(no subject)

[afmetalsmith]

I have been neglecting this blog, I know.

Wedding season has been hard upon me, and I've been doing a lot of work for that. But! I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and hope to get my remaining wedding-related commissions done by the end of the week... and then I can focus more intently on the other, trickier but fun, ones.

In a few spare minutes of time, I've been working on a project from one of the jewelery magazines I adore. Sadly, I am often not able to keep "Art Jewelery" and "Jewelery Artist" straight in my mind, except that one of the- I think the latter- used to be "Lapidary Journal." Anyway, I love them both even if I do get them mixed up, and both often have some nifty projects.

The one I'm working on was designed to get people comfy with palladium... except that I already am comfy with Pd, so am mostly interested in the variant of the ways I learned to create a tapered bezel. Therefore, I'm doing it in silver, because I have the materials in silver. It is proving interesting; the bezel-making technique is definitely somewhat trickier than it looked in the description, but that's not unusual. I'm making a textured shank with a tapered bezel that will, I hope, hold a really pretty green sapphire I had sitting around. The sapphire is lovely- it's a spring green, but in some lights has brilliant flashes of orange! and I think it will look stunning in silver (gold would, I think, reduce the contrast of some of its colors).

I also may be getting some raw stock of petrified squid for use in jewelry. This sounds SO nifty! I haven't done much lapidary work for a while, but really interesting stock makes me want to do more- and how cool is petrified squid??? I'm certainly not an expert stonecutter, but we have decent equipment and I've made some nice cabs etc., so I'm confident I can do a credible job of turning the raw stock into really nifty stuff. I'm very excited!

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

will look forward to seeing the new project but... petrified squid? For real? I know petrified wood is fabulous but not so sure about terrified cephalopods!

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

Poor critters...

I think it's very sad that they died in such a way to get petrified... but since it happened millions of years ago, I think it'd be nice to make something nifty and beloved out of the results.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I'd not have thought enough of them was left to be positively identified enough to say "this is squid,"..

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

They're sort of bullet-shaped items with textured innards.

I do not pretend to know much about fossils. :)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.. I should have googled last night, see what you mean now, wasn't thinking of "specificaly shaped items scattered over Wyoming", not sure what I Was htinking mind. COol, either way :)

[anderale.livejournal.com]

Jewelry Artist was Lapidary Journal. I know their focus has changed, but I wish they hadn't changed the name completely. Jewelry and Lapidary Journal would have worked.

Petrified squid?! huh. I did buy a ring cast from a real octopus tentacle, but have not seen any petrified cephalopods. (octopusme on etsy, if you're curious). Neato.

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

When I think about it, I can usually figure it out. But- in general, I get 'em confused, especially since I do love both mags.

In general, though, Lap-Journal-as-was has more of the more ambitious projects I go for, though the other has really excellent informative articles.

[onyxrising.livejournal.com]

May I ask where on earth one buys petrified squid?

[crowyhead.livejournal.com]

Oooh, squid! Neat!