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    Henry Elfering

    Rhythmic Patterns of Nature

         Nature has surrounded my being for as long as I can remember. What prompted me to create jewelry with such fluid patterns? I guess it would be when as a young boy I discovered the craft of making Dandelion jewelry. Hours were spent collecting the soft buttery flowers with their milky stems a... View Post

  • Henry Elfering

    TWIST 'n SHOUT!

    That’s what it’s all about! Creating jump rings small enough for the Dragon Bracelet was one of my first challenges. For the jump rings, I chose 14kt white gold wire for its added strength. To create the very small jump rings, I began by twisting the white gold wire around a T-pin. A somewhat slo... View Post

WHAT CAME FIRST, THE DRAGON OR THE EGG?

With my interest in the animal myths and the animal kingdom, it should not surprise anyone that I love a good fantasy. From time to time, I depart from my morphed animal images to a simple animal depiction. I had a bracelet idea floating in my head while, like many Americans, I was watching Game of Thrones. Rather than depict a mythical dragon complete with wings, scales and claws, I wanted to attempt a more modern, abstract dragon. Often I find my drawings take on a life of their own when I begin carving my drawing into wax. Since there is such a variety in what is considered a “dragon” I felt a certain freedom to create the two headed magical creature seen in the drawing and photo above.

  My biggest challenge was the connection of each two headed dragon link. Originally, I drew a basic link to link for each connection, but once I began soldering each sterling link, I felt the bracelet lacked interest. Pushing myself to find a more interesting connection I, after chatting with another artist I came up with what I think is a perfect solution. Between each link will be a very small egg like connection that will somewhat cover the jump rings used to connect the links. The small dome shapes reminded me of the dragon eggs. I am excited to rework the linkage using 14kt white gold jump rings for added strength.

  To complete the look, I am planning on setting 5 red garnet cabochons between each dragon link representing the hot, fierce fire-breathing dragon I carved.

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