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love,
kK

this is a very raw state. it began as a sculpture of wax and hair and evolved into what you see here. i had always dreamed of having a coral branch that wrapped around my wrist, and in this object, that dream came to life. it wasn’t what i set out to do, but as i started making all the little holes, the bracelet revealed itself to me.

all of this blogging is reminding me how much i wish i had a nice camera. guess i better sell some jewelry so i can afford one! HA. Working on that. October 1st is my deadline. There, I said it. Now it’s real. Consider this a sneak preview.

i have to say, it really is crazy to see how much work this is, making everything, photographing and modeling everything, writing about it, sharing it, doing it all alone. it’s certainly not something i choose, it has just sorted out this way. I can’t afford to pay someone to do this stuff, and i’m pretty isolated in this tiny town. i’m so lucky to have the support I do, my family, Karin, Al, Jessica, Alexis, Islay, everyone back in Louisville, everyone from Kansas, new friends, old friends, teachers and classmates, even though you are at best an hour away from me, I couldn’t do it truly alone. So thank you! I would mention you all by name, but if you’re reading this, you know who you are

Back to work!!!

love,

kelly

it's so very graphic. and just a tad off kilter

WHY IS MEDIUM SO TINY AND LARGE SO LARGE? I HATE YOU WORDPRESS.

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this is actually smaller than large. but so much huger than medium. how is the rest of the world dealing with this? i don’t have time for this! i have crowns to make!

advantage of empty subway: photo ops! who can spot my street meat?

this “large” is actually smaller than “full size.” could the 3 people that read this let me know what they prefer?

so i went to school with some amazingly talented people who are now members of SSION, the best thing in KC (now that my grandma moved to KY). SSION was to have a show at a gallery in nyc, of course i would go, and i would come bearing gifts! there was to be a closing performance which coincided with fashion week, which meant i could kill many birds with one stone as well as hug my friends! this was to be sept 11, but alas, it was not to happen, nor would i get to see my darling nano. “Go to the opening,” she said, one week before that date, the same day i had a dentist appointment, the day after my doctor’s appointment, the very day my things were supposed to be finally finished at the casters (they had all my originals!) EPIC DRAMA – if i could even manage to get there, what could i make in a week from only wire and sheet metal that clearly expressed my love and devotion to my darling cody?

it turns out i made this:

sorry for the crappy iPhoto image manipulation, but i only got so much time in the day

more on the process:

i tested the design and scale by using paper first.

this big piece of 24 gauge brass sheet has to be cut down. it's too floppy to saw well, but scissors or shears cause it to warp. it needs to be flat so i can laminate the sheets together...

annealing sheet metal to flatten for laminating; the dark spots are shellac. that was a messy mistake. removal: rubbing alcohol, soak, scrub.

i laminated them together with double sticky tape, stuck my drawing of very tightly packed leaves on top, and sawed for like, a day and a half.

once it's cut, i have 4 of them, just that they're all stuck together!

most i cut all the way with the saw blade, but a couple needed finishing with the dremel (this one at the corners). i use a diamond cut off wheel. i'm happy with it.

look at all that brass dust! this is why under my fingernails is green. i am so gross!!

after burning off the tape and paper to separate the leaves (which got crazy hot madness and burned off all the zinc leaving them coppery pink) they go for a soak in the pickle

after the pickle, rinse, dry, i had to sort them all by size, then lay out the design. i used the extras to make a bracelet

guessing at the amount of space/wire to leave. half of them broke anyway, but the ones that didn't, this actually worked out ok, i think a little bigger next time.

wires to be soldered to the leaves have to be flat - perfectly flat - or there won't be enough surface contact for the solder to flow and bond. TEDIUM!

i am in love with paste solder. firstly, it comes in a syringe, which is neat. secondly, it stays put. thirdly, i can friggin see it. fourthly, i don't have to touch it. love love love. ps it looks like fish poop.

ok, soldering done, now into the tumbler.

afterburn on soldering board from leaves and stem wires

oh poo! it's a tangly mess. they needed to be work hardened, but in retrospect, everything that happened next would have worked just as well.

these leaves broke in the tumbler, they need to have new wires attached. sigh.

the tumbler ate a few, leaving stubs of wire that had to be ground off so that i could attach new wires. this was massively unfortunate. i think we'll skip the tumbler next time, as the leaves didn't end up shiny anyhow.

branch #1 - all leaves attached, still too much play and movement. i had to add some wire between the stems to get the spacing right, which kind of hurt. for branch 2, i added the wire spacing as i went. this was much less painful. why do i make such sharp things?

time to solder these babies down. hammering the stem flat afterwards helped remove some of the play, but not enough.

now is the time for two to become one

soldering all the wires to the branch got hot. real hot

i really really love the firescale, but its messy and doesn't tarnish well. preserving this look is a project for another day.

after the first pickle, the brass is completely copper from all the heat. it's almost impossible to avoid since the hard solder has to get hot enough, which is hot enough to burn off the zinc.

the crystalline structure of brass after hydrogen peroxide pickle! this texture is not desired. and still some copper!! aagh! when can i afford to work in gold please?

scrubbing away at the remaining copper, solder, and pickle. this joint didn't hold either, had to resolder it (yes, after all this!!! more heat!!!)

not bad, but the peroxide left a bit of sludge on the branches and it took a long time of stiff brass brushing to get here, still with the funky texture

this dremel wheel leaves a ground texture, many tiny lines, that when i put on the protective wax, dulled a bit. there are so many grooves it should tarnish interestingly.

leaves ground down to shiny brass using dremel diamond cut off wheel. this took ages, but the resulting texture was fantastically soft.

proportion, weight, and fit are all working out. time to add the bands.

the moment i realised, hey, this is actually going to work!

bound with steel wire for soldering. they just kept coming apart, and you had to do it all at once... finally got it though!

there was a hole, so i filled it. this worked pretty well, except for when the wires melted around the steel wire, trapping it. that was fun.

one last go, bound and stuffed, this crown is ready for it's final solder (fingers crossed

the head takes a rest in the box i made to store the crown. it took a bit to cut through. should have used a bigger knife!

i don't need the whole head, so i have to cut it off. this was gruesome only in theory. ps styrofoam does not cut like butter.

in between these two images, there was another 24 hours of sanding, grinding, polishing, waxing, cursing, and a little marine gluing. none of it was photo worthy, nor was there time. but it was all worth it:

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profile

a tiny Kk and 10 on the inside of the leaf. i have a maker's mark!

it's so very graphic. and just a tad off kilter

is this jewelry anymore? no.

the wire that touched the head is plain, so you hold that from the front, and hold the bound joint in the back, and gently set it on your head. it stays put on it's own. i got lucky with that.

frontal view. i thought my face was distracting. this is perhaps not a good solution.

right

left

this is the back of the crown

i made this nice box and lined it with anti-tarnish tissue to help the crown age with grace. i left it at the hole though. hope it's still there when i bring the crown back!!!

ithe perfect size box, covered in white duct tape, a big brass safety pin to keep it shut. added a tassle too, of course.

then, the crown hit the streets of nyc… stay tuned, unless this crashed your browser!!!

read like a normal story, or just scroll past to use the gallery to look at individual photos. i don’t know what you prefer, so have both!! (just like dessert!)

making the bezel setting, the silver was too thick to bend down over the stone, so i had to saw it. i was inspired by the little triangular settings i saw in morocco, so i tried to do this freehand. of course, it turned out a bit jagged at first, but i liked it, and in honor of shark week (cause this was like, 2 weeks ago) i decided to enhance that toothy, bitten aspect, and just name it the sharkbite ring.

sterling silver and fine silver filigree, aventurine stone. 1.5 weeks, working 2-3 hours a day. riiiight. i think i finally figured out all the kinks to doing this at home!

a profile view of the ring on. it's quite tall, but lightweight.

this is not the best photograph, but i wanted to show you how thin the stone is - you can see right through it! i really didn't want to go with a traditional closed back bezel setting, which of course made my life a bit more difficult for a week, but the result is getting to admire this stone from every angle!

this shows the pyramid shape of the stone. it's aventurine, which is a type of feldspar. It's very thin and has nice striations, quite like marble, as well as some light reflecting inclusions.

this nicely shows the color of the stone. and reminds me how much i hate these curtains! but they were free and they do the job...

a view of the back of the ring. I put these little granulations (balls of silver on because top heavy rings like this tend to flop from one side to the other, plus I like to fidget, so this gives my thumb something to do. Plus if you slap someone, it will hurt a little more. Plus, now this ring literally has balls.

a view of the filigree from the side. The square wire frame is sterling, the small wires inside are fine silver. this was made flat, then formed.

a view from the underside. i love being able to see the stone from underneath as well as on top. the light passes through it so nicely.

a view from the underside. i love being able to see the stone from underneath as well as on top. the light passes through it so nicely. the ring almost meets on top of the finger, but doesn't completely, so it is slightly resizable. it's definitely a pointer finger ring though!

it's really very comfortable. i'm just showing off now.

and a profile shot. there is just so much detail, it was hard to capture it all. plus i like looking at pictures.

thanks iphone, for not ever focusing on what i want you to.

the stone doesn't stick very far up over the top of the setting. it's really very thin, therefore very light.

footnote: serious apologies for the quality of these photos. the iphone is not made for this. i have charged batteries, and will be using my real camera from here on out.

tooth mountain

so this was the second thing i made. it was 100% reductive carving out of a hard blue piece of wax. they come with little ring holes in them, all different sizes, extruded, so you can slice off a section that corresponds to the width of the ring you want to make. this was is hard. this is not like candle wax, heating it does melt it, but it also shrinks a little, i am pretty sure its more of a plastic wax. when really thin, it will soften a bit under your fingers, but can’t be squished or molded.

so i set out to carve god knows what out of a chunk of wax (as if so often my methodology) and all attempts at symmetry aside, this toothy mountain started to appear. i just kept carving away until it emerged in all its pointy glory, along with the dawning sun, indicating i had been up all night and should probably go to bed so that i could be mildly functional in time for class that evening. I was SO thrilled, i didn’t even notice how badly my hands and back hurt. this wax thing might be for me!

when you first carve these things, they are in candy color shades of blue, green, or purple (depending on the “hardness” of the kind of wax, i can’t really tell the difference yet, but i am pretty sure green is the hardest and therefore easiest to screw up). it’s very difficult to imagine what an object will look like in metal, so although i was really excited about my design, i wasn’t sure what on earth i would end up with.

this is what i ended up with:

objects back from the caster, after a trip through the tumbler. shown is the tooth ring, along with the bow ring (WOW is it tooooo heavy) and the very first object, le claw. which broke. and the bad sprue ruined the rest of it. which is why we will just keep talking about the claw ring

this ring can also be used for self defense, or to quickly open pesky packaging

tooth rings, and the mold to make more!

a close up of the tooth ring. i also think it looks like mountains

side view

top view

the ring can also be shiny! these issues are cast in white bronze, and yes, they turn your fingers green

i haven't decided what finish i like best, the oxidized, or the shiny

like any metal, it will tarnish, so cleaning and storing properly after each wear would prevent the oxidized finish… but i kind of like it. oh hell…
i love this ring!!!

who wants one? bronze $60, sterling $95… this is pre-order pricing, i can’t guarantee it into the future, if you want one at this price, TELL ME NOW!!!
it’s pretty much a one size fits all situation, if you send me a preferred ring size, i’ll do my best, its meant to be on a larger finger – middle or pointer (i just have huge hands
size shown is a 7

the alejandro necklace complete in all it's glory

I like to draw as many of my designs by hand as possible, even if I begin or end in the computer. I drew out the text, incorporating a setting for a gem to dot the j into the pattern.

original drawing for the text

almost done sawing out the text

done sawing!

delicate! tiny!

Taking inspiration from the latin flavor of the song (Alejandro… this was kind of a while ago, so most of you probably know and detest this song by now) and classic Catholic decorative elements (again, well before the video I decided to fashion a little banner out of some thin (24/26? gauge) nu-gold (a brass type alloy) sheet I had laying about. Cute! I really liked it.

firescale ahoy!

Now was the problem of the dot over the j. I had lost most of the setting originally incorporated into the design, so I decided to use some brass tube to make a tube setting. This was, well, difficult to attempt for the first time on such a small scale. Glue came in very handy I was proud of the nice clean solder to attach the tube to the j.

before the setting attached to the j

i model it for you!

Connect the chain (not handmade, but rad!) and we have a pretty fantastico necklace!!! Needless to say, Jessica loves it.

jessica wears her gift! fun for everyone!

So I print this pretty pretty pretty pendant and start to sketch on it, seeing how simple I would have to go to attempt to make something like it. I realize during this process that it’s totally ok to make jewelry inspired by jewelry. I’m always seeing press about jewelers and artists and it’s always something catchy, like, inspired by phobias, or vices, or hello kitty, or consumerism, or traveling, or being an editor at vogue, or being rich, or whatever. I’m inspired by so much crap, there is no WAY i could ever sum it up. So let’s make jewelry inspired by jewelry. Or rocks. Or by desire. Maybe desire is the best way to go with this? I see things, i want them, i find ways to wear them. That’s really the essence of it all.

So, here is my drawing:

i started tracing, then filling in. You can see the derivation, yet I still feel like I came up with something unique. This is important to me, as I think copying is lazy and yucky.

I liked it! I decided to leave the holes from where the stones were empty. They remind me of  brass knuckles, or bullet holes, or something machined. This whole design is really right in line with what’s appealing to me most of the time. It’s not totally geometric, nor is it entirely identifiable, but you could see many things in it. Is it a wing? A leaf (it started as part of a leaf)? A bird? A weapon? A way to open boxes? Is it organic, or architectural? Savage or subdued?

Right ok.

So then I have these pretty beads that I’ve been wanting to use…

square glass beads, matte and opaque red and white, strung with oil slick black/blue and gold plated counterparts

Take these two things, combine them with the “Authentic French Fashions of the 1920s” book that I am in love with lately, and you get looooooong necklaces.

Here are some process detail photos:

i hand pierced the design out of both brass and copper

i soldered a tube onto the back so that the pendant would lie nicely along the line of the necklace as opposed to dangling from it

after sawing, soldering, pickling, brushing, and sanding, they are ready for the tumbler

Then they came out of the tumbler and i strung them on the bead strings and here they all are! Please excuse my model…

i love how delicate yet ferocious this pattern is. please don't steal it!

detail of beads and wing

here i am wearing the white one. i made it a bit shorter

oh stop fiddling with it! your picture is being taken!

a better detail of the wing matching the beads

this necklace is SOOOO long

and there you have it! two long necklaces. I can’t decide which one I like better. I’m working on a pair of earrings in this same design right now too!!! So many tiny holes to drill…

What would you pay for a necklace like this?

finally i got around to trying it.

since i can’t ever do anything the “easy” way, i went all out. coated a 6″ x 1.75″ 18 gauge sheet of brass in black satin hard ground and let it sit overnight.

the design i am using is from google maps’ satellite view of a US military aircraft boneyard in tucson. I’m pretty sure i first came across this on npr.org, but it certainly wasn’t the first time i became entranced using google maps. i had originally intended to cut out the little airplanes with the saw, but when i wanted to test the etching, this design seemed like a prime candidate.

what’s really cool about the ground is that it’s not hard, so when i transferred the design using graphite paper, i actually ended up with little indentations, which made it much easier to guide the scribe along the details of the design. cool.

so this took a while. and by a while i mean, several hours. tiny tiny drawing is time consuming.

the black is the applied ground, the gold is the exposed brass. on top is my scribe, and the white part is my design!

i gave it an approximately 90 minute bath in the acid, then rinsed it. I could see there was a nice amount eaten away already, so I proceeded to scrape off the rest of the ground, leaving just the little planes intact. i really let go a bit and went for something rough…

i was thinking about peter beard’s book, The Eyelids of Morning, where he talks about how the Turkana responded to the airplane:

“The Turkana reacted with shrieks of laughter – directed not at the flying machine but at the funny Americans. Such comical fellows! They virtually ignored the aircraft.”

They ended up sitting in the shade of its wings instead of either marveling at it or investigating it, as one might expect (in fact, as most Americans do at events like air shows).

I wanted this design to feel removed from our day to day routine of air travel, to reduce the airplanes to a simple pattern, to shapes, which i guess best reflects their existence now, laying there, wasting away in the desert. Still totally suitable for shading oneself from the heat of the sun.

basically, i wanted to make this bracelet the way a Turkana would have made this bracelet, with no reverence to the engineering marvel of flight.

heavy.

here are the results:

now i have to anneal and form it, i wonder how the hammering and forming will affect the design… i etched it rather deep knowing that the hammer would tend towards flattening the design.
Actually it was soft enough I didn’t have to hammer it at all.
It spent the night in the tumbler and is nice and shiny now. I can’t wait to see how the patina forms on it as I wear it. I think I will line the inside with leather to prevent it from turning my wrist green as I really don’t want to varnish it.

Two more designs heading into the acid this afternoon!

still a little rough around the edges but that won't stop me from wearing it out!

still getting some copper plating from the pickle, but it's growing on me. trying another new bath this week with spring water.

the details! the details! if i'd given any thought to them... i honestly had no clue how exact this would be.

pretty copper bits and shiny brass bits - can't wait for the patina to develop!

here i was just desperately trying to remove the ground. that acid picks up everything. to great effect!

macro! wicked close. i think i love this technique.

these last two pics are from the phone… i like this second one too! i should show you more pictures of it. my third design did not work out so well as i got very impatient. these things happen. but now i will have to be very very patient as i wait for more brass to come to me!!!

who wants a bracelet? these will not be very expensive, maybe, $20? for you my lovely blog readers, and only you. :*