Artfully Meandering: Other creative pursuits

I bought pastels the other day. I have no good reason why. Just felt like it. I like colored pencils better at the moment. I did pastels in art class and I always had A's in art. Even though I graduated a year early in high school, I kept art and orchestra throughout high school. I think I felt it was important to maintain my creativity even though I didn't think it was "practical" at the time. So, this was my first drawing I've done in over 20 years in pastel. I was using my current designs with circles and florals.





I mainly wanted to try creating backgrounds for my jewelry for variety. I need to get some smaller canvases for the plainer backgrounds and thought I'd just play with the pastel. Although I don't think I'll use this as a background in general, it gives me some ideas to play with in the future.


In the meantime, here are some of my western pieces in patinaed silver and blue Halong Bay beads.





Some pretty brass beads from...wait for it, Hobby Lobby! I don't buy a lot of beads from Hobby Lobby, but these were quite appealing to me.




And I saved the best for last. One of my friends has THE cutest little boy. From my Low-Tech Silversmithing Class, I decided to make a mommy pendant. The pictures aren't good because I took them with my phone and couldn't wait for my good camera before I gave them to my friend. But, here is the back. The pendant is metal clay. I carved my own stamp in a faux "chintz" which is the design on the back. I made a bail and attached.



Then I made a rough bezel, dried it, shaped it, fired it, burnished it, patinaed it. Next, I shrank the photo to size, and sealed the picture in with resin. My first attempt at a mommy pendant was a bit "rustic" but the mom loved it. I think I'll make some grandma and mommy pendants for my sister and mom to continue to improve the technique before I release them into the wild. :-) They were fun to make!