Project Runway Challenge Season 9 - week (RAW 19)

This is the fourth week in the Etsy Metal Project Runway Challenge. Here are this week's details:


Project Runway Season 9: Episode 4
Design a piece for Nina Garcia


The Project Runway Challenge:
The designers were asked to design a day to night outfit for Nina Garcia

For our EtsyMetal Translation:
Make a piece of jewelry for Nina. There was a scene where she was going through jewelry at Marie Claire. Also she notes that she likes streamlined, modern looks. Whatever you do, don't bore Nina!

I chose the winning outfit created by Kimberly as my inspiration for my piece.

I really wanted to make a large brass cuff bracelet to go with this outfit but I did not have a big enough piece of brass on hand so I decided on a ring instead.  The texture of the ring was inspired by the texture in the gold fabric. I also made it adjustable. I have been playing around with the idea of adjustable rings and this is my first real piece that is adjustable. It is a simple yet elegant ring that can be taken from day to evening and I think it works perfectly with the winning outfit!

I also think these bangles that were not made for this challenge but were made not too long ago would also great on the opposite wrist from the ring :)

To see the rest of the Etsy Metal translations of this challenge check out the Etsy Metal Blog.

Project Runway Challenge Season 9 - week 3 (RAW 18)

This is the third week in the Etsy Metal Project Runway Challenge. Here are the details:

Episode 3: "Go Big or Go Home"
Air: 8.11.11
My Lifetime, Thursdays, 9pm PST.

The Project Runway Challenge:
The designers were asked to design a piece for a model on stilts for the first ever outdoor runway show.

For our EtsyMetal Translation:
Since this challenge was all about going over the top, this week make it BIG, over the top, larger and crazier than you would normally do, but still trying to keep it wearable and fashionable. Should be a fun one!

I had this ring designed for a few weeks now. I was meaning to make it for the RAW challenge but haven't had a chance to yet. It actually is the perfect piece for this week's Project Runway Challenge as well so here it is! It's a very long Norwegian Moonstone (also known as "Larvakite") set in a sterling silver double finger ring. The stone is approx 3 1/4" long and the ring itself is about 3 1/2" long by 1" wide at its largest point. I have always wanted to make a two finger ring but never got around to it until now. I actually am typing this blog post with the ring on my left hand and even though it is really large it actually feels just like any other ring. So I guess it meets the "keeping it wearable" requirements!

To see  the rest of the pieces in this challenge you can check them out here.

RAW 16

I just realized I never posted my RAW #16 ring so here it is....better late than never!

I made a sterling silver band that I then textured and then added brass spikes to. It actually is a very comfortable thumb ring. I wouldn't really recommend wearing it any other finger tho...it's a bit too dangerous to be so close to another finger!

RAW 14 & 15 (ring a week)

I do not seem to have a problem making my RAW rings, it's posting the photos/info of them is where I start slacking off! So here’s one post with my last 2 weeks of rings…..and don't forget to check out the rest of groups RAW rings too!
My RAW 14 ring was a custom order from a woman for her boyfriend. She wanted me to make a ring exactly like he had only in silver so it wouldn't turn his finger green like the base metal one he owned did. It is a cold connected ring. A piece of silver has been wrapped over itself a few times and then riveted. I have riveted many times before just not on a ring. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

My RAW 15 ring is something I have never done before either. I really like the more 3D rings I have made for this challenge and my “flat” rings just aren’t doing it for me anymore. I wanted to make this a hollow form ring but due to the price of silver being over $40 an ounce I decided to challenge myself and try to come up with a way to raise the stone but also use less metal. This is what I came up with. The stone is called Royal Savannah Jasper. I liked the way the stone was divided down the center so I decided to follow that line and divide the metal as well. Half of the silver is textured and half is not. The way I raised the stone is to put the piece on “stilts”. I cut little pieces of wire and soldered them onto the base and then attached the top to that. It used less silver than if I was to create a hollow form. I am pretty pleased with the outcome. J

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone....

EtsyMetal Monthly Challenge & RAW #13 (ring a week)
I am finally caught up on my postings of my RAW rings so this post is right on time! This week's RAW ring actually had a theme "kinetics". It just so happened that the EtsyMetal monthly challenge that is due March 31 is also the same theme so this ring does double duty! The "Rattle Ring" is made from sterling silver and filled with little stones inside made of glass. I then topped the whole thing off with a piece of acrylic to hold the stones in. Since the stones are not set in a setting they are free to move around inside the ring...hence the kinetic part! It also makes a great little rattling sound when you shake it. The stones are very small (3mm) so it was hard to capture the movement in the video below but I think you get the idea! You can see all the RAW Theme Challenge rings in a new Flickr group set up just for these challenges. I can't wait to get working on my next theme ring!

RAW # 12 (ring a week)

My week 12 ring for the RAW challenge had some issues....it is made from sterling silver and "brass" and is set with 3 garnets. The "brass" was a scrap piece that my dad gave me from his stock pile of metals he has had in his basement for years. I don't know what kind of "brass" it is but it did something I have never seen happen before when I soldered the 2 metals together. If you look closely at the ring you can see what I mean. All around the edge of the "brass" and under the bezels you can see a melted/wrinkled looking thing going on. I did not use an over abundance of solder on this piece so I know it is not the solder. I don't know if the "brass" was coated with something that I didn't know about or maybe the metal wasn't really brass like I had been told. So I'm not sure exactly what happened there but it only happened to the "brass" and it happened consistently and evenly all around the ring. And since it was so consistent I decided instead of trashing the ring and starting over that I would to keep it as an added detail. I do really like the curve of this ring. The way it hugs is SO comfortable on the finger that I will be making more rings with the same curved shape in the future....although I probably will stay away from the rest of that "brass" I have left over!

RAW #11 (ring a week)

I am a little behind in my RAW postings so I hope to get all caught up by the end of this week. My RAW 11 ring was inspired by some mixed metal cuffs that I made a few weeks ago. I am really enjoying working more and more with adding texture to mixed metals. This ring band was made with brass, copper and sterling silver. Each metal was given a different texture and the combination of all three seem to work quite well together. Below are images of the ring along with a photo of the bracelet that was the inspiration.

RAW #10 (ring of the week)

I am a little behind in posting due to the fact that I was out of town last week so I am hoping to get caught up soon! My week 10 ring was inspired by something I saw at the Philadelphia Flower Show last weekend. I now wish I had taken a photo of it but of course I did not...It was a table set for dinner. The table and chairs were draped in a lush dark gray fabric and and all the color came from the flowers and dishes which were a bright pink color. The colors stuck in my head so I decided to pick the same colors for my RAW ring! This ring is set with hematite and tourmaline. This ring is available for sale here in my Etsy shop.

RAW #9 (ring of the week)

I didn't really have much time this week to make anything totally fabulous for my week 9 RAW ring. Last week (week 8) I made the Ravioli Ring and I also made a set of mixed metal stackable rings. I listed them on etsy and got a lot of attention from Facebook friends and then decided I really liked them for myself. So this week I make another set to keep for myself and even though they are not what I had planned for my RAW ring, they do technically qualify as "rings made this week". So here they are:

These stackable rings have even inspired some new earrings and necklaces so all in all even though my week 9 RAW ring is not as challenging to me as some of the others I have made, it has not been that bad of a week! :)

necklace inspired by stackable rings

sterling earrings inspired by sterling stackable ring

copper and sterling earrings inspired by stackable rings

brass and sterling earrings inspired by stackable rings

RAW # 8 (ring of the week)

Plan A for this week's ring didn't actually work out so well as a ring so I had to go with Plan B.

Plan A was to make something like this:

While I can totally understand this drawing, you probably have no clue what it means so let me explain....The center teardrop is a stone. It has four little wires or "legs" coming off of it with little circles at the end (more stones). The "legs" are attached to another teardrop made of wire that the little stones sit on. When finished it will look kind of like the large stone is suspended inside the wire teardrop. It came together perfectly but before putting on the band it started to look more and more like a pendant to me. It took me about a half an hour of going back and forth between a ring and a pendant before I finally made the call. Looking at the photo below you can see what I decided.

So then I needed to go to Plan B.... I have been playing around with some new die shapes I have made for my hydraulic press. Since I had a bunch of copper pieces laying around on my bench that I used to test out my dies, I figured that would be a good place to start. This is what I came up with:

It kind of reminds me of a ravioli...hhmmm...I think I just found it's name :)

my inspiration for participating in "RAW"

Some of the artists participating in the "RAW (ring a week) challenge" (including me) have decided to do a blog carnival. A blog carnival is where a group of people pick a subject, blog about it then post it with links to all the other blogs that are participating.

The subject of this blog carnival is "What was your inspiration for participating in RAW?"

My inspiration for participating in the RAW challenge was actually the "RAD" (ring a day) challenge. The challenge was to make a ring a day every day for the year 2010 ending up with 365 rings by Dec 31. I came across this challenge by accident while surfing the web. I thought this was the greatest idea and would have loved to participate but I didn't find out about the challenge until day 115 so I would have been quite a bit behind. I would check in on the challenge every so often to see what was new. There were some really great rings that have been made. On Jan 5, 2011 I checked in on RAD to see all the completed work for the year and that's when I saw the post about a new challenge for 2011. There was still a couple days left in the first week of January so I decided to jump in! I am such a ring person. I love making and wearing them, and the bigger the better if you ask me! I also have been in a creative funk lately so I thought this would be a great way to challenge myself and get the creative juices flowing. I figured I could use techniques that I don't get to use very often and maybe teach myself a thing or two along the way.

So far I LOVE it! I am 7 rings in and have used 3 of the many techniques I plan to incorporate into my RAW rings. I want to give my RAW rings lots of dimension and texture so I have made hollow forms, I hand carved carved ebony and I have incorporated hinges into my pieces. I have even made my more simpler rings more interesting than I have in the past by adding curves and texture to them and I am very pleased with the look of them. I would like to try to combine some of the harder techniques I haven't used yet and possibly use them in 1 ring. It will either turn out awesome or end up in the scrap box but I won't know unless I try! So keep an eye out for my future RAW rings!

To read more about other artists inspiration for participating check out the blogs below!

Marcie Abney - http://www.labellajoya.blogspot.com/

Joanne Harrill - http://www.jojobell.com/

Thomasin Durgin - http://www.metalriot.blogspot.com/

Amy Nicole - http://www.rubymtnbeads.blogspot.com/

Janice - http://www.doxallodesigns.blogspot.com/

Aleksandra Micic - http://www.micicart.blogspot.com/

Lana Chu - http://www.ginkgoglass.wordpress.com/

Evelyn Markasky - http://www.markasky.blogspot.com/

Kerry Alice-Twigs and Heather - http://www.twigsandheather.blogspot.com/

Lorena Angulo- www.blog.lorenaangulo.com/

Kate Jones-- http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com/

Maria Apostolou- www.createjewelry.gr/blog

Sarah Small - http://www.bysalla.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Bogan - www.Adobesol.com/blog

Elaine Luther - www.CreativeTextureTools.com/news

Rebekah Timlin Meddles - http://www.lunasadesigns.blogspot.com/

Laura M (Zoeowyn)- www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com/

Kimberly (bahamadawn) - http://www.bahamadawn.blogspot.com/

Erin Austin - http://www.metalmusing.blogspot.com/

Catherine Witherell - http://www.happydayart.typepad.com/

Joan Furilla - www.jfurilla.wordpress.com/

Kathryn Cole- http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com/

RAW #7 (ring a week)

Better late than never is what I always say! This week's ring isn't as involved as my last one but I am running out of time in the week and wanted to get a ring in today so I can keep on schedule. I didn't really have an idea for my ring ( I've been really busy with other stuff and haven't had time to think about it) so I looked through my stash of stones and found this Plume Agate that I have had for quite a while....years actually....So I pulled it out and before you know it it became a ring!