Auntie Crissy's Nephews Pendant and Earrings

So i designed and fabricated this Sterling Pendant and Earrings for Crissy for our 3 year wedding anniversary.  As i was trying to figure out what stones Crissy would like in the pendant, it occurred to me that she may love to see her nephews here.  The photos were taken by the talented Stephanie Bailey  at stephaniebaileyphotography.com  These are images of Crissy's nephews Noah, Jaidan, and baby Russell set under a clear epoxy.  This image is an animated gif image.  Make sure you look at it in a browser window for it to animate properly.  The pendant is 1 inch tall by 3/4 inch wide by 1/4 inch deep.

Auntie Crissy's Nephews Pendant - Sterling Silver

Sterling Earrings

DornAndrew - fabricated silver pendant with Austrailian matrix opal and lavender sapphires - " Crissy Running Lunar Tide " sterling silver - 2" x 2" x 1/2" - Collection Crissy Lyles Dorn

Crissy Running Lunar Tide
sterling, matrix opal, lavender sapphires

  Crissy runs forever inspiring me as the moon inspires the tides-

Andrew Dorn

So this pendant is the third design and second major piece I have designed and fabricated for my Crissy Running line of jewelry.   

With this piece I added interactive motion and some colorful stones to the line.  The Australian matrix opal has a little electric firestorm of flashes of blue and green and purple light dancing around when rotated.  

A dot of the matrix material in the opal stands out like a moon juxtaposed over the sea pulling the tides.  This lines up with the single most purple of the lavender sapphires.  

The opal invites the wearer to reach in and touch it in order to spin the dial and watch Crissy run.  The twist spin pressure grabs the thick sterling bezel while the top of the stone gets a light touch of finger oil to keep it from drying out.  

I chose to use a steel nut and screw with nylon washers in place of riveting silver for the axle as this allows me to take the piece apart and make changes or repairs.  This little steel nut slides into the openings underneath the opal's step bezel in the center and the axle screws into it from the back through the back plate. 

Just as i did with my Crissy Runs Tahoe Bracelet  I began by building an animated gif of crissy running. This time I arranged them like a flower:

layout printed on paper and contact cemented to polished sterling plate with stones and bezel stock 

sawing out crissy figures and circular disc out of sterling flat sheet

this is the bottom of the step bezel for the opal with a custom fitted steel nut that slides right into place

preparing bezel parts for soldering

rough after soldering

cleaned up

drilling to set sapphires

added back plate and axle and with stones before setting

DornAndrew - studio still life - " Friday Afternoon " - Oil on canvas - 20" x 16" - private collection

This is a commissioned painting meant to capture a specific moment in time.    There are rose petals and orange slices in the glass.  I love how the candle light contrasts the natural daylight flooding this still life.

DornAndrew - portrait painting - " A Pepper named Chihuahua " - Oil on canvas - 8" x 10" - Private Collection

Pepper is the dog's name.

This was a commissioned portrait and is not for sale.

Commission me to paint your loved ones.

Give the second image a few seconds to load - it is an animated gif of the painting process.

DornAndrew - fabricated silver bracelet - " Crissy Running Tahoe " - Sterling and Reticulation Silver - 6" x 1" x 1/8"- Collection Crissy Lyles Dorn

I made this bracelet for my amazing wife Crissy.  She never fails to inspire me. Crissy is my muse.  This bracelet celebrates our marriage by combining our individual passions into a wearable story.  I am fascinated with animation and various textures of precious metals.  I love to build complicated jewelry and I love the balance between art aesthetics and engineering for endurance in such a piece of wearable sculpture. Crissy loves to run and she is quite beautiful while doing so.  She often runs marathons and half marathons. We both love Lake Tahoe and love to get up there whenever we can.  Crissy also likes to wear jewelry which works out pretty well because I sure do love to make it.


To design this piece, I biked alongside Crissy to capture video of her running.  I then broke that video down into ten frames that made up a perfect two step loop and animated that loop.  I then composed the images into a wearable landscape with the mountains of Tahoe and their reflection in the lake for a background. This is the animation of the ten frames used to make this bracelet:

To build the bracelet,  I began by hammer texturing a sheet of polished sterling silver and then cut out ten Crissy silhouettes from it.  I then "painted" a mountainous background out of silver i had previously reticulated.  

Reticulation is a process of depletion gilding.  It involves removing the copper alloy near the surface of a sheet of silver by repeatedly heating, quenching, and scrubbing the sheet until most of the copper has been oxidized to the surface and removed leaving the surface nearly pure silver.  Then the sheet is carefully heated with a torch to the point that the interior melts while the exterior does not and therefore wrinkles up like a skin around the molten center. The wrinkles can be "painted" to some degree.  The wrinkles tend to follow the torch flame but the control is very limited and dangerous as the metal is on the verge of melting entirely.  If the metal survives this - the results can be a wrinkled fine silver finish that has been likened to a topographical map of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ganoksin:

http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/ajm-reticulation.htm

After I soldered these reticulated silver mountains down onto flat sterling square sheets, soldered the hinge parts to each piece of landscape, and assembled the hinges to form the bracelet

The bracelet really comes together when I carefully soldered the Crissy silhouettes down directly onto the hinges. This adds strength to the hinge joints but is very tricky to NOT flow the delicate original solder seams of the hinges themselves.  The finish is done with a graver to the water and sky backgrounds and a high polish for the whole bracelet. The silver will most likely oxidize over time,  I can't wait to see how it "antiques" naturally.  Hopefully Crissy and I will antique together just as well.

DornAndrew - portrait painting - " Play Nice Sarah " - Oil on Panel - 6" x 6" - Private Collection

This is our good friend Sarah Howell playing "not so nice" with her little friend.  I made this painting last year and only recently delivered it to Brook and Scott as they move to Florida.  Good luck and hope you all enjoy living near family.

This painting is in a private collection and is not for sale.  Please feel free to contact me to commission one like this of your loved ones.

DornAndrew - portrait painting - " Jaidan " - Oil on Panel - 8" x 10" - Private Collection

This is my nephew Jaidan.  He is 12 months old now but i believe he is closer to 6 months in this picture.  He sure is adorable.  This small portrait is 8" x 10"    He is framed in a beautiful green barnwood style frame courtesy of "The Paint Chip"  in Davis.  This painting is not for sale but i do take commissions for portraits like this one.

DornAndrew - Rominger West Winery Art Show 2010 and Review in Davis Enterprise

This is my show at Rominger West Winery.  It was part of the Davis Second Friday Art Opening Event for June 2010.   Hanging paintings directly on wine barrels was a new treat for me.  I was thrilled to find the Enterprise had Reviewed the show.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Malinoff Garden " - Oil on Canvas - 14" x 11" - for sale

This was a plein air painting i made out at the Malinoff's property on the Pence Gallery's Garden Tour this year.  The day was beautiful and sunny and a bit windy but after this year's Natsoulas Landscape Conference where my easel blew over twice, i was prepared this time. I wanted to capture the waterfall and table and chairs while the beautiful wood fence acts like a backdrop curtain to the whole scene.  

DornAndrew - silkscreen print - "Espressoed" - 8 x 10"

I had a lesson in silkscreen printing today thanks to my friend Katie Cramer.  I created this original artwork yesterday with ink on paper and a little photoshop eraser.  This is my first print:  "Espressoed"  on paper - 8" x 10"    I liked the print so much i printed my tee shirt too.  I absolutely loved this process.  We used a photo emulsion and a light/vacuum table to transfer the artwork.  I can't wait to work with multiple colored layers.  Thanks Katie.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Moving the Pumphouse Again " - Oil on canvas - 14" x 11" - $300

What a beautiful day in Davis.  Perfect  70 degree weather with no wind.  I planned to paint the gardens at Community Park and yet on the way there i saw this and had to paint it.  This pumphouse is from the 1800s and has already been moved once before.  You are looking at a building supported by steel I - beams on lumber.  The base of the building has been carefully cut away and they are planning to move this around the corner and restore it from the inside out.  A new 2 story building is going in here to house the new Mishka's Cafe and offer office space on the second floor.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Plein Air Arboretum 2010 " - Oil on Canvas - 14" x 11" - for sale

This is my fourth year in the John Natsoulas California Landscape Conference.  I painted plein air along with some wonderful painters.
http://natsoulas.com/html/landscape/index.html

After wrestling with the wind and the cloud cover for a few hours and losing my easel twice to the wind -

I was able to begin a plein air oil sketch and finish it in my studio later.  Here is the finished painting. It will be available for sale through the

John Natsoulas Gallery:   530.756.3938  
http://natsoulas.com/index.html

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Gilmer Vinyard " - Oil on Canvas - 10" x 8"

This is a plein air painting i did recently.   It is a study for a larger studio commission in progress.  Plein air is a such a great way for the artist to really study the landscape.  Painting directly on location like that forces me to create quickly and spontaneously.  This is west Davis out by the Yolo County airport looking West towards Berrysessa.

This painting is not for sale.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Magic Bean Espresso " - Oil on panel - 5" x 7"

" Magic Bean Espresso "

oil on panel

5 x 7"

2010

This painting is for sale at the Pence Gallery in their " Tiny Show"

contact the Pence Gallery in Davis for purchase info: (530) 758-3370

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Canvas Sale at The Paint Chip " - Oil on panel - 10" x 8"

Early one morning as i walked by The Paint Chip i noticed the sunny morning light.  I had been wanting to do a painting of this particular scene and was just looking for the right time of day.  So i packed up my easel that night and early the next morning i went out and captured it in oil colors.  I set up around 7:40am and the low lying haze on the horizon was blocking the sun so i had to hope and wish that it would fade sooner than later.  I began to mix my colors from a digital pic i had taken the day before- when sure enough the sun broke free of the clouds and bathed my scene in warm morning light just as it had a day earlier.  I ripped this little gem out in an hour and a half.   I would have loved to finish, but had to get to my day-job....framing for The Paint Chip.  I went back to the studio and finished this up from photo reference with another couple hours attention.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Davis Tower " - Oil on Canvas - 12" x 9" - for sale

This painting I began en plein air early one morning back in the spring of 2009.  I have been dying to get back to finish it.  well this week I pulled out some reference pics I took that day and finished the painting.

" Davis Tower "
oil on canvas
12" x 9"
2010

DornAndrew - Jazz Festival Performance Painting - " Interpretation of Adam Jenkins and Ganbare Spirits Ensemble " - Oil on Canvas - 48" x 36"

October 10 2009

I performed a performance painting in Davis Jazz Festival. I performed along with Adam Jenkins and Ganbare Spirits Ensemble in the Davis Commons. It was a great time.

DornAndrew - daily painting - " Gold Tooth " - Oil on Canvas - 10" x 10" - $149

I actually guilded 18k Gold leaf on this painting to make its "Gold Tooth". A Playful Impression of a skull.