A Semester's Worth of Beginning Metals & Jewelry

Copper and brass squid necklace. My favorite thing I made all semester.

Copper tea candleholder.

I'm having trouble getting a good close up shot of the rings, but they are two silver rings. Each ring has a teeth design, one is frosty white and the other is dark silver. They're intended to be couple rings and are my weirdo way of being linked together in the idea of a set of teeth. The photo above is a small copper and brass jewelry box with a sun lid. It's your call whether the sun is smiling or frowning. I made the sun box when I was particularly pissed off and extremely stressed out and forced myself to make something cheerful by making something cute and happy, but the sun's feelings came out a bit ambiguous.

The insect candleholder was our first project. We all had a 4 x 4 inch sheet of copper to make either a bracelet or a small sculpture by cutting a design without actually cutting anything out. So if I'd unfold the square of copper down it would go back to being a perfect square sheet of copper with no holes in it. I like to make utilitarian things so went with a candleholder. This project was to practice sawing into metal.

The second project was to make a silver band ring. It was for practice in working with silver, forming a ring, and soldering - a hot connection. I thought the project was pretty stupid because how exciting can a band ring be, but I like the idea I came up with. I messed up with the sizing of my ring though, so it's too small for me to wear.

The third project was to make a pendant dealing with the theme of addiction. The purpose for this project was to practice riveting - a cold connection. By now, I was pretty fed up with this class and its assignments, so I decided to just make whatever I want. I really wanted to make a squid necklace so I did, and pulled a story about sex addiction out of my ass to fit the creative theme criteria.

The fourth and final project was to create a hollow form dealing with the theme of domesticity. This last project had to be made in a short period of time so it was rushed, I was in a bad mood, and wanted something cute for my house, and since this was a jewelry making class, went for a jewelry box.