bring it on, mother nature

I went out today and borrowed a bunch of bark from a few trees. I spent a lot of time today sanding down flat edges so that I can make them into wearable jewelry once they are dry.

Ps, there are a ton of little white flat bugs on tree bark. I don't like them.

glorified woodchips

I started today with hopes of finding a method to make uncontrolled designs and patterns in wood. Last year, I needed to cut down this piece of beeswing narra and ended up with this gorgeous sliver of wood.

So, I grabbed some different types of wood and headed to the wood shop to see what I could make. I fought a lot with the bandsaw- no injuries or anything, it just wouldn't create what I wanted it to. I tried cutting the woods against the grain, with the grain, faster, slower, thinner, thicker... whatever I could do to try and get the blade to eat away or rip up some of the wood. I had *one* piece with any holes. It is paper thin and the holes suck.

I ended up with this outcome:

Some close ups:

^ Bloodwood ^

^ Macassar Ebony ^

^ Lignum Vitae ^

^ Beeswing Narra ^

I want to see what I can do to these pieces of nearly paper-thin wood. I've been trying to break them with my fingers to go along with the grain to create a natural shaped form, but that hasn't been successful yet. Any suggestions of processes to try on the wood to get my desired result?

Boring stuff

Well, I started working on a few sample pieces mixing wood and silver. They are really boring. I don't like them.... but I made them, and I'm showing them because I don't want to get yelled at for not posting on here. What I don't like is:

• The material contrast is boring. The olive wood's grain, even though it's gorgeous, isn't interesting enough to make me feel like this is at all successful. 
• I am having a hard time bezel setting material that is below the bezel - as in, not a cabochon or stone that rises above the piece and the bezel hugs, this is a situation where a giant, grizzly bear hug is needed. Because of that, it's extremely difficult to get a smooth edge on it. Maybe a rounded glass front would help? That could also bring out more of the grain and create a unique visual interest if the wood was magnified through the glass. I will have to look into glass cutting, grinding, and polishing for future use.

^some pieces and a burnisher^

^slightly closer, you can see the bezel's bear hug^

^backs^

Quick Update

I'm really bad at remembering to update this.

I'm thinking about changing my project. Well, maybe not changing, just readjusting. I think I want to focus on material usage and to use silver (as a precious metal) to display natural, common supplies like wood, natural raw stones, geodes, etc. I am starting with wood and spent 5 hours sanding yesterday to make the pieces smooth and even. I plan on cutting some forms out to lay in silver and see how they work as samples. I also ordered and drove out to GS Metals to purchase some a ton of sheet silver to use for these. Here is where I am so far -

^ picture of my set up ^

^ close up of some olive wood ^

^ my poor keyboard ^

^ the end pile of saw dust before it was thrown out ^

I also researched last night to find necklace chains, break your own geodes, and different/new styles of bails that might work for me.