One of my favorite memories of my week in Tucson was
arriving early for a day of metalworking with Diane Cook and having a few quiet
minutes to study the class samples. It was a class in texturing and layering
metal to create earring designs. I’d long admired Diane’s ability to take
simple forms and turn them into designs that have both an elegant and
industrial vibe, and to view first hand the meticulous execution of
her pieces was a real treat!
This was my first time using a jeweler’s saw and my first
attempt at fold forming, so despite choosing the easiest earring sample, I had
only a few pieces of salvageable metal (and a lot of notes!) to pack up at the
end of class. But the creative juices were flowing, and the small pile of false
starts had been sitting on the edge of my worktable until this weekend when I
decided to try my hand at those earrings again.
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| Copper and nickel silver, etched, hand textured, patinaed and fold formed. Sterling ear wires. |
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| Class samples from Diane Cook's Fold, Form, Layer & Lace class |
As I was cleaning up my workspace, a collection of peyote
triangles from another project caught my eye. I decided to heat-patina some of
my left over copper, shined up some pieces of etched nickel scraps, and sawed them
into triangles.
And then tried some more layering.
I can see these in lots of summer colors. I have some
square-stitched circles in my scrap drawer – later this week I’m going to
explore layering with circles. Creative juices flowing…
