Jewelry Techniques

MICRO MOSAIC designs are created with tiny glass beads (size 15°). Starting with a jewelry setting of sterling silver or Argentium (low tarnish) sterling silver, each bead is inlaid into a bed of epoxy resin using fine point tweezers. After curing, the design is stabilized with a layer of hand tinted grout and finished with a sealer.

MIXED METALS- Many of the jewelry designs combine sterling silver, 14k gold-filled, copper, and brass, and accents of 14-22k gold. The metals may be textured with roll printed designs. A master plate is etched, and the jewelry metal and the master plate are run through a rolling mill together, creating an embossed reversal of the texture. Some of the settings use Argentium sterling silver, an alloy that is highly tarnish resistant, reducing the need for polishing those pieces without a patina.

KUMIHIMO braids are created with multiple strands of nylon, silk or rayon threads or ribbons. Different patterns are formed from the combination of the number and color of the threads and the pattern of interlacing. Braids may be all fiber, a mix of fiber and beads, or fully beaded Kumihimo, in which the fiber strands are hidden inside the beads.

KNOTTED FIBER- The fiber jewelry may be called micro macramé, tapestry knotting or Cavandoli knotting. Cavandoli knotting is created when double half hitch knots are tightly formed, making a solid fabric rather than creating the lacy effect of some macramé. Geometric lines and curves are created and may be enhanced with beads. I use a fine nylon C-lon cord, which may be accented by silk. One square inch can contain up to 500 individual knots.

POLYMER CLAY is a man made modeling clay which is soft and pliable before curing into a sold form. Its many available colors can also be custom mixed. It can be textured, layered, inlaid, extruded, twisted and more, making it a material with endless possibilities.

Tapestry technique

All of the tapestries are woven with a cotton warp. This is the strong, tightly spun and plied yarn that is rolled onto the loom prior to weaving. The weft yarns are usually wool, though accents may be of different fibers used for their unique characteristics. These tapestries are woven with a discontinuous weft, rather than moving from edge to edge. Shapes are created according to the design plan, called a cartoon, which is placed behind the weaving as it progresses. The pieces shown use both single strands, and multiple strands of thinner yarns used together, expanding color blending options.

Wedge Weave is the technique developed in the late 1880’s by the Navajo in the American southwest. Many of their rug designs had a “lightning” zig zag style. They experimented for a brief time with weaving the thin lines at an angle to the vertical warp threads, instead of perpendicular. This angled weaving caused a tension against the warp threads leading to a scalloping at the selvages of the rugs. This technique was mostly abandoned, but began to be used by contemporary rug and tapestry weavers in the middle of the last century. The unusual selvages were looked at as an attribute to the design.

My interest in both geometric design and the natural world has led me to create in both styles, and to combine the two in many of my tapestries. The tapestries shown on the gallery page were created over 40 years, with a large break, when I concentrated solely on making jewelry.