The last few months I’ve been using a technique call Keum-boo on many of my pieces. *Keum-boo (also Kum-Boo or Kum-bu—Korean “attached gold”) is an ancient Korean gilding technique used to apply thin sheets of gold to silver, to make silver-gilt. Traditionally, this technique is accomplished by first depleting a surface of sterling silver to bring up a thin layer of fine silver. Then 24 carat gold foil is applied with heat and pressure—mechanical gilding—to produce a permanent diffusion bond.* Basically I’m using fine silver and heating it up on my small kiln and then gilding 24 carat gold to the places I’d like it. (this isn’t the kind of gold you buy at a craft store…btw..lol)
It’s nice to add a pop of gold to some of my work. I’ve quite enjoy the process of making Keum-boo jewelry.
On another note ..I will be doing Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour and Sale again this year. It’s a studio tour in the Cave Creek, Carefree and North Scottsdale, Arizona area. The dates are Nove. 17-19 and Nov 24-26. I will be guest artist of Carole Perry at Laughing Glass Studio. If you’re on the area and need more info you can contact me at manon@sistersofthesun.com
You can follow my on Instagram ———-> HERE
Fill your heart with art and Keum-boo jewelry.
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
Excited for this new year and new techniques. I bought the necessary tools to start chasing and repousse. It’s an ancient technique of metalworking where chasing is essentially embossing and repousse is hammering the reverse side to create a low relief. (Read more here about this technique.) There’s definitely a learning curve but I love a challenge. Above is a pic of the copper in pitch. Pitch holds the piece so you can work on it.
This is the back side of the leaf shape I made. As you can see the form is pushed out.
This is the front side of my first piece. Definitely not so perfect but it was fun to work on. I didn’t think about the gauge of the copper and I jumped right into 18 gauge which was definitely a workout the first time round. It looks like a leaf on steroids…lol!!!!
I’ve made a few pieces now. This sterling piece was made using chasing and repousse techniques with sterling silver. I also added a Mexican Campitos turquoise.
I chose not to cover up the back with another piece of sterling. I love the raw, organic feel it has this way.
It looks amazing on!!
Chasing and repousse will open up a range of new ideas for me this year. Yes….. it’s time consuming but the payoff is awesome. Stay tuned for new work!!
Happy New Year!!!
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery and at Enter the Earth gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
This year I will be participating in Hidden in the Hills 20th annual studio tour and sale in the Cave Creek, Carefree and Scottsdale area. My own studio is not involved due to HOA restrictions but I’m so grateful to be a guest of the amazing glass artist, Carole Perry.
I’ve been busy making pieces for the tour. My fingers are raw…lol.
These two sterling eagles with turquoise will be displayed at Hidden in the Hills. They both have a special quote on the back.
I’ve made a lot of different pieces for the show. I have lots of beautiful turquoise to work with so it was hard picking which ones to use.
This Amazonite gemstone was in my gemstone drawer for a long time. I found inspiration for it this past week. The flower also has a small Amazonite in it.
The larger eagle necklace is pictured on me. A clear picture of the stone is above.
Hidden in the Hills takes place Nov. 18th – 20th and Nov. 25th – 27th. If you can’t make it the first weekend try and come the second.
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery and at Enter the Earth gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
I haven’t posted in quite a long while. I have been really busy in my studio. Busy is good!!! These are some of my latest pieces that I’ve worked on. I’ve also been crafting many rings but I thought I’d just post necklaces today.
Love bringing the turquoise to life in a necklace.
I had three Larimar stones that I was going to use separately but decided they would look great together. Glad I went with my instinct on this one.
My latest pieces have been lots of work but fun to work on. I have lots of new turquoise and stones to work into my designs. Better get at it!!!
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery and at Enter the Earth gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
I work with lots of genuine turquoise and I love each one of them. They’re all beautiful with their own unique characteristics. There are those stones that come around, however, that take your breathe away. This beauty is one of the stones. It’s a Royston turquoise from Nevada. This turquoise is 59 carats. When I decided to work with it I took it and kept in my eyesight for two weeks until I knew what I wanted to do. No fluff needed around this one. It stands alone and speaks for itself. It found a home quickly and I’m thrilled it will be going to someone who appreciates these stones as much as I do. 🙂
When I find genuine turquoise from any mine that has some orange in the matrix I usually nab it. I just adore the orange against the blue/green of the stone. It’s a perfect compliment.
Oooh….. a little Damele custom order for a client. It’s so pretty. I just bought of huge amount of Damele in raw form. It will be cut and polished soon by a lapidary artist. The mine has been closed so we wanted some of it before it gets really hard to find.
If your looking for turquoise go for genuine turquoise. Ask lots of questions. There’s no comparison to the real deal.
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery and at Enter the Earth gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ with my man, Rob. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
Sorry I’ve been so absent on my blog but I’ve been hard at work with a ton of turquoise jewelry. Lots of pieces have been heading to new homes and still have many more on my bench.
I haven’t made a piece in a while with naturally shed antler so last week I thought it was time. This Arizona Kingman lends well to this piece.
I really thought hard about keeping this one but Rob reminded me that each piece of turquoise jewelry is my baby and I might as send it into the world and share the beautiful stones 🙂
As soon as this Arizona Kingman turquoise necklace was listed it found it’s new home. It’s really striking on because of it’s color.
Love this Nevada Royston. Truly an incredible stone.
Ha…this post was about turquoise jewelry and now I’m throwing in a labradorite. Just wanted to mix it up…… lol.
Short post but I’ll be back soon with some more goodies!!
You can find me on Instagram @sistersofthesun.
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery, at Enter the Earth gallery and at the Sonoran Arts League Gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
I’ve talked about Instagram in a previous post but lately I believe that Instagram is the new blogging. As an artist/jeweler/business owner, it provides me with what I need to tell my story about my pieces and behind the scenes in my studio. It’s fast and simple and I can reach a much wider audience than Facebook or blogging. It’s my favorite go-to social media platform.
Instagram allows each caption to be 2,200 characters. I never use that many words….lol. I’m much more to the point but at least I know that I have the option of using more.
I actually prefer using IG instead of blogging. It’s faster, much more fun and super easy. It feels like a community over there and I don’t have to overthink what I’ll post.
Instagram feels like a live journal to me. I can post works in progress, my studio, new pieces or whatever strikes me in my business that day. You can have multiple accounts and switch back and forth. Many people have a personal account and a business one. (Best to keep them separate.)
Because IG is such a visual platform the most important thing in my opinion is having great pics. You don’t have to be a professional photographer, even though those people have the most amazing IG accounts, but I suggest taking great shots of whatever you’re featuring. There are many apps that can help you with that.
In short, I feel that Instagram is the new blogging. I can tell my business story in fun square spaces. I use it everyday to find whatever suits me and to show what’s going on in my little world. If you’re not on there yet…check it out!!
You can find me on Instagram @sistersofthesun.
fill your heart with art
~manon
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery, at Enter the Earth gallery and at the Sonoran Arts League Gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
After a pretty nasty bout with the flu I was finally able to get back into the studio….yay!! Charming and whimsical pieces were on tap for last week. The piece above is a Nevada Boulder turquoise with a sterling silver butterfly. (I’ve been enjoying sawing and piercing lately and will have more pieces coming like this.) I wore this out after it was finished to see how it felt and it was a hit with people that saw it.
This piece can be found in my online shop here
Other views of this piece.
This was a pretty rhodochrosite heart. Definitely charming and whimsical. It sold right away to a gentleman who bought it for his wife.
The Mexican Fire opals are so beautiful. This piece sold but I’m definitely going to work more pieces similar to this one.
This Nevada Blue turquoise has such a pretty color. It looks great against sterling. Actually all turquoise looks great in silver that’s why it’s popular to see it that way.
Creating charming and whimsical pieces that are eye-catching is so much fun for me. There’s never a dull moment. Hope to see you back soon!!
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery, at Enter the Earth gallery and at the Sonoran Arts League Gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
With the holidays and my open house fast approaching my studio has been bustling with activity. I have lots of new jewelry pieces that I’ve made. In the pic above you can see the druzy, labradorite and moon rings. They were happily sold as quickly as I made them but I have some fun new rings coming up.
I love labradorite cabochons. I can’t keep them in my stash of stones….they seem to fly off my shelf….lol.
Swoon…… I’ve made a couple of these new jewelry pieces. I had so much fun incorporating the vintage Indian head nickel into rings. They’ve happily gone to new homes but I may make more in the not too distant future.
Even in the colder months the flowers bloom in my studio. 🙂
New jewelry pieces are coming out of my studio every week. Stop back for the latest. Btw…. if you’re on the Scottsdale/Phoenix area this Saturday Dec. 5th and would like to attend my open house feel free to contact me.
My work can be found here at Echo of the Dreamer gallery and at Enter the Earth gallery.
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!
This past week I worked with druzy gemstones. Druzy (druse, drusie) is the glittering effect of tiny crystals ontop a colorful mineral that have awesome sparkle. The druzy gemstones grow slowly over millions of years and are found as the very last layer of growth on agate or another colorful base. Drury is not always quartz, but is any kind of mineral found in a plate-like form, such as malachite, dolomite, garnets and calcite. Some common colors are orange, white, red and brown. They might look somewhat delicate but druzy gemstones are a hardy gem.
The druzy gemstone………
Supplies strength and energy
Encourages clarity of mind
Druzy is used for balancing all chakras
The above ring was a customer order. The picture of this druzy does not to it justice. I was almost sad to part with this ring.
*Shoot for the stars* is also a quartz druzy gemstone in it’s natural state. A friend told me that she thought it looked like shaved ice….lol. It certainly does. This beauty is off to a new home.
I wasn’t sure when I ordered this stone how I would feel about it. Turns out that it looks fantastic in it’s setting. It’s bright and it’s bold and it makes you smile. The words on the band of this are *I choose happy.* Perfect words for this ring.
There are so many incredible stones to work with. I love giving them new life and meaning to their owner. Don’t overlook druzy gemstones. Put some sparkle back into your life!!!
My work can be found here and at Echo of the Dreamer gallery.
You can contact me for custom orders at manon@sistersofthesun.com
Fill your heart with art
~manon
My name is Manon. (pronounced Man + O) Yes….my mom cursed me with my name. In her defense I guess she never though I’d leave Quebec. I’m a jewelry artist and painter. I’ve been creative as long as I can remember and things haven’t changed. I now live in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend most days in my studio making pieces that speak to my heart. Thanks for stopping by!!