Jewelry progress
Oct. 12th, 2006 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhienellethIf I haven't been posting lately, it's because my poor little fingers are worn out from bending, shaping, and twisting wire.
L's mask has almost a full troy ounce of sterling silver into it, and 60% of that is in 26 gauge wire (re: super thin). To give you some idea, half a toz of that gauge comes in at around 45 feet of wire. And all of that is worked in to her mask, along with almost 200 Swarovksi crystals of varying sizes and colors. It sparkles, all right. I'm finishing up the last bits, and hope to take pictures tonight. L is thrilled, but I get the sense that she has no idea how much work has actually gone into it, or just how difficult it is to design something like this. I'm currently at about 14 hours, not including the two hours I've wasted on bits that didn't work and had to be scrapped.
I now understand why the only similar masks I've found online are being sold for around $700. (They're by a designer in the UK, and I expect about $200 of that amount is just paying for her name. The rest legitimately goes for her materials, time, and work.) She makes masks, crowns, and wedding dresses, and I get the idea that she sells her masks and crowns mostly for weddings, with the occassional foray into other purposes (such as Mardi Gras) by a client.
It's made me think - I would never have thought of masks at weddings, one assumes in place of veils, but the crowns are pretty darn cool instead of the standard tiara. I could totally make similar things. Maybe I'll start a couture bridal section to my jewelry biz.
But if I'm going to get pics done today, I have more wire work to get back to. *puts lotion on poor, abused fingers*
L's mask has almost a full troy ounce of sterling silver into it, and 60% of that is in 26 gauge wire (re: super thin). To give you some idea, half a toz of that gauge comes in at around 45 feet of wire. And all of that is worked in to her mask, along with almost 200 Swarovksi crystals of varying sizes and colors. It sparkles, all right. I'm finishing up the last bits, and hope to take pictures tonight. L is thrilled, but I get the sense that she has no idea how much work has actually gone into it, or just how difficult it is to design something like this. I'm currently at about 14 hours, not including the two hours I've wasted on bits that didn't work and had to be scrapped.
I now understand why the only similar masks I've found online are being sold for around $700. (They're by a designer in the UK, and I expect about $200 of that amount is just paying for her name. The rest legitimately goes for her materials, time, and work.) She makes masks, crowns, and wedding dresses, and I get the idea that she sells her masks and crowns mostly for weddings, with the occassional foray into other purposes (such as Mardi Gras) by a client.
It's made me think - I would never have thought of masks at weddings, one assumes in place of veils, but the crowns are pretty darn cool instead of the standard tiara. I could totally make similar things. Maybe I'll start a couture bridal section to my jewelry biz.
But if I'm going to get pics done today, I have more wire work to get back to. *puts lotion on poor, abused fingers*
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Date: 2006-10-12 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-12 05:37 pm (UTC)That links to the part of her site w/the masks. Basically, though, I used 18gauge half hard wire to create the 'base' of the mask, the shape, and I actually used a mask I had for a sizing/shape guide, after looking closely at her work to see some of the ways she put the wire together. I think mine is slightly different, but it worked for me, and I wouldn't want to step on any 'copyright' toes, anyway.
Once I had the basic shape (including curving the mask to fit someone's face comfortably. For that, I would hold the mask up to my own face, look in the mirrror, gently curve the wire around, put back to my face, check it, etc.) I used 26gauge half hard wire to attach all the Swarovski's to the 'frame'. I'm also doing a lot of free form wire bending to fill in parts of the mask, similar to what the designer above does, and putting more swarovski's on that. Though it already sparkles so much in the sunlight as to be blinding, so I'm using them judicsously for that. I don't want the sparkle to take away from the pretty look of the silver.
If you have any questions, you can message me or drop me a comment. I did quite a bit of trial and error in the beginning phases. :)
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Date: 2006-10-12 06:41 pm (UTC)Oh, and we've updated the website at stellarmagipe.com!
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Date: 2006-10-12 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-12 08:49 pm (UTC)You never cease to blow me away. I am so going to need to talk to you about custom stuff later....
Pictures, pictures!!!!!
*stamps feet and dances in impatience*
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Date: 2006-10-12 09:20 pm (UTC)Just a few more strands of wire sculpture left, and then I think it will be done. If I don't decide it needs a little of this or that, but...I'm thinking it's good. :)
And, honestly? I fell in love with her stuff the minute I saw it, but I actually like mine better. Which, I suppose, is how it should be.
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Date: 2006-10-13 12:29 am (UTC)Seriously.
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Date: 2006-10-13 01:23 am (UTC)I posted the pics!