Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

I made cages!   Tiny cages!   While practicing some of the steel wire techniques I learned from Keith Lo Bue’s http://www.lobue-art.com/  online class, I realized that my collection of tumbled stones just might be the start of a new line of jewelry…..Caged Stones!     So here is my first necklace.   Watch for the new series on my Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/lindabrittdesign    First I made spirals and turned them into tiny cages.   Then I made ‘s’ links and jump rings and combined everything.     I brushed and buffed them, waxed them and inserted the dyed turquoise.   I need more practice to really control the consistency but I like the first piece!

Arizona has many beautiful parks and this one is found near Camp Verde AZ.   It is one of 380 parks in the National Park System.   Tuzigoot is an Apache word for crooked water.   This prehistoric community was built between 1125 and 1400 and sits on the summit of a long ridge 120 feet above the Verde Valley.   In some places the original buildings were 2 stories high and there were 77 ground floor rooms.   There were about 50 people settling here in the 1100’s and that apparently doubled in the 1200’s.   The Southern Sinagua people lived by farming corn, beans, squash and cotton using canal irrigation.   We don’t really know why the people left their homes – perhaps overpopulation, disease, conflicts or weather pattern changes.     What we do know is that they were fine artisans and made stone tools – knives, axes, and hammers.    Their pottery was generally undecorated and often coated with a red or black color that was highly polishe...

I walked through the forest on a sunny day. Butterflies flitted from flower to wildflower gathering nectar. Bird songs filled the air.   I took a deep breath and was at ease with the world. Sunshine flowed through swaying pine branches. Rocks glittered with the light. Moss grew in the shade on the north side of the trees. Wildflowers scattered color and scent among the stones and trees. The yellows, greens, browns, rust and gold fed my soul. Here I sit with my beads, my wire, and my photographs. I dream of that walk again and create my ‘forest walk’ necklace.   The silver clay setting has a small polished dark stone surrounded by memories of flowers and leaves in relief.   A little engraving of vines and a hint of yellow (Gilder’s Paste) complete the silver part of the design.   My picture of a butterfly on wildflowers is set in the upper bezel protected with Ice Resin that magnifies the details.   Small tumbled beads, the colors of my walk, are amber, glass, ma...

Have you ever started a project and all of a sudden you realize your concentration is focused on a part of the project and you aren’t progressing?   You’re just stuck thinking about the same thing over and over?   Well, as most of you know, I make jewelry using silver metal clay.   I like to put the Mojave Stone cabochons that my dad cut and polished in bezels and design around the stone.   Let me share with you how I got stuck in the process.     Bezel shaped to fit a stone  I decided that I would make the bezels (the thin strip that goes around the stone and holds it in place) out of the same silver metal clay as the setting.I made a mold for the stone by pushing it into polymer clay (plastic clay that holds its shape) and carefully removed it.   Then I poured jeweler’s investment (that is a type of plaster) into the mold, let it dry and used it as a plug.   The plug holds the space for the stone and can be fired with the clay in a kiln. ...