Monday, May 28, 2012

My little Plumeria Necklace

Plumeria Necklace
I hand sculpted this plumeria with a blue topaz in the center along with the plumeria leaves and stems. I wanted to see the plumeria in it's nature form so I sculpted the leaves with texture and then added a high polish finish to my plumeria flower once casting was complete.

The Blue Topaz is a natural round 5mm Swiss Blue Topaz Cabochon
The Plumeria, Leaves and Stems are 925 Sterling Silver
The Chain and pendant length is 171/4" which include the clasp and is Sterling Silver as well.
SOLD



I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoyed sculpting it. -Dawn


Twig Cuff Concept

Quick (3 days) of sculpting out the
rounded cuff concept with three flowers as a visual.

Planting the first cosmos flower on the wax twigs

Cosmos Flower Sculpted in Wax


Cosmos Flower InformationThe Cosmos flower is native to Mexico to Brazil. The Cosmos genus includes the species Cosmos bipinnatus. It is commonly referred to as the Mexican Aster. Cosmos sulphureus, the Yellow Cosmos and Cosmos astrosanguineus, the Chocolate Cosmos are the other members of the genus. The chocolate cosmos is so-called, due to its fragrance that is similar to chocolate.

The Cosmos flowers are produced in capitulum that is surrounded by a ring of broad ray florets and central disc florets. The Cosmos flowers come in varied bright colors like white, pink, orange, yellow and scarlet colors. They can be single or double colored flowers. The flowers are about 2 - 4 inches in diameter.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

New Twig Project

I'm in the process of starting a month long sculpting project called "Twig" at this time.
This project will be a-one-of-a-kind which will include a necklace, two cuffs, two earrings (post & hoop style) wedding ring set, wide band, etc.

There will be small flowers incorporated into the design which may consist of Gold and/or enameling. Everyday, I'll update the status of my project. I hope you'll enjoy seeing how this project comes together.
So this is where it starts...
...and this is what I'm staring at...
...and several times a day, I'll show you where I get to.

Well after about two hours this is where I'm at, I'm laying out the design.
Although you can see the depth of the wax, it's very 3-deminsional.
Twigs don't grow flat so some of the twigs are actually
coming towards me as I sculpt them.
I want stones on the tips of some of the twigs while other tips will have buds, so I'll have to make sure I can flutter my stones evenly while sculpting the wax.
...OK, back at it.
hmmm...

Better...it was missing a twig.

Now is a good time to walk away for a while and start on the twig chain...I want to follow through on all the way to the back. So I will be sclpting the chain to match the twig. Once that's completed, I'll go back and work on the necklace twiggie texture and buds.

I know I'm going to add flowers...what kind is going to be fun.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

My last Oncidium Jiuhbao Gold ‘Tainan’ AM/AOS Pendant


Oncidium Jiuhbao Gold ‘Tainan’ AM/AOS
American Orchid Society (AOS) asked me to re-create Oncidium Jiuhbao Gold ‘Tainan’ AM/AOS which was featured on their 50th Year Poster in 2009. Needless to say...I was nervous! I tried very hard to mimic the different flips and curls in my wax model as shown in the poster.


I've decided to part with last Sterling Silver Pendant, if interested you can find out more on my Etsy site.

For Additional Photos & Price, Click Here


Monday, May 21, 2012

Fan Coral & Starfish Pendant



Fan Coral Pendant

This is a pretty awesome piece because when I sculpted the wax, I really tried to get the depth and the texture into the fan coral plus a little sculpted Starfish just laying on the coral.

I love texture on jewelry, this is why I choose to be a lost wax artist...the wax allows me to mimic what nature gives me before I cast my jewelry.
Materials: Solid 14k Yellow Gold Starfish, Sterling Silver Fan Coral
Pendant Size: Fan Coral - 1 3/4" High

Monday, May 14, 2012

Made to Order Calla Lily Cuff - Sketch

Calla Lily Cuff
Beautiful flowing Calla Lily Cuff with two leaves, one slightly covering the lily and the other tucked under the lily, each design of mine is hand-sculpted in wax before cast in sterling silver.
Each piece is then finished with a high-end polish for a quick cleaning.

The finished piece will be 3/4" wide (Lily and Leaf width) smallest width will be 1/4" cuff band.
This piece will be a Limited Edition of 20 which will be signed plus a Certificate of Authenticity will come with each piece.
I will make a mold of the piece but for only 20, this way I can spend the necessary time to sculpt the original. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and will spend weeks just sculpting the wax. I look at every piece as though I would wear it.
Below I have posted one of my Calla Lily Necklaces so that you can get a good idea about the work I sculpt plus my finishes.


Options: This piece is priced based on Sterling Silver.  If you would like to add gold accents, please e-mail me for a quote based on current gold prices. A Rhodium and Yellow Gold Plated are also optional, please e-mail me for additional cost.
Note: This cuff is "M A D E - T O - O R D E R" and process of my wax will be photographed and posted weekly so that you can see my process...it's a pretty amazing process that I don't mind showing you.
Sizing your Cuff: Please indicate your wrist size in the "Note to Seller" box, I will customize the cuff to fit you by adjusting the wax before casting. A soft measuring tape wrapped around the wrist above the bone will give me an accurate measure of your wrist.
Shipping: All items are shipped by USPS Priority Mail (USA) with Insurance plus Confirmation to track the package for delivery if necessary. All paid by me.

This cuff will be based on my Calla Lily Necklace (shown below)
This necklace is also a pre-ordered piece,
please e-mail me for the current price.

One more inspirational shot...

Inspirational Bug!

This little guy has been bugging me to take his picture all morning, and I know why too!
Look at the beautiful detail in his wings...amazing!

If I ever decide to do Bugs, Butterflies or Dragonflies...this guy will go up as my new screen's wallpaper on my computer, which means I would have to take off my coral..........well...........maybe not yet.

Anyway, back to work. I have 6 new sketches that have to be designed by Friday


Direct Check Out Available on Etsy!

I love this new feature!


ETSY is now excepting Credit Cards DIRECTLY in my shop instead of having to go through PayPal.
PayPal is great, but this is wonderful.

So what this means is that you can purchase my jeweler in my Etsy Store with a credit card, which in my opinion, Etsy is now among the big boys and I'm a happy little girl.

My shop will be accepting Visa, MC, Discovery and American Express!


My Inspiration Tray

Inspiration Tray

I'm not sure if every artist has one of these but I have to have a few of these around, this is my largest inspiration tray that sits on my studio table. It's filled with shapes, texture and some of natures coolest designs. The shells are for some of my upcoming projects and the driftwood is an everyday staple that I like having around...I love the flowing lines, you just can't improve on perfection.

I love nature such as twigs, leaves and flowers but lately, the sea life has taken over my mind, in fact you'll see a lot of new pieces coming up soon from my little tray below.

This is my mobile inspiration tray...I can carry this little tray everywhere...kitchen, living room or patio. It does double duty, the tray is a flower which was a little bit of inspiration for the Cosmos Collection coming soon.
The darker shell to the left, well that shell design was sculpted into a ring and then I added my Fusion detail into the side of the ring. This will be one of those OMG "Boca" size rings that I love sculpting so much.
The bottom right...that's a texture thing and as far as the starfish, that's an everyday thing, because Starfish are just cool!
If you have an inspiration tray, plate, box, etc...send me a picture and I'll post it on my blog. I would love to see what inspires you to create beautiful objects.
Send a picture to my e-mail at: dawnvertrees@gmail.com



Monday, May 7, 2012

A Very Thoughtful Card...



I'm not usually one for words...I like for my work to speak for me but I just wanted to post a copy of a very thoughtful card sent to me by one of my youngest clients. His name is Juston. 

Don & I met Juston while doing the Ft. Lauderdale Orchid Show and Juston was helping his Mom and Dad, who are Orchid Growers, answer questions about the plants, packing them up as well as carrying the newly purchased orchids to the customers car. Sometimes Juston got a tip...sometimes not but Juston was OK with...each tip he received was more than he expected plus, every tip he made was going for a gift for his mother.

Juston would hang out at our booth, with one eye on his booth over in the corner while looking over the jewelry. He would ask a question about a pearl or a stone, then he would think about it, carry out a few more orchids, come back and ask some more questions to the point he settled on one of my Ocean Reef Rings with a little 14k gold starfish which lays on the fan coral! He said his mom just finished painting in their house and it had starfishes painted on the wall so he thought his mom would really enjoy the ring with a starfish. 

Don & I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Juston...he was great salesman, even I bought an Orchid from him, but it wasn't just an Orchid...he had listen to me talk about all of my orchid growing failures because I constantly over water them and then just die. Anyway, Juston hearing this, brought over a Jewel Orchid and he said...you can't kill this one, it loves water and proceeded telling me why water was OK for this particular orchid. Well to make a long story short...I still have my orchid and it's the only orchid I'll ever buy. 

After reading the card you may be thinking? Why would I send him a card that saved him time...well, I knew Juston couldn't drive so I purchased a Hallmark card with words saying...where would I be without you Mom? ...and then shows a little boy under a bunch of dirty clothes, well you get the picture. I thought after talking with Juston for three days, I think I picked the right one I hope.

Once he recieved the ring, a couple of days later I recieved this card and I wanted to share it...I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 

I will cherish this card for a long time.

Thanks you Juston!