Obsessed with Etching

Etched German silver cross with labradorite rondelles, jade, rhinestone rondelles, and Czech fire-polished beads. Sterling and steel wire. When I first learned how to use a jeweler's saw, from my wonderful teacher Kelly Conroy at the Worcester Center for Crafts, this archetypal Southwestern cross shape seemed like an easy one to practice on. But when I started applying the etching techniques I'd picked up over the summer to my growing heap of crosses, well, somehow the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. Photos can't pick up the rich play of shine and darkness this mysterious process lends to the surface, but I'll post 'em anyway!