More Metal and New Designs

 Heading into my second year with the Port Townsend gallery and nearly a year with the second venue in Uptown.  It's been a good year but I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon.  

I made some new pieces out of bronze for the gallery and tried some new foldform designs for copper.

These two cuffs are bronze.  Harder to work with, not as flexible as copper, takes longer to heat up for the folding process, but it has a lovely warm look in the end.  A subtle gold comes through on the lines when sanded.

These two necklaces are new designs in foldform copper.  The top image has some interesting pieces of brown turquoise and tumbled citrine added.  

I'm also using a new technique for the finish.  Instead of going with whatever scale comes through after all the heating and cooling, I'm now cleaning the metal with the homemade pickle solution of vinegar and salt, giving me a clean and mostly consistent color.  I can then either heat patina or use Liver of Sulfur for the final finish. 

I reopened my Etsy shop in March of this year hoping to add more revenue for this side gig.  It hasn't generated the income I was looking for however.  Apparently the pandemic exploded the cottage industry and now the market is saturated, online anyway.  Galleries and gift shops aren't thriving again yet either, but the economy fluctuates constantly anyway.  I'm sure we'll see a return to art buying.

Meanwhile I shall shuffle along in my little studio creating, because that's what I enjoy doing.  

New Work and a New Venue

 Last week I had a serendipitous encounter at a Port Townsend Gallery where I made an instant connection with Mara, the owner.  The conversation flowed from art to her background to her plans for the future of the gallery.  Included were plans to bring in jewelry!  This lead the conversation to my work in metal and a quick viewing of my photos.  Please note here artists, you should always have photos of your work on your phone as you never know when you'll need to show them!
She loved the work, invited me to exhibit there and we agreed I'd return in a week.

One week later to the day, I returned with new pieces I'd made especially for the gallery and a few I'd taken from my Etsy shop listings.  This made a well rounded collection and representation of the work I am producing this year in stones and metal.  

This experience is a testament to synchronicity.  Always be ready for the unexpected magic that can happen at any time!  

I met artist friends of Mara's and could see the kinship she had with them that I too felt instantly.  These are my people, artists, kindred souls.  Right away a pair of my earrings sold out of the box.  Mara went to work on plans for a display while I unpacked the items and chatted with shoppers.  I love art appreciators!  

Here are the new items that are now represented in the Take 5 Art Gallery in Port Townsend, WA on Water Street.

Please plan to visit the Take 5 Art Gallery on your next trip to Port Townsend, currently open Thursday through Sunday and 6 days a week come summer.  The gallery is a short walk from the ferry so if you come over from Seattle on the new fast ferry you can come on foot.  Take 5 is the first gallery on the right side of Water street in the Flagship Landing building.

Mara brings her knowledge and expertise from the San Francisco art scene.  Take 5 opened in June of 2021 and has grown into a magical hidden gem of quality art.

Here are some images of the fabulous space that Mara has so lovingly created at Take 5, including big name artists from the west coast and Paris!  

I hope you'll put the gallery on your destination list for the summer of 2022!

Cold Connection Bezel Setting

 While enjoying the new compression rivets I decided I should try a stone setting.  I never mastered the soldered bezel since I don't have a hot enough torch, but I have seen this method of cold connection bezel before and wanted to try it.

 
This is my first one.  I decided to make the backing abstract and add patina to show off the stone which is an Apple Green Jasper slab.  

The "bezel" is actually a cut piece of copper with four tabs or prongs that hold the stone.  The back is concealed and attaches to the backing piece with rivets. 

 
There's a lot of planning for a project like this!  Honestly, I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did for a first attempt.  The back is quite hidden and the tabs fit the stone quite snug, although I did add a dab of glue to the back of the stone just for an extra measure of security.
The three rivets are done with the flat side on the inside to allow the stone to fit snug against the bezel piece.  

The outer piece is an abstract cut copper sheet.  Both pieces were dunked in liver of sulfur for patina color.  Later I went over them with steel wool and a polishing cloth.

 
I then added a few rivets in copper and bronze just for aesthetics, and the final touch was another rivet at the top that also holds the copper wire loop for stringing. 

(finished photo here)

This was really fun!  I can see more projects like this in my future.  I highly recommend this bezel method for those of you who do not have a hotter torch, or who just prefer a cold connection. 

This finished up nicely!  I added some big bulky chain and it could be worn by anyone, another goal of mine, to be more gender neutral in my designs.

 I used a larger rivet for the top piece that holds the loop.  

More coming on this hardware series as I get more ideas that are creating a theme around the Viking's SheildMaidens.

 

A Riveting Story

 Jewelry riveting that is.  Metal, it's all about the metal.  They call it cold connections.  

I read up on the history of riveting and it seems it dates back as far as 3000 to 5000 BC!!  Who knew?  Of course the Egyptians would be in on it too, the master builders, then the Vikings and on through to the present day where riveting is done as hot and cold connections in all kind of structures, airplanes, you name it.

I have always been fascinated by the knight's armor, the metal, the color, the connections and rivets!  Someone made those by hand!  Can you believe it?

I want to learn how to do this - the old fashioned way, by cutting small bits of wire and shaping it into a rivet head.  I've done it with fine silver wire so far - but have yet to grasp the complexity on copper wire. 
On the silver wire I drew a bead first (the ball end that forms in the flame of the torch) and pounded that out in my rivet anvil, that seems the easiest way to start a rivet.  But more complex connections are going to take a lot of practice!

Here are some of the tools used for this task.

Riveting anvil.

Steel block.

I found some images online of jewelry made with rivets too.

Courtesy of the Internet.

Courtesy of the Internet.

I'll be doing something like this soon enough as well.  Remember, it's all about practice and patience!