25 September 2008

A Nod to Iza

LinkThis fibula pin was done as a study of Iza Malczyk's work. I love her style and wanted to do make a piece that incorporated some of the techniques she uses. The woven bead cap (second from the right), in particular, is her innovation. I followed the tutorial published in Step-by-Step Wire (Summer 2007), except that I used 28 gauge Argentium silver instead of 30 gauge fine silver for the weaving. Every other aspect of the work consists of common techniques, but I tried to emulate the way she combines shape and texture. Overall, I like how it turned out, except that I feel it is unbalanced; I wish the large loop on the right were smaller. I think this was also the first time I oxidized my silver. As you can see, Argentium may be tarnish resistant, but is certainly not tarnish-proof, and so can certainly be oxidized. The beads in the pin are (from left to right): faceted glass, amethyst, sugilite, and amethyst. I worked on this over the course of about a month in the spring, but only just thought about posting a photo here.

3 comments:

Cattrix said...

I like that it is asymmetrical. It is interesting to the eye. I love the beadcap one of these days I am going to get that tutorial.
I like your pin.

Mei Tan said...

I love Iza's work and style too especially the bead cap. If I have more time in hand I would love to try out some of her techniques. This pin of yours is very well done. It looks wonderful, don't notice the "unbalanced" part.

Jan, I notice that my link on the right is not updated, it shows that I only updated my blog 3 months ago but in fact I update it at least few time a week. Maybe you can check that link out. :) thanks.

Anonymous said...

woo..very nice work...