I've been working this week on a bunch of fold form earrings and a wedding order. Leaves have been on my mind, as you'll see, and I'm thinking about an upcoming necklace design that will feature a leafy design, too. Just trying to squeeze all the enjoyment I can from those awesome green summer leaves while we still have them. First, a pair of pleated copper earrings... these were so much fun to make! This first pair of leaf earrings makes a big, fun statement -- not for the bashful :-) The hoop assembly is 2 1/8" top to bottom. I actually made them for myself, not being the bashful type! The others are about 1.5" long. This sparkly piece will be worn this Sunday by a beautiful mom of a gorgeous bride; all sterling silver and Capri blue Swarovski crystals to match the wedding colors. It's a design I originally created for bridesmaids several years back. Hope you like it. The weather continues to be unbelievably beautiful here. For our friends that were in Irene's path, though, what a cleanup they have on their hands. So much flooding and damage. The Center for Metal Arts in New York, the wonderful place that hosted a workshop I attended in July, had several feet of water fill the first floor studio. It left a 2' mud line all over everything. Fortunately they heeded the storm warning and moved quite a bit of equipment before it hit, but what an awful mess. My thoughts and good wishes go out to everyone dealing with the aftermath right now.
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Our daughter is back to school tomorrow and we just got back from a mini nearby-vacation. It was soooo relaxing and fun. Highlights were the Newport Aquarium in Covington, KY (big glass tunnels for viewing like you're in the tank), Coney Island in Cincinnati [did you know there was one in Ohio? It opened in 1886), and the Cincinnati Zoo (where we hand-fed a giraffe). This is not us, lol... but it is the Cinci zoo and their feeding spot ;-) You've got to try it. Sorry, not much metal going on :) I'll get busy this week, though. Happy summer wind-down!
I have some news! I've been chosen as a recipient of the 2011 Columbus Winterfair Scholarship for Emerging Artists! I. Am. So. Excited. Winterfair is Columbus, Ohio's largest juried fine arts and craft fair. Over 400 artists from 32 states participated in 2010. Each year, emerging artists are awarded a scholarship to participate -- a complimentary booth for the 3-day show, along with an amazing support system (from the wonderful folks at Ohio Designer Craftsmen) to help new artists enter the large fair market. I'm so honored to be chosen as a scholarship recipient for Winterfair, and charged up about what I'll be learning this year! I hope you'll visit me at the show December 2-4, 2011. Now if I can just pull my head out of the clouds, I'll share what I've been working on this week in fold forming. The first piece on the slideshow is just a practice piece, not jewelry, but I was absolutely thrilled to have accomplished a good scored fold. This one is 3" long but I'll work on a smaller piece soon, for a pendant or pin. I also took my friend Shirley's advice and trapped some turquoise in a pendant, similar to last week's trapped pearls. I do like the look of turquoise with copper. Thanks for the idea, Shirls (more ideas welcome!) The next two pieces are "chased on air," fold forming combined with chasing techniques. It's a lot of fun. I suppose it's a step toward sculpting, which I wouldn't mind trying out. I've also continued working on wire wrapped hair combs and a couple new tree of life orders this week. Of course we found time for a couple of zoo trips in between, and pulled out some monster weeds in my yard that were starting to look hungrily at us... also made it to the pool, the Latino Festival, and a Sweetcorn festival... because you can't let these pretty summer days waste away to nothing, can you?
Happy Wednesday! This is a trapped pearl copper pendant made with the fold forming technique. It's about 1.5" long and 7/8" wide. The top forms a tube for the sterling silver chain. It's the first trapped stone design I've done. I can look at it and see some improvement opportunities process-wise. But, I'd love to have some feedback on this design -- what would you change? And what is your opinion of pearls with copper? Do you like the contrast or do you think copper needs a more rich or rustic looking colored stone? I am going to try it again and would love to incorporate some of your suggestions if I can. I try to post on my blog every Wednesday, so please stop by again. My posts are mostly focused on the fold forming technique right now. If the technique interests you as a metalsmith, please join our new community at http://www.facebook.com/foldforming .
Jeesh. I have completely lost track of time this week. Just realized it's Wednesday evening and I owe a post. I came home from my workshop determined to torture myself with pennies. Making stuff out of them, that is. They are SMALL. I should practice fold forming on reasonably sized copper sheet, instead. Why pennies, you ask? This all began with a visit to my daughter in Washington, D.C., after the workshop. We did a lot of sight seeing -- I just never grow tired of the art, architecture, and history, and I love to sight-see there. We visited the National Cathedral (an amazing place) and hanging in the gift shop was a statement that it's legal to elongate / reshape U.S. coins. I've always wondered about this, having heard it's a crime to deface money but knowing perfectly well that there are machines where your penny can be flattened and stamped with a design. I just never bothered to look up the details. This led me to do some reading. There is debate right now about whether to take pennies out of circulation completely. Also, pennies made pre-1982 are copper, but midway through that year they began making pennies with copper-plated zinc (so I'm using older copper pennies.) There is also a good possibility that nickels will be made with cheaper metals in the very near future, since the scrap metal value is higher than face value. Some people think it's a good time to hoard them, in fact ;-) Not sure if you're snoozing yet, but I found all of this FASCINATING. And I decided to make some jewelry out of pennies and nickels: NOTE: I've noticed that lots of people visit my blog after searching for fold forming. If you're one of them, please also visit http://www.facebook.com/foldforming , and join our community. I've also been working on a wedding order this week. This is a comb and matching pearl bobby pins for the bride: And that just put me in a hair mood, so I decorated some more little combs and pins. Since I had a hair appointment today at Element of Dublin (my fav-ever salon) I took them with me... and they bought a nice selection! So now you can find SueLacy Designs at Element, on Frantz Rd. in Dublin. :) So that's what I've been up to... lately I just want to stay up all night making stuff ;-)
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Sue Lacy WiredThis began as a hobbyist's blog. Over time it became a quest to support & connect metalsmiths around the globe who use foldforming techniques in their work. See how it all turned out: www.foldforming.org Archives
July 2016
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