April Bower
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Working in series / Design process

6/28/2016

1 Comment

 
​Someone recently purchased a set of dragonfly earrings and pendant and asked me if I had a bracelet as well? I didn't, but the thought intrigued me. What would one look like? It would have dragonflies of course, but then what? Since the original ear/ pendants are an open three-dimensional dragonfly in silver with copper wings, my first thought was to link them together end-to-end with jump rings and add a simple clasp.  It would be pretty and delicate, but not me. I am not a link chain bracelet person. I am a cuff gal !
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​ So... what would a dragonfly cuff look like? Well, one could pierce out small dragonfly shapes in a solid silver cuff but that wouldn't have 2 tones of copper and sterling or the signature textured copper wings. (I originally made them in silver wings too, but only the copper wings one sold well,  who knew?.)
One could etch or stamp a dragonfly design on a silver or copper cuff, but meh...not very original , and not much like the earring /pendant set. Then I thought of fusing or soldering the copper /silver earring sized dragonflies onto the surface of the cuff in a random dragonfly flight pattern. I settled on three dragonflies the same earring size so I could use existing pattern  (time-saver here). I laid them all out flat on a bracelet blank and fused them down. I did some synclastic forming ( I don't do flat) on the cuff and volia! I was happy with the results and it may become a member of my repeatable or production line.  It needed to be affordable as this is not a high end group, more of a fun day to day  thing, and wearable....another of my parameters.  "Extremely wearable jewelry"

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There are many other design possibilities out there to fit the parameters but for now this one satisfied me and hopefully my customer. I suspect this design will evolve a bit as I make more of them. I already have the idea to alter the edge shape  on the next cuff:    what fun.
​Happy Designing!   

1 Comment

    April Bower

    Metal artist and workshop instructor, April Bower shares information on workshops and retreats, Gallery News, new works of art she's created and news of other artists.

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