What's "Hot" in My Studio

We had a heat wave in San Diego this last week…still having one!!! Our studios in Spanish Village have no air conditioning, and it was almost too hot for any creative thoughts to survive. I did manage to make a piece that I am very pleased with and want to share with you. The beads on this piece are actually somewhat of a mystery…perhaps marble, I am told!!! I just know that they are very pretty, and different looking…just what I like!!! I have combined these “marble” barrels with copper and finished the necklace with one of my signature copper “looped hook” clasps. This piece is currently on display in my studio. I will be posting it to my website as my featured necklace next week, so this is your sneak preview!!! The length is 17.5” and the selling price of this unusual piece is $149. This creation is One-of-a-Kind!!!

I have also been trying my best to “fill out” my website. Seems I never get past posting new necklaces and other areas suffer!! This week I added several beaded bracelets to the bracelet page. To check them out and see what else I have been up to, go to my website at http://www.jewelrybymo.com.

THANKS!!!
Maureen King (Mo)
Silversmith/Jewelry Designer

Perfect Weather, Perfect Conditions for Creativity!!!

The weather in San Diego this week seemed close to perfect! It was warm and sunny with a cool breeze. Sitting in my studio, breeze blowing through and Josh Groban on the stereo, just made it the perfect conditions for creativity to flow!!! Some weeks it seems I don't have enough hours in the day to create the pieces in my head, and others I sit with a blank stare, thinking, "Will I ever have another original or creative thought??!!" This was one of those great weeks! I have a few new pieces I would like you to see before I post them on my website. I would also like to share a little of my thought process as these pieces evolved!

This first piece is made from copper wire and features individually handwrapped and hammered “S” shapes connected with copper chain links. The side pieces are long, curved pieces that hug your neck and prevent the necklace from rolling. I actually set out to design a long pair of copper earrings. After I had made a few pieces, at different lengths, I held each up to my ear...I wasn't impressed!! Then I laid them up against my neck...I liked that!!! So I made a few more and connected them with chain links. I had one long one and tried it on the side going toward the clasp. Of course it looked stupid as a flat "S" shape...but curving it seemed the natural thing to do. The necklace is finished with one of my signature copper “swan” clasps. The selling price for this beautiful copper necklace is $129.

The second piece is also a necklace. This one features small barrel shaped lepidolyte jasper spaced with sterling silver “balls”. The centerpiece is a small, sweet hexagon of lepidolyte jasper. This centerpiece is not an expensive bead. I picked it for the center because the color is beautiful and the shape interesting...that's what it is all about for me...visually pleasing. I wanted the necklace to have movement and I wanted to feature this pretty little center bead. So I hung it from sterling silver chain. But I felt it needed a little “frame” to “finish the picture”, so I fabricated a “V” shaped piece from sterling silver wire to capture and emphasize the centerpiece. When I have an idea that I want to add something like this "V", I don't usually know exactly what shape I want, I just know I want something. This is when I get out my copper wire and just start bending it into different shapes. Copper wire is a fraction of the cost of sterling, so I almost always experiment with the copper. What usually happens is that the shape just starts to evolve. I am not even sure I am in control at all!!! The necklace is finished with sterling silver chain at the sides and back and features one of my signature sterling silver “angled swan” clasps. The length is 16 ½”. This pretty purple number is priced at $139 and is one-of-a-kind!

How Jewelry Designing Chose Me

I always felt I was looking for something "creative" to do to feed my soul. I tried Photography...I liked black and white artsy shots like Ansel Adams...my friends and family wanted me to take pictures of their weddings, baptisms, babies, parties, etc. On occasion, I think I was on the guest list because I had a camera and I worked for free. Then, I tried Graphic Design...I was so-so at it...I tried Interior Design...I was "pretty good" at it...my family and friends had me help them "design" their living spaces. They all said how good I was at it...of course, my services were free, which, I am sure heightened their excitement about the results! Eventually, I opened my own business, with my partner (partner as in "business partner", not "life partner"...I've recently been told by a friend that these days the term needs further explanation.) It was a Computer Graphics business in Tucson, Arizona...where I was born and raised. Unfortunately, I was the "Administrative" partner, while he was the artist. I eventually began to hate every day of my life. Constantly looking at an empty bank account and trying to find imaginative ways to meet payroll and constantly "chase" technology. One day, Chris, who worked for me, and who was, by the way, quite a pistol, came in and showed me a ring she was wearing...she said she made it...MADE IT! It was sterling silver and had a "cabochon" of turquoise set in a silver bezel...(all terms which were Greek to me!) I asked where she had learned to make something so coool?!! She had taken night classes in Adult Ed through the Parks and Rec Department. It was beginning Silversmithing. I knew I had to try it! I was very intimidated with the idea of designing a piece of jewelry...from the dormant creative recesses buried deep in my subconscious. What if I couldn't do it?!!! What if everything I made was ugly!!! I decided to let loose of my inhibitions and just go for it. It was as if the blank pieces of silver and the stones had a mind of their own...they had some kind of destiny to be something, and they were in control!!! And when I followed their lead, I was always happy with the results. I still pull out my box of stone "cabochons" (stones that are domed on top, flat on the bottom and polished) and my pieces of sterling silver (some nothing more than scraps from another project) and I say, "OK, who wants to become something today?" And I wait till they reveal themselves, and I listen to what they say! I was 45 years old when metalsmithing and jewelry design "chose" me...and I am happy they did!