laurieopal

I'm working really hard but I do have some photos to put up.



..


..

 There is an on-line opening for an exhibition (photos are on-line as well as in the gallery) that includes two of my photographs from Women of Japan, at the Ph21 gallery in Budapest at 7pm their time. It's titled "Imagination". (Please check for local time if you are interested. In San Francisco it's 10AM.) I'm planning to be there; it's the first on-line opening I've participated in, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Google Meet is https://meet.google.com/agc-rogp-kue and Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/events/325466078442221/

I've been working hard at staying focused and my work helps a lot. I've been working on an art deco spinel pendant with a sprinkling of rubies and sapphires, and a magnificent black opal pendant. I've just selected two of my shadow photos to send into a possible exhibition, and I'm thinking about putting the shadow group, which is still evolving, on Instagram.

I've just finished the red tiger iron that I posted about here. I was able to create an iridescent black on the sterling setting that matched the iridescent black in the stone. I hope it's photographable. It was a combination of a lot of work and serendipity. I hope i can do it again. I do know exactly what I did but that is not guarantee of replication.

The two pendants below are both malachites but very different stones.

This one with the blue is a chatoyant malachite with some lapis as part of the stone. The light vivid green is actually chatoyancy.  Chatoyant is when a stone shows  bands of bright reflected light caused by aligned inclusions in the stone. It's fairly rare in malachite and probably most commonly seen in tiger eye.




This stones has very unusual  broad black makings that I have not seen before. I made the black sterling setting to emphasize the black designs in the stone.

This design was influenced by the Japanese woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style landscapes from the Edo period. I had some reproductions in my room in my teens.




..

The opal waterfall with turquoise diamonds is in silver. The gorgeous opal is Australian. Size is about 2.75".

It's from the collection of Barb Moermond.

I'm working on a tanzenite ring in silver and a pair of black wedding bands (patined silver).

And I've finished in wax, two very different African malachite pendants. On is a very stylized bird head in silver and the other is in an abstract bronze woven with copper wire. I've been working on them both for a long time, and it was interesting to make different designs from similar malachite from the same part of the world. And different as they are they do talk to each other.

The Chinese phoenix pendant is done and if it photographs well there will be a photo soon.

Sorry I haven't posted in 2 weeks, I've been nibbled to death by largish ducks.