A Teaching Moment, the January Blogroll

So the Aspiring Metalsmiths are at it again. This month they are doing what they love to do most – teach and learn! Make sure to have a sharp #2 pencil and your notebook....you will want to take notes!!

The blog roll tour takes us on a journey of skills – each person is sharing something that they are proficient at and teaching it to the rest of us. Come along and see!

VCArtisanOriginals 
Sylvia Anderson 
Metals Addict
Lilian Ginebra
Esmeralda
Stacy
Mary Anne Karren
Shannon of Gifted Designs
Pennee- All Wired Up Jewelry Designs
Jessica @ Abella Blue
Elizabeth Brown - resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com

January Jewelry Challenge

            January 2012 Challenge

Let me start of by saying thank you all for the win in the Color on Metal Challenge.  My flame painted work is always a crowd favorite and fun to do as well!!!

Now, here is my idea for this month’s challenge.

Men’s Jewelry.

Sounds simple right….. Wrong. 

Here’s the catch…………..

I have always been a good husband and like to buy very nice jewelry for my wife. (Pat, pat on the back)  I have spent a great deal of money and she has a very nice collection including a blue sapphire set I have been putting together for several years. My daughter and her also have a few matching pieces I have bought the two of them.  I consider all this heirloom’s that will one day be hers and then her daughters. 

don't do this

With that said let me tell you how disheartening it is for a guy who does like jewelry, is friends with a ton of remarkably talented jewelers, and all I see to buy in the catalogs, and online for men looks the same!!!

When I get a catalog, I open it up to see boring black, Stainless steel, a few Dog Tags and then a few crosses thrown into the mix.  Look, I get it that that stuff is popular. We as a society are geared towards what is trending.  Screw that. 

don't do this

 I want to see something besides a bracelet with a piece of cable running through it or a leather cuff.  A charm for a necklace that is not religious or a dog tag. A men’s ring that is not gold, black or silver.


If woman’s jewelry can be beautiful and artistic why then can men’s jewelry not be just as ornate and beautiful.




So there it is:
I want to see you all make a piece of men’s jewelry that is something you would make for your husband, boyfriend, Dad or for the guys yourselves.

I want to see color.
I want to see something that while it looks delicate it is sturdy enough to take a beating.
I want to see pieces that I could give to my grandson one day.

Some of you may be all over this idea. Some of you may be kind of hesitant to take on something that takes you this far out of your comfort zone.  But that is both the nature of this monthly challenge and the whole point of growing as artists. 

Expand your product lines into a new direction. Look, when we all go to our shows there are always a ton of jewelers there right…. How many of them have pieces for men? Next time hopefully you will. 
Good Luck. Have fun. Do your homework on this folks. You have two months to do this. Yes, two months.

 I want to see pieces that are well researched designed to last and are not thrown together.  Take your time. Enjoy pushing yourselves into this unfamiliar territory. 

Well, I do hope you all will enjoy this. It is something as you can see I have a deep interest in seeing done and I hope you all will take part. 

More examples of what NOT TO DO:

 

Entries are Due on March 11 by midnight in the Flickr pool.

Remember to TAG (not just title)  your photos, January ASM Challenge, in our flickr site.

Thank you all for this opportunity to present a challenge!

Here's a link to our team flickr stream!!! just upload your entries there and make sure to TAG them with December Challenge!!

TEAM FLICKR POOL

And the winner is........

SAM of Coppersunsets!!!  His Salmon fishy blew everyone else out of the water!

Second Place goes to Elizabeth of Resurrection Silver with her wonderful VanGogh-esque necklace.

Angela of A&J Jewelry rounded up the top three with a Kiss....well, sorta.

Congratulations to our winners...congratulations to all who entered, it just keeps getting tougher to pick a favorite with all this talent showing up!!

Keep your eyes open for the next round....Sam will be picking, and I have a feeling that we might be a bit sorry for that.....but we're also up to the challenge, RIGHT?!

let the COLOR on METAL challenge voting begin!!!!

Late last year we were given the challenge of adding color to metal....and not just using Liver Of Sulfer to darken it. Here is what some of our members came up with. Pick your favorite...I know, it's hard...and vote for them on the right sidebar!!  The winner gets to pick what we do for the next time around!!!  Best of luck to everyone!
Voting will end on Thursday night.....so don't delay on your choice!


Juliette of Art In the Redwoods brings us this lovely flame painted leaf necklace.

December ASM Challenge
Fire Painted Copper (another view of the previous) necklace - copper, mookaite beads, ceramic beads, polymer clay beads.

________________________________________________________
Viki of Lorie Lynn Designs brings us a glass enamled heart necklace. And it's one of her first attempts at enamel....pretty neat huh?

_________________________________________________________
Valorie from VCArtisanOriginals brings us a lovely necklace that I'm sure her mom loved.

"My mom's gift: a rustic textured, blue patina'd copper bezel and a blue and red Sonoran Sunset cabochon that I purchased from Cabbingrough (Laura). The cab was so gorgeous I pierced out the backplate so you can see the reds in the back.

The blue is from ammonia fumes. This has been scrubbed with a wire brush, polished and tumbled. ...the cat hair on the bottom of the piece is annoying me to death!!! Argh!"

_____________________________________________________________________________
Elizabeth from ResurrectionSilver made this amazing necklace....so dreamy!!

My challenge piece this month is created with Prismacolor on copper. I've been itching to try this technique for over a year and this challenge was the perfect push. It's a long necklace on an oxidized copper chain with glass and copper bead embellishments. The focal piece is just under 3" square and is like a mini copper framed painting inspired by my favorite artist - VanGogh. In fact, I have had a huge 4x3' canvas for about 3 years just waiting for me to paint this design on it and hang it in my living room.


__________________________________________________________________________
Gloria from Hemlock Hollow Creations, who gave us this challenge, brings us a necklace ready for your Valentine.

"Color achieved by using prismacolor pencils, then brushed with turpentine, colored again using, brown, red, blue pencils, brushed again. Sprayed with clear acrylic. Line across heart was done by form folding and left copper color"

_______________________________________________
Esme from Silverblueberry made these neat earrings...can't tell she's a scientist, can you?

Dengue virus earrings. Etched pattern, color is glass paint.

_____________________________________________

Cindy from  Devine Designs made this wonderful cuff bracelet with a heat patina.

"heat patina cuff.  copper cuff with heat patina, line folds, and reverse dapping"

____________________________________________________________________________
Angela from A&J Jewelry Designs brings us a pretty cool take on a dog tag.

Remember the etched lips? Well, I always wanted to do something with them, and the December challenge was just the thing to get me to pull them out again. The lips are mine, etched with ferric chloride into copper, and then the color is Sharpie marker colored on, and then slightly rubbed back off with steel wool. I haven't clear coated it yet because I wanted to get the picture, but I will use a Rustoleum clear coat to seal the color in. 

___________________________________________________
Anne from Metalworks Jewelry gives us these pretty earrings.....the bright blue is great!

Since I'm still recovering, these are something I played around with this fall. (I didn't want Gloria to think we didn't like her challenge!) These are copper earrings with multiple layers of Miracle Grow sprayed on them, and finished with Krylon Clear Satin Finish.


____________________________________________________________________________
Sam from Copper Sunsets entered this amazing fish!!

"Flame painted Salmon, December challenge piece.This Salmon's colors were acheived using only heat. By applying pinpoint heat to the copper all these beautiful colors are possible."

December Blog Roll... Handmade Holidays!!

December Project Blogroll – Handmade Holidays
Each month the Aspiring Metals team chooses a topic and each participant writes about that topic on their blog.

This month is all about the holidays which will be here in no time at all and so we are each writing about our ideas for making this a Handmade Holiday.

See all the great ideas by visiting the blogs below:

Mary Anne Karren - silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/
Jessica @ Abella Blue - www.abellablue.com/blog
Stacy - formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Brown – resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com
Lilian Genebra - www.girllovesglitter.blogspot.com/
Pennee- All Wired Up Jewelry Designs - allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Claire English - brightstar109.blogspot.com/
Gayle - thisartistsjourney.blogspot.com
Nancy - nancysjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Autumn Bradley - www.autumnbradley.blogspot.com
Amy Estelle - amyestellemetalworks.blogspot.com/2011/12/handmade-holidays.html

Yay!

I thought long and hard about this challenge. Things like making houses, a vegetable, fruit, etc. etc.  But these just didn't seem to cling to me.  I hope everyone finds this challenge interesting!  Okay here it is:

COLOR ON METAL

Here are some suggestions  on how or what to use:  Prisma Color pencils, enamel, paint, flame, but no LOS.  

Okay, on the mark, get set and GO!!

COLOR!!!!!!

So, the due date for all entries will be Jan. 5, 2012 ( just take into account the holidays).  Have fun!

Remember to mark your photos, December ASM Challenge, in our flickr site.

 Thank you all for this opportunity to present a challenge!

 

Here's a link to our team flickr stream!!! just upload your entries there and make sure to TAG them with December Challenge!!

TEAM FLICKR POOL

And the winner is........

The winner of the October Holiday Decorations contest is.....

Gloria of Hemlock Hollow!!!!   She took the grand prize with 11 votes...


And it was a nail bitter folks....second place was just behind by one vote....
Congrats for putting up a heck of a race...and a beautiful fold formed masterpiece ResurrectionSilver!!

Coming in third this month is Metal Adornments with her personalized snowflake ornament.

Thanks to everyone who entered and voted....this was a fun one!!  Keep your eyes peeled for the next challenge....Gloria will be throwing down the gauntlet in the next few days!!