New Jewelry Ventures

I've been fascinated by metalsmithing and wirework lately, and I decided to take tentative steps into these techniques over the past week. Eni Oken's work is particularly inspiring, and she even offers tutorials for purchase on her site so that others can learn from her techniques.

Although Oken primarily uses sterling silver or gold-filled components in her work and I usually don't believe in "drafts" in the writing world (that's why keyboards have "delete" buttons, eh?), I figured I should use some base metal wire for practice.

Here's my end result after many hours of wire wrapping, one full mess up, and equal amounts of experimentation:





This vintage glass cabochon is from my Cali trip in June. It reminds me of a sunset with its mix of lollipop red, Jolly Rancher orange and lemonade yellow colors.



Other jewelry designers with styles similar to Oken are Magdalena Borejko and Iza Malczyk.

Although I had fun creating the pendant this week, I'm just not sure I have the patience to do this particular type of craft on a regular basis. It's definitely exciting to try, and I love the end results.

In other news, I have been updating the shop with new items, some of which I made today. (I'm so going to miss having the extra four hours I've been getting on Fridays in the summer thanks to half days at work...)

Exhibit a:



I've never had a promotion before, but today I decided the first customer to make a purchase at the new domain name will receive a pair of these:



Anyways, that's all for now! Goodnight.