Thursday, August 25, 2011

Ukulele jewelry

Much more practical than ukulele cookies, but more difficult to bake. I went online to look for ukulele jewelry so I could proudly proclaim my devotion to the ukulele through talisman. I did not find much. Not daunted by this surprising oversight, I decided to come out with a line of my own. After all, the guitar is honored through pendants, earrings, charms etc. and I feel this is disproportionate concentration of homage.

Pretty large learning curve for me, working in Precious Metal Clay (PMC) which is 9.995 silver (as opposed to sterling, which contains alloys). The silver has a binding agent containing particles of silver. When firing, the binding burns away and the remaining silver is "sintered" which I think means all those silver particles fuse together.

In the hands of skilled artists and metalsmiths, some gorgeous sophisticated jewelry has been produced. Unskilled, not so much. However, here are some of my first attempts at making jewelry devoted to the ukulele.



More to come. I'm working on some more complicated designs...banana fronds, flip flops.. reversible designs, and some simplified ones: just the ukulele, like a charm, with a gemstone.

If you are inclined, I urge you to try this media. The possibilities are endless. You can even make small sculptures!

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