One of my favorite jewelers of all time is John Paul Miller. Several years ago, whilst attending a party at a SNAG convention in Cleveland, I actually saw a few ladies sporting some of his fantastic creations.

     I was looking at his work today trying to gain some inspiration for my Earring Trio project. The Youtube video below was nice because it showed some of the work in his sketch books.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0z8m1fP0Zs

     This article about him also showed several images of his work. I am smitten with his crabs, spiders, snails and other creatures that may have an unsavory image for some, that he managed to make so elegant.  http://www.clevelandart.org/events/exhibitions/jewelry-john-paul-miller

     The crab image above is a particular favorite. The entire design is just genius. So simple, yet so evocative of crab.

     

Tool Making

Making custom tools was part of the chasing and repousse project.I made mostly smaller ones since my project will be pretty detailed.

                                         Some of the small tools during the sanding process.

                                          Finished tools in  my grubby paws.


Here's a link to a Youtube tutorial on tool making. Most of this was info covered in class, but there was a tip on how long to make one's tools around the ten minute mark that I hadn't heard before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9R3z_tv0ag

Inspiration for project #1-Linda Kindler Priest

                                                    "Rooster" brooch

                                                 "Black Buck Antelope" brooch

                                                  "Dreams of the Big Cheese" brooch

      While prowling around the internet for examples of work done with chasing and repousse Linda Kindler Priest's work came up several times. She has done quite a bit with animals, which will be included in my project, so her work was helpful to look at in order to see how others have handled eyes and fur and other textures on critters.
A few links to some of her work and her own site which features a good example of an artist statement:

http://www.lkindlerpriest.com/

http://www.facerejewelryart.com/artist.php?id=21

http://www.velvetdavinci.com/allimages.php?action=show&id=109

http://www.wearableartblog.com/my_weblog/2013/03/linda-kindler-priest.html