Rachel Joy VanRooyen, Handcrafted Jewellery
Mixed-medium Wearable Artwork
Welcome to my Workspace...
Here's a little insight into how my jewelry is made...
Me, hammering 'Fiddle-heads'.
Making silver 'fiddle-heads' out on the back steps late in March...
Me, making glass beads (lamp-working).
Me, in my goggles, a little flushed from the heat of the torch and the kiln.
'Fiddle-heads' in progress. I use them as the stems that I build my earrings on and as accents for various other designs.
A Treasure Pendant, my signature design. This one includes dyed and painted wood, hammered silver fiddle-heads, lamp-work glass beads, natural jasper, natural tiger-eye, 'Tibetan Cast Bronze' beads and brass wire. It is strung on a 24" length of canvas cord. It hangs from a clasp that enables the wearer to remove it and transfer it to a different length of cord or to a gold or silver chain for dressier occassions. This style sells for $60.
Glass rods waiting to be melted in the flame of my torch and spun into glass beads. (Known as Lamp-work, Flame-work, or Torch-work.)
Glass beads, finished cooling in my annealer (bead kiln) and ready to be removed from the mandrels.
Wooden beads and shapes waiting to be dyed and painted.
Beads drying after a coat of paint.
Various semi-precious stones and shells waiting to be incorporated into my designs.
My drill press and anvil and hammer (on the work bench, middle left)
Dipping my lamp-work glass beads in etching solution to make them matte
instead of shiny.
Rinsing the etching solution off of my glass beads.
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