Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Maxfield Parrish and Valentine Cameron Prinsep paintings!

I stumbled upon these three glass cabochons a week or two ago and just had to pick them up.  This first one is a print of a Dante Gabriel Rossetti painting. Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, translator and painter. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848.  I've wrapped it in antiqued craft wire/beads. The finished pendant is available for purchase as are the other, yet to be wrapped cabochons. Please click on the images below if you desire a larger view.  

The cabochon pictured below houses a lovely Maxfield Parrish print. His artistic career lasted more than half a century and helped shape The Golden Age of Illustration and the future of American visual arts. (July 25, 1870 - March 30, 1966)

This last cabochon is a print of "At The Golden Gate" painted by Valentine Cameron Prinsep. (Feb. 14, 1838 - Nov. 11, 1904) Prinsep was a British painter also of the Pre-Raphaelite school. In 1876 Prinsep was commissioned by the Indian government to paint the durbar that was held to proclaim Queen Victoria the Empress of India. The result was the painting in this cabochon...turns out the original painting is huge!!

Slithery Serpentine

I completed this pendant last night- my lovely Sister in Law mentioned a while back that she really liked Serpentine so I'd been on the look out for some for a while and eventually a "rockhound" friend of mine happened to cut one! So I grabbed it and wrapped it up in Sterling Silver for her just in time for Valentines Day! I actually had never heard of Serpentine until she mentioned it!  It's aptly named- the Latin "Serpentinus" means "Serpent Rock."  Super cool.  Also while I was researching this particular stone I discovered another really awesome looking stone called "Lizardite!" It too is aptly named but far more rare.  Also, this pendant is pictured with a drum my friend sent to me from Galway, Ireland.  :)  Fun stuff.  

Art Nouveau Inspiration

A 41mm Bronze Mojave Chyrsocolla cabochon wrapped in 14K Gold wire with 14K Gold bead work. Once again I was inspired by my love of Art Nouveau style jewelry.

In the 1890's jewelers began to explore the potential of the growing Art Nouveau style. With the emergence of the Art Nouveau style, a different type of jewelry emerged, motivated by the artist-designer rather than the jeweler as a setter of precious stones-- there was less emphasis on precious stones like diamonds and that made way for less familiar semi precious stones, ivory, horn, molded glass etc.  Please enjoy pictures of my latest handmade creation. 

Handmade copper wire wrapped ring with glass beads

Here is a ring I started probably a good six months ago and just put down for some reason. I picked it back up over the weekend after discovering it in it's half finished, abandoned state and decided to give it another chance.  This ring is made of copper wire and glass beads that I found at a trunk show down in Bristol RI. It is a size 7 1/2 approximately.  This ring has more wire weaving than most of the pieces I've done recently so It's a nice change.  I'd also forgotten how much more forgiving copper wire is when compared to Sterling and 14K Gold! Enjoy!

 This is the back and inside of the ring.