How Babies Are Made

I constructed a big, elaborate bracelet this weekend.
I'm gonna give you a peek at my creative underwear - a look at how something like this comes together.

This bracelet started with a magazine clipping. I glued it into my sketchbook a month or so ago.
Last week I decided it was the one, so I studied the colors and picked out the glass rods to use and sketched out my plans for all the various components.

I always try to remember to make color notes. Knowing what colors I used if a piece needs to be made larger or repaired is so much easier if you actually know what you did.

Here's a glamor shot of all the headpins, links, leaves and beads freshly cleaned.
I spent one whole studio day at the torch making all the glassy bits.
Some of the headpins are 16 gauge brass (the roses) and the rest are 20 gauge.

The big dark red roses came out particularly nice.

It was a wildly complicated piece of construction.
I laid it out carefully and then tried not to get distracted while building it.

Amazingly I had torched the right number of components and didn't ruin any during the hammering marathon.

I even like the clasp, something I almost never happy with.

This is the kind of piece I usually take to the museum gift shop or to a big fancy show - but I am going to try something new. This one is headed for Etsy.