The new kid on the block around my little studio is stainless steel wire. I mentioned that I wanted to try working with new materials this year, so here’s my first step. I’ve long admired the time-worn jewelry style of Deryn Mentock. Her jewelry incorporates beautiful vintage pieces, “found” items, and often tell a story. One thing that gives her work that aged look is the annealed stainless steel wire that she uses. It looks like oxidized sterling silver, only darker. I knew I wanted to give this wire a try, and ordered a bunch of different gauges (from a hardware store online!) last year. Then along came this book….
A Charming Exchange by Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae is an absolute fabulous book filled with all kinds of unusual/breathtaking jewelry projects. What makes this book so rich is that the pieces are all collaborations amongst various artists. The artists come from varying backgrounds such as fiber, metal-smithing or mixed media….and each add a technique or element in the process. When I read the very first paragraph in the Intro, I knew the book was speaking to me….”It is late: The children are finally asleep, the dog has stopped his click, click, clicking behind you, and now you are alone. You can think. This is when the magic starts bubbling.” Aaaah! My husband agreed, these words describe ME (aka midnight beader).
I poured through the projects in the book, the photographs are just beautiful. There are so many projects I’d like to try, and artists that are new for me to discover. I decided on a particular necklace (because yes, it involved that stainless steel wire I had ready and waiting). As I got started, I began to have a few questions about this new wire and contacted the stainless steel wire queen herself. Deryn saved me from myself saying that working with stainless steel is a “whole different animal” than sterling. Thinking that I could give the finished piece an extra polish, I was planning to give it a run in my tumbler. Luckily Deryn warned me against this, noting that the steel will rust if it gets wet (but that rust could be again cleaned with sand paper)! Also, the very feel of the wire is very different, it seems much lighter and easier to bend.
My first piece from A Charming Exchange is based on the project entitled “Nature’s Gift” by Ruth Rae, Shari Beaubien and Deryn Mentock. Using fibers in a necklace was certainly new for me. Here you’ll see I chose a yarn in various shades of brown.
This next necklace is also an experiment in using annealed stainless steel wire. The etched lampwork focal is by Laurie Hyatt. This is a super long one ~ 30″! It is great to wear over a sweater, for those of you in the bitter cold here on the East Coast. Alright, it may not be as cold here in VA as it is for our friends up in NY! 🙂
There you go! More than you ever wanted to know about wire. See, I do post about jewelry every once in a while!
Before I go, here’s a picture taken today of me and little Sweet Pea (P for his middle name). Or you can call him “chubby cheeks” as my Dad liked to call all of my guys when they were a baby. Sweat Pea Chubby Cheeks is already 3 months old!
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