Sterling Silver Dragonfly on Copper Square

 

I have been making bugs... using my pen and my torch...

I like to study bugs.... 

they are small,  with lots of delicate working parts, amazingly strong for their size... 

some nasty, some nice... 

and there are so many different kinds... and they do so many different things... 

Bugs are just all around very  interesting subjects to get to know more about..

We designed and created the sterling silver  Dragonfly  on copper square early in the year

and it is time to build up stock again.. not a good season to be running out of popular designs...

although I have to admit there are a few other styles that I am very low on,

if not completely out of at the moment..

and I should have had more made...  but alas... time... energy....... a good book.

Lots of tiny Dragonfly parts all prepared... cut, shaped and hammered ... 

little dragonfly wings, little dragonfly bodies and little tiny silver grains for the dragonfly eyes... 

That is one in the middle, there's more in a little wooden dish to the left... 

 We usually split up the jobs..  

Johns' hands are stronger than mine, so he gets to handcut all the copper squares

 and do the heavy hammering.. 

I layout all the tiny parts and set them up..  

 ... sometimes my tools or my big hands have accidentally knocked my board 

.. Not a good day when that happens...

Here they are all covered in carbon.. it has to be removed

  but the texture and color is gives for taking a photograph suits my fancy ...

 I really love this contrast.

and

I absolutely Love the Pattern they make all lined up like that...

I imagine quilt patterns, floor tiles, rugs, fabric ...

I start rearranging them

to see what they might look like with all there tails touching 

or their little pairs of eyes all staring at each other

 Then I am imagining them all divided by long bands of another metal 

or fabric if they are a quilt  and what kind of borders could be invented.. 

 or maybe designs inlaid in wood.. or a surround for a fireplace 

or borders around the edge of an illuminated book.........

oh once it starts it is hard to go back to work... 

 the Dragonflies are distracting me from the Dragonflies...

 but I'm sure you know what it's like 

and how one thing leads to another and another....

  

 

Back to reality... 

Now they are ready for the pickle pot

-  a nice name for being dunked in a scalding acid bath - which will remove all the built up carbon. 

  John drills holes in the tops with the flex shaft...

  We sand and polish them in the vibratory tumbler.

Then I make the earwires and attach them 

and we are all stocked up again...

$25.00 pr.     ...approx.  1½" from top of ear wire to bottom of copper square
...bug drawings (in first photograph)  from my sketchbook 

  Pearl Jam...  "BUGS" 

All handmade at our DESIDERATUM Art Jewelry studio 

in St. Martins, on the Bay of Fundy,  New Brunswick, Canada

...click for more of our Whimsical designs