It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the things I’m working on, and in the last year or so, that’s really changed. My focus these days is mostly on Wire Wrapped Pendants, using beautiful stones that I personally hand select. For some wirecraft artists, the focus is specifically on their mastery with the wirework, but I want my pieces to be more in the Arts and Crafts era ideal, where (decorative)form follows function, and the material takes center stage.

My work is not austere. I often make use of swirls and fancy finishes, but I do try to craft in a way that the details only come into focus with contemplation. I want to imagine that people might be admiring the stone – it’s color make-up or shape, and then their eyes move toward the frame, and they begin to appreciate the work that went into crafting it.

In this piece, I chose a smaller-sized cabochon of Succor Creek Jasper, with a scene that looks quite like a desert horizon, with a wonderful blue sky.The frame weave is fairly simple, with a design pattern that radiates outward, reminiscent of that from First Nations Southwest pottery.

I just could not pass up this stone when I spotted it at Prairie Flower Beads in Portage, WI. The lacy black Dendrite reminded me of a row if trees in a desert.  For those who think that’s impossible, I would suggest you need to make your way to the desert soon. There are definitely trees in the desert! Wherever water can nourish them, the will slowly grow.

This piece, with it’s swirling colors, could handle a more complicated weave frame, an so I chose to develop my own pattern, which I call “Melody Weave” due to the delicate pattern of wire running up and down along the foundation rods, like musical notes on a staff.And this – This was a pleasant act of serendipity for me! I was practicing a variation of the Snake Weave pattern, a simple weave that uses both ends of the weaving wire simultaneously. I had chosen a small cabochon to work with, and cut the foundation rods to fit, but when I got the length needed, the panel was simply to bulky for the small stone.  Not wanting to have wasted my efforts, I looked through my bin and thought, “Maybe I can work with this bead…” As you can see, the result was quite nice. I’ll be looking for more pretty art beads to cage in the future.

These are just a few of the new pendants I’ve created recently, and I’ve several new earring designs as well. I hope you’ll take a few moments to browse the collection, which you can find here on Etsy. I’d appreciate if you can click a few of the little “Hearts” on anything you find especially intriguing. Doing so helps my work gain ranking in the Etsy search system, and it will also help me to better understand what types of things people find more appealing.