Scenic Woods Petrified Wood Jewelry Design by Lexi Erickson

Scenic Woods Petrified Wood Jewelry Design
by Lexi Erickson

Petrified wood is a favorite, and this new one with blue opal and native copper in the jewelry design is outstanding!

Looking over my stash of stones and recently made jewelry, I was shocked to realize that most of the pieces were petrified wood or incorporated petrified wood in some aspect.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. From strong and dynamic earth tones to gentle pastels, petrified wood is found in so many colors that form so many interesting patterns, and the patterns are what always catch my attention. This newly introduced stone, with its soft blues, opal, and copper, is no exception, and was a huge hit at this year’s Tucson shows.

In many of these stones I see snowy mountains against a dusky, periwinkle sky broken By the dark lines of trees, while the glimmer of copper looks like the town below the peaks. Yet the same log also yields a lovely tan, blue, and white beach scene.

Skills Soldering, basic metalsmithing

Materials:

• 1 petrified wood cabochon
• 20-gauge sterling sheet
• Fine silver bezel wire
• Japanese “oat” art paper
• 1 gold tube set
• 4mm faceted stone
• Hard, medium solder

Tools:

General

Rolling mill, flex shaft or Dremel, jeweler’s saw, #2/ 0 saw blades, #2 and #4 hand files, small oval needle file, wooden dowel, steel burnisher, prong pusher or tube setter

Layout

Sketch paper, ultra-thin Sharpie, glue stick or rubber cement, medium circle-to-oval template, scissors

Soldering

Soldering surface, torch w/large head, flux and brush, pickle and pot, copper tongs, quench water, solder pick

Finishing

9 micron 3M finishing film, ultra-fine buffing nail file, Dawn detergent, ammonia, mint green 3M radial bristle disk (I call them spiders, 4 on a mandrel),

Optional

Tripoli and muslin buff, rouge and chamois buff

See inside the September/October issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist in our Lookbook!

LEXI ERICKSON is a Contributing Editor to Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist and Jewelry Making Daily. She has taught high school through university level jewelry to students from all over the world for a really long, long time. Lexi lives in Denver with her sweet hubby, three cats, and two bichons, who sit in her lap as she writes these articles. You can reach her at www.Lexierickson.com.

See this jewelry design and many others in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist!