What next? I'm experimenting/playing with 'mixed media', see pic, my aim is to try and incorporate something other than just precious materials into my work and try and emulate the colours of the things that influence me, such as wildlife and the richness of the colours of precious/semi precious stones. What are you up to if I may ask?Mixed media experiments

June. spring shipment: copper bracelet harp linkinterlocking: I've been working on interlocking concepts. a web site and doing some networking.

June,
Hmmm Less precious materials emphasis on color . Ok Fiber is rich in texture. In that vain fur and feathers. Other directions. Anodized aluminum wire might interest you. For a great range of color Flame working glass gives great range of both pattern and color. Enameling brings with it a rich history of both fundamental and experimental technique.
There are many non precious stones available that have a rich pallet of color. Some have even worked concrete. The plastic resin materials are rich in color. There are also a number of plastic clays that offer a large range of color.
What do you thing you would like to do neat? Copper brass and silver can be a nice color combination. There are hundreds of possibilities. Iron makes some great jewelry. I'm liking your experiments with mixed media, fun isn't it? Brad

nice bit with the color and the lacing.
I'm into a couple projects but spent an hour or so yesterday on a birthday present for a buddy. His wife said he was in a funk and was intent on having a bad time.
It seemed like anything anybody suggested went over like a lead balloon, so I aimed low, and made him a lead balloon.

We did get him to smile.

got him a card that said,

"you're not old . . ."

they call it
"vintage"
these days

Gene Olson
Sculptor
Elk River, MN

Your message made me smile too Gene. I love making things for friends and loved ones, because it makes me feel great just making and giving my work away.

I'd love to work with feathers. I saw some fantastic glass encased jewellery of butterfly wings in Peru a couple of years back, but was worried about the ethics behind it. Never thought of fur as a medium, but have produced wire works and worked with glass and enamelling a little bit. I will look at your suggestions. What do you mean about worked concrete?working with glass

June
This ring is quite intriguing. The jewelry problem goes far beyond metal as a medium. If you consider jewelry to be personal adornment. Then two things become of prime importance (personal) and wear-ability. In other words it could be made out of almost anything. Metal being one of the most lasting. Metal also carries with it's own set of social implications. One of them being value. The value of materials can over shadow the design (that's the personal part) of a piece of jewelry. Wear-ability can be part of the challenge. Should a ring finger ring be designed differently than a pinky ring? Well in my mind yes. Lots of things to consider and beware of in the design and creation of jewelry. The artists ask the questions, push the concept and make discoveries. It's a journey of discovery. Brad

But I love your bracelet. Oghhh it's great! And those links - they are so interesting - were they your own invention? Even so, I'd love to be able to produce something like that one day.(Ta for the butterfly).

You definitely have the skill level to produce the bracelet, or one like it. My work in metal took a radical change about three years ago. For years I worked only in gold and precious gems. A goodly number of my customers were other jewelers, either in their personal jewelry or as the artist creating custom work for their clientele. That time period was as much about gemology and marketing as it was about my art work. That said current work (exploration) is much more about organic form, spontaneity and nothing to do with precious materials. I didn't invent anything, I made a personal discovery of that link style, the ways it moves, it's limitations and some of it's possibilities, the closure on the piece is interesting. It's a unit construction piece. develop a unit, duplicate it. Craft Brad

And thanks for your input. I shall certainly keep these things in mind as I still need to put in a lot of work in order to feel confidence in my craft and be at some level of competence. My designs are more in tune with experimentation and although I realise they are not very practical I would like to think of them more as sculptural or aiming to be exhibition pieces, as that is what was required on the course that I was doing. Can I ask your advice in future? I'd like to think I can produce something and you will give me an honest constructive professional opinion, although this won't be for a while as I'm relocating to another country - this time Australia! And I won't be making for a wee while. REgards.

June
Good luck with your move. There are many AM people in Australia. No problem with future questions or critique whenever you want. Brad

What happened to the lovely image?