Sunday, October 5, 2014

Quilted Heart

This pendant is made of fine silver, sterling silver and various gauges of silver wire.  I actually used one small fine silver ingot and milled it, annealed it, milled it more, then cut it into three pieces.  I have two other pendants in the works that will have fine silver backings.

I hand engraved and hammer stamped the designs on the backing piece as well as the heart.  For some reason, I decided to do a cold connection here and drilled holes through both pieces of metal and riveted.  I added accents to the rivet tops to match the images on the heart and backing.

The wire wrapping takes hours and hours and I actually made this one less complicated than some of my other past pendants.  The sterling beads were added as accents and they give the piece that little bit of something extra.

The chain is from the Czech Republic, the fine silver is from a U.S. mint, the silver sheet has been in my tool box for over 15 years, the wire was picked up in Phoenix and the yummy faceted rhodolite garnets were shipped in from Bangkok.  

Making jewelry is a little bit like making a quilt.  Always looking for something special here and something special there.  All the little pieces, that at the right time, come to be... little pieces created by me.


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About Me

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I enjoy silversmithing, making jewelry, beads and working with paracord. I sculpt in polymer clay and desert themes are my favorite. I'm always looking for ways to incorporate the beauty of nature into my work. My work has been published in a large book called "1000 Beads," Lark Jewelry and Beading, 2014. I have sold beads through the Glendale Bead Museum Shop, a gallery in Tucson and www.wearartbyjulie.etsy.com. I'm an artist currently showing my jewelry at the Shemer Art Center in Phoenix, AZ.