You just can't beat winter in New England.

Connections.

Etched pendants and wired chains waiting to be connected to each other.

Yesterday was blessed Inauguration Day. I spent the day right here in my own nest, wiring beads, polishing pendants, and just being so very grateful for this new beginning. The world seems like a warmer and more luminous place now, despite winter's cold, and it's going to be an exciting year as we watch the positive changes that are going to come from this new day!

Behold the Tiny Bezel from Hell

Whew. I would have had better luck at the gaming tables of Foxwoods than I had today at the soldering station, but no matter. It felt so good when I stopped.

This is the tiniest bezel I've tried so far, and it didn't come out too badly...after the third try. This exercise did serve to allow me to test something I've been curious about, which is the durability of the etching after numerous run-ins with a hot torch and some wicked pickle. The backplate here is brass, and it seems to have held up well, so now I won't be afraid to push my luck on second and third tries if soldering problems present themselves again, which could happen at any time. Either the soldering gods are with you on a given day, or they are not, but sometimes, if you are otherwise out of work and either patient or stubborn like I am, they come around eventually.

Happy New Year!!

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but I really do mean to post to this poor neglected blog more often in 2009.

We never go anywhere on New Year's Eve, and last night we had a good excuse with the snowstorm and all. I took the opportunity to go downstairs and do some serious hammering, sawing, etching, and bezel-ing, and here's the result -- an etched silver cross with a green turquoise oval bezel set in fine silver. Exhausted from my efforts -- I've got another really bad cold -- I retreated early to bed with my laptop and a stack of art books, and took advantage of the holiday free shipping sale at Thunderbird Supply, placing orders for more silver and definitely more turquoise cabochons. It's been a wonderful holiday season, but I'm really okay with it coming to an end so we can move on to all the good things 2009 will surely bring.

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!

And speaking of October...

Here's a little peek at what I've been up to lately down at the Flux 'n Pickle, the drafty but functional jewelry studio my sweet husband has rigged up for me in our unfinished basement. Faceted carnelian rondelles, steel and sterling wire, vintage Czech glass seed beeds, and a drop of jasper surround this bezel I made of brass and silver to frame a tiny New England landscape I painted en plein air this past summer at the Cape. I'm re-launching my etsy shop this weekend, or as soon as I can stop fiddling around with different banner designs! stay tuned!