Rings & Things Design Gallery

Glass & Crystal Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:02:17 GMT

Beaded Goddess

Artist: Laurie Leonard (Jeanette, PA)
Honorable Mention, Glass & Crystal

Laurie says of her winning pendant: "The image of the face is an original watercolor that I painted in 2008. I reproduced that image in miniature, mounted it in a brass bezel setting and covered it with a doming resin. I then did bead embroidery around it with color coordinating beads, pearls and cabochons. I did this piece while sitting on the beach on Sanibel Island, on a family vacation. I am reminded of the most plentiful shelling beaches every time I wear it. It was a challenge sewing all of those beads while on a windy beach! The neck wire compliments the colors in the beads, but the pendant can be worn on any neck ring or chain."

This beautiful handmade focal is a great example of what can be added to Rings & Things' choker blanks for a unique finished necklace. For this design, Laurie used #52-031-18 7-strand steel choker cables, available in a variety of pretty colors.

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322 views
Apr 27, 2009

Glass & Crystal Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:01:22 GMT

Spring Snow

Artist: Bonnie Galenski (Florence, MA)
Honorable Mention, Glass & Crystal

"I have been working with stained glass for 30 years and have made many snowflake designs. One day, I was taking a stroll with my grandson and it began to snow. Excitedly, he held out his little hand and caught a snowflake. "Look," he cried. "I got a snowflake!" As he raised his hand for me to see, the snowflake melted away. Capturing the moment in my memory, I realized how delicate snowflakes are.

"I've made smaller ones using the harvest filigrees and decided to try making more intricate ones, so I designed this one. It took about six hours of tinning the wire and wiring up the beads, then soldering them all together. I enjoyed every minute. I wanted something you would put in your window during the snowy season. Actually, it could be kept up all year long." -- Bonnie Galenski

We love Bonnie's inventive incorporation of filigrees, CRYSTALLIZED� - Swarovski Elements and fancy Czech glass beads in her stained glass art.

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219 views
Apr 27, 2009

Gemstones & Pearls Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:38:31 GMT

Eglantyne

Artist: Mara Marlow (Federal Way, WA)
Honorable Mention, Gemstones & Pearls

"This piece was inspired by looking at pictures of Miriam Haskell jewelry. She made a beautiful flower-shaped centerpiece with lentil pearl petals, rhinestones and seed-pearl covered leaves. I was determined to figure out how to get a similar look with available materials. The kabibi shell disks worked nicely with for the petals, which are sewn onto a copper filigree with SuppleMax� rather than wired on, because I thought the nylon would be gentler to the fragile shells. The centers are a fringed circle of seed beads with a headpin through a Swarovski [CRYSTALLIZED�] bicone to anchor them onto the filigree.

"The brass leaf charms all face the same way, so I just twisted some of the leaves around to make mirror images. I painted them with topaz Color Magic� so they would match the copper better, wire-wrapped the seed beads on with 28-gauge copper wire and, finally, coated the back with two-part epoxy to make sure the wires didn't slide off. Using the handy dapping block, I shaped more filigrees to contain all the wires and strings inside, sewed them together with SuppleMax, then connected them with heavy oval jump rings. The mother of pearl bead strands are attached with copper Beadalon�. The process took several days off and on---I let it sit to see if the balance was right, if it hung nicely, if it needed more (or less) dangles, etc. ...

"I named it Eglantyne because the flowers remind me of wild roses." -- Mara Marlow

View more 2009 Honorable Mention winners. Or, check for details about our most recent contest!
190 views
Apr 27, 2009

Gemstones & Pearls Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:37:07 GMT

Paper Sunflower

Artist: Nathan and Mary Eberle (Spokane, WA)
Honorable Mention, Gemstones & Pearls

Here's a wonderful and unexpected place to find gemstones! Mary and Nathan say of their creation: "We were commissioned to create a series of oversized flowers for a celebrity design event in Chicago. The event raised money for AIDS-related work. Most of the flowers were brown and white with a few colored flowers mixed in to symbolize the life that can come from tragedy. Making oversized flowers was challenging but fun. The flower took over seven hours to create."

The middle of this happy sunflower is filled with purple tip-drilled keishi pearls and 10mm faceted black onyx rounds. The rest of the flower and foliage is made with paper, acrylic paint, wire and tape.

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169 views
Apr 27, 2009

Mostly Metal Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:34:10 GMT

Esportazione

Artist: Christine Terrell (Austin, TX)
Honorable Mention, Mostly Metal

"I've always had a love of stylized rocket ships. Maybe it's a holdover from too much Bugs and Marvin the Martian as a kid. Anyway, I decided to try a few pins using a simple drawing I created. I am especially happy with this one as it wasn't until the piece was finished that I bothered to find out that Esportazione means 'export' in Italian. That seems appropriate. This piece is two pieces of tin married to one piece of Formica� with 22-gauge German silver rivets." -- Christine Terrell

As Christine expertly demonstrates here, bar pin backs offer a great way to show off found objects and/or handmade focals.

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141 views
Apr 27, 2009

Mostly Metal Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:32:29 GMT

Riotous Reds & Whites

Artist: Christine Terrell (Austin, TX)
Honorable Mention, Mostly Metal

"This is just the second of what I hope to be a long-lived series of shallow 'basin' pieces. Each circle is punched, drilled and then slightly formed with the printed tin on the concave side. Forming the tin this way seems to give the surface something of an enameled look. I can't figure out if this has to do with how the light reflects around the concave surface, or if somehow it physically manipulates the paint molecules in a way that enriches the finish. Either way, I'm really excited about the process and the chance to bring more complexity of pattern and color into my work." -- Christine Terrell

Christine's winning design holds the hand-formed basin focals together with large-link curb chain and 18-gauge nickel silver wire.

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146 views
Apr 27, 2009

Mostly Metal Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:31:32 GMT

Silver Dragonfly Slide Pendant

Artist: Susan Walter (Torrance, CA)
Honorable Mention, Mostly Metal

"I was having a blast playing with a rolling mill to add texture and design to metal. On this piece, I used a dragonfly craft punch and punched out dragonflies randomly on a piece of handmade paper that I made myself. After rolling the paper and 18-gauge sterling silver sheet through a rolling mill, I was pleasantly surprised the way the paper textured the metal while the shiny dragonflies stood out. I wanted to make something simple to showcase the dragonflies. The agate was a perfect match. After coming up with the design, it was simple to saw and solder the piece together using a butane torch. The back has two loops to hold the cording into place. I added a simple clasp made out of 14-gauge wire. The jump rings are made out of 18-gauge wire that I coiled and cut myself. I'm really pleased with the results of this piece." -- Susan Walter

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148 views
Apr 27, 2009

Metal Clay Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:30:14 GMT

Wine Maker's Whimsy

Artist: Diane Sepanski (Peoria, AZ)
Honorable Mention, Metal Clay

"I've been a wine lover for sometime and have always been drawn to 'Wine Art.' What better than to wear my own delightful wine memento! I used cork clay to hold the piece together as I built the sides. I hand carved all the wood grain textures. The hollow barrel is complete with a small bunch of grapes and leaves inside. The little leaf is from my vines that I made a mold of. Cheers!" -- Diane Sepanski

Diane used slow-drying Art Clay� Silver to allow for the intricately carved designs on this delightful wine cask. She embellished the finished pendant with CRYSTALLIZED� bicone bead dangles.

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150 views
Apr 27, 2009

Metal Clay Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:29:20 GMT

Dancing Peridot

Artist: Lorrene Davis (Placerville, CA)
Honorable Mention, Metal Clay

"This design just popped out of my sketchbook. I wanted to be able to create a piece with a slight rise in the center---somewhat like a mountain range. The texture was to be kept simple because the bail and stone details were more important to me. The pearl is set on fine silver wire with a bent end fired into the metal clay. The bail was created with a Makin�s� extruding tool, shaped, sanded and then attached in place on the pendant with clay slip. The diamond was preset into the bezel. I carved out the round shape on the side of the pendant, then used the syringe to set the element in place. The peridot was fired in place. ...

"Then I fine sanded the work to remove hard edges and smoothed the bezel. It was fired at 1100 degrees for 1 hour. I used a lower temperature for firing because I didn�t want to burn the diamond. Lastly I scrubbed the whole piece with a brass brush, tumbled in stainless steel shot and burnished the bail with an agate tool. For fun, I used a line engraver all around the top of the trillion bezel. I did this to tie in with the pendant's texture design. This project took approximately two days from start to finish. The biggest challenge was to figure out how to place the diamond bezel securely into place and to PRAY that the diamond didn't burn up in the kiln." -- Lorrene Davis

For more tips on setting stones in metal clay, check out Lorrene's book Setting Gemstones in Metal Clay.

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151 views
Apr 27, 2009

Found Objects & Miscellaneous Category

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:28:15 GMT

Egyptian Face

Artist: Laurie Leonard (Jeanette, PA)
Honorable Mention, Found Objects & Miscellaneous

"I have been an avid collector of Art Deco antique jewelry and am inspired by the mix of glass and brass of that era. This design evolved around my original watercolor design of the face. The image was reproduced in miniature and then printed on a special paper. The image was 'mounted' in a brass rolled-edge bezel and covered with an epoxy resin. Then, that was embedded onto a resin-covered copper shape with a reproduction of an abstract watercolor painting. The beads and crystals are all selected because of the color and reflections of light. This design was inspired by the 1920's Egyptian revival style of vintage jewelry. This piece took several days because of the drying time for the resin on each step. What seems to take the longest for me is selecting the perfect color beads." -- Laurie Leonard

The "perfect color beads" Laurie chose include leopardskin jasper (including shapes bought at an R&T BeadTour show), wire-hole pearls and rose-colored Czech glass faceted beads, which she connected together using eye pins. She also used navette (marquise-shaped) connectors from CRYSTALLIZED� -- Swarovski Elements ... CRYSTALLIZED� round connectors make a great option too.

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151 views
Apr 27, 2009