4/13/15

A Weekend for Earrings

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.
 
Copper and nickel silver, etched, hand textured, patinaed and fold formed. Sterling ear wires.
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…