Petroglyph-Inspired Jewelry Designs

When it comes down to it, petroglyphs are simply images carved into stone. What's so hard about that? However, for some reason, this challenge prompt from Karen at Art Elements for October threw me for a loop. Despite the fact that the challenge is open to any art medium, I certainly knew that I couldn't carve into stone and make something pleasing. The idea of carving into polymer clay kept running through my head, but polymer clay isn't a medium that usually turns out well for me. I was almost resigned to not participating in the challenge. However, just a few days before today's reveal, I was finally hit with some inspiration. 

I may not be able to carve into stone, but I could use the images from petroglyphs as inspiration to etch metal and then use stone beads to create finished jewelry designs!

I began by cutting a few simple shapes from sheets of copper and brass. 

To get the designs into the metal, I began by using permanent ink. For the brass piece, I drew an odd spiral design that was reminiscent of some of the spiral petroglyph images I found online. For the two copper pieces, I decided to use some of my hand-carved stamps to imprint images. The fact that these were indeed carved helps to echo the inspiration some. I could have used either method on either of the metal types.

Using packing tape to hold the back of the metal, the faces of the designs were dipped into PCB etchant for about an hour. I did this step outside as I'm not a fan of the smell of the etchant. As well, I wore gloves to keep the acid off my skin. 

Once the designs were etched into the metal to my satisfaction, I removed them from the acid and neutralized them in a mix of baking soda and water. From there, I cleaned, filed, aged, and sealed the metal. After that, it was a matter of punching holes and working them into designs.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to use stone beads in the designs to further give the pieces a more authentic petroglyph feel. For this copper bracelet, I was drawn to use green beads as there's something about copper and green that just seem to perfectly go together. As such, I selected these fire agate beads. 

I initially envisioned only one hole on either side of the bracelet, but the double holes balance it out much better.

As well, the bracelet is probably much longer than it needs to be, but by closing the lobster clasp on any of the loops in the chain, it can be sized down to fit just about any wrist. 

With that done, it was time to move to the next bit of etched copper. 

For this second piece, the small size of the metal encouraged me to use it as a necklace pendant and add dangles. With the rock theme in mind, I was drawn to those long rectangular cubes of gray marble. They absolutely exude stone! In fact, they feel a bit like Stonehenge to me, though I don't think there are any petroglyphs on the stones there. (I could be mistaken though.) 

To ensure the chain curves around the neck well, and because I only had six of the tubes, I used matching marble nuggets at the back of the chain. As well, there are small copper beads between each of the stone beads. 

The shabbiness of the stamped image and the rustic-ness of the stones definitely give this necklace an ancient feel to it. 

Finally, it was time to work with the last etched pendant. 

Alas, since inspiration hit me so late, I ran out of time to finish this last piece. I think I was saving the best for last since the clarity of the drawn image makes it my favorite of the three. I plan for it to be a super simple necklace made with the small garnet beads pictured,

The holes on the garnets are so small that I didn't have any small-gauge brass wire prepped to complete this design. As soon as that happens, I'll either add it to this post or share it with you another time. 

And, wouldn't you know it; once I got rolling with these designs, I had all kinds of ideas of what I could with the petroglyph-inspiration. I guess I'll have to save those for later. For now, I'm super pleased with how well these came out, especially since I had no idea at the start. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what the other designers created for this challenge, especially since it was open to any medium. Below you'll find a list of all the artists from the Art Elements team and the Guest-artists like myself. Make sure to hop around and share some love!

Art Elements Team:

Lesley Watt
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Sue Kennedy
Caroline Dewison
Laney Mead
Marsha Neal Minutella
Claire Fabian

Guest Artists:

Jill Egan
Tammy Adams
Alison Herrington
Alysen
Sarajo Wentling
Jenny Kyriach
You're HERE ----> CraftyHope
Kathy Lindemer

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to follow Art Elements to see what the next challenge is going to be and all the other goodness they share there. I know I'm looking forward to it. 

I'm also sharing this post at the following link parties: Beautifully Made, Sweet Inspiration, Saturday Sharefest, Mad Skills, Tutorials and Tips, Made by You Monday and Recipe & DIY Linky.