I recently designed this Lucite flower ring…
…liked the design so much that I went to the bench and made the ring.
“Ring around the Rosy
Pocket full of Posy
Ashes, Ashes,
We all Fall Down”
(Not the innocent nursery rhyme it seems. You can read about it here.)
I wasn’t thinking of the black plague – or any other disease – when I made the ring.
But giving the ring a black patina really provided a great contrast to the lovely frosted Lucite flower.
The name seemed very fitting as a result.
Another Lucite lovely…
A wise jewelry designer told me once to focus on designing what I love and want to wear.
Somewhere between fine and costume jewelry is where I keep finding myself. Now if only I could find myself more at the bench and less running around like a chicken with its head chopped off, I think I could finally produce the results I’ve been working toward!
I’ve been fussing over some Lucite leaf pendants I created a few months ago. Product development is certainly first and foremost in my mind these days and I think I’m making some good progress on that front. Here is the newest incarnation of the Lucite leaf necklace design:
Needless to say, I’m looking forward to an upcoming vacation week from my work at the Milwaukee Symphony so I can see some of these new projects to fruition. Stay tuned!
In today’s consumer-driven economy, customer service is becoming an art in and of itself. Several of my suppliers go the extra mile and even include “freebies” with my order. One such company based out of Freeport, Maine sent me a bag of fun Lucite beads to accompany my recent order of Lucite flowers. Today’s design is inspired by one of the freebie “moon glow” hot pink beads I was sent:
This bead looks good enough to eat! Even better to wear…
I did today’s design while on lunch break from rehearsal at the symphony. This is a development of a Lucite flower earring prototype that I created a few weeks ago. This variation features a dangling briolette:
Robert M. Persig, an American writer born in 1928 said, “The place to improve the world is first in one’s heart and head and hands.” As I’ve continued on my year-long journey of posting a design here every day, I feel like each design -no matter how basic – is born from my passion for creating beauty. The process engages not only my heart, but my head and my hands. No other journey has yet brought me this degree of satisfaction. I’m not sure I’ve changed the world in any way, but I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process!
And, here is yet another Lucite design (a variation on yesterday’s theme):
Now I’m off to photograph a pair of earrings that I finished tonight and am mailing out to a client tomorrow…
As promised, here is a preview of some of my newest pieces featuring Lucite:
Demure but still a little edgy, these hand-pierced Argentium Sterling Silver earrings have been given a patina for a blackened finish. The Lucite flower is attached to the leaves with a hand-fabricated rivet at the center of the flower. The earrings are suspended from French ear wires.
These will be added in the next few days to my shop at Etsy. Please check back soon!
Here is another Lucite flower design…soon to be emerging from my bench:
I did this rendering with watercolor and gouache as well as colored pencil. I find the soft transparent quality of the colored pencils very useful for rendering transparent and semi-transparent objects such as the Lucite flower in this earring design. And, colored pencils are very useful when time is of the essence – no need to mix colors (although layering the colors is possible and very helpful), and no brushes to clean up.
Here is another design inspired by Lucite components – leaves, in this case:
I’ve been experimenting with different metal finishes combined with Lucite components in my work at the bench. I particularly like the look of blackened silver with frosted clear Lucite as I rendered above. Tomorrow I’ll be previewing a new pair of earrings here featuring Lucite flowers and blackened silver. Be the first to see them and offer your feedback before they post to my shop at Etsy!
I’ve been working at the bench on a bunch of new pieces which will soon be posted on my Etsy and home websites. My fascination with Lucite continues, and the new pieces all utilize Lucite elements. Here is a design I did recently around one of my new Lucite components:
New pieces will preview here first, so stay tuned for more information!
