artisian jewelry Archives - Mitsuro Jewelry Artist

September 18, 2023

How it Started

Some designs present themselves to me in ways I don’t expect. This brown agate with those lovely bands through it had been sitting on my bench for a while when the cast branch and mitsuro band made their way next to it one day. All of their textures really compliment one another and it inspired me to create this piece celebrating those textural lines. Here is the process I went through to create this piece.

Soldering

Each piece I create starts with raw materials such as casting grain, sheet, or wire. Here are the pieces after they had been cast but weren’t realized yet into the ring that they’d become.

Here I have the ring band set up in the 3rd hand (that’s what the tweezers are called) getting ready to solder the face of the ring onto it.

I use charcoal blocks and soldering pads to help hold my work while I’m soldering.

In this photo the face of the ring has been soldered onto the band. The bright white of the piece is what silver pieces look like after they’ve been pickled in an acid bath to remove the oxides and flux used in soldering.

Patination

After soldering and removing all oils from the surface of the piece, I painted on a dark patina with a blackening agent.

After patination, I polished the patina off of the high areas of the piece creating a lovely depth and contrast to bring out the textures in the various areas of the ring.

Setting the Stone

Here I’m about to start setting the agate stone into the ring. The ring is held in a vise with leather so that it doesn’t get marred up by the steel jaws of the vise.

Before setting the agate, I am testing the fit here to make sure that the stone sets nicely in the seat of the ring. Here I am using a piece of dental floss so that I can remove the agate easily. Usually, the bezel setting of a stone is a snug fit and if you don’t have floss or something else that you can use, to pop the stone out with, your stone could get stuck in a setting that may need adjustment.

In the image above you can see how the walls of the bezel surrounding the stone are just slightly pulled away from the stone. This is the bit of metal that I am going to push over the curve of the stone to hold it in place.

Finished Ring

Agate Branch Mitsuro Ring in Sterling Silver

Here is the ring finished in all of its linear textural beauty! You can see how the bezel is now snugly hugging the stone and how the patina accentuates the textures in the piece.

Thanks for taking the time to learn about how this piece was made!

To follow more of my journey with mitsuro follow me on Instagram and Facebook!

Visit my shop page to see my available rings!

April 7, 2023

“Why did you choose the mitsuro technique and jewelry as your primary art medium?” This was a question a friend asked me recently.

The simple answer is because I found a passion and connection for creating with the medium.

The long answer starts back when I was a student at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa studying Studio Art. I decided to step out of my comfort zone, which was primarily 2D painting/drawing mediums at the time, and take a small scale sculpture class. This course was taught by Fred Roster and he encouraged us to create jewelry as sculpture if we wanted to.

The idea of using jewelry as a sculptural art medium really resonated with me. Being able to wear and take my art with me felt like a very accessible way to share my work with other people.

(Plus, jewelry size sculptures fit in my college apartment way easier than large paintings and full-sized sculptures!)

Rustic Bronze art coin carved with a face on one side and a swirl with the letter H in the center carved on the other side. — My very first lost wax casting!
2008 Coin Design Project, Small Scale Sculpture, University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
Left is the front and the right is the back of the design.

One of the sections in our class focused on metal casting. For our first castings, we had to create a coin design in wax and then cast it into bronze. The casting process requires you to put your wax model into a mold, burn the wax out of the mold in a kiln, take the hot mold out of the kiln and immediately fill it with molten metal.

Lost Wax Casting

I became fascinated with taking solid metal,
turning it liquid, and making it look like anything I wanted it to.

Mitsuro Final Project

For my final project I had to choose a technique to research and create pieces with it. When looking through books in Fred’s office, I came across a book with the Mitsuro technique in it. The book was translated from Japanese so there were words that didn’t quite make sense in context to what was being explained.

I took the book to Fred and told him that the technique had qualities that really resonated with my artistic style and asked him if he could help me learn it. He said “I don’t know what that is. Hopefully I don’t have to fail you at the end of the semester.” I said “Oh, maybe I should pick something else for my project…” He said, “No, you already said that it’s speaking to you. You need to figure it out. I won’t allow you to change your project.”

Heather Scott's hand holding a cooled piece of mitsuro wax that is a few inches long by a few inches long. She is holding it over a stove top that is off. — Heather Scott’s first batch of useable mitsuro wax created in her college apartment in Honolulu 2008!

And you know what, he was right in pushing me to figure it out because in the journey I fell more in love with the process. I was curious and determined. After countless batches of differing wax concoctions I figured out a usable mitsuro wax recipe that created the properties that I desired in the wax so that I could create pieces for my final project.

Heather Scott's hand holding a piece of mitsuro wax that is swirled an tapered into a long pendant design. — Heather Scott’s first mitsuro wax design, 2008.

After college I continued working with it because it’s what feels natural to me. It’s not a carving wax. Instead, the wax is manipulated and shaped with my hands. I love holding the medium, making it do new things, and refining it into my own style. After 15 years of working with it, I still find the same joy when creating with mitsuro.

A bronze spike swirl pendant and a silver ring with a wave featured on the front. Both pieces have the desired mitsuro linear textures throughout their designs. — Heather Scott’s first pendant and ring using the mitsuro technique in 2008.
The pendant is cast in bronze and is her first mitsuro piece she ever made.
The ring is cast in sterling silver and is her first silver mitsuro piece she made.

To follow more of my journey with mitsuro follow me on Instagram and Facebook!

To see my most recent rings based on the design of my very first mitsuro ring, visit my shop page!