A Story of Two Rings - Congratulations to Kristi and Ike

So begins a tale of two rings, I was asked by Kristi, a previous Arizona student to custom design and make her wedding bands. After a little research she decided she wanted their rings to look like twigs. Kristi emailed me some examples she found on the web, they were twigs carved out of wax with a leaf holding in the stone. As I don't like to copy other people's designs exactly, I said I could do something similar, but I would cast mine from Natural Twigs rather than carved from wax. I believe this makes them unique and more special. She wanted them made out of a white metal and hers with a stone setting. After much back and forth about types of stones, the decision was for Palladium with a round Alexandrite. Since I can't cast Palladium I decided I would have to cast the originals in bronze, make a mold of the ones they liked, and inject them with wax to be sent off to the Palladium caster. I used a few different types of twigs for the samples, including some from a cherry tree of which they liked the best.

These were the options I offered. I sent the two grooms rings for Ike to try and decide on what felt the best, and the one brides ring that Kristi liked for them to try for size and comfort.

Final Choices on style.
One Decision down!

After some difficulty in finding the right size of Alexandrite in an affordable price, I threw out a couple other options. I supplied photo's with different size and shapes of stones. As an example I used some random stones I had so she could get a better idea of how it might look.

Stone choice was an oval Iolite. (Photo shows an Amethyst)







During the trial period Kristi and Ike decided the Palladium was out of their price range for the moment, as Kristi was just accepted into a college program and so the purse strings tightened a bit. They decided to stick with Sterling Silver after all and that I could cast myself. After making some changes based on Kristi and Ike's preferences, here are the final wedding bands.

And, my little treat to them, I made a cute little custom box with a surprise note and ring pillow inside!

I used a cool box pattern from this website, and modified it a bit.

Wedding Photo's yet to come, stay tuned!

Great New Natural Fiber

Many of my hand felted wool pieces are made with a Merino Wool/Tencel Blend. I thought I would post some information on this great new 'Man Made' Natural Fiber. I did a search for a few websites that had information on what Tencel was and these are some informative sites :
eartheasy.com
srfabrics.com
lenzing.com

Here are some excerpts from these sites, but please visit them for more detailed information.

Eart Easy.com-Tencel is made from cellulose in wood pulp, which is harvested from tree-farmed trees. Cellulose is the natural polymer that makes up the living cells of all vegetation. The tree farms have been established on land unsuitable for food crops or grazing.
The fiber is produced via an advanced 'closed loop' solvent spinning process, with minimal impact on the environment and economical use of energy and water. The solvent used in the process is toxic but 99% is recovered and continually recycled. Production plant emissions are significantly lower in comparison to many other man-made fiber operations.

The closed loop process process used to manufacture lyocell fiber does not require bleach, which is commonly used in the production of other fabrics. Tencel/lyocell products contain no free chlorine and are sold as "TCF - products". The European Union awarded this process the Environmental Award 2000 in the category "technology for sustainable developments".


Silk Road Fabrics.com-Tencel ,developed by Tencel, Inc for Lyocell fibers, is the first new fiber in 30 years, and being made of wood pulp cellulose, it is the first new natural fiber in a lot longer than that.
Tencel is a manufactured fiber, but it is not synthetic. Tencel begins with cellulose which is processed with a non-toxic, recyclable dissolving agent, most of which is recycled back into the fiber manufacturing process.
Tencel can be woven in 100% tencel fabrics, or blended with other fibers. Like other natural fibers, tencel is naturally biodegradable. Tencel is yarn dyed and absorbs colors much better than most other fibers, and it is particularly striking in deep tones, taking on a jewel-like appearance. Tencel is a stable a fiber as silk and better than cotton or linen. And it feels like nothing you have ever touched - it both feels and looks sensuous.

Hand Felted Wool Hand bags