Friday, April 17, 2015

Long Time! Some Commissions Unveiled

Hello faithful readers and new visitors!  It's been a long time since I posted last. 

The Christmas season with Gifts for Myself and Others and the Gifts and Wishes show at the Coast Collective was a delightful whirl of activity, and the winter months thereafter were a quiet time to review my inventory and begin work on new projects.

I'm working on building an exciting exciting light box before I photograph any of my new projects, so those will be posted some time in the weeks to come.  For now though, I'd like to share with you some photos of commissioned work, now that it has been safely gifted.

First up is a necklace I was commissioned to make using a wolf's tooth.  My client had found a lovely freshwater pearl and shell necklace she wanted it attached to, and she wanted me to echo the spiral/helix in the shell in my wire wrap.  She also wanted me to incorporate a second freshwater pearl and to work with sterling silver wire, which was a somewhat challenging experience as the sterling wire behaves quite differently from the silver-plated copper I am used to working with.  In the end, I managed to find a pearl that echoed the one in the necklace quite nicely, and to come up with a design the customer was happy with.

Here's a picture of the full necklace:


Attaching the pearl and wolf tooth pendant to the original necklace proved a bit challenging, but I was able to wrap silver wire around the two loops at the top of the shell, and add a bit of the more organic twisted metal to the sides there to help unify the design between the smooth setting of the top part and the wrapped wire of the bottom.  Here's a side view:


Another commission I worked on was for a set of wine glass personalizers.  I sent out the the prototypes for different ways of attaching them to wine glasses, and my customer told me she liked the clip on style rather than the spiral style.  I doubled up the wire to add to the strength and durability and made a set of clips.  So then the task was to figure out how to make a set of 6 memorable "tags".  I opted for a set of visual puns using double charms.  The double charms worked out really well as the weight pulls the open end of the clip down away from the stem so it's even less likely to fall off. 

But "What are these visual puns?" you ask.  Without further ado, I introduce you to...

A starfish:



A goldfish:


A catfish:


A bluebird:


A blackbird:


And a bullfrog:


(Studies have shown that we remember funny things better than bland facts like "mine is the green one" and puns are totally funny, right?)

The final commission I have to show you is more in my usual vein.  I had an Etsy customer request a sea glass pendant with a dolphin charm.  Voila!  (Now it's in Australia. How cool is that?)


And that is it for this post.  Hopefully I will have assembled my light box soon and will have exciting new pictures of new pieces for you to admire.  Until then, keep an eye out, because spring as arrived and I may have news about shows and markets coming up.