Spirals and sunflowers . . .

The surprise I was hiding was the item for my recipient for this round of Noblesse Largesse.  My recipient does Rus.  And I might have exhausted a bunch of non-jewellery options (sometimes I feel I put myself into too much of a jewellery-themed box) before I came back to jewellery.

So, I made temple rings.  The bottom set is based on the Viatachi-style rings, which are pretty much spirals with a hook going in the opposite direction, and the other set is inspired by sets found near the upper Volga River (link to an interesting site about temple rings is here).  The wire I used is commercially drawn permanently coloured copper wire in either 14 or 16 gauge.  (I don't remember which one it is, but it is very thick and somewhat difficult to work with, but I like the results.  And the metal beads were on sale - they remind me a little of sunflowers with the large round middle encircled with petals.  I shaped these with pliers, and with the rings with the beads on them, put the beads onto the wire, and then shaped it just enough so that the beads wouldn't move around a lot.  They still move, and had I experience in using a soldering anything, it may have turned out differently.

One of the things I found was that gold and silver were both appropriate for use in this context.  Studying Byzantine art and jewellery, it almost all seems to be gold, so finding silver, and getting a chance to play with it within the context of a similar culture really is fun.

Photo by Ms. Rhianydd
(V. Herschell - https://www.flickr.com/photos/vhersch_rhianydd/)

In other news: I was given admittance to Calontir's Order of the Calon Cross for my work with Noblesse Largesse.  I am beyond ecstatic.  To the right is my scroll, painted and lettered by HL Neathery of Safita, and the scroll text by Master Andrixos Seljukroctonis.

Still, there is always work to be done.

Seriously.

I have two necklaces to complete prior to 

Photo by Ms. Rhianydd
(V. Herschell - https://www.flickr.com/photos/vhersch_rhianydd/)

May 24th - one for an auction at Horse and Falcon, the other for a raffle for Lilies Gate volunteers.

And then a banner for my barony.  And a banner for my lord.  There's a lot still left to do.  But, it's worth it.

One thing I've learned is that time management skills never get any easier.  On the other hand, the quest for fun and knowledge do wait.  And there's so much more to learn and do and have fun with.