Of Faceted Forests and Chainmaille Too

I've been workin' away over here on several projects. Seems like I have about 5 going at any given time. Some work, others don't. Last weekend, when I was more with the don't work than the do work, I decided to switch gears for a minute. Went in to inventory more stones and ended up getting side tracked petting opals again.

Those things are mesmerizing.

Still have no clue what I'll do with those lovelies, but got to thinking... I'd sure like to figure out a way to make a tree with them. Problem is, I'm not a big fan of the uniform type trees, with neat little round stones all lined up in a row. I like my trees to be a  hodge podge of a canopy; mismatched shapes and going every which way. I struggle to puzzle piece each chip into place to get them to look like that. Purposeful hodgepodgery. That’s what I like.

Uniform, nice, neat, round stones don’t work that way. At least not for me. Neither do faceted ones. I’ve tried.

But I was determined. I.want.an.Ethopian.Opal.Tree. The end.

So, being totally afraid of messin’ up my opals, I decided to try my hand again at faceted trees and broke out the rubies and got to it. I figured out a whole new way to wrap things to get the stones to lay in all hodgepodge like and almost loved it. Almost.

Seems I tried to hard. The tree came out great, but I tried to lay some stones in at the roots and sadly, it just doesn’t work for the mini trees. So I tried another. Sapphire, sans root stones.

So much love for it.

The only thing left to do at that point was… reach for the Tanzanite.

So much love for it.

So far, I’ve made 4. Well, 5, but sacrificed the little Amethyst one I was working on last night to the gods of the scrap heap. Right now I’m sittin’ at… 4…

Aren’t they cute?! My little mini faceted forest of sparklies.

The Ruby one will be sacrificed today I think. Those root stones really bug me, so little ruby tree gets remade. Then I want to redo last night’s Amethyst sacrificial lamb, but I’m thinking that will end up a set, for earrings. Plan is to make chains of smaller amethyst to hang from the bottom of the trees. Like rain. Little drops of … Purple Rain.

*cues Prince*

*sings* PuuuurPLE rain, puURRRrrple rain.

Um, yeah, ‘k.

Along with my new little faceted forest, I’ve started another tester chainmail piece. I’m trying to figure out a good one for a necklace. The single spiral didn't work so well, so now I’m trying a double spiral, like past bracelets I’ve made, but this time using smaller rings. I finally got the Aspect Ratio figured out, and it’s weaving up nicely.

My practice piece is bronze. It’s going well enough, I suspect it will show up again later as a bronze bracelet. We’ll see how it all goes when it’s finished.

That’s about all for me, for now.

Adventures in jewelry. W00T!