love hate relationship

I have a completely irrational fear of bees. I cannot control myself if there is one in the slightest vacinity to me. I will scream and run. I can't help it.  When my sister and I were younger I remember these tiny little terrors getting caught in our hair. Thankfully my mom would always remove them.

Despite my disdain for bees, I like their imagery. This necklace below obviously isn't a very true reproduction, but the form inspired me. I was looking at a bottle of tequilla and the emblem was so appealing that I started to sketch variations of it.  This is my emblem, I have it as my Avatar for my Etsy site.  It was my main piece in my BFA Show show when graduating from Northern Arizona University.

etched sterling silver, lemon quartz and pearls

I photographed this piece on a bar stool in my apartment. My sister helped me arrange the chain by using a pair of tweezers and meticulously manipulated the pearls and silver.  It took longer than one would imagine to get the right feel and positioning of the chain, but she did a splendid job.

Bracelet of Petals...

More silver, more etching.  The bracelet was originally a flat, plain piece of metal.  I cut out the form in 2 pieces (to save silver) and soldered the two together to have a semi-symmetrical piece.  I fabricated the shape using a sinusoidal stake, (picture to the right), creating a compound curve. 

My mentor, Joe Cornett who teaches at Northern Arizona, was adament about teaching us the art of metal fabrication.  He said it would set us apart from the others.  It is a satisfying feeling starting out with a flat piece of metal and hammering it to no end, annealing it, hammering it again until you've created this shape you didn't even know you were capable of doing. 

I soldered on 4 bezels and set Champagne colored CZ's. Etching this piece took quite a bit of time because of the large surface area.  Well worth all of the effort.  Unfortunately I do not have one of these stakes, or the set up at home at the moment so I can't create any more of these curves...sigh.

The bracelet may be viewed on my Etsy website.