Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Repeat: Playing Catch Up

Time to play catch up. How two weeks went by while I wasn't looking I will never know. Time slippage (is that a thing?) is a strange phenomenon that plagues several areas of my life including how long it has been since I've called my mother, brother, best friend (insert all other people waiting for phone calls here), the last time I remembered to pay the garbage bill (we have a quarterly system), as well as a number of other things that I can't think of right now. hmmm.....

At any rate, I've caught up with the 3xR challenge this week!

Lets call this Sunbeam Pendant Week 10:

Sterling Silver, Brass, and Green Onyx Pendant

The silver portions were left over from a piece with many long tabs (which I think I actually scrapped as well so look for that in the future!), the brass was left over from a project that involved  many large rectangles and that I had given up on ages ago as evidenced by the other cut out form, the bezel was partially melted on the bottom, and the stone... well I guess a stone is never technically scrap, but hey, I wanted to use some stones!

And for Week 11 a Rain Drop Ring:

Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, and Lapis Ring

The scrap was a mixture of melted bezels, small wire pieces, and piercings from previous stone settings. The band was rolled down from a very heavy piece of wire (not pictured) that was purchased for a college forging project and never used, which means I've been holding on to it for at least 5 years. 

Week 12 Silver and Turquoise Ring:

Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, Turquoise Ring

I completely forgot to take pictures of the scrap for this one! The back plate is left over from a piercing on an older workshop piece and has a roller printed texture on the back, the bezel was salvaged from a much larger bezel that I accidentally melted years ago, and the rivets were extra "just in case" rivets from previous rings. The turquoise in this ring and the lapis in the ring above were purchased from my college prof about 5 years ago. She had cut them herself maybe ten years prior to that. I'm still not sure they could be counted as scrap, but definitely count as components that were already on hand.

Thanks for reading! I promise to try to keep up with this challenge from here on out.

You can check out what the other 3xR artists have been up to over at the 3xR Flickr group.

RAW: Featured Rings

As you may have noticed, I haven't been keeping up with RAW at all! tsk, tsk, is all I've got to say about that.  So today I thought I would take a look at some of the rings the other artists are coming up with. Talk about inspiration. It may be enough to get me back in the game. We shall see.

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 e-bu Jewelry: RAW52/15 Marquesan Tides Series

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From Rae The Smithy: In Between

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 From lorahart: Raw 16 (Japan Donation-click here for more info)

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From mairedodd: Raw 15-Urban Posey

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From Lorena Angulo: Raw 15

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RAW: Week 10, 11, and 12

I got a little behind so these three are coming out together. They are a nice little collection, but the setting isn't really doing it for me. To be honest, I rushed them so I could catch up. But to be fair, I started them three weeks ago. So in a way, they are right on time!

RAW: Week 9

I'm really happy with this ring. I've been working toward adding more detail and texture in my work and I think this piece is on the right track. I'm hoping that the different flower forms and mixed metals lead the eye around the piece creating movement.

RAW: Week 8

 

I continued to explore the kirigami flower forms this week. It was difficult to get the forms flush for soldering. They also got a bit squished at some point and it was impossible to get them straightened out because they are so close together. Definitely learned a lot for next time.

RAW: Week 7

RAW 7, Copper, 2/22/11

 This piece was so fun to make and I'm really pleased with the transition from paper to metal. It's based on the Japanese art of Kirigami, an offshoot of Origami that combines folding, cutting, and opening paper to create forms. Think paper snowflakes. This piece has been folded and cut but not opened. There are a few things I would like to work out with the construction, especially with the band. Ideally, the band and the flower would both be seamless. Expect more of these Kirigami pieces in the weeks to come and look for similar pieces in my Etsy shop soon!

RAD 354, paper, 2/18/11

RAW 7, Copper, 2/22/11

RAW: Week 6

More origami this week. I call this piece "My Little Friend". I just couldn't help myself, these folds were too much like the abdomen of a beetle and when I started browsing images I realized they most resembled cockroaches. Then I started thinking about how some people enjoy having cockroaches as pets. So naturally I imagined holding one of the little guys... probably not a pet choice I'll be making in my future. 

RAW: Week 5

This week I continued working with origami folds but moved away from identifiable objects. I started by making a long strip of pleat folds and then formed the strip into tubing. The pleat fold in copper has a very organic feel which reminds me of the segmentation found in beetles and caterpillars. I love pairing the organic with the industrial, so rivets were a natural choice.

RAW 5

Copper

02/07/2011

RAW: Week Four

RAW 4: Origami Shrimp, Copper, Foldforming

      Earlier this week I made an origami shrimp ring out of paper for RAD #330. I loved the little guy so much I knew he would be the next one I made in metal. The metal version has a very different feel and gave me a good bit of trouble. By the end I was folding 4 layers of 26 gauge copper to create the pleats, but it was really folding the pleat folds in half that got me (8 layers of metal really does not want to move). However, I also worked on a smaller pleated ring for today's RAD and I really like the way it turned out. I have a feeling there are more pleats in my future.

RAD 330: Origami Shrimp, Paper, Origami

RAD 334: Pleats, Copper, foldforming

RAW: Week 3

RAW: week 3

Copper

Origami Pelican

Continuing to work with origami this week. This form was a lot of fun. Switching to 24 gauge copper definitely saved me some frustration. Although his beak should be more elongated for a pelican, I still think he is a fine specimen.

RAW: no I'm not growling; it's time for Ring A Week

That's right, a new challenge to create a ring a week for an entire year. Only 52 rings? What will we do with all the spare time! For most of the group RAD (Ring A Day) ended with 2010. I'm still hanging in there until the end of February to complete my 365 rings. However, my RAD rings will primarily be models for RAW from here on out. This year I'm going to take my infatuation with paper even further and explore the translation of paper craft into metal.

Week One 

1/8/2011

Origami Airplane

Copper

Week 2

1/16/2011

Origami Boat

Copper