Bethany’s Remount

The freedom to create…a time of exploration.  Back at my jewelry bench doing fabrication, direct metal working.  No casting, no wax, just the raw materials ready to become something new. This is how I fell in love with metals.  Taking a sheet of silver or gold and pounding it into a wearable object.  Feeling the strength of the metal, its stability.  Heating the metal to make it soft once again – malleable.  Soldering together the parts and polishing them until the radiance of the metal comes alive.  Using tools and your hands and a glimmer of an idea.  Allowing yourself to be in the moment of creation with a beautiful element from the earth.  Au, gold.  Ag, silver.  Cu, copper.  Pt, platinum.

I begin the process with Beth by making a couple of sample rings in silver to see what she responds to.  It’s also a way for me to get in the groove, like when an artist does gesture drawings to warm up.

She liked the first try, and loved the last ring which was barely formed (above).    She was able to imagine the possibilities and liked the overlap being developed with the more linear concept, and so we have a starting point.

Next, I popped the diamond out of her engagement ring and fitted it to a 14K white gold bezel which would now hold the stone cleanly & without any prongs.   As a designer, I felt the thrill of new ideas coming to life, of a connection with a client and the responsibility to make it wonderful.  The ring reminded me of a belt…a layered, bold statement that finished the entire outfit.

Now it’s time for the real work of metalsmithing.  After annealing with an acetylene torch, and air cooling, the gold sheet was soft and ready to be rounded in an oak form.

It was important to have the sterling practice ring for comparison.  On the left is the 14K white gold ring and its sterling counterpart, the inspiration.

The second and smaller wire was soldered and further bent around the first.

With the basic ring formed and sized, it was time to place the bezel and add some interest with 14K pink gold round wire and beads.

With the bezel in place, the stone was checked for fit in the mounting before final cleaning and setting.

And so another jewelry journey comes to a close for me, but there is now the pull to develop the design and explore variations on the theme.  Bethany now has a new designer ring which is a perfect fit, just for her.

Be sure to check Bethany’s styling for ‘A Cozy Winter Engagement Shoot’ at The Sweetest Occasion, and also Bethany’s blog b*spoke.  Phototgraphy by Emily at Emilysteffenphoto.com.

{images: Laurie Ashbach}

Downtown Photo Shoot

Can I say that it was just a little exciting to take my jewelry and props downtown to a Minneapolis photography studio?  Bethany (bethanyhway.com)  & I arrived at Delaney Photography and unloaded our props.  We brought rocks, wood, fabric, watercolor paper, driftwood, sand, a worn section of dock from the lake, paint brushes, wax stamps, paper product, feathers, leaves, Bibles and the jewelry.  The props are spread on tables in the foreground and you can see a shot in progress back in the natural light.

The studio was a gorgeous space with old wood floors and painted white brick walls.  Dan Delaney’s (delaneyphotos.com) photography equipment was amazing.  Take a look at his digital Hasselblad connected to his Mac for instant viewing.

Shot #1

After discussing what props we’d use in each shot, Nicole Uphoff (nicoleuphoff.com) began creating.  What happened was amazing.  There was a beginning idea, “let’s put the Living Stones jewelry on the natural woodsy stuff”, and the shot then took on a life of its own.  Here are Beth, Nicole and Dan working out the first shot of the day.

Shot #2

The second shot involved an old section of wooden dock from the cabin ‘up north’ in Minnesota, and my ‘God’s Touch Dove’ piece.  Beth and Nicole tweek the shot and see the results onscreen and work it until the composition is perfect.  Then they leave and Dan takes over to actually shoot the official shots concentrating on getting the lighting just right.  It was an amazing process to watch unfold.

Shot #3

Beth knew what she wanted to do with my newest linear sculptural jewelry; a bracelet and two rings.   She brought along her little pieces of driftwood, sized to hold them and we added ground up seashells, driftwood and birch bark.  How to make the jewelry pop out was the hardest part in this process.  More shells, less shells, wavy line in shells?  Nicole added a piece of petrified wood to prop up the top ring and the composition was anchored.   After looking at the image on the computer, Dan knew he could manage the background with lighting to get it to recede and the jewelry came to the front.  Once again I was impressed by the creative process in which all parties worked toward the best end result.  Have I ever told you how much I enjoy the design process?  I am most certainly a process person and love to get to the finished piece, but that is not the most important thing.  What I am learning through the process is.

Shot # 4

A simple and clean shot was called for with the ‘Sealed in Christ’ jewelry.  Because the jewelry looks like a wax seal, we melted wax and created a stamp on an envelope and were good to go.  With the addition of an inkwell, pen and paper the stage was set and shooting commenced.

Shot #5

Another new addition to the Arise Designs jewelry lines is the Initials.  In this shot we focused on just one piece of jewelry, the ‘S’, which hung on yummy colored silk cording.  This infusion of color to my usually monochromatic silver and gold jewelry screamed for a watery emotional background.  I brought along brushes from an Aqua Media & Collage class I had taken at the end of the summer, and a couple of practice paintings.  Voila!  The effect was stunning.  You can see we’re still inspired and energized by the project – Beth & Nicole are still smiling!

Shot #6

We ended the day with the Bible shot with small earrings and a pendant.  The large Bible in the background is an old family Bible from the 1800′s but that’s another post!  The smaller Bibles were in Swedish, from my mother-in-law, and the rest were passed down from both sides of the family.  The broken bindings and worn leather made a beautiful foil for the smooth high polished sterling.

What a productive and fun day of work we had.  Thank you Bethany, Nicole and Dan.  It was an honor and a pleasure to work and learn from  true professionals.  Stay tuned as Arise Designs continues to take form and arrives on the internet as a new website.

Logo by Bethany Hway

{images: Laurie Ashbach}

Alpha & Omega

On a trip with friends to the Northwestern (Normandy) coast of France, we ventured to the medieval monument Mont St. Michele {mohn-san-mee-shel’}, which sits in the English Channel.    Twice a month the fortress is entirely surrounded by water.  From the granite base you climb the single cobblestone street, spiraling toward the Gothic Benedictine abbey, an architectural masterpiece built in the 13th century.

The door beckons us in, the stairs pull us up and around, and around again.  I imagine life in the 1200′s, but can’t quite grasp the difficulty of it all.  How do you get drinking water, where’s the bathroom, how do you feed all the people that lived here?  How do you heat a castle?  What did the people in the Abbey do all day?  During this trip my friend Lori suggested that I read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  Brilliant!  A novel about the building of a Gothic Catherdral and daily life in the 1200′s.  Because I spent the month of May in a tiny little apartment in Paris, I had time to read the entire book, all 400,000 words.  I was taken away…reading ‘Pillars’ while immersed in the French culture, surrounded by history and architecture from another time. 

What was waiting for us at the top of our climb was breathtaking.  A peek through a stone portal presented an oasis of green surrounded by beautifully carved Gothic arches.  I was done in.  Look at the workmanship and design in the symmetry of the structure, and then notice the lacework weaving in stone of the decorative elements.  How can I take it in, capture this beauty and keep it alive somewhere within?  Who had time to do this with so little?  Quarry the stone, build the arches and then painstakingly carve them without one power tool?  C’est Magnifique.  There were no words….only wonder.

Catching my breath, more details come into focus and I see the pattern within the cobblestones, crosses carved into the stone floor, and a symbolic detail which looked almost out of place after the beauty of the courtyard arches.  It was a crude Alpha and Omega on the face of a wall…maybe an altar?  From the original building maybe?  Mont-Saint-Michele was originally built in the first century.  Check out this link for more information- http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/histoire_gb.htm

My thoughts wander to the Bible with the cue of the Greek Symbols.  The Alpha and the Omega have been through a lot, yet they have survived.  It is true to this day.  If ancient walls could talk we would know the secrets, but what we have to go by is a few clues.  The beginning and the end.  This is what we know as believers.  We have glimpsed some part of the beginning as recorded by those who came before us….we do not know when the end is, but we know who. We do know that the thirsty are given water without charge,  and it is from the spring of the water of life.  Do we need to know anything else?

Revelation 21:6
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

This piece, The Alpha & Omega, was created by Arise Designs and is my attempt to place importance today on the truth which came to be so long ago…and to carry it forward.

Arise Designs is in the process of developing its website, but for now jewelry can be seen on vbgallery.com under Arise Designs.

Pillars of the Earth has been filmed as an 8 hour TV mini-series, and is due out soon.  Check out Ken Follett’s website for more information.

{images: Laurie Ashbach}