Project #5 from Lexi Erickson's Art Jewelry Workshop
Being able to create pieces like this, well, yes, that was my goal from this workshop. And in order to do that, I needed to learn all the techniques leading up to the creation of this piece.
Originally, I had planned to use one of my glass cabochons for the bezel setting. Here is a preliminary sketch I completed in preparation for that work.
However, as luck would have it, a gentlemen who sells stones arrived at Coyote Creek early that afternoon and Pat Pocius only sees him twice a year. When he arrives, he has tons of beautiful stones. She brought a few samples into the class and we scattered upstairs to see what he had.
Here is a picture of my selections and of course, the one in the bezel was included in that group. So by that twist of fate, I was setting a stone rather than one of my glass cabs, but hey, I'm fine with that.
In this project, we created a design that would showcase the cabochon. For this stone, Lexi felt a simple design was best and I couldn't agree more.
We learned how to fit the bezel, solder it, and set the stone. I am ready to do more as soon as I get my bench and torch set up. My hope is that will happen in a couple of weeks. I have things on order and I'm ready to get started down this path of creating art jewelry.
This is the last of the projects that we completed in the workshop. Lexi truly is a phenomenal person and excellent teacher. I will have the privilege of taking more classes with her and I look forward to it. This was an intense workshop and Lexi told us that she covered a semester's worth of work in those two days. If you ever have a chance to take one of Lexi's classes...it's a MUST!
Happy Creating All.
