Wire Artist of the Month January 2012: Cindy Weingate

I have been a rockhound since I was big enough to hold a hammer and sit on my back porch and gather "pretties" from our gravel driveway to crack them open to see the colors or sparkles inside. I have always expressed my artistic abilities in music, paintings, and other things, but had never been able to utilize the stones I had collected. I met my husband at a class reunion just last year...we had graduated together back in 1977...and we came to realize that we were both rock hounds and ever since then we have been spending all our free time at the beach collecting our "pretties."

I had already begun to make jewelry with beads and other findings...but my real dream had been to incorporate our stones in our jewelry. Until one day while shopping at our favorite bead store I saw a display of some wire wrapped pendants and then I knew that "that" was what I wanted to do. We were able to take a class to learn some basic wire techniques and then took another class for wire wrapping. Since we had been given an older stone grinding machine and polishing wheel from my husband's parents we went to town shaping and polishing some of the stones we had found and then began to wire wrap them into our own creations. Over time I have also purchased some cabochons of colors I have a hard time finding on the beach.

Sedimentary Metamorphosis is a pendant by Cindy Weingate in sterling silver filled and gold filled wire, using Swarovski® crystals and a stone Cindy found and shaped herself (click the image to view the necklace full-size)

I found this stone along the shores of Lake Michigan and hand shaped and polished it myself with a grinding wheel and 7 steps of polishing to give it a natural shine. It is 50mm in height including the bail.

I think what is most unique about this piece are its colors and originality. I actually sat down with some photos of our butterflys and began do make some rough draft drawings, and since there are endless designs of butterfly wings and colors...I figure I have lots of room for creativity in using wire and beads to express the beauty of them.

Petoskey stone pendants wrapped in gold and silver wire by Cindy

Purple Agate Pendant, wrapped in gold and silver filled wire

I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to now be able to use my creativity and artistic abilities with someone that I love and have so much in common with. My husband still works full time and I have recently quit my job to be able to focus on our jewelry...(which there never seems to be enough time in one day to do) and am looking forward to when my husband can retire and we can both put our energies into our God given creative abilities. Until then...I try to sell our jewelry pieces at Craft shows and on Etsy.

Wire wrapped cabochon pendants by Cindy Weingate

I had already made quite a few wire wrapped pendants...but wanted to do something unique and special. At our house where we live, my husband had already over the years planted a perennial garden and one of our favorite hobbies has been taking snap shops of the beautiful butterflies who were also enjoying our garden. So I set out to see if I could use the beauty of the butterflies and incorporate them into my wraps as well. What I have come up with is not exactly greatly detailed or fancy...but still very becoming in its simplicity. I have found it very exciting to be able to join together a collected stone, hand shaped and polished and then to build around it a butterfly creation.

Butterfly cabochon pendants by Cindy Weingate

Very clean, well-executed design including nice wraps, excellent bail and imaginative way of using the frame wire ends to suggest an impressionist butterfly.

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Each month, we pick a talented wire jewelry artist and their work to highlight. We know we have some incredibly talented customers, and we seek to encourage and highlight those members of our community by highlighting one wire artist every month.

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