laurieopal

I can finally put up a photo. It was commissioned for the collection of Nancy Cobb. She received it, so I can finally put up the photo now.
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Photo shows the opals beautifully and does fine by the pearl. The setting is a much brighter silver but photo gives a good sense of it.  I couldn't light to show the opals and the setting equably well and I decided on the opals. The wire is a dark bronze that doesn't show up  clearly in the photo but does in life. It's  a sterling pendant and about about 2.5" by 4".

I couldn't be happier with this design.  I love working with the opal discs and these are some of the very best ones.

I think I'll do something simple with just a few of them next.

I'm working on two different jade designs.

One is a really beautiful piece of antique carved Burmese jade that is carved with flowers as part of it's design. The setting is delicate flowers and leaves that curve into the jade. There are also some small antique natural pearls (also Chinese). They will be part of the way it hangs and will have curves matching the silver design. I'll be putting up a photo of the jade soon.

The other jade is Mayan and that design is still in process. I've studies ancient Mayan art as well as their writing and I'm sure that this knowledge will influence the work.

I'm making a patchwork chain for this jade and sapphire water sprite pendant. It will be made of different kinds of chain (some of them antique), semi-precious and antique beads and sea weed links in sterling. I'll put up a photo of it when it's done.

(cross posted on livejournal as laurieopal)

I've got the jewelry mostly finished for Wiscon. Tomorrow I'm doing the final polishing on the Heyiya-if Kesh symbol from Le Guin's "Always Coming Home" . As I said earlier, it's the first of the Wiscon designs from books by the guests of honor. They cast beautifully and I'm very happy with them.

The engraving on the Charley's wood pendant from Tanya Huff's the "Wild Ways" worked out even better then I hoped. I have a feeling that it's unphotographable but I'm going to try. I have 2 other rutilated quartz cabuchons layed out to think about. This kind of wax engraving is new to me and very exciting. The effects of the quartz in front of it create a whole extra dimension.

The photo is of the Lloyd Eshbach cut jade pendant in gold that I've been writing about. The design reflects 18th century
Chinese paintings. (I've seen number of them in museums and the best of them are exquisite.) The other influence is Chinese white mutton fat jade handing pieces, but they have influenced almost all my jewelry work over the years.

The pendant  includes the classic elements, a cliff, a waterfall and a small pine tree.  I think the work and the jade really speak to each other.

I've been looking at the lava stones I gathered in Iceland and the Baltic amber from Finland.  And I've been thinking about how they are shaped by fire (lava) and water (Baltic amber).  I'm finding this a mixture of exciting and fascinating. 

I have some jade from Monterey that comes from the ocean and is shaped by the water.  It's a lovely soft green.  And I have some soft blue white beach glass that Nalo Hopkinson gave me.

I have them spread out on a table and I'm thinking about designs and what it means to work with stones that are shaped by the elements.