Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Mother's Heart

The show in the Gallery was there for about three weeks.  There weren't many visitors to the gallery during that time but there were a few that made staying open the extra few days worth it.

Krystal was one of those visitors who stopped in, found some jewelry she liked and asked us if we ever made anything that someone else designed for us.  Basically she was talking about a commission.  Both Swan and I do commissions, which sometimes are a little daunting.  We want to make something the customer will be happy with, but can't get into their heads to see what they are thinking.

Krystal wanted to have a ring made that her son would design.  Her son is 17 and has muscular dystrophy.  I suggested that he probably could make the ring himself.  So we set up a class for her son Alex, and his cousin Brandon (who helps him out.)

We decided to have Alex make a by-pass ring.  The by-pass ring is made flat, fired and then bent around a ring mandrel.   I expected Alex to use some of the ready made textures and molds to create his ring, but he had different ideas.  Instead, he created his own texture on the band with the handle of a needle tool and a drawing tool.  The top of the ring was also drawn free hand by Alex.  His idea was to create a cog type of design.

It was definitely tiring work for Alex but he did it.   I sanded the pieces, added the stones, pasted on the top pieces and finished it after firing.

His creation is definitely a ring to warm a mother's heart (and anyone else who knows this young man.)
He made us all proud.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lovely! (Both the process and the result!)