My Strongest Work is Spontaneous

My Own Language

A few years back, I took a wonderful basic etching course at Brookfield Craft Center, taught by the super creative Gina Dunlap. We learned every type of resist to apply to copper or sterling, from sharpie pens, stayz on ink pad, vaseline, to packing tape. Settling the metal into an acid solution with heat from 1-4 hrs for copper, and up to 10 hrs for sterling, produced incredible results. One of my favorite techniques was to just draw on copper with a red Stadler pen. Why red, I don’t know! But it worked. So I took a cleaned, polished piece of copper, and proceeded to write out my own language, if I were to have one! It came out a combination of pictographs and symbols, but really just flowed in the moment. No thinking going on here!

I liked it so much, I scanned the design onto pnp transfer paper, attached it to sterling with heat & pressure, and etched that for 10 hrs. I was in love!! Another pnp scan, cut in half, attached to sterling & etched, created my Wonder Woman Cuff.

Then I learned about Solar Plates, from the fantastic Maggie Bergman’s step by step article in Art Jewelry Mag. With the same design scanned and printed onto a transparency, I was able to create a deeply textured solar plate for Precious Metal Clay fine silver. Another look with the same original spontaneous design for my newest Tribal Earrings.

This is how I work. I’d rather create an original design than use a bought pattern sheet. Once I have a strong, meaningful design I truly love, then I find every way to make to work. This keeps it fresh and fun for me.