New!?

So, I've had the chance these last couple of weeks to carve a few new things and this is what I've come up with:

I wanted to add a new five stone ring to my collection, and this one has a carved band (you can't see it, it's sort of driftwoody).  The stones will be bigger than any of the other eternity rings, 2.5mm rather than 2mm, so I'm expecting it to be extremely sparkly!

The solitaire has a wide rounded band that tapers toward the palm side.  It's sort of curved around the top of the band.  I didn't plan on pairing these two when I carved them, but I think they would look great together.  Zing zing va-zing!

This is the one I'm a bit hesitant about, it's different from most of the stuff that I make.  But I wanted to branch out a bit.  I would also like to make something with a halo setting (diamonds all around the central stone), so I'm going to try to carve something along those lines.  I don't want it to be like the typical halo setting so I'll have to think on it a bit before I start anything.

And my little tinies!  I love them!  I reeeeaaaaallllly love them!

Thinking inside the box...

....or the cushion cut as the case may be.

Last Wednesday night, the tenth of April, two thousand and thirteen, I slept 8 hours of glorious, sweet, and uninterrupted sleep.  This momentous event has yet to be repeated (although Addy did sleep a solid ten hours straight last night!  Alas, his sister did not. Woe is me.), but I continue to hold out hope that it will become a regular occurrence in the near future.

Not only did the sleep restore me to partial sanity, it also gave me the juice I needed to get this project done.  I have been wanting to expand the shape of stones I work with (I get A LOT of requests for cushion cut stones), but something held me back.  I think I was intimidated a bit by the corners.  Round stones are old hat to me by now, but I haven't set a square(ish) stone since I was in school.  I've had this model, unset, kicking around for at least a year.  It's just sterling and cubic zirconium, but I'm pretty excited to make it again in precious materials.  I think the first version will be moissanite in palladium, but I would love to do a more delicate iteration in platinum and diamond.

It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be, so I feel pretty confident now.  I think I will take another stone setting class this summer though. I would love to do a princess cut bezel set ring in the near future, but I need to brush up on setting truly square stones.  On an unrelated topic, I have a couple of new designs carved already for this year, with the molds made and everything!  I'm super excited about them, but I will save them for another post.  One is a real departure from my regular style, and I feel a little nervous about it.  I'm debating on whether or not I should wait until I have them done done, or if I should share photos of the waxes first.

And on the home front, I have adorable babies.

They are getting SO BIG.  It's crazy.  They will be 4 months in a couple of days.  They both like to practice sitting, so I'm hoping I will have some upright babies soon!  We bought a couple of old fashioned wooden highchairs and I plan on painting them bright colors.  We won't start solids for a while, but I am so excited to give them their first solid food!  I've heard sweet potato is the way to go?

Man, I sound tired

So here is short video of my new studio space.  I sound extremely tired and bit incoherent.  Sorry about that.  I am not one of those people who can function at 100% after a bad night of sleep (or 3+ months of bad sleep, as the case may be).  I think the thing I notice the most is that I seem to struggle for words.  Sometimes I will just stop talking about 2/3 of the way through a sentence and my husband will be like "what"?  And I then I won't remember what I was saying.  This doesn't happen in the video, but I do call the ultrasonic cleaner an ultrasound, and the sleeves on my apron, arms.  Haha. Maybe I need to increase my coffee intake.

The lack of sleep is KILLING me, but they sure are cute.

I've been working like a little gnome out in the studio on those new waxes.  I'm just not sure what metal to make the first versions in.  People seem to prefer white metals, but yellow gold is always calling my name.  We'll just have to see.