Saturday, June 12, 2010

Long Time Gone, Just Now Back



Last year, around Labor Day 2009, I took extra days of vacation from the day job, and spent a week creating pieces for a proposed article in Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine.

The current Summer 2010 issue has the article published! Thanks to all of you who have noticed and seen the article and let me know - I didn't get my complimentary copy so I must go find a copy so I can see it myself.

The pieces of jewelry have just come back from the photographer, it's been almost a year since I last saw them.




The fun thing is that I still like them, just as much as I did when I first created them.

I was experimenting with making a kind of faux amber.

I love real amber, the warmth, translucency and color of it. It's hard to reproduce that look well, but I thought that using resin for its transparent quality might get close. I wanted it to look more interesting than just a solid color, so I embedded antique photographs and some words inside.

First I created all the focal pieces. There were more than just the ones pictured in the article. Then I pulled out all my charms and extra goodies, to see if I could tell a story with the pewter and faux amber pieces.



This one has the words "TRUE STORY" inside, it's a brooch pin, but it also has loops so a necklace chain could be attached - multi-purpose. I had the deck of cards charm from a flea market find, and the image of the cowboy with those words seemed to tell a tall tale, of a lucky win at the card table.

I'm going to start listing these faux amber pieces
in the Etsy shop, in case some of you have a particular favorite you'd like to have for yourself.

They are DEFINITELY one of a kind, and they are the actual pieces from the Belle Armoire Jewelry issue, if you've seen one that you fell in love with.

Later on, I'll post about the chains that I created for them - made by hand - and the step-by-step photos that I don't think were used in the publication. I need to get a copy of the magazine and see if they're included or not.

It's interesting to see these pieces again. In some ways I see changes and improvements in how I'm using the cast pewter. And yet, I still like them just as much as I did when I first made them.

3 comments:

EmandaJ said...

The Belle Armoire article is lovely and I am very proud of you. You must get a copy, you will be proud as well!

Emanda

LLYYNN - Lynn Davis said...

My hubby went to the bookstore and got a copy for me today, it's my birthday so I guess it's my present to myself! I'll spend part of this evening reading the whole issue, can't wait to see all the goodies inside!

Alice said...

Our locan B&N didn't have this issue (hiss boo) but luckily I found it while vacationing in Colorado! I only had time to flip through quickly but hope to have more time later after I tackle the piles of laundry.

Congratulations on being featured in such a wonderful publication!