Ring A Week #4,5, and 6

Goodness... the weeks do fly by. I had posted some more rings to the flickr Ring A Week group a while back but never got a chance to post them here. Oh, I'm still behind... working on weeks 7 and 8, when the group is on 13. But nothing can be done about that - I'll have to press on in my own time, which is often behind schedule... and for anyone who wants to complain, you try fitting 25 (or more) hours into a 24 hour day. It's a real challenge!

But I digress... this is about posting rings, not about lacking time. I've written plenty about that already!

So here is the ring for week #4. It's Faux Bone again (yes, it's a series...) still just working out design ideas. This one uses a glass bead. These aren't finished rings. But Faux Bone is great to work with. I love making the shapes in this lightweight and easy to manipulate material. I'm going to use it again when I get around to a resin series for this challenge.

And week #5... (this and weeks 2 and 3 are my favorites so far) it's a coral bead.

And here's the ring for week #6. It's copper tube rivets holding Faux Bone and copper discs together.

We have winners!

As promised... winners for the Penland books were chosen today using a random number generator. Congrats to the winners - wish everyone could win a copy... thanks for participating - I hope to be able to do this again so keep your eyes peeled!

And so... without further ado, the winners are:

Kim for The Penland Book of Jewelry 

Laura for The Penland Book of Glass

Congratulations!

Please send your name and address to cdp(at)cdpdesigns.com so I can arrange to send the books to you!

Penland Books

Have you ever seen any of the Penland Books from Lark Crafts? These are beautiful books that function as master classes in technique. The Penland School of Crafts is an influential and highly respected center for craft instruction in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Each of the books showcase the work of 10 instructors who have taught at Penland and offer hands on technique sections by each of these artists. In addition, the books are filled with relevant technical information and plenty of inspirational examples created by other talented artists. These are just two of the books in the series - they are wonderful - see the end of this post for special surprise!

I love the Penland Book of Jewelry. It has been a favorite of mine since it was first published in 2005. Lark recently released it in a sturdy paperbound version. In this book, you'll experience the teaching of Marilyn da Silva, John Cogswell, and Tom McCarthy to name a few, along with seven other wonderfully talented instructors. The book is filled with page after page of inspiration - if you're a jewelry lover, you won't be disappointed.

 Marilyn da Silva

John Cogswell

Tom McCarthy

Until recently, I'd never seen any of the other books in the Penland series. The Penland Book of Glass is amazing too. I really like glass, though my experience is limited to enamel (both kiln and torch work) and some very basic lampworking - I was totally in awe of these flamework techniques. Like the jewelry book, it's filled with beautiful examples and wonderful instruction by talented masters (and was just released in paperback too). Some of my favorite pieces from the book are shown below.

Elizabeth Ryland Mears

Kristina Logan

Shane Fero

Here's the best part about sharing these two books with you: Through the generosity of Lark Books, I can really share them - Lark provided a copy of each to give away! Post a comment on the blog by March 18th (indicate which book you'd like to win if you have a preference). I'll announce the winners (drawn at random) on March 19th. Good luck!