Patina

This week:

4 hours painting coral

1 hour casting

2 hours sawing metal shapes

3 hours forming/finishing metal

2 hours working on patina

5 hours writing thesis

This has been a pretty great week in terms of this project. I have completely finished forming all of my jewelry which means from now on I will be focused on casting and painting coral and attaching it to the jewelry forms. The pictures today are of the ring (which I made this week) and the bracelet (which is now soldered together and colored). I also made the necklace this week, but it is currently in a pile of ammonia soaked sawdust, slowly turning blue so I don't have a picture of it yet. I am very happy with how the patina turned out, its exactly what I was envisioning. Also, I wrote the first draft of my thesis this week. I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't have enough to say since I changed my project so recently, but once I started writing, the whole thing made a lot more sense to me. I think writing the paper helped me to organize my thoughts and feelings about my project and refreshed my inspiration.

Tiny Corals

This week:

6 hours casting corals

1 hour making more molds

2 hours working on copper base

4 hours painting corals

I got a bunch of corals made this week, but I have decided to narrow down my color scheme from what you see in this picture. I'll post pictures when I have some finished. Goals for next week are to start attaching pegs to the bracelet and continue making and painting corals. Also I want to sketch ideas for the necklace and hand piece.

New Semester, New Project

At the end of last semester I decided to completely change my project idea and start a new one. I really missed making jewelry so I have decided to make a set of jewelry that will look like the wearer is growing a coral reef on her skin. The base for the pieces will be made of copper, and the corals will be made of cast rubber (which will hopefully arrive soon). I have gotten a lot done this week:

6 hours cutting, sanding, filing, and forming copper for bracelet

1/2 soldering hinge joints

3 hours making modeling clay corals

2 hours mixing and pouring rubber to make molds

Next week I want to finish forming the bracelet and have the hinges working. If my casting rubber is delivered to me, I will also start making corals. I still want to make a few more models and make molds of them as well