My Precious…

How many of my jewelry folk out there have quietly been stockpiling pieces of Holly Gage’s titanium over the years.  I know, I know, she is an amazing jewelry artist (http://www.hollygage.com/) ; but when she whips out those trays of tiny, practically luminescent pieces of metal, no one can resist digging through for the perfect piece. Whether it be at PMC conventions, or a class in the wilds of Pennsylvania; there we all are, standing in line to buy just one more piece.  I swear it is crack for metalsmiths!

Of course, after you have accumulated enough pieces, you have to actually make a piece of jewelry out of at least one of them.  Apparently, hanging around in your studio turning them over in your hands and mumbling, “my precious….” over and over does not support good mental health.  To that end, this past weekend I signed up for the perfect class – Holly’s class on prong settings and bezels.  For two days, we co-addicted metalsmiths ran our hands over the trays of rainbow colored metals, and tried to listen carefully as Holly taught us some amazing methods for setting titanium.  Alas, my phone was slowly fading, but I did manage to get this pic of one of the trays, and another pic of two of Holly’s stunning pieces.

Holly's work - not to be confused with our efforts.

Shades of gold, blue and purple - Heaven!

I’ll always treasure the vision of Holly leaning over a student’s work, looking over her glasses, and somehow through her hair – and telling yet another student that “You’re almost there.”  Of course, my pic of my final piece will have to await another post, since it is more definitely not there yet.  Thanks Holly – another great class.  We’ll be scheduling the Titanium Anonymous meetings soon!