First Friday UFOs

So what's all this?

It's bits and pieces of things I've started during the past year and not finished. UFOs: Unfinished objects. I'm working on these and others, most of them one-of-a-kinds or new designs, and will have some of them ready for December First Friday at Warwick Glass Studio. Eep! That's just a couple of days away! (Click the link for a map to the studio.)

This is my last show of the year, and it's a group event, so expect lots of great art to enjoy if you decide to come out and visit me.

I'll have Squiggles and chains and a mix of my regular work in addition to the one-offs ~ and everything will be at the old prices from before silver skyrocketed above $25 an ounce. (I just checked and it's $28.70 right now. If you're interested, check Kitco for the live silver spot price.) Unfortunately, my prices will be going up to better reflect the market the next time I order silver, which will be soon.

Good news: You can now shop for Tin Cup Designs jewelry at Annie Kaill's in Juneau and Flypaper in Anchorage. And soon I'll be adding Gold Rush Fine Jewelry in Fairbanks to the list. More to come in the new year.

Finally, I got the nicest compliment yesterday (from my first Canadian customer, too). It made me so happy, I hope you'll forgive me a little tootling on my own horn. Here is is: 

Thank you for the most beautiful piece! The Alaskan Autumn Leaf Pendant Necklace is so nice! I knew I would love it when I saw the picture but I had no idea how beautiful it would be around my neck against a solid, textured sweater... the earrings are the perfect match. I am happy with everything! I know my mom will love the paperclip necklace and the earrings I have for her for Christmas! ~ Gail Adams

I loved that necklace, too, and am so happy it went to live with someone who will love it just as much. There will never be another one just like it, just as no two leaves are ever alike. But if you like real leaves imprinted forever into metal and would like for me to make something for you, all you have to do is get in touch. I love working with the leaves: Always a surprise, and the surprise is always good.

Longing for summer in Alaska...

It's March. We've still got two or three feet of snow on the ground, depending where you step. It is warmer: Yesterday it was about 27 degrees F. We're gaining nearly seven minutes of daylight every day, and our days are already nearly 12 hours long.

But I'm impatient. Yes, I could be out there on my snowshoes, enjoying the clean sharp air and looking for animal tracks and birds. I do love the way snow makes various things — say, a stack of summer tires or a clump of small spruce trees — look like cupcakes with icing or sugared donuts.

But dang it, I'm ready for some color! I want leaves and flowers and butterflies!

When I'm feeling like this, the best thing I can do is pull out the dried leaves my friend and I collected over the past couple of years and make a Forest Floor cuff. Like this one:

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

When I'm working on one of the Forest Floor pieces, I'm not just shaping metal. I'm enjoying summertime in Alaska.

Did you know that scent is considered the strongest trigger for memory? The scent of the leaves, stored in layers of blotting paper, is fresh and earthy — and when crushed in the rolling mill, the leaves' sap and oils perfume the studio. Instantly, I'm back in the woods, kneeling on thick moss, watching the sun shine through the canopy of birch leaves, picking berries.

Here are just a few of the plants I use in my jewelry. All of them live on our 10 acres in Two Rivers.

This is Alaskan Dogwood. (Being from the South, where dogwood is a tree, I laughed when I first saw this tiny earth-hugging bush. But it makes a gorgeous carpet of green in summer and crimson in fall.)

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

This is High-Bush Cranberry, good for jelly.

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

And poisonous Red Baneberry.

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

Here is Fireweed, the barometer of our summertime. As the blooms progress up the stalk and finally burst into puffy white seed fluff, we know summer is going and it's time to batten down for winter again.

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

And here are our lovely Alaskan Wild Roses. They seem to bloom all at once, and only for a few days. They're everywhere; the air is sweet with them. And after the roses come the brilliant red and orange rosehips.

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

You'll find these and many others in the Forest Floor pieces.

Just as in nature, no two cuffs or pendants or pairs of earrings will ever be the same because the leaves are crushed and destroyed in the embossing process.

After the metal is embossed, I saw the edges a bit and file them. I like to make the pattern irregular, like the bug-bitten edges of some plants and trees.

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry

The leaves always shift a bit while going through the mill, so I'm never sure what I'll see until it's done. There's always a "flaw," where the metal slipped too much and the pattern didn't take or where the leaves cracked or moved too far apart. This actually delights me.

These are opportunities to play, serendipity instead of mistake. In the cuff you see here, a slight diagonal space along the bottom edge didn't take the leaf pattern at all. Wonderful! It gave me an opportunitiy to hand engrave cross-hatching there. The straight lines contrast nicely with the irregularities of the natural forms, don't you think?

Now you know that each Forest Floor piece carries with it the reality of nature in Alaska, the memory of specific summer days and specific places, and a little bit of serendipity. What a wonderful mix!

Leaf Moth pendant in progress

Here's a first quick look at a copper and sterling silver Leaf Moth Pendant. I've figured out an interesting way to convert it to a brooch and hope to work on that tonight. This made me so happy, though, that I just couldn't wait to share it. It's going to be awfully hard for me to sell it. If you have the least bit of interest in it, start sweet-talking me now. *grin*

From Tin Cup Designs Handwrought Jewelry