laurieopal

I've been working in wax a lot lately and being very tightly focused. It's sometimes a mixed blessing. Some of the designs are being cast now and after they're polished and set I should have some photos in the forseeable future.

I've been carving a woven gold ring set with an Ethiopian opal that has a mixture of flash and delicate pin point color that's very unusual and beautiful.

And also working on a design for a really subtly stunning chalcopyrite pedant in blue and gold. I'm close to finishing a delicate subtle design for a beautiful tanzanite.

All the rain we've been having in San Francisco is excellent for working at my wax bench.

(cross-posted on LiveJournal as laurieopal)

I've think I've finished the exoplanet designs for Boskone. The last one is a moonstone with a star (diamond) in front of it's satellite. Also a large group of new rings including peruvian opal, gem quality chrysophrase, and a particularly lovely chrysocolla.

"The Stars Change" pendant for Mary Anne Mohenraj is polished and complete. I'll try to photograph it but given the details I'm not too hopeful.

This is a large stunning watermelon tourmaline that I set in gold with 3 small diamonds for Wendy Czarnecki. This is one of the very most beautiful large watermelon tourmalines I've ever had. I wanted the design to subtly reflect the stone. Actual Size is 1.25". Chain is antique.

watermelon tourmaline diamond 14kt necklace

And George, my new cat is learning with some success to coexist with jewelry making.

I've been working on three necklaces that include lava beads I got in Iceland with long textured pearls.Right now I love working with lava.; I will have them at Worldcon.

I finished the two gold pendants for antique Russian gold chains for the collection of Wendy Czarnecki. They took a really long time to make and it was very well worth it.

Photos are below. It was both challenging and rather marvelous to create designs that would flow into the pendants in an enhancing way while being striking in themselves. Both chains are exquisite handmade filigree.

I took the photos quickly at her house and they worked out surprisingly well.

The stone is a finely detailed lace agate.

I've been thinking about the less obvious influences on my work.

I've been listening to some John Cage and certain hip-hop artists (Jean Grae and Talib Kweli) that are part of how I'm thinking about the new photography project. It's the first time music has been that important to me in figuring out new work.

What surprised me is that I started working on a different direction in jewelry design this week and I realized that the music had influenced
the designs. It's no more obvious in the jewelry then it will be in the photography but it was obvious to me when I looked at the finished waxes. I was surprised. It's the first time I remember something this subtle crossing over from one medium to another. I'd articulate it as a kind of a vivid jagged intricacy but I suspect that is completely self referential.

I've had a bug all month that I keep thinking I'm over and then I'm not. Finally was diagnosed as a sinus infection and I'm on antibiotics, so hopefully it will really be over soon!

I've have been getting some work done but it's definitely slowed me down.

Just sent Bayla Fine a pair of ruby earrings for her collection. Unfortunately not photographable.

But this opal pendant that I made for her a while ago was. The colors are _far_ more stunning then the ones in the photo but it does give a sense of the piece. The stone is a microcrystaline lightening ridge opal and becasue it is clear it's very hard to photograph the colors. The size is about 2" across.

I've been working on an Ethiopian opal pendant with some diamonds( from Rebecca's family rings). I'm very happy with it.

And I have wedding bands just cast for some folks in Montreal. The woman's band accompanies a silver ring set with a art deco spinal.

Would really like to feel better.

Mood: A Bit Grim

These are 2 new opals that I just got. I'm thinking about designs.

I've just finished a silver lace opal pendant for the collection of Bayla Fine with at stunning microcrystalline opal and a silver casopyrite pendat for the colection of Beth Zipser.

The casopyrite design is heavily influenced by mid twentieth century modernism and particularly by the paintings of Mark Rothko. I saw a solo exhibition of his work at MOMA in New York many years ago that moved me deeply. I can still access how strongly I felt then.

I'm photographing them tonight.

Not sure if I'll be journaling again before the holidays, so best to everyone.

I'd been waiting to have the right concept for a stunning piece of Yellowstone agate. When Beth Zipser saw it she saw the Lascaux caves and their drawings. The Lascaux paintings are art I knew well and loved.

Lascaux (Lascaux Caves) is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings . The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time... Wikipedia

Given the scale of the pendant, I chose to do fine line drawings on the "cave" wall including a mammoth and a great elk. I looked at endless Lascaux drawings before I made my choices.

The drawings are too fine to really show up in the photograph but I think the photo still gives a good sense of the design.

Mood: Intense

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Entries tagged with art jewlery

Wax and Rain

Watermelon Tourmaline

Work For Worldcon and Designs for Antique Chains

Meditation on Influences

And Back Yet Again.

New Opal and Finished Work

Lascaux Cave Art Design

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April 2024

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