Collaborative Earrings

Carlie and I have had side by side work benches for almost 40 years. Although we collaborate at the idea level a great deal and borrow ideas and inspirations from each other constantly we haven't done a lot of collaborative pieces on which we both work. These earrings are one way we do that. I do a lot of sawing and piercing of shapes and have really refined that technique so in this case I made the top piece with the copper lotus design. I then gave it to Carlie and she used it to create these great earrings. The bottom stones are chrysoprase and Orissa garnets, on the ear wires are fresh water pearls. Made in 2009.

Opal spiral pin/pendant

I've been infatuated with the spiral form for a number of years and have used it as a design element in a great variety of jewelry designs. This is a pin that can also be worn as a pendant in a mixture of sterling silver, copper and gold with an Australian opal. Made in 2009 by Jima Abbott.

Small Mixed Metal Pendants

Carlie made these two small multi layered mixed metal pendants. The center domes are roller printed brass. The sun shapes are copper and the back layer is silver with a hand stamped design.

Mixed Metal Beads

Two of Jima's mixed metal beads made in 2014. Silver, copper and brass. The bead on the left is all connected with a piece of 3/16th of an inch brass tubing running through the center of each piece and riveted down on the ends. The bead on the right is cold connected but the piece in the center has  soldered elements on it.

Mandala Pendant

Carlie made this layered mandala pendant. The center roller printed dome is brass, the pierced and stamped layer under that is copper and the back support and bail are silver with one gold dome on the bail. The stone is Chinese turquoise. This was made in 2015.

Mixed Metal Bead Pendant

The bead form in the bottom part of the pendant was half of a pair  of beads that were going to be made into earrings but turned out to be heavier than I thought an earring should be. As often happens in my work the finished piece turns out differently than the original idea. This little bead has 9 pieces in it's construction, each of which I make. I cut each out of a sheet of copper or silver,  some are domed, some are notched. After polishing each piece I fit them on a piece of tubing which I then rivet the ends of to hold them all in place. The bead turns freely on the wire that attaches it to the rest of the pendant. Made of silver, copper and 14k gold in November of 2017.

Riveting & Soldering

I made this piece a few years ago when I was  hosting an open studio in the Mendocino Art Center jewelry studio. I was showing some beginning jewelers some thought on soldering wire and riveting layers of metal together using short pieces of 16 gauge wire. The wire shapes in the center are fine silver which bends very easily, the balls are argentium silver which fuses better than any metal I have tried fusing. The metal surrounding the silver wire is copper that has been heated to give it a colored oxide surface.