IMPRESSIONS

Chrysocolla & Sterling Silver Ring

This ring is special to me for a lot of reasons.  I was prevailed to be one of the first ‘complex’ metal projects for Step by Step Wire Magazine.   They’re now defunct – I hope it wasn’t me…

Moving on, another reason this is a special ring is the sum of the parts is greater than any individual part.  The chrysocolla is Mexican, the stamps are Navajo, and the silver is, well, silver is fungible, so who knows? While I don’t think this ring shows us we can all get along, even if we come from different places, I do think it shows that life is more interesting when you mix it up a little bit.  But on to impressions.

I love stamping metal. There is something satisfying about getting a good hammer strike on the stamp and leaving a discernable impression in the metal.  When you put a bunch of different stamps together, you can really be creative.  You can get factory-made stamps, or handmade stamps like the ones I used on this ring.

I love the organic feel of the handmade stamps. I’ve made some stamps, and its hard work!  So I really appreciate a good stamp.  Handmade stamps aren’t always exactly perfect, which leaves the observer with the impression that this was made by hand and not mass-produced in some sweat shop.  And I think it’s a big part of their charm.

When you have lots of stamps, you can create all kinds of patterns by mixing and matching, and the piece becomes uniquely you.  There are some tricks to good stamping and it takes practice. I’ve ruined a few pieces by mis-placing the LAST impression.  Why is it always the last one? In spite of that, I think the results are worth the effort.  I get to leave MY impression on a piece of jewelry that will probably out-live me, and I think that’s really cool.

We all leave impressions in our life, on people, places, businesses, etc.  And just like stamping, sometimes we don’t leave good impression.  But we can usually make it right.  So what impressions will you make today? Will you create, tear down,