Dragon Part II

This is a large piece, so I added the wires in two stages, starting with the face and main divider lines. All those tiny scales are going to want to drift all over the place, so it's better to have everything else already fired in place first.

When I bent my wires, I used extra care to make sure the scales would fit as perfectly as possible.  With so many tiny little pieces of wire, one too-large piece could throw the whole design out of whack.  Even so, I spent time trimming things as I was laying in the wires.  

It looks like a lot of gold now, but ultimately, it's going to be a red dragon.  I used a foundation of 24K gold leaf so the reds will be as brilliant as possible.  

Happy Year of the Dragon!

One of the most common questions I get asked at shows is "How long did it take to make that?"  Well, it's complicated, because I tend to work on at least a dozen pieces all at once, usually one or two showcase pieces, plus some earrings and cuff links to fill it all in.  

But to give you a sense of the time it takes, I spent 5 hours bending the wires for the single dragon necklace shown in the above image.  I'm pretty psyched about it- I used 24K gold wires, and it's going to be a brilliant red dragon.  If all goes well, it should be complete by the time I go to the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore in February.  I will keep you posted!

Also, here are some highlights from last years work that I totally meant to put on my blog, but never really got around to it.  It's way more fun to make art than to blab about it online, but I've resolved to be better about it in 2012.  Seriously.  :P