The slightest change can upset a design

I’ve been working on more design ideas for the contest this summer. My goal this week was to play with the helm’s chain and see what sort of fun I can have with it!

It didn’t seem like a hard concept when I started. I got rings from the same company I normally buy from. I sat down and started to knit the chain, and realized I was in a fight. The chain, despite being knit correctly, wasn’t forming properly.

I double checked to make sure the rings are the same size. They are. I checked the gauge. While one ring size was the same gauge, the other was slightly off, creating a snugger fit in an already snug design!

I’m fairly annoyed at the company’s QA department for not having stricter standards, and now I have to go searching for somewhere else to get my rings from!

Religious jewelry in ancient Egypt

The piece of interest is way down at the bottom of the page, but i’s just a little blurb on the role of jewelry in Egyptian religion.

Excerpted:

Physician, priest and magician were one in ancient Egypt. It would not be unusual, for example, for a patient to have a dog bite treated with a paste of berries and honey and then bandaged, after which the priest would utter an incantation over the wound and give the patient a magical amulet to wear.

Healing was an art that was addressed on many levels. The sanctuaries of the gods often had sanatoria attached to them, allowing physician-priests to perform ‘miraculous healings’.

In those days, amulets were small objects that ancient Egyptians wore, carried or offered to a deity, in the belief that they would impart a magical kind of protection to the wearer.

In ancient Egypt, amulets might be carried, used in necklaces, bracelets, rings, or even small statues. They were often placed among a mummy’s bandages to ensure the deceased a safe, healthy and productive afterlife.

Egyptian amulets functioned in a number of ways. Symbols and deities generally conferred the powers they represented. Small models that represented known objects, such as headrests or arms and legs, served to ensure those items were made available to the individual or that a specific need could be addressed.
Magic contained in an amulet could be understood not only from its shape. Material, colour, rarity, the grouping of several forms, and words said or ingredients rubbed over the amulet could all be the source for magic that granted the possessor’s wish.

Pretty interesting read. It also explains why jewelry found in tombs often is in specific shapes.

Jewelry as swag option

It occurred to me in working with the pieces-in-progress the other day that scanned images of jewelry has potential use beyond showcasing the pieces in question.

I’ve mentioned before the possible application of using it to develop ATCs. I think it would actually be interesting to develop a line of swag around one’s own jewelry designs. It’s artistic. It’s unusual. It’s a cute marketing idea if done correctly.

I may have to look into this when I finally sit down to start designing site swag!

Playing with my design notebook

A friend asked for a quote on one of my designs last week, right after my dance with the pieces-in-progress. I was flipping through my notebook to see if it was already there, or if I needed to create a page for it and do all the calculations.

The way my notebook is set up currently, the right page is used to title a piece, list its materials, draw out its jig patterns, draw a rough (and I do mean rough) sketch of the piece in question, and house the calculations of the creation cost, wholesale price, and retail price for the piece.

I’ve deliberately left the left page blank for additional notes on the piece. Tips for creating the piece more easily in the future, ideas for versioning the design, things like that.

It’s occurred to me that it might be worth it to print off the scanned images of each piece and put that on the left side as a representation of what the finished piece looks like, just in case my sketches leave me scratching my head…which they often do.

It also occurs to me that I should cross post these entries over on my jewelry design blog, too. Another thing for this week’s to-do list, I guess!

Originally posted on deviantArt

What is an ATC?

I found myself recently wondering the same thing.

An ATC is an Artist Trading Card. Artists create a series of these cards, which seem to be the size of a baseball trading card on average. From what i can tell so far in my research, artists put a piece of their artwork on one side and information about the piece on the back. They then carry around these colorful, informative creations and exchange them with other artists.It’s an interesting way to collect interesting art, and to meet new artists.

I’ve been looking at this concept for about a week now, trying to decide how well it would work for those who don’t draw or paint. No decisions yet, but I’m still thinking about it.