A rabbit, a squirrel and a bird, oh my!

You may have noticed a trend in my posts. I absolutely love making gifts for people. Personalizing jewellery for my near and dears gives me that warm fuzzy feeling. It truly is better to give than receive. I love when my mind whirs into action thinking about a person and what they love in life and making something that reflects their personality and will hopefully bring a little joy into their life.

When I thought of this idea for a friend I went into idea overdrive and wanted to tack on as many components and do-dads as possible. How could one not love a piece that can be displayed, has interchangeable components and of course is all made by hand (a crazy person, that's who).

So, ladies and gents gaze upon this here object with envy because it is a one-of-a-kind creation for one special person!

I fabricated the pendant from copper that I then used different coloured flocking to jazz it up. I actually constructed it so that you can insert different background pictures into the square frame. I carved each of the animals from wax and then casted them using Ancient Bronze casting grain. A grain that I have recently acquired and absolutely love. The animals, base, and pendant each have Rare Earth Magnets to hold them into place when being worn or on display.

I simply painted the based and glued on some string and yarn - I finally found a use for my rainbow yarn that I love so much but never use.

Then I got stumped as to what kind and what length of a chain the piece needed, so after Gillian received it she added some of her heart chain, and BAM! it's that much more awesome.

A very Happy Birthday to Gillian!

Gargoyle

I just finished polishing off my little gargoyle friend. He is the jewellery charm replication of a sculpture that a customer brought in. Now he is a wonderful custom gift that is going to be added to a charm bracelet for a lucky lady this Valentine's. It was such a challenge working in such detail on a small scale, but I am happy about the results. When I was nearing the finish of carving the wax I accidentally poked a hole through him, so I had to melt some wax on top to fix his eye for him (which you can see from the black blob on the blue wax). Now all there is left to do is attach him to the bracelet. What an exciting piece to carve, I always love a challenge.

Ankh and Fleur de Lis Part 2

I just finished polishing off another custom band that is the design opposite of the ring I made back in November. This ring was made in part with a new flex shaft tool that I am in love with. I do have all sorts of diamond burs and basic wax burs, but nothing that is really small (less than 2mm wide). My new loves are cylinder square cross cut burs. With a bit of practice and a light touch I fell hard for them. Sigh. The pics are what the ring looked like in wax after I carved it and then the final ring that is cast in 18kt Palladium White Gold. Next week I will update with another custom made piece.

Zombie Head

I am really excited for this - my first solo blog post - because I recently finished an exciting custom piece for a customer that is anything but ordinary. When Lauren stumbled across the studio website for Jewel Envy and requested a zombie head as a gift for her boyfriend I jumped at the chance to work on it. At first I considered carving it out of wax, but after thinking on it I decided that I could do a better job of it by first making it using Sculpy. Trading a subtractive method of making it for an additive method of creating the piece - an easier process when you are trying to make a zombie head. After finishing it off I then made a mold of it so that I could inject the mold with wax and use the lost wax process to cast the piece myself. I was excited after quenching it and pulling it out of the flask that it worked. I am always nervous about a casting not working properly, mostly unfounded nerves but I can't help myself. It was fun polishing it off and adding a patina to the surface to give it a darker look and bring out his features. I am pleased with the results and after sending the piece off to the customer and getting such a rave review of the finished piece I was even happier. I feel so fortunate to have gotten the chance to make such a unique custom pendant, it's not something I get the chance to make every week!