Learning From Jorgen Greftegreff and Eni Oken

It’s been a while since I posted about any of my jewelry designs, and I’ve created two pieces recently that I’m proud of because they presented unique challenges. Both designs are slightly adapted from tutorials. Several wire jewelry artists create step-by-step tutorials, and I subscribe to magazines that publish tutorials, but I don’t want to become dependent on them because I never want to be known as a copycat. I want to be able to create my own designs, and normally that’s what I do. I use techniques I’ve learned or have seen in a piece and I extrapolate to create my own pieces. But I still have plenty to learn from those who go before me, and the good thing about the tutorials I have purchased is that I have indeed learned new techniques which I can use in other, more original designs.

I adapted this design from a tutorial by the late Jorgen Greftegreff, contributed by his wife Beverly Langhus, in the April 2001 issue of Wire Artist Jeweller. Ever since I saw my first wire-wrapped faceted solitaire ring, I wanted to be able to create them. The adaptation is in the twisted middle wire and the wrapped shank. I found that wrapping the shank gave me more control of the piece as I was working, and I think it added an attractive touch to the design.

I’m not sure whether the stone is a ruby–aka Lord of the Gems–or a spinel, ruby’s beautiful imposter. A friend of ours frequents police auctions, and this stone was one of his finds, which I bought from him. The paper this stone and its twin were wrapped in was labeled “ruby, 8mm, wt. 2cts,” but more writing on the same wrapper said “red spinel, lab grown.” Come to find out, naturally formed spinel, which comes in a range of colors, has become even rarer than rubies, and according to International Colored Gemstone Association’s page on spinel, “spinel is the great impostor of gemstone history: many famous rubies in crown jewels around the world are actually spinels. The most famous is the Black Prince’s ruby, a magnificent 170-carat red spinel that now adorns the Imperial State Crown of England . . .”

Lab grown spinels are often used in birthstone rings, so here is my version of a ruby/spinel birthstone ring, wrapped with 12K gold-filled wire.

This design is based on a tutorial by Eni Oken, an amazing wire jewelry artist. To make it a little more my own, I changed the bail from the series of jump rings that were shown in the tutorial to a woven beaded bail, and I used a pointed amethyst briolette and freshwater pearls–two of my favorite combos. I also added some coiling detail as a loose frame around the pearls at the top of the background heart. The wire is 12K gold-filled. I’ve decided to keep this one for myself, but I do plan to offer one similar in my shop sometime soon–maybe next week.

I’ve also purchased tutorials from Iza Malczyk and Perri Jackson of Shaktipaj Designs. I hope to be using those tutorials in new pieces soon. :)