This is one of the best pieces I believe I have ever made. It turned out amazing.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

I started out with five 20 gauge base wires and 1 26 gauge weaving wire.  I added peach seed beads along the top of the first wire.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

I wrapped the weave around the stone and secured the stone in the setting by attaching two of the base wires across the back of the stone.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

 Next I did a figure eight weave around four of the base wires to create a bail.  I pulled those bail wires around the front. On side one I did a two two weave and used it to circle the bail.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

 After circling the bail, I took the wires down and created curls in front on the right side.  On the left, I did an alternating 3x4 and a 2x4 weave to create a fluid swoosh down the side.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

This is the finished piece prior to applying Liver of Sulfur.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

 This is the piece after Liver of Sulfur has been applied.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

 Side view to show the light from the Labradorite.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

My jewelry is available on my website and on my Facebook Page.

I decided to make another pendant based on Oxana's Tutorial.  I'll be sharing the video at the bottom again.  I highly recommend checking out her videos.

This is what I created.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Now for the step by step photos.

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

Photography & Jewelry by Renee Sosanna Olson

This item is available for purchase in my Etsy shop!





And here's the video

So last week was a total let down in the mastery department.  This weekend I decided to work on a few sterling silver pendants and test out some etching.

When things go wrong, all you can do is just keep trying. This week I had one piece that was really giving me trouble.  I just said, you know what, keep going.  I had Hubby take a photo of me in the sanding process.  This was the Labradorite that I was working on.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Here are the photos from the rest of the projects.

Photography Renee Sosanna Olson Metal Etching Elijah Olson

Photography Renee Sosanna Olson Metal Etching Elijah Olson

Photography Renee Sosanna Olson Metal Etching Elijah Olson

Jewelry & Photography by Renee Sosanna Olson

Jewelry & Photography by Renee Sosanna Olson

Jewelry & Photography by Renee Sosanna Olson

Here's what the etching process looks like.





Here's my finished work.

Sometime there are those days when nothing seems to go right.  Today was that day.  I spent all day trying to get some pieces done.  Yes, I know I'm practicing.  I know I need to just be patient and work harder on mastering the basics but damn.  Everything I touched turned to crap today.

Here's what mistakes look like.


Lets start with making a ring with three pieces of metal.  A center band and two wire circles.  Sometimes they just don't line up and it just looks a mess.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 Next I was working on creating rune rings in sterling silver.  I heated the wires too much and they warped.  Once bent like that they never straighten back up.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 Here I used too much solder.  You can see the big glob in the center.  I could probably heat it again and try to fix it but I was afraid I would melt the center wire like I did on the last one.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 This one started out really nice.  I had a great stone and the bezel was perfect.  As I was closing the bezel around the stone, the stone shattered.  I had to dig it out and replace it with another stone. As you can see this stone is smaller than the one I had before and the bezel is out of shape at the top.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 This one is a little wonky.  You can see the bezel is twisted and is not straight on the ring shank creating the oval leaning to one side.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 This one I was making a rune ring and I over heated the center, the pieces blew to the top and bottom creating what appears to be a double line.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 Even my wire weaving was bad today.  In this one I used the wrong gauge base wire and created this super chunky rink  It is so heavy.  I need to just cut that wire off and start over.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

 Finally there's this one.  Yeah it is a mess.  All the wires melted, over heated and then fused in the wrong place.  Over all it was a pretty bad day.

Photographer & Jeweler - Renee Sosanna Olson

I shared this because I know sometimes as an artist I only want to share my best work.  I want people to see the good things.  But in those good things; sometimes bad things happen too.  I have to just take a big deep breath and try again.  I'm going to order some new supplies now as this disaster tapped out my stash.  Hopefully next time I'll have something better to share with you.