This is my entry -- Earth -- for the Elements contest [link]

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The idea for this set actually came from the metal itself. I was trying to solder a couple of sheets of brass flush for my Vincent Valentine claw (yeah I'm STILL working on that lol!) until I found out about a company in town that actually sells larger sheets of brass (which was good, because I couldn't solder them flush for the life of me!). Anyhow, before quitting, I made several attempts and cooked the brass so stinkin' hard that it oxidized like mad. I had originally planned to just use the brass anyway for something else and sand the crap out of it to get rid of the oxidation, until a friend pointed out to me that the oxidation on the bras was very pretty. And, indeed it was -- blotches of red, orange, brown, black, and even rose/pink and purple. So, I punched out some circles of the oxidized brass and bowled them out with another punch set (or whatever you call it lol). Then I did the same thing with some mokume, only I used smaller circles. Yup, the larger bowls are the brass, and the smaller "bubbles" are mokume (see the description on this piece for more on the mokume process I used). Then I just riveted them together (couldn't do any soldering because I needed to preserve the flame patina and the liver-of-sulfer patina on the mokume). The chains are gold-filled and machine-made -- stuff I ordered from Rio Grande (not worth the time to make jump rings that small!!!). I'd hoped I could just link them directly to the metal pieces, but I needed a couple of hand-made links in between because those machine-made ones were just a tad too small... that kinda slowed me down a bit. The links were made by just cutting off really thin strips of brass with a pair of metal shears, lol! But they still got the job done. The tiger's eye stones are set in brass that was polished. I dunno if you can tell from the picture, but on the earrings, the chains that are attached to the sides of the bowls hang from a hook in the front of the earring. The chain that is attached to the top of the bowl hangs from a link in the earring backing. In other words, the earring's weight hangs from both the front and back of the earring, so it balances for a more comfortable fit. They also hang much better than expected; they flop around alot (dynamic, which was something I've been focusing on for the past couple of semesters) but no matter how much I shake my head they come back to facing forward. In other words, they aren't easily tangled or messed up, which makes for more practicality And... the little cabochons on the necklace lay better than I thought they would. They don't flip around on their backs much

I really feel this set represents "Earth" because of the metal and stone look... Rather than focus on the things that grow on the earth, it's more things that you'd find in the earth itself -- the base components. Not to mention, the dominant shapes are round like the globe lol It was alot of fun to do a set that relied mainly on the natural patterns of the metal and stone. Both the oxidized brass and the mokume had their own individual patterns, as did the tiger's eyes -- no two are alike, which is representative of the diversity of the planet Geez I hope this doesn't sound too cheesy lol

And.... I think that's all I can say about how this set was put together..... Enjoy! And it IS for sale if you want to buy! Send me a note if you're interested in this set or a commission!