Header

To enter our monthly Jewelry Design Challenges Click here! To see the current calendar of events for SRAJD Click here!

To join our Facebook Discussion Group Click here! Check out our current SRAJD Gift Guide
Showing posts with label jewelry contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jewelry contest. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

May 2015 Enamel and Resin Theme for SRAJD Jewelry Design Challenge

Before we begin with May, congrats to Maxine Booth for being the randomly chosen winner from the April submissions.

Maxine, here is a list of the prizes accumulated so far. Select your gift from here. Just msg or email me with your selection choice.


And now.... Our theme for May 2015 was “Enamel and Resin”. Click on each artist's name to see more of their work.

Here are the beautiful offerings of the SRAJD members…

Molly Butson: This is a torch fired copper enameled bracelet in the sgraffito style. It is slightly domed so it fits nicely around the wrist. I call this one "spring fantasy".

Karen Stahlecker: Last year, I spent several months living in nature and working with my new enameling kiln in a small "workshop" (shed.) I was surrounded by natural beauty, was watching the seasons change, and became very inspired. Later, in the winter, I used the enameled pendants with mixed materials to build necklaces and pendants.

Karen Stahlecker: My primary theme last year, while learning to use my new enameling kiln, was aspects of nature, especially landscapes. I came to call a part of the 2014 work "The American Landscape" series as I am located in the Midwest, where there is a lot of agriculture. In this piece, I was imagining the first snows on the plowed fields. I distilled these images and then, mixed them with other materials to develop finished necklaces.

Karen Stahlecker: Later last fall, as I was getting a little more control over my use of vitreous enamels, I developed a few pendants that were pictorial. This one was more successful, and features a red oak tree in an autumn landscape. I'm preparing now to return to my "summer enameling mode" and I wonder what will happen next! To be continued.....

Tammy Adams: These cufflinks have a turquoise blue background with little schools of fish, and gold tone whales embedded in resin. The background is scrapbook paper and the whales are repurposed earrings with the posts cut off the backs.

Tammy Adams: The color on these earrings is from Iced Enamels, which is sealed under resin. I coated brass blanks with red, purple, and turquoise. The round beads are polymer clay base coated in purple.

Trish Gray: Butterfly brooch, made using recycled silver, cast and then rolled. Enamelled using wet laying enamel techniques. I love to try using a colour merge, such as the two shades of blue in the wings.

Cyreathia Reyer: I do a lot of these picture resin cabs and wrapped for the Bullysrule Bulldog Rescue. I donate them for their fundraising events. Once the auction is over, the winner then sends me a picture of their bully baby and I create a custom necklace for them. These have been very well received and usually bring in good amount for the benefit of the rescue.

Mowse Doyle: Hand done inkwork on polymer clay cabachon with resin finish. Was done as an experimental piece for a shelter fundraiser.

Mowse Doyle: Another experiment this time using dog sticker and polymer clay flower canes on a polymer clay cabachon. I often make items for the animal shelter fundraisers. I try to keep a variety of items on hand.

Mary Hargrave: I love to combine old and new - in these resin earrings, I have inserted many different recycled rhinestone chains. The earrings were then spruced up even more with the reused rhinestone studs. I get large jars of recycled jewelry bits and use them wherever I am inspired to put some "old" into new configurations.

Lindsay Philipson: These earrings are built around pearlised enamelled vintage tin connectors by Kimberly Rogers. I have wire wrapped amethyst drops to echo the lilac in the connectors. Part of my new series inspired by Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience - No. 11, The Blossom.

Linda Anderson: I made these sweet little earrings with some faux enamel connectors I made. They feature lampwork beads with hand painted, hand resined wood components that I've started making. They remind me of summer, bright sunshine and the vibrancy of the Caribbean.

Darlene Orlowski: A brass bezel with a black cat image embedded in resin. A copper stamped charm with MEOW, paw prints, and scratches is wire wrapped to the bezel. Oxidized copper links that are made to look like knotted twine are connected with fire agate beads.

Laura Bracken: For this enamel piece, I saw pierced some copper sheet in a quasi-Kokopeli design then made a cage out of the pieces by soldering spacers along the edges. I then enameled different colors on two sides of another piece of copper that I slipped into the “cage”. The jumpring bail keeps the enameled insert from falling out.

Laura Bracken: For this ocean themed bracelet I combined both enamel and resin. After forming the copper bowls with a dapping set, I enameled the interior then added a few “beachy” items to be held in place with resin. I completed the bracelet by adding charms of silver, stone, and pearls.

We hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these wonderful creations. Make sure to check out the other monthly challenges.

If you’d like to get in on the action, join the SRAJD organization. If you’re already an active member, submit your jewelry challenge piece here for the current month.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

April 2015 Stringing and Bead Weaving Theme for SRAJD Jewelry Design Challenge


Before we begin with April, congrats to Darlene Orlowski for being the randomly chosen winner from the March submissions.

Darlene, here is a list of the prizes accumulated so far. Select your gift from here. Just msg or email me with your selection choice.

And now.... Our theme for April 2015 was “Stringing and Bead Weaving”. Click on each artist's name to see more of their work.

Here are the beautiful offerings of the SRAJD members…

Judith Williamson: The beads tell me and lead me in my designs. I like contrast and vividly colors. This piece was insured by the beads. I am a stringer mostly. Always on the lookout for different beads and unique findings.

Maxine Booth: Made with strung MOP flat teardrops and marquise shapes, white freshwater pearls and goldplated chain, beads and curved tubes, this necklace and earrings set would be perfect for a wedding or formal occasion.

Paula Huckabay: I fell in love with a necklace worn by Padma Lakshme on the finale of Top Chef and that was my inspiration for this piece. The technique is basic stringing with a little layering of components in the center. Although it may look elaborate it is extremely flattering to wear.

Carole Grant: Gorgeous oversized cuff bracelet with dichroic glass cabochon as the focal. Tiny seed beads of different accent colors, as well as pearls, stones, and glass beads. The back of the cuff is lined with a royal blue microsuede and the clasp is a gold plated box clasp.

Carol (Britt) Clay: Bronze Brocade Bracelet is a combination of knotting and weaving using beads to create a bracelet with chaining and a handmade clasp. After knotting a base bracelet with dark bronze Miyuki delica beads, a secondary weave followed on the perimeters. The bracelet has been created completely from seed beads ranging in sizes. A handmade etched hook clasp was added to chain that extends from each end of the bracelet making it adjustable from 7-8.5." 
       Inspiration: I see elegant evenings in the Pavillion at Avalon Bay, on Santa Catalina Island, this bracelet on the arm of a dancer in the hours of late evening.

Sarahbushka - Sarah Clay: Transparent golden peach delica seed beads are all lined up to make a pretty row, with stations of sparkling bead combinations, with each one including a faceted fire polished coppery beauty in the middle of each station. All lines lead to the front center, where a solitary pretty peach stick pearl rests, in full focus.
      Sarahbushka is a 3A gal, an Aloof Artist with Autism. She creates and sells her Art Careers necklaces. Sometimes if we’re lucky, she even allows us to share in the fun with her!

Carol (Britt) Clay: 3 row Boho Styled Beaded Cuff. I chose this entry for the April Challenge because April is also Autism Awareness Month. This Boho cuff features the standard 3 row style with a fully formed button hole and square knot button closure. Double needle lashing was used with crystal FireLine. The white leather cords hold the large creamy white Swarovski Elemental Crystal Pearls bordered by Firefly beads (glowing matte seed beads) in the basic Autism Spectrum Awareness colors of Indigo, Scarlet, Pale yellow and Sky Blue were used. The shank button is a patterned gold metal.

Tammy Adams: Rustic faux copper patina flower beads, made from polymer clay, are strung with turquoise-dyed howlite and copper spacers. The back of the necklace is antique copper finish chain for adjustable length.

Julie Vargas: This Antique Style Bracelet is 8 in long with a lose feel, delicate and comfortable to wear. Bracelet is made with using basic stringing techniques and with 18 mm Tiger Eye, Faceted Carnelian Beads (Orange, Cream and Opaque White) Creamy Burgundy Bead, 10 x 8 mm Lt Topaz Rondelle Faceted Crystals,6 mm Round Faceted Garnet Crystals, Sterling Silver Spacer Beads, Handcrafted Antique Style Sterling Silver Bead Caps, Antique Style Sterling Silver Toggle Clasp.
     I like to design jewelry for all kind of life styles but the antique style jewelry has being my favorite, it reminds me of an era of elegance and style.

Julie Vargas: Wanted to design something that had a fan shape but still fashionable, stylish and with some bling! My inspiration was a lace fan that had some seed beads, it look so delicate and beautiful. So using simple and basic stringing techniques I combine some round Hematite Copper with AB faceted petal leaf golden shadow crystals, amber faceted cubes and an Antique Toggle Clasp to design the necklace and made the matching pair of earrings using basic loop techniques.
     The total length of the necklace is 18 inches and the earrings are 2-1/4 inches long.

Barbara Swinton: This focal bead has been waiting for just the right inspiration and this month's challenged called for me to finally do something with it. Multiple strand necklaces are challenging for a number of reasons, the biggest for me is getting them to lay on the neck in a pleasing way...shorter on the inside, longer on the outside? Or braided together so they stay put? And then how to attach to the closure? The Noreena jasper and the seed beads pick up the colors in the pendant and the strands lay separately and attach to a triple ring connector.

Barbara Swinton: In trying to use up many of my beads at one time, I've thought that memory wire bracelets might be a great way to use lots of goodies and would be a fun project for the beaded challenge. This bracelet was created using the colors and stones of the Southwest - lapis, carnelian, turquoise, silver... in addition to some vintage millefiori beads, howlite, magnesite and yellow jade. My first memory bracelet - casual, colorful and a nice bead sink....

Laura Bracken: Here's one I thought turned out really well.  Beaded beads necklace.


We hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these wonderful creations. Make sure to check out the other monthly challenges.

If you’d like to get in on the action, join the SRAJD organization. If you’re already an active member, submit your jewelry challenge piece here for the current month.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

March 2015 Soldering and Fusing Theme for SRAJD Jewelry Design Challenge



Before we begin with March, congrats to Rain Hannah for being the randomly chosen winner of all the February submissions.

Rain, here is a list of the prizes accumulated so far. 
 Select your gift from here.  Just msg or email me with your selection choice.

And now.... Our theme for March 2015 was “Soldering and Fusing”.  Click on each artist's name to see more of their work.

Here are the beautiful offerings of the SRAJD members…
 

Kim Forrer: I learned to fuse in the dark so I could get a better feel of the colors the metal was turning. But I continue to fuse in the dark because I love seeing the cool colors....and that perfect moment when your metal looks like mercury. This piece is fine silver that I hand forged and fused into links. I added a white pearl dangle for a touch of elegant femininity.

Darlene Orlowski: I fused the ring using 12 gauge fine silver. I hammered and textured the ring with triskele stampings. I finished the earrings with a cone shaped Connemara Marble bead with sterling wire.

Lindsey Keats: This necklace and earring set is composed of artisan lampwork beads, beautiful rutile quartz onion briolettes and Czech glass accent beads, all wrapped with buffed oxidized sterling silver.
            This set reminds me of water lilies on a spring pond, when everything is fresh and green after a dreary west coast winter.
            The lampwork is from Blue Heeler glass and everything else was wrapped, soldered, hammered by me. The wire, chain and findings are all sterling silver, with a few big fine silver headpins thrown in. 

Mary Rembach: Sterling Silver Circles Necklace - 18 Gauge 11mm fine silver jump rings fused and tumbled, then joined with 18 gauge 3mm jump rings.

Shelley Cole Kuduk (Charlotte): I have named my piece “Rainbows of Light”. I have taken flat lampwork beads, these by the talented Jane Harter and used traditional stained glass methods, in this case The Tiffany foiled glass method of foiling each piece of glass and for the assembly of the piece I have soldered it together with a soldering iron used on the traditional wood board. I used wood so that I might nail the items to the board so they should stay within the pattern and not move when being soldered. The finished piece if completed with a hand made chain featuring Jane’s beads, and the piece is liberally sprinkled with Swarovski crystals.

Barbara Swinton: I wanted to do something with a minimalist look to start practicing my soldering, and like the look of mixed metals. This set combines sterling discs with a brushed finish and red brass which I textured with my new cross peen hammer. Sweat soldering with a micro torch is about as basic as soldering can get, but getting things to stay centered is still a challenge for me. Added a simple sterling bail soldered only on the back... Looking forward to advancement:)

Michele Dodge: I was inspired by this beautiful freeform malachite cabochon, cut by local lapidary artist Ed Orekar. The stone itself dictated the shape of my finished pendant, and the start of spring inspired my leafy motif, front and back. The techniques involved include soldering and saw-piercing sterling silver.

Tina Richter: This pendant was actually going to start out as a butterfly. As the main part of the body was in the pickle pot I started playing with the swirls. Before I knew it they were all soldered together in became this pendant. As for the butterfly well lets just say landed on my bench for now.
            This is 18 gauge sterling silver wire and the stones are Green mountain jade and black onyx.

Laura Bracken: This is an “end of day bracelet”.  I took copper and silver scraps leftover from my workbench and fused them into an abstract collage.  Then I soldered that onto a cuff I formed out of thick copper wire.

Laura Bracken: To make this pendant I used a jeweler’s saw to cut out the petroglyph (cave painting) shape then soldered it onto a disk I’d run through the rolling mill (for texture).  The final step was riveting a bail at the top.

We hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these wonderful creations. Make sure to check out the other monthly challenges. 

If you’d like to get in on the action, join the SRAJD organization. If you’re already an active member, submit your jewelry challenge piece here for the current month . 

Monday, March 2, 2015

February 2015 PATINA Theme for SRAJD Jewelry Design Challenge

Before we begin with February, congrats to Donna Jo Wallace for being the randomly chosen winner of all the January submissions.

Here is a list of the prizes accumulated so far.  Select your gift from here.

And now.... Our theme for February 2015 was “PATINAS”.  Click on each artist's name to see more of their work.

Here are the beautiful offerings of the SRAJD members…

Kim Forrer
Achieved this pretty verdigris patina by leaving the cuff out in the fog for a few days then used a vinegar/salt bath and airdry. I love the look of old copper colored by age and the elements.

Kim Forrer
The colors on the copper in this bracelet were inspired by the lovely Turquoise chips linking the squares. And also my love of ocean colors. I used a combo of layering inks and acrylics to achieve these great patterns.

Marcia Tobolsky
I decide to created some wrap earrings for valentines besides others items that I been silver wrap stones, this is moonstones beads and pearls with the lever back cooper earrings.

Kim Forrer
Colors achieved with my torch. Took about 5 minutes of passing continual flame across the cuff. Then sealed to help preserve the colors.

Kim Forrer
I layered acrylic paints and alcohol inks to color this brass cuff. Inspired by a dress I loved back in the 70's.

Marcia Tobolsky
I used copper wire the earrings shows the time, natural oxidation with glass beads and hematite stone this design.

Tammy Adams
Metal washers given a faux copper patina with Ice Resin Enamels. Connected with dark oxidized copper jump rings. Earrings are on natural copper ear wires, which will develop their own patina over time.

Barbara Swinton
This is the first patina I have tried that is not LOS. A friend shared her recipe, which included white vinegar, ammonia and salt. I really like the finished look - very rustic. Love the dab of red on one of the earrings. Scrap pieces of 22g copper sheet and some 10g copper wire were used to create the basic design...but the patina is what really makes them unique. I applied a renaissance wax finish which gave the patina more contrast. Certainly this recipe will be used again:)

Carol Evans
I love creating patinas..... Transforming raw metal into pieces with texture and dimension. I used a combination of heat treatment, reactive metal patina and wax to give these earrings an aged patina in a deep hunter green with warm brass highlights.

Debbie Brown
These earrings were inspired by gorgeous Spanish black lace. I took shiny gold brass medallions and added a patina to them. The finish has a sealer on them, and they hang from sterling silver ear wires.

Rain Hannah
I call these "Mermaid Trinkets" -t hey are a traditional verdigris patina over domed, distressed and textured copper discs. I used the Sculpt Nouveau product for these. Basically the flat discs were annealed, I pounded the heck out of 'em with a texture hammer, then annealed again, then domed, then bent the domes a bit with pliers around the edges, then hit the domes with a hammer a little more... it was very therapeutic! Once they were textured the way I liked, I used the Sculpt Nouveau product - it took about 48 hours to get the "bloom" where I wanted it, but once it was there, I sealed the discs thoroughly with Permalac and then some Renaissance wax.
        I've had the mauve stick pearls in my stash for about 4 years, and hadn't found a use for them yet, but they went really well with the green patina so I knew I wanted to pair them together. Ditto the peach pearls, which I bought around the same time. I was trying to use up old materials for this project. I did throw in some Czech crystal for a little sparkle.
        Using the stick pearl to anchor the top of the design reminded me of a pagoda shape, so I decided to play around with the idea a little more. I was really happy with all of the variations I came up with, so I'm doing a little mini collection around the theme. There is a necklace in the works, to match.

Kelly Hosford Patterson
I'm working on an assemblage art necklace with an old grungy tin as the focal. I looked everywhere for salvage supplies to go with it, but couldn't find the look I wanted at a salvage price. I really wanted pieces that looked like they were once very fancy, a very long time ago. Ancient looking gold, pearls, and rhinestones, etc. So I handmade some fancy chain links, and experimented with making them look very old and grungy. My chain is made out of brass wire. It's craft wire, so it has a lacquer coating to protect the shine. First step was removing the protective lacquer. I soaked it in nail polish remover until the coating started to soften and then rubbed it to break it up. It started to flake off, but not completely, which worked out perfectly for my purposes. I then dipped my chain into a black patina solution (Nitric Acid & Selenium Dioxide), to darken the unprotected portion of the chain. The results are perfect for my project. 50 year old chain in less than a day!

Catherine Shattuck
These lovely "spoon" earrings were originally raw brass. The colorizing process that I used to achieve this look is done in several steps. First, after cleaning them, I paint the spoon stampings with a white acrylic base, then painted over that with a very light blue acrylic paint. To give them the patina affect I mixed brown umber acrylic paint with glaze and applied it along the edges, then rubbed it off right away, leaving a tinted edge that makes the pieces look aged. I really enjoy colorizing many of my designs now and have learned a lot about this and other patina processes within the past few years.

Catherine Shattuck
I gave this sweet little pair of earrings a shabby look by coloring with several layers of a chalk white paint, rubbing them out after each layer. Finally, I sealed them to protect the finish. They are embellished with poly clay flowers and Czech glass leaf beads.


Donna Jo Wallace
Niobium spiral wave bracelet, anodized peacock blue. Anodized niobium has not been plated or dyed with any other metal. It is still pure allergy-safe niobium all the way through. All niobium jewelry in my shop is anodized in-house on my own equipment. The color is not flat, but is brilliant with slight impressions of other colors as you turn it in the light. This bracelet is 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) long. Handmade by Naturally Nickel Free.

Carol Priestley
Earrings - Red Copper Oxide Patina (Grilled Borax)

Laura Bracken
These are bronze earrings with a non-chemical heat patina.

Laura Bracken
And just finished these so I'll slip them in here.  Both copper and liver of sulfur.  For the bracelet on the right, I stopped the patina at the red stage (which was pretty wild before I coated it with Ren wax).  Then I re-buffed the edges for contrast.  For the larger cuff I gave it a darker patina then just buffed lightly with steel wool.


We hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these wonderful creations. Make sure to check out the other monthly challenges.

If you’d like to get in on the action, join the SRAJD organization. If you’re already an active member, submit your jewelry challenge piece here for the current month .