3xR week 52: Endings and New Beginnings

This is it! The last of the 3xR (reduce, recycle, reuse) pieces. I wanted to go big for this last week and I am happy to say that this piece turned out to be my favorite from the entire project!

Copper, Sterling Silver, Bronze

I started by sketching out the overall shape on a piece of copper sheet.

I gathered some silver scrap

and played around with layout.

After the two main pieces were soldered I started to think about how to connect them and decided to utilize some of my scrap chain. 

Then I grabbed some silver coils that had been intended for jump rings, but never used. I stretched them out, soldered the overlaps, flattened them, and then soldered them to the back of the two main pieces. 

Finally, I added the chain and a clasp that hooks in the front. 

I think this piece looks equally fantastic layered over clothing or against bare skin. 

Thanks so much for following along with the 2014 creative challenge! You can see my entire collection here and the work of all the other artists that participated in the project over on Flickr. This has been my favorite creative challenge to date and I know that I will continue to create pieces inspired by the work I created during this project. 

With the end of one yearly challenge comes the beginning of the next and this one is a fun one! Victoria Takahashi of Experimetal has challenged herself and her jewelry making friends to a year of creating one earring every day. Each participant with an Etsy shop has created a section for these single earrings so collectors can mix and match to create the perfect pair of asymmetrical earrings. Look for links to the participaiting shops in each Earring a Day (EAD) listing or search EAD2015 on Etsy for a look at all the available earrings. 

I am going to do my best to hang in there and will be using the various beads, discarded parts, and found objects that have been hanging out in my studio for ages. Chances are I'll work with similar components and ideas for a few days in a row making matching among my pieces a little easier. 

Day 1: 

Sterling Silver and Amethyst

Day 2: 

Sterling Silver and Amethyst

Look for a weekly blog post that reviews the earrings from each week or follow me over on Facebook and Instagram (@metalmusing) for more regular updates. With that I wish you all a very Happy New Year and the best of luck in your creative endeavors and resolutions! 

Thanks for reading!