Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Adventures In Metalsmithing - OR - The Grass Is Green Enough Where I Stand!



Here's another lovely experiment. I would love to say that creating this piece was a joy, super easy and fun. Anything but! It was tough! I worked on this one on and off for 2 whole days! At one point, I just had to walk away from it. I ruined 3 pieces of bezel wire! And to top it all off, my bezel wire slipped just slightly while I was soldering the pieces together so the final stone lays crooked! All the same, I love it! This is a gorgeous "green sea sediment jasper" that I purchased from a lovely artist on Etsy about a year ago. The colors are exquisite! Just looking at it conjures up feelings of green, spring, meadows, newness and growth. I couldn't find an adequate quote for the back, so I filled in the space with words that say "green" to me.

I learned a lot while making this piece. The whole time, I was using proper techniques, I just couldn't get it hot enough from beneath for the solder to flow in the right direction (it kept going up). I finally brought out my plummer's torch and that did the trick. One of these days, I will have proper tools, but in the meantime, I am loving the challenge of making do with what I have. That's a lesson for life if I ever had one!

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