New CraftArtEdu Class Up! Rendering Jewelry

You may recall some fabulous jewelry renderings popping up last year.  For example, the following necklace was Week Fifty-Two's project from 2012.

If you've ever wondered about rendering jewelry, and maybe wished you could try your hand at it, the wait is over.

I've got a new class up on CraftArtEdu called Rendering Jewelry.  It focuses on rendering with gouache and watercolors, and it's very in depth.  I cover cabochon gemstones and faceted gemstones, as well as gold and silver.  I also walk you through the bracelet above step by step, holding your hand the entire way.  If you think you might be interested, hop on over and check it out, the preview is free and the list of materials is there.

Week Fifty-Two!

Last week!  This isn't actually a just finished piece, but it was made this year, so I'm declaring that it counts.

What's been extra involved about it is that I will be teaching a class on it over at CraftArtEdu.  Keep an eye out, I'll be posting it on the blog when it goes live.  (If you must know the moment it appears, leave a comment and I will personally give you an email.)

Week Thirty-Four

Week Thirty-Four's project was a mandala in carved gems.  Or a rendering of it anyway!  I'm particularly pleased with how this came out, and I think I'll end up doing more.  This is actually one of the larger solid renderings I've ever done, as it measures close to four inches across.

Succulent

Week Thirty-Three

For Week Thirty-Three, I worked on another set of circle renderings.  I actually like this pair a lot more than the first, and I've already started making a frame for them.

So, technically speaking, these aren't done, because they will be actual wearable earrings.  But I'll post another photo of them then!  (Except I won't count it as a Thing A Week, because that would be CHEATING.)

Week Thirty-Two

I mentioned at one point a while back that I have a huge stone stash (and a moderate bead stash) as well.  It's not necessarily a huge stash just by volume, because it takes up a fairly modest amount of space.  But when you factor in how rarely I use stones in any of my work, the number of stones I do have starts to seem a lot higher.  I can't actually remember the last time I used stones in a physical piece- for the most part I just render imaginary stones.

But I've decided that it's time to step it up and start working and rendering around stones I already have.

Which of course meant that I caved, and bought more things.  (In part, there's a pearl design competition coming up, but we all know that was just an easy excuse.)

So here's a tiny snippet of the first of what will probably be several pearl related designs.

This is one of the pearls in a strand of lovely baroque pearls I acquired not long ago.  Some of the pearls in the strand were monsters, and some were delicate and gorgeous, so we'll see what else comes out of them.  I'll post the full design at some point in the near future (but you can catch a little glimpse of the surrounding piece down in the corner.)

Week Thirty-One

For Week Thirty-One, I did another variation on Week Thirty's earrings, all in gold and larger.  These were also done on a full sheet instead of tiny circles.

Week Thirty

Bit of a backlog in uploading photos!  For Week Thirty I started working on a series of renderings that will get made into jewelry.  Here's the first pair of circles, which will (probably/possibly) become earrings.  They measure just 10mm across, and my wonderful aunt cut all the circles for me with her magic paper cutter!

Week Twenty-eight

Thing a week for week Twenty-eight!  A whole school of gem fish.

It's probably viewing on your screen at about actual size, which means the finished piece is only 3.5" wide and 2.5" tall!

Week Twenty-seven

A few tiny rendering samples!

These are following in the same idea as week twenty-six, but they haven't been coated in resin yet.  (And the lizard needs another shadow put in to make him more three dimensional!)

Week Twenty-six

This week I'm finally addressing an idea that's been floating around since before I graduated.  I'd been trying to find a method of sealing my renderings, and I finally found something that might work.

My next challenge is getting the paper to line up in the bezels properly!  I'm also going to cut the bezel down, as the resin layer is currently too thick and it's blurring the image, which is less than ideal.

Week Twenty-five

Week Twenty-five.  Not quite halfway through the year, but very nearly!  My thing a week for this week was actually meant to be a piece of jewelry incorporating a rendering, and I still might do that.  But the rendering itself ended up being way cooler than I'd thought it would be, so I finished it up.  I'll probably try printing off a copy and incorporating that into a piece of jewelry this time around, mostly for fear of ruining such an awesome rendering!

I pulled a lot of inspiration from ancient Egyptian art for this one, and I feel like I definitely captured something of that, because the very first thing my boyfriend said when he saw the half finished piece was, "It looks like a idol."  And then I tried to drive myself insane with the background.  (But, as I've always said, that's usually the mark of a good idea.  No project is ambitious enough unless I stop in the middle and wonder "What in the world was I thinking?!")

Week Twenty-four

Week Twenty-four coincided with my birthday week, so my project was (somewhat) less involved, mostly so I could spend more time cleaning my apartment in preparation for all of my guests!  My Mom and Aunt came to visit, and Mom brought me a fantastic wall hanging.  You can see it here.

For the last year or so, I've been working on a huge side project, which I'll mention again soon.  I've actually been making online classes for a site called CraftArtEdu.  It's a wonderful site with lots of amazing classes, and definitely worth checking out.

In case you're interested, you can view my instructor profile and my first class here.

That said, I've lately been working on putting together my second class, which means I've been heavily documenting, scanning, and photographing things. 

Here's the tiniest of tastes of what you can expect.  It'll be an entire class on Rendering Jewelry in Gouache and Watercolor.  I'll let you know when it goes live.

I won't neglect silver in the class, but I'll be covering so much more than simple shapes like this one.

Week Eighteen!

Back on track, and working on half a dozen other projects as well!  Here's a rendering from this week, and soon I'll be posting a few bead samples in the same vein as this one.  Still working out all the technical details, but I'm getting there!

Here's this week's.  Thanks to someone more clever than I (some days, anyway!) it's called "Medal Awarded for a Successful Sting Operation."

Week Sixteen

I got set back a little bit, but I am working hard to catch up!  I'm pretty excited about this rendering, because it's been sparking some fun conversations about a collaboration I might end up doing with my brother, who's a writer (amongst other things).  It's still at the throwing ideas around stage, but we might end up doing a book of stories paired with renderings and/or jewelry/metal pieces, which would be super awesome.

But never mind all that! On to the thing of the week!  It needs a bit more work, some extra shading and highlights, and a shadow put in, but it's very nearly finished.  (And, as of yet, unnamed, but I'm working on that!)

Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist: March 2012 Issue

This month's issue was super exciting for me, because I'm in it!  You might remember this mysterious Thing of the Week post.  Well, here's the end result!

 The cover of the issue...

My design, in print!

And here's a close up, since the print size is pretty small and I only posted a little snippet for the thing of the week post.  I'm super excited about this, because I don't get to see my name in print that often!  It's also a really good opportunity to practice my rendering skills, whether or not they print them.

Week Eleven!

This week's project is very much a direct follow up to Week Four's project.  I don't get to do too much rendering these days, so to stay in practice, I've been doing the Your Turn challenges in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.

My mother got me a subscription to the magazine for Christmas and I've been enjoying it a lot.  It's much more technical and focused than my other favorites (Metalsmith and American Craft) and it provides more in depth information on topics all at once.  For example, a recent issue did an article and a project on Chinese Writing Stones, and the last issue had a section on Plume Agate.

Anyway, one of the projects they one this week had a challenge based on it.  Here's one of the designs I worked up to riff on it.

Bees!

I've had bees on the brain a bit lately, so here's a  rendering with one in it.  I've got plans for this rendering, so you only get to see a snippet for now.  

Now with properly scanned rendering!

New Growth Earrings!

I posted a while back about having entered this year's Diva Design Competition.  I wasn't a finalist this year (maybe next!) but I'm still proud of my rendering.  And since you all only got to see a little snippet when I first mentioned it, I think it's about time you saw the whole thing!  These are my New Growth Earrings, and I had a lot of fun rendering the diamonds and gold for them.  So many diamonds.  I always forget how much I enjoy rendering.

I'm thrilled with a couple of things on this rendering.  The first is the shadows, which I think turned out wonderfully dramatic, and the second is the little bit of chain near the top.  I showed off the chain the last time I mentioned this rendering, but I can't get over exactly how small I managed to get it.

I've got a couple of pieces that are nearly done, so when I get access to a camera I'll take some photos.  Expect new work this week!

New Achievements in Rendering!

I'm not showing you the whole of this rendering yet.  But I can't possibly resist showing you part of it.  It took me a while to work out all of the details, but I'm quite pleased with the results.  I'm also completely thrilled with the bit of chain in the rendering.  What you can't tell from this image is that in the actually rendering, that chain is exactly one millimeter wide.  One!  If you don't have a ruler handy, this is very tiny, and also thinner than a spaghetti noodle.  Why is it this small?  Because I am absolutely insane, and kind of obsessed with making things tiny.  One day I will break down completely, buy a microscope, and spend the rest of my life creating paintings on the heads of pins.  Anyway, this rendering was created for the 2010 Diva Design Competition.  I solemnly swear to show you all the full rendering when the results are announced in June, but for now you can admire my tiny chain links.

History is Pretty Neat.

A while back, the Smithsonian Institute decided that in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Hope Diamond's donation, they'd do something special.  They decided to reset the diamond temporarily in a new setting, and, while the setting was being constructed, to display the diamond without a setting entirely.  They actually let visitors to the museum's website vote on which of three designs they would like to see.  In addition, they opened up a contest for people to design their own interpretations of how the Hope Diamond should be set.  The top five designs will be displayed on the Smithsonian's website, and the designers will receive two hundred dollar American Express gift cards.

The deadline was midnight last night.

I'd been meaning to enter for months, to get a design down and start working.  Unfortunately, I've had other deadlines, and I'm never one for working too far in advance.  So I was still working on it yesterday.  And working, and working.  Finally, I realized that there was literally no way to finish painting and scan it before midnight.

So, in order to finish it on time, I scanned it in and finished coloring it in Photoshop, which worked.  I finished a little after 11:30 last night, saved the file, and submitted it.  Assuming computer gremlins didn't eat the submission,  I'm in the running!

What with the deadline and my less than expert Photoshop skills, the design lacks something of my usual meticulousness, but it's not bad.  I intend to go back and finished the actual rendering in the upcoming weeks, after I take care of a few things that actually have deadlines.  Until then, here's the Photoshop finished version.  (When I get the rendered version finished, I'll repost this one next to it so you can compare and comment.)



Being the perfectionist that I am, I wasn't satisfied to print out a photo of the Hope Diamond and then design around it, as the website suggested.  So I spent an afternoon (a few weeks ago, when I wasn't so pressed for time) and hunted down a line drawing of the facets.  It was an education!  For example, I'm now angry that the Hope Diamond was ever recut from the French Blue.  (Well, very likely recut from the French Blue, anyway.)  I mean honestly.  On the other hand, I understand that we recut stolen jewels.  That's just how it's done, or people take their stuff back, but that's a crime against the previous cutter, and the gorgeous cut.  (And, well, a crime anyway, actually.)

I have also been working on some new pieces in three dimensions!  Last week I learned to felt, thanks to the internet and a very lovely gift of wool and tools from my dear mother.  (A very big thank you to the lady she bought them from too, for making sure she brought back everything I needed!)  I can't believe how much I'm enjoying felting, but it's pretty amazing.  I started out just practicing, but figured it'd work best if I had some sort of a goal, so I made these bracelets.  I might actually keep working on one of them, and I've started a necklace as well, but for now, here are some pictures!