A custom & one for the shop

This ring may look familiar, as it's the same one pictured in my blog header. This was one of several pieces that I first made when I decided to venture into selling my jewelry. I didn't have any equipment nor the money to buy any (oh I miss the days of having access to a fully stocked jewelry studio...), but I did have dental tools.

I've done a bit of casting in all of my jewelry classes, and have cast everything from carved rings and pendants to seed pods and barbie hands. While I enjoy casting, I've always done it somewhat sparingly compared to fabrication - I would enjoy it for shorter periods of time and welcomed the break from torches and solder, but I was always excited to go back to them.

Since wax and casting were the only methods used in the beginning of my etsy shop, I got incredibly burned out. I still have various rings, pendants, etc that need to be cleaned up and photographed but I have no desire to do anything with them at the moment. So they sit, with their nubby sprues and bits of investment clinking around each other in my drawers.

And now that I have gotten completely off topic, here is the ring. She really liked the design of the cast ring, which I still had sitting around (though finished!) and wanted to add a stone. I brought in a random selection of smaller stones that I had and let her choose what she wanted and how she wanted it to sit on the ring.

And for the shop, we have a gothic set of stackers - 2 sparkling rose cut garnets in black and dark red.

For the record, (red) garnets are thus far the most difficult stone to capture with my camera. They usually just look black, no matter what tricks I pull out of my DSLR.

Also, I am on a mission to get my shop UPDATED with all of the items I have laying around! I have these rings, the tiny warm stack, a tiny stacker on its own, the persimmon necklace, a pair of mod moons, and that's just what I can think of off hand.