no cigar but lots of potential

I've got a bunch of new additions to the Talisman Elements series, but first I thought it'd be fun to share the evolution of a one-off design ...

It started here - a fragment of an angel wing shell from St Augustine.  I made an impression of it in polymer clay and then used a big piece of my sterling silver metal clay to make the pendant.  I tried to make it fairly thin to test the strength of the sterling - I'm happy to report, it's very strong.  I love that the pendant hangs kind of off kilter.  Plus it's very ... well all I can think of is that it's very wabi-sabi.

So I've got the pendant, next I started gathering potential elements.  I've got gemstone nuggets - rutilated quartz, then the amber and citrine from Andrew, a few ochre trade beads, my stash of Basha beads, unbleached linen to make into cord, hand cut and dyed silk ribbon, silk thread, oh and some big honkin bronze pearls.

I worked on the layout and how many strands of linen cord and tried different stones with different hole sizes - I wasn't in the mood to drill any stones or pearls - and pondered closures and lengths and ended up here ... 

close, but no cigar ...

It's just not quite there.  Don't get me wrong, there are elements I like, but overall, it's just not done.

For instance, I do like the closure, I like it off center and the loose ends with the linen wraps - it reminds me of Zoe Keating's hair!  BTW, been listening to her CD's non-stop - so so so very excellent.

And I like the trade bead and rutilated quartz nugget together on the linen cord ...

But the jumbo citrine nugget doesn't hang quite right and overpowers the pendant and the rest of the piece.  I do like the little stack of copper and silver spacers.

I'm also not sure about the linen cord.  I've been thinking about grouping linen cord into something for days ... just not sure this is the best application.  So, this piece is still very much a work in progress.  I'm going to take it all apart and start over.  I'll keep you posted with my progress.

But I also wanted to show you my latest additions to the Talisman Elements series.  The overall concept is finally starting to come together.  I got all inspired to do some carving in polymer clay, which lead to the idea for the Medallions.  I've got a chalice, a crown, a compass, a portal and a spiral.  I also made a couple of unicorn-looking horns.  Then there's the reproduction of the little eastern European vintage cross I bought from Cool Vintage on Etsy - really love everything in that shop! 

Also, I've really hesitated about the use of text, but decided to dig out the rubber stamp sheets I had made way back in my ArtFest days of early 2003.  So some of the medallions have ready made messages stamped into the back and some have individually stamped words.  

I am pretty excited about all my new Medallions.  

Oh, there was one more piece from my sterling silver firing - Eros ... another stamp from my long-ago rubber stamp making days. Pretty sure  he's destined for another one-off piece, but that remains to be seen.

So that's where I am right now.  I'm probably not going to get anything else done in my studio this holiday weekend.  Dave and I have this idea we're going to re-stain the deck, which means taking everything off the deck - like those bloody huge, fully soaked flower pots of mine and all the other not so heavy stuff, a bit of sanding and then painting.  WOO HOO - Boy howdy do we know how to party!

I guess that's it for now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun and ever so safe holiday weekend.

blessings - kvk