Rather than just sketching ideas for jewelry, I notice that lately my drawings are becoming more elaborate and storied. There is something physical and primal about making marks with a pen, and I find my mind quickly becomes attentive to each line as it appears on the surface of the paper.
After working on my jewelry for most of the day, I find it relaxing to draw in the evenings. On weekends, I love visiting bookstores and drawing anything that catches my eye from the books I find. Rather than just sketching ideas for jewelry, I notice that lately my drawings are becoming more elaborate and storied. There is something physical and primal about making marks with a pen, and I find my mind quickly becomes attentive to each line as it appears on the surface of the paper. I always carry a notebook wherever I go. I never know when an idea will come, and if I don't catch it when it arrives, it will go find someone else who will.
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A friend of mine came by my studio the other day and excitedly said, show me the machine you make your jewelry with! The machine? I asked, puzzled. You mean these? I replied, and showed her my hands. Her visit made me realize that in sharing my process, I have been guilty of the curse of knowledge. In their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath describe this curse by saying that the more you know about a specific subject, the harder it is to explain it to someone who knows nothing about it. Since I too enjoy learning how others do what they do, I decided to document each step of my jewelry making process for those of you who have never seen it before. My method for making a ring is simple and probably medieval, but I love how immediate it is, and how anyone who wants to learn to make jewelry can do it with simple tools and a small investment. I begin by drawing the outline of a ring pattern I previously made on a sheet of 100% recycled sterling silver. To discourage toxic mining, I only use silver that is extracted from photographic proceses. After I cut the basic outline with metal shears, I saw the final shape of the ring using a blade that is so thin, it usually breaks. You can see the delicate broken blades to the right of the adjustable saw frame. As I saw, I pass the blade through candle wax to ease cutting. I use my hammer to give texture to the silver sheet, and to stamp my logo and sterling silver mark in the center, using custom steel punches. I smooth the rough edges of the cut-out ring using files and sand paper. I then re-heat it with my torch, to make it maleable enough to wrap around a cone-shaped metal tool, called a ring mandrel. I use a rawhide mallet to help me hammer and shape the ring without damaging its surface. The ring mandrel has measurements that help me determine the ring size. Once the ring is fully formed, I continue to work on the design elements that will be soldered on the front of the ring. To heat silver, I use a small butane torch like the one used by Chefs to make crème brûlée. Sterling silver always fuses into a ball whenever you heat it long enough. I use scraps of sterling silver sheet to make small balls which I will then individually solder onto the ring band. I flatten each silver ball with a hammer. Then I use tiny bits of solder (a silver and copper alloy that melts at a lower temperature than sterling silver) to fuse each silver ball to the surface of the ring, using my torch. To complete my design, I cut two strips of sterling silver wire that I will solder alongside the central row of silver balls. I place the ring band on a heat resistant firebrick surface, and carefully solder each ball and length of wire using my torch. The soldered ring, before I give it its final patina. To darken or oxidize the ring, I soak it in liver of sulphur diluted in hot water. This smells like rotten egg, and is my boyfriend's least favorite part of my work, since my studio is inside our apartment. I rinse the darkened ring in cold water mixed with sodium bicarbonate to stop the oxidation process. To finish the ring, I polish the raised design with fine steel wool and a file board. I leave the rest of the ring dark. With wear, the ring band will eventually abrade and lighten, but the recessed areas will always remain dark. The ring is now complete. When my boyfriend and I moved in together seven years ago, we purchased several beautiful woven straw mandala mats from an old man on the street. They now hang in almost every room of our home, and whenever I observe them I always feel calm and centered. I think it is their order and symmetry that transforms my agitated mind. Inspired by these wall pieces, I began a new series of sterling silver Mandala earrings. To show you how I made them, my boyfriend, Abhaya, took pictures while I was at work. As you can see by the images, each piece has a chiseled design that radiates from the center. The Mandala earrings are for sale here. For the past few weeks I have been working on a project that is close to my heart: a virtual gallery to showcase every piece I've made since I began creating jewelry five years ago. As I sorted through all of my pictures, I felt lucky to curate my own retrospective, just as I feel fortunate to be able to share my work and ideas every day. I think artists of the past would have had much better lives had they been able to show their work so easily. As a child of the seventies, I am still in awe of the possibilities of the digital world. My creative work is like a web of ideas that are tied together, and one idea leads to the next. As I looked back, I was struck by how many pieces I had forgotten I'd made, and I saw possibilities that I had not seen before, ideas that can be developed further, gaps in the web that want to be filled. I hope my work inspires others to create their own network of ideas, and that this leads to a world enriched by more and more unique personal perspectives. My archive is finally complete and you can see it in the gallery section of my website, or by clicking here. I will be adding new pieces as I create them. I have been working on a series of jewelry pieces combining brass wire with oxidized sterling silver. The way the rich gold contrasts against the dark foreground reminds me of National Geographic images of molten lava streaming over black rocks from a volcanic eruption. It's perhaps because of this association that my first rings feel organic. These rings are available in my shop. Many of the techniques I use to make jewelry I learnt from books or friends. Knowing how much I like to draw, my dear friend Cynthia, from Taller Serra, taught me to etch on silver using nail polish as a resist and nitric acid as an etching agent. I begin by cutting sterling silver sheet in egg shapes to continue my Beginning of the Universe series. These pictures document my etching process. I darken the etched silver eggs using liver of sulphur (or rotten egg, as my beau calls it). The Cityscape Cameo necklace is for sale here. |
welcomeI am Jennifer Musi, the jewelry artist behind MUSIBATTY, and this is my blog archive.
Here you can find posts from December 2013, to May, 2016. I will no longer update this site. Please click on the link below to see my recent work. @musibattyOn Social Media
ConnectRespectI made this blog to share my work with you. I believe in generosity and I want to live in a world where we all inspire each other.
All of my designs and photographs are copyrighted. If you would like to reproduce them in any way, please email me first. Archives
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