Fish Messages © 1992. 2-1/4 x 5-1/2 x 1 inch. Brass, sterling silver, gold solder, pearl, copper, shells, coral, star fish. Fabricated. The design on the tail and fins was acid etched. I used gold solder to "color" the silver pages and body. It's hard to control, but you can just let the solder flow over the metal. Sometimes it flows nicely into etched lines. You can also try to push it around with a soldering pick. This book was featured in Shereen LaPlantz's "Cover to Cover." $2600. There is a blog post about this book here. Scroll down for details.

The pattern on the back is etched on with nitric acid. The hinges are inspired by the hinges on an old icon. They are very simple to make, a good thing for someone who is terrible at soldering hinges.

The first page has a coral bead hanging from a gold filed wire. You can see the gold solder that I melted on the surface in places. Each page is about 1 inch high.

I really enjoyed cutting out the ameboid shapes and creating the textures for each page. When I made this I was mostly making jewelry. This was a fun break from the brooches. The odd shaped bezels are lots of fun to make. I draw them first on removeable label paper.

These two pages are relatively monochromatic, but I like them very much. The pointy shell on the left has a corresponding hole in the right.

I had so much fun putting this pearl on. There is a post underneath, but what actually holds the pearl in place is the tension in the spiral. I had to hammer it to harden it and then bend it in place.

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