  Four bracelets featuring South Dakota Agate, four women, and four horses. I was honored with a commission to make bracelets using agates collected by my customer during a "girls only" horseback riding trip in South Dakota's Badlands. I shaped and polished each stone according to its unique beauty with pleasing results. Still, something was missing. I wasn't "feeling" the design yet. I'd seen a photo taken during that trip and it kept coming to mind, evoking a sense of power, and of bonding. I wanted to somehow convey that feeling into the bracelets. Etching an actual photo into sterling silver was an experimental idea that, once thought of, would not rest until I tried it. A long messy process complete with its own failures and successes followed until finally, success. I found the missing design element and bracelet construction began. If you look closely, you can see images etched into the silver panels flanking each stone like ghost images. Bracelets depicting memories of a powerful moment shared by four women and their horses. And one stone left over for fun earrings!  Note: discovered this 2017 draft post just today, 19th of June, 2019! Better late than never, hope you enjoy!
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 Argentium sterling silver and 14k gold. Spinner rings, outer band spins independently of the inner band. When I received a request for two special spinner rings, I'd never looked closely at a spinner ring before. Thus a new learning experience began. I contacted my friend, sometimes student, sometimes partner in adventure, to let her know we had a new challenge. After much research, a little trial and error, we conquered the challenge and produced a few good looking (and spinning) rings. The phrase that kept running through my mind was "all sorts of tricky"! They turned out pretty nice, I think!  All set for final soldering. The solder has to flow under the top seam only. If it flows under the spinner, the entire project is scrap and must be started over, from the beginning, with new materials. The pressure is on! |
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November 2017
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