Family Roots: Fiber Boot Camp

Carol Dekle-Foss

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to introduce you to my dear friend Sharareh, or Shery for short. I met her over a year ago in a metal smith class and instantly fell in love with her work. Her jewelry designs embrace her family traditions and culture yet have a unique modern feel. She incorporates different techniques in expressing her style and has created a niche for her designs. I thought of her immediately for our fiber boot camp because she utilizes a special Persian fabric in some of her work called Termeh.

For this boot camp I challenge you to look at your very own family traditions using textiles, see what inspires you and create something unique. Feel free to leave a comment here with a link to your design. I would love to see what you come up with!

I asked Shery to tell us a little more about herself and what inspires her. Shery's answer:

A beautiful hand woven Termeh bag with Zardozi embroidery,
passed down to Shery from her mom.

"All my life I have had a passion for making jewelry. Early in my life making jewelry for my friends became more than a hobby. I learned how things are made by repairing my friend's jewelry. It has been especially interesting growing up in Persia where history and culture intrigued me. How old things are, 200, 300 years in Persian antique shops. My grandmother had coins from an ancient empire. Since beginning my new life in the United States in 2007, my handcrafted jewelry has found a niche. I have been taking classes, most recently copper enameling, so we will see how I incorporate this with metal engraving that I've been experimenting with."

Thank you Shery for telling us more about yourself and revealing what inspires you!

Ready for a heavy dose of inspiration? Here are some more of Shery's beautiful designs.

Domed sterling silver charm with Termeh paisley

Sterling silver bracelet 

Etched paisleys with Termeh earrings

Shery made these earrings to represent her love for Iran.
The top pair are etched in Farsi, My love Iran

Beautiful sterling silver and rose quartz paisley necklace
with bezel set Australian pink opal

Gorgeous Sterling silver domed paisley ring

Etched brass domed earrings with intricate bead detail

Here is a You Tube video that Shery has provided for us so we can learn more about this amazing textile and it's origins. 

I've also pinned a few examples of Termeh, both machine and handwoven here on my Inspiring fibers Pinterest board.

Shery gave me this beautiful piece of Termeh a while back. I never used it for fear of not doing it justice. It measures about 4 inches square.

 With Shery's fabric, I took our fiber boot camp challenge and made this bracelet.

Brass, sterling silver and enameled flowers accent the intricately detailed Termeh fabric.

I hope this post has inspired and encouraged you to look at what textiles your family has held dear and create some unique designs that may someday become cherished family heirlooms.

Thank you Shery so much for sharing your beautiful creations and letting us know what inspires you! You can visit Shery's facebook page here to see more of her beautiful work.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial day! Let's honor all those who have sacrificed serving in the Armed Forces. 

Thank you for reading!

Inspiring Fibers

Carol Dekle-Foss

Written by Carol Dekle-Foss for Love My Art Jewelry Blog

Hello everyone! I've been playing with fibers a bit and wanted to share some of my latest creations, as well as display some fiber artists who inspire me. First, Sherri Stokey did a great post here on her beautiful macrame jewelry. I will be honest, I am terrible at small detailed work, I just don't have that kind of patience. I truly admire those who can knit and sew in intricate detail. One of my favorite bracelets from Sherri is below. I love the woven work and accent of tiny beads. So beautiful!!! 

You can visit Sherri's Etsy shop here for more to die for designs. 

I'll admit, working with fiber in jewelry has been a challenge for me. I don't dare show some of my earlier work! Seriously, I think there was a crazy lady was in my studio!!! So now, when I use fiber in my designs, I try to add different textures to balance the softness and also play with different color combinations to try and create interest. With lots of practice, I've gotten better!

 I just finished this bracelet. I used some of Marsha's gorgeous silks that you can find in her Etsy shop. The bracelet bar and tiny leaf are my latest ceramic pieces. I love how the glaze colors turned out.

A simple copper etched leaf bracelet with braided waxed linen cord and ceramic beads from Gaea.

I love this simple design. It can be either a bracelet or a necklace. Ceramic beads are made by me, and the silks are from Marsha Neal Studio.

 This is one of my older creations.  I used one of my sandblasted pendants, lampwork beads from All Fired Up Studio, some enameled charms from yours truly (my brief enameling phase), and some sari silk.

Another older necklace. The Tree of Life design was etched and then enameled. I love how the enameling created a crackling affect. I then braided some sari silk and formed a wire loop for the bail.

Now, for some more eye candy. Here are some of my favorite fiber artists, in no particular order.

 Oh my...I fell in love with Debra Dorgan's work when I first laid my eyes on the above cuff. It brings out my inner la bohème. Wow, look at all the intricate detail!

Her little butterfly is too cute!

 These earrings and the cuff below are from Mary of Queen of cuffs. Holy moly look at those gorgeous textures! Swoon!

 And of course, the intricate and meaningful work of Mary Jane Dodd. She inspires me to be more mindful, not only in my jewelry, but everyday life.

I will leave you with this simple design.

A dainty and delicate pendant from Manya at Humming Needles. I love how she combines silk ribbons with embroidery to create beautiful detailed flowers. Visit her Etsy shop to see more beautiful creations!

Thank you for reading!

Written by Carol Dekle-Foss for Love My Art Jewelry Blog

Fiber Boot Camp - More silkiness from me!

Written by Patti Vanderbloemen for the Love My Art Jewelry Blog

I am still trudging along with this boot camp and spent lots of time on Pinterest and such, looking for inspiration.  I found tons of necklaces using silk, with a slider-style bail.  I have never made one of these bails before, so thought I thought I would try my hand at making one.  This technique involved setting a tube rivet.  While I have set commercially made rivets and/or tube rivets in the past, this time I tried cutting my own rivets from copper tubing and using tools I have on hand. 

I could not believe it worked!  I used a variety of dapping tools and the ball-peen end of my goldsmith hammer, as well as my embossing hammer to set the rivet.  I felt I was on a roll and if I did not repeat the process soon, I would forget how I did it, so I made a bunch.  The picture below is of the bails prior to adding a patina.

Still working with my stash of silk from Marsha (source), I selected a lovely lampwork focal from Susan Kennedy (source) and was so happy that the silk matched perfectly!

I am still playing around with PMC and recently made a batch of beads made from copper tubing to which I fired on some textured strips of silver clay.  Most of these beads had tiny little discs soldered to the top, but I left the tops off of a few of them for this very reason.

These copper tube beads are held in place by knotting this silk.

I knotted the silk to the simple copper clasp - which I soldered closed for strength.  Oh, the drape of the necklace is divine!  

I made a second, similar styled necklace, this time featuring a gorgeous lampwork flower bead by Donna Millard (source).

The two strands of silk blend so beautifully with the colors of Donna's lampwork.

This necklace is a bit longer than the first one (I STILL hate photographing necklaces).

In all honesty, I am not loving the two copper tube beads in this necklace and will probably be re-working this design.  The silk in this second necklace is a bit thinner than the silk in the first necklace - it's looking a bit chunky to me....but, you get the idea.

This fiber boot camp has been such a learning experience for me and taught me to "never say never". I NEVER thought I would be able to incorporate these silks amongst all of my heavy-metal jewelry...next thing you know, I will be working with seed beads...(NO...that I cannot do)!

This blog post was written by Patti Vanderbloemen for Love My Art Jewelry Blog.

If you are reading this on another site, it has been copied and used without permission of the author or blog owner.  Please do not copy and use this information without permission (many blogs are having issues with this kind of stealing).