Metamorphosis 45: Family Door Necklaces

Family door pendants: they can represent you, your home, or be a magical door into your own little world. I’m not sure what compelled me to make Ferin and her kids these little doors but I love them. (Hopefully she does too!)

At one point I wondered if I made the right choice (as I always do during these projects) but then Ferin posted a photo on her Instagram of these little gnome figurines she gifted her daughter. They move them around the house like elf on a shelf, resulting in endless joy when her daughter sees that they’ve moved. If they have little gnomes, these little doors have made it to the right home: one full of wonder and magic.

I first thought to make Ferin earrings but she already has quite the collection. She is a beadworker that makes beautiful earrings (see her Instagram here) and who avidly supports other makers of earrings . I settled on the idea of a necklace and from there landed on a door design inspired by cartouches (a cartouche is basically an ID made from Egyptian hieroglyphs). My idea for the cartouche came from some of the things Ferin explained to me about the significance of each piece of jewellery. Although this new-age iteration doesn’t spell her name like a standard version, I made it with the intention of representing who she is. Although our names identify us, it’s our experiences that shape our identities.

I wanted to incorporate another stone alongside the oval sapphire, but all of the stones she liked weren’t working with my ideas (insert panic). I searched for a stone that was a bit matchy matchy but also hit the earth tones she seemed drawn to. I picked a rustic sapphire that has a bit of browny gold that ties into the yellow gold elements of the pendant.

I normally only make one piece of jewellery for metamorphosis but I could clearly envision using her pear-shape sapphires in mini doors for her kids. Plus, the pear-shape sapphires were a gift from her husband and the yellow gold a gift from her grandparents, so it just seemed like the perfect way to pass down some family heirlooms to her kids who will one day carve their own paths, opening their own doors, whilst on their own adventures.

Metamorphosis 42: From barnacle to mermaid!

This metamorphosis is for my dear friend Michele. She bought the mussel and barnacle ring on the first anniversary of her mother’s passing. Since then, her feelings have changed and she was unsettled with the memories it brought her. Knowing this, I wanted to make her something new that represented where she’s at today in terms of her memories, feelings, and style.

Fire and smoke are cleansing so I was happy to torch the ring as soon as I got it and get rid of that bad juju Michele was unsettled about! There was a little blue stone in the ring but I had no intention of using it knowing that I had some pretty moss aquamarines that Michele loved.

Why moss aquamarine? The first reason is because aquamarine is Michele’s birthstone. Also Michele has this amazing wavy hair that always reminds me of mermaid hair (or at least what I think mermaid hair looks like)! Upon receiving the ring, Michele also told me that the colour reminds her of the ocean where her mother’s ashes lie. Also, the colour of the stone is similar to that of her son’s eyes which gives the ring another layer of family meaning.

The moss aquamarine sits in a sterling silver basket setting that I made entirely by hand. There’s something about a big gem stone in a basket setting that is both classic and simple, yet glamorous at the same time!

Now I need a moss aquamarine ring!

Ps- Michele is an amazing photographer. Go check out her work at her website here.

Pss- if you want the satisfaction of seeing the old ring torched…go to my Instagram!

Metamorphosis 38: Multi-gem statement hoops

Photos: Before: old jewellery/After: new earrings

Katrina has been waiting a long, long, long time for her Metamorphosis! As in, it was supposed to be finished last July. That’s over a year ago…insert embarrassed face here.

So why did these take so long? Well simply because I couldn’t decide what to make her and I kept putting the job off! At first I was going to make her a cuff with larger stones but something about the design wasn’t jiving with me. I put the cuff away for a month to see if with time my inspiration would come back to me. Nope! I reached out to her to see how much she wanted me to use the larger stones she was hoping I would use and she too had decided that maybe they were too big. On to the next idea!

I played around with some earring ideas but wasn’t feeling them either. Then I decided to make a necklace and started making all the settings only to realize the necklace wasn’t going to look the way I wanted it to with the stones I was working with. So I benched that idea as well!

Last but not least, I revisited the earring idea and got inspired by some photos she had sent me. Katrina has short hair and likes bold earrings. I started putting things together and bingo, everything started falling into place! I used a bunch if her stones but I supplied a few extra to make sure the earrings were balanced albeit asymmetrical. And I learned that setting gem-cut stones (cabochon would have been better!) in bezel settings on wire hoops is hard. Many times I warped the hooks and then had to re-shape them!

Glad I finally got Katrina’s metamorphosis done and to all of those waiting for metamorphosis, I promise I won’t take so long to finish your jewellery!

METAMORPHOSIS 33: Silver, rose quartz, and diamond necklace

I had seen a similar necklace months ago and kept the photo because I knew I wanted to make something similar for someone one day. Verity was that someone! As I was rifling through my stones to find something she would like (she likes pastel colours), I stumbled upon a purply rose quartz. I set it aside while I looked at other stones, but I kept going back to the rose quartz. I decided that it was a sign that the stone was meant for her!

To make the necklace: I made the vessel for the stone which consisted of melting silver and rolling out a piece wide enough to be the walls around the stone and a flat piece for the bottom big enough for the stone and vessel walls, then soldering it together, cleaning it up, soldering the jump rings to it and the 4-claw setting for the cubic (which was from another earring she had), soldering the chain to the jump rings, polishing the whole thing, setting the stones, and lastly polishing everything again.

Really happy that I finally got to make this necklace!

METAMORPHOSIS 29: Sterling silver, amazonite, and diamond ring

Sterling silver and amazonite ring

I’ve been wanting to make a ring like this for awhile so I was pretty happy that it worked out for this Metamorphosis! I have a bunch of ideas of jewellery I want to make and it’s great when I get to use one of those ideas for this project.

It worked out but it was also a struggle! At first I thought I would make it straight from silver but it wasn’t working out with the methods I was using. Then the stone I ordered didn’t arrive so I had to remake it for another stone. I ended up making a wax setting for the ring which after casting was soldered to a silver band.

This ring was definitely a learning lesson and the next few I make will be easier thanks to the struggles I had making this one.

(photo below is of the Errin’s silver before I melted it to make her ring)

METAMORPHOSIS 23: REVEAL

Mini ear-climbers

As I mentioned in my intro, I knew what I wanted to make Alice from the very beginning. My biggest issue was picking stones. It took awhile to find small stones in a combination that worked. I originally wanted all of the stones to be the same colour but different shapes, but given the timeline, that wasn't going to work (I would have had to order stones online because my suppliers didn't have the shapes/stones I needed). It took me awhile to find a combination that worked size-wise. I ended up using round faceted hematites, round cabochon emeralds, and pear cabochon moonstones.

Once I had the stones, I bought the settings, soldered them together and voila! 

METAMORPHOSIS: OCTOBER REVEAL

Hammered Silver Statement Necklace

As I mentioned in my intro, I had no idea what I wanted to make Krista. After reviewing all of her info, I decided to make her a necklace. Originally, I intended to make her a pendant on long chain, but then I remembered Krista saying that she would rather have fewer, more exciting pieces of jewellery. A pendant on a long chain is great for every day but something about the idea didn’t seem exciting enough.

I told my friend Cassie that I couldn’t commit to an idea and that I kind of wanted to use part of a necklace that Krista gave me. Cassie recommended I use that necklace as a base for a fan-style, statement necklace. This idea was a lot more exciting!

So I got to melting all of Krista’s jewellery but the one piece I wanted to use. Then I hammered and sawed away at the silver until I constructed each piece I needed. Once I layed out all the pieces, I decided that I didn’t like how they looked so I cut away some more silver. Then I didn’t like what I cut away so I added extra bits of silver until the final design came together. It would have been easier if I had started with a large piece of silver and then made the cut outs on that one piece, but then I wouldn’t have had the challenge of modying the design and then trying to solder them all together!

METAMORPHOSIS: JULY REVEAL

Amethyst and Citrine Cocktail Ring

As I mentioned in my intro, I knew what I was going to make Lambroula from the get go!

To make this ring, I melted Lambroula’s silver and made wire which I then twisted together. I made three rings and the vessels. After soldering everything together, I set the stones and voila!