Thinking Inside The Box

I love a good design challenge. Mostly I love to challenge myself with materials... how far can I push it... how many pieces of jewelry can I make from one pair of jeans, for example.  Most of the time I am thinking in terms of blowing the lid off the material, seeing how far I can stretch it or trying to do something that no one else has thought of doing with it.

Here are some tin horn light fixtures I made for my studio. They will be featured in the winter issue of GreenCraft magazine!

A woman who owns a vintage lighting store told me that if I made jewelry, I could make lighting fixtures. She said it was just like making jewelry, but bigger. She was right! I pulled the mouthpieces off of these vintage tin party horns and added some washers and large-hole beads to the tops. Mr. Bees showed me how to do the wiring. It was easier than I thought it would be.

These necklaces, made from ruined bed sheets, will be in there too:

I also had these earrings in the boutique section of Belle Armoire Jewelry:

I have two technique articles and one boutique piece coming out in the next issue.

I also have four pieces in the winter issue of  Jewelry Affaire, including these crocheted pieces:

I've been making multi-strand assemblage bracelets:

...and I've been just generally thinking outside the box.

 I made these earrings:

...and this necklace. I decided to use a pyrite sun for the focal. It's set in a modified staple bezel.

I also made this over-the-top multi-strand turquoise necklace:

Well, that's it for this post. Leaving you with this quote:

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."

- John Cage