing hammer leaves on metal and have been wishing for one for quite a while. I decided to use my new tool to texturize the silver. Additionally, I decided not to cut out the back bezel. I felt like the textured silver kinda sparkled behind the calcedony, so I will leave it closed. Hopefully it doesnt tarnish too quickly.



I actually was terribly spaced out when I soldered the bezel to the silver backing....and accidently melted the bezel. boohoo.



yeah, something along these lines. now how will i attach it to the chain. hurm.....I'll figure that out later. I have an inclination to do something different with the tubeing...but nothing with the tubing is really making me satisfied. Part of the problem is the garnet bezel is on a different plane from the rest of the piece, and its making it difficult to design around. I suppose i'll just drop the tubing idea. Now I make the other two settings.

Yup, thats them being soldered.

There we go! Now I just need the right kind of chain (or to make some myself), polish up the silver and set the stones. I can't wait for it be done!

While I worked my dog was keeping watch. Watching adorably at that.

How do you design? Do you draw out your design and stick with it, or do you start working without a design and just see what happens? What are some of your favorite designs? You do you look for inspiration?