Once again I have found myself way too focused on school work over the last few months to think about any projects outside of my assigned work. Since I don’t have many new things to first talk about, I would like to take this opportunity to share this older piece, it was a one-off "experiment" (from sometime in 2006). It’s a brooch that was cast from epoxy resin. It features a 4mm purple cubic zirconia suspended in the clear material, as well as imitation gold leaf. I wasn't sure how I felt about this piece at first, but it has grown on me over time and now I love it. I’m thinking about continuing this idea in a smaller, more polished form (this one is 45mm in diameter and the finding on the back is a cheap craft store finding) and in different 2D shapes.
This is one school project that I managed to get a photo of from this semester that really shows the contrast of the things I find myself working on in my free time and the thing I have to work on at school. Correctly fitting the gemstone to the setting and evenly spacing the silver components is of utmost importance. I find gemsetting to be very challenging, and was surprised with myself for doing as well as I did on this 4 claw construction and setting.
I hope to share more photos of my school work once the year is over, and my projects are returned to me. Please also take note of the new link to the left that shows photos of the majority of the work that I've done over the last three years.
This particular ring was not something I made initially, but something I made better in repair class by reconstructing the bezel and polishing the band. 
The “After” picture shows what the ring looks like now. The bezel is even and the finish is a high polish. I also opened up the back of the setting so the stone shines much more brightly. I'm quite proud of this ring because of the contrast between the before and after.
