Not My Day

I'm having one of those days. It's as if my creative self is suffering from allergies just like my physical self. I don't know what I want to do, and when I try something, it doesn't look like I thought it would. And yet I don't feel like giving it up and doing something else. Stubbornly, I press on. For example, I went ahead and added two faceted amethyst beads to the big pear wrap (where the gap in the weaving was). I'm not totally happy with the way the beads are lying; the rondelle is lying at an awkward angle, and you can see the bare wire between the two amethyst beads. I tried adding a series of 3 mm amethyst beads at the bottom left part of the wrap, but they wouldn't lie the way I wanted them to, and the wire pulled too much on the wire that was holding the amethyst bead (I wrapped the 24 gauge wire around the wire below the amethyst bead). So I cut the turquoise beads off. I left the amethyst on for now. I'm beginning to think I'm nearly done with this, which is a surprise to me. I want to decorate it more, but there's something in my artistic self that doesn't want me to clutter up the lines of the 16 gauge wire. I'm really frustrated. Every time I get to a certain point with one of these wraps, I get afraid to take it too far because I don't want it to be too cluttered. I guess I'm afraid I won't be able to add things in a way that enhances the design; plus I think I have a preference for simple, clean lines over complex compositions. Trying to fight my muse is a pain in the butt! Any thoughts on how to proceed? I'd be interested to know what you think.

Today I spent most of the day doing my first show of the year. It was a decent enough show; I made about triple my booth fee, not too bad at all, though at times rather slow. It did give me time to work on my wrap. I added a piece of 18 gauge wire winding from the bottom towards the top and intersecting the armature wires. I made it curved to reflect the shapes inside the piece. After attaching it at the top and bottom, I decided to use the newly created space for weaving. I started at the bottom and wove upwards to where the first crescent-shaped space ended; then I wove upwards into the second, larger crescent-shaped space until I ran out of wire. Attaching a new wire, I wove this time from the top of the space downwards. I chose to do this because I have found that it is very difficult to decrease neatly when weaving but very easy tin increase neatly, so I wanted to work from the narrow to the wide. You will notice there is a gap left over on the right. I had planned to add a new amethyst piece to the area where the weaving sections met, so I left a space there. This new amethyst will visually balance the two on the left side of the piece. I'm so happy with how this is shaping up!

Another Step

Tonight I finished wiring the beads to the armature (in the midst of getting ready for the year's first show). I added another large turquoise chunk from my stash since it was just the right size and shape. I added some faceted amethyst in a couple other places. Additionally, I placed some smaller, intensely hued turquoise beads in the top part of the armature. I feel that I have achieved a nice balance of positive and negative space, for where I am at in the proceedings. This pendant does not have the obvious places for weaving that some of my other ones have had. I am going to have to proceed carefully to preserve and enhance the balance that I feel exists in the piece.

Next Step

I don't know why, but the intermediate step I tried to publish last night doesn't seem to have "taken". So you will have to bear with me a bit. As you see, I have taken the armature and added a large turquoise nugget (from a long-ago purchase of one magnificent strand at Ayla's in Evanston, IL, of which I am hoarding the last few beads). I added that tonight. Last night I did the weaving you see on the "leaf" of the pendant, which is done in 26 gauge sterling I had socked away in my wire drawer. It is capped off by two 4 mm Erinite crystals (Swarovski). I'm feeling so good about how this is coming along. I'm working on it slowly and listening to the right side of my brain, which will speak if I listen long enough and tell me how to add the next part correctly. (I know that might sound crazy, but it's really working for me). I have pulled out some gorgeous deep purple faceted amethyst, which I am thinking would be an unusual combination with turquoise but would bring drama to the well known combination of turquoise and silver. Let me know what you think about that combination, would you? I console myself by saying, if I don't like it, I can always go snip! snip!

Big Silver....Pear?

While I have been playing with prong setting faceted gems, I also have been contemplating my next rainbow wrap. In fact, I started one a few days ago (I believe it was Saturday). But my attention was not really on it, and I wasn't really focused on the weaving part the way I needed to be. I wasn't happy with the armature, and the bail didn't come out right. So I scrapped it. Easy enough to do with copper. I was going to take some time off of the rainbow wraps, but then yesterday I got a sudden impulse to do one in.....silver! Pretty counterintuitive, really--botch up one in copper, pull out the silver!? But I went with it, and after praying that I wouldn't mess up the beautiful sixteen gauge sterling wire, I made an armature. As usual, it had a new configuration. I didn't have enough wire for both sides of the bail, though. Since I had more of one end left than the other, and the bottom part looked somewhat like a pear, I went with the pear theme and made a leaf and a stem. There is a loop in the stem to run a chain through. No woven bail for me this time; and this time I am going to work with 26 gauge lashing wires rather than 24. Maybe the weaving will go more smoothly with a smaller gauge of wire. Stay tuned, and I'll update this blog regularly with progress photos.