Mastery Continues ... Sort of

Sometime there are those days when nothing seems to go right.  Today was that day.  I spent all day trying to get some pieces done.  Yes, I know I'm practicing.  I know I need to just be patient and work harder on mastering the basics but damn.  Everything I touched turned to crap today.

Here's what mistakes look like.


Lets start with making a ring with three pieces of metal.  A center band and two wire circles.  Sometimes they just don't line up and it just looks a mess.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 Next I was working on creating rune rings in sterling silver.  I heated the wires too much and they warped.  Once bent like that they never straighten back up.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 Here I used too much solder.  You can see the big glob in the center.  I could probably heat it again and try to fix it but I was afraid I would melt the center wire like I did on the last one.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 This one started out really nice.  I had a great stone and the bezel was perfect.  As I was closing the bezel around the stone, the stone shattered.  I had to dig it out and replace it with another stone. As you can see this stone is smaller than the one I had before and the bezel is out of shape at the top.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 This one is a little wonky.  You can see the bezel is twisted and is not straight on the ring shank creating the oval leaning to one side.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 This one I was making a rune ring and I over heated the center, the pieces blew to the top and bottom creating what appears to be a double line.
Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 Even my wire weaving was bad today.  In this one I used the wrong gauge base wire and created this super chunky rink  It is so heavy.  I need to just cut that wire off and start over.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
 Finally there's this one.  Yeah it is a mess.  All the wires melted, over heated and then fused in the wrong place.  Over all it was a pretty bad day.
Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson
I shared this because I know sometimes as an artist I only want to share my best work.  I want people to see the good things.  But in those good things; sometimes bad things happen too.  I have to just take a big deep breath and try again.  I'm going to order some new supplies now as this disaster tapped out my stash.  Hopefully next time I'll have something better to share with you.


More Outdoor Photography - A Witch's View

Here are some more photos from the yard.


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Mastery Continues - Working with Silver

Recently I started learning to bezel set stones.  I really loved this blue cat's eye and thought it would make a really cool ring.  I share it before but I really wanted to show case it.

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson



Weaving Wednesday - Tiny Heart

This week I decided to go a little free form with my project.  Sometimes you just want to make something with no beads or stones.  This is one of the smallest pieces I have ever made. It is just one inch across.  I will share a few videos at the end on each of the types of weave I used.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson
These are the steps I took to create the pendant.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson


Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson


Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson
This pendant is available for purchase on my Etsy site.



This piece uses a basic wire coil.  Here's the tutorial for that.





A 2 by 3 weave - this is demonstrated in several videos.  The video below shows several techniques for wrapping 2 wires.




And a picot weave, the tutorial for this weave is shown below.





My Yard - A Witch's View

Here are a few photos from my yard.  Including my hydrangeas again. :)


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson




Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

 
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson


Weaving Wednesday - Ring

Today I decided to share another ring I was working on.  This time I included a sky blue topaz stone in the center.  This ring was inspired by the Easy Peasy Ring Tutorial by Nicole Hanna.  I highly recommend checking out her tutorials. They are easy to follow, have great step by step photos and will help you get on your way to making fantastic jewelry.


Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson



This is the process of creating the ring.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson


Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson
 


Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson
This size seven ring is available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

A Witch's View - My Hydrangea

This week I thought I would share some of the awesome photos I got of my hydrangea.  My hydrangea has 3 different color blooms on the same bush.  A few years back I was able to get the ground acidic enough to turn them all purple.  As the years have passed it looks like they are changing back to a light pink/blue color.  This year I'll be dosing that soil a bit to change their color again!  Anyway, here's my hydrangea.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Mastery Continues - Silver

I've begun working with Silver over the last month or so.  I wanted to share some photos of my work. I would really like to do the soldering with the copper but for some reason I can't get the copper just right so that the copper solder doesn't turn gray on the copper piece.

Here are some photos from my work.  You can find them for sale on my website and on Facebook.



Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Jeweler & Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson