Working with Jewelry Components

As I try to increase my jewelry production, I'm exploring the idea of working with components. I find it much easier to sit myself down at the bench to produce a given small component than to conceptualize a new overall design. Thus, I can make a hundred tiny leaves or a load of hallmarks to go on the back of all my pieces. Since I've been experimenting with flowers lately, I've gotten my technique down for cutting a very simple five petaled flower from a disc. A few cuts, a few smooshes with a shaper and there's another one.

Anemone earrings
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling clay, Argentium wire

Then I can utilize the components in a myriad of ways. I'm outputting them in both fine and sterling clay, so they are ready for either fusing onto Argentium bases or incorporating into a larger metal clay piece. Some of the easiest jewelry is just simple combinations of flowers and leaves made into pendants and earrings via a few (metal clay) jump rings.

Anemone 2 pendant
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling clay, Argentium wire

By the way, sterling components fuse onto Argentium just as well as the fine silver. Interestingly, the copper rises to the top of the sterling, but doesn't seem to really firescale, at least in the time required to fuse. I simply remove the copper with citric acid pickle.