Wire Artist of the Month June 2012: Llewellyn Alspach

I live in Konawa, Oklahoma. Just living and enjoying life with what it hands me. I am a registered nurse, for 45 years and a retired Air Force colonel.

My jewelry is probably just about like everyone else. Mostly I do things the way I like them. My husband says what I do is big and gaudy, but I tend to like big showy things. When I was first learning I used a few patterns but now I mostly do free forms and make it however the beautiful rock wants to be wrapped.

One thing I do not do is overwhelm my piece with wire because to me the beauty in in the rock and the wire is only a frame for my favorite things... the rocks.

Tribute to Mother by Llewellyn Alspach is a crazy lace agate (Llewellyn's favorite rock) which she processed, then wire wrapped with gold wire and hung on her mother's string of pearls.

My feature piece has a story with it. When I lost my Mother I had the sad task of cleaning out her home. In the process I found this string of “pearls”, I’m not sure if they are real or fake. I decided I would put the prettiest rock I ever processed on the pearls as a tribute to my Mother.

The rock is a piece of crazy lace agate, which is my very favorite rock. We processed it from a huge chunk we bought in Quartzsite. It is so very unique, being less than 1/4” thick, it has a totally different design on both sides. It is truly the most beautiful free form I have ever made. Mother would have loved it and I do too. And yes, it is big and gaudy measuring 4” long and 2.25” wide.

The state rock of Oklahoma is the barite rose. These are basically similar to a sand stone and tend to rub red sand on anything they touch. Thus not really a quality stone for making jewelry.

My husband and I went on a trip digging dinosaur bones in North Dakota with a university. They gave us something called Paleobond (I think it is just a heavy duty super glue) which we were to put on the bones we found so they would not fall apart when we got them out of the ground. I got the idea of trying to put it on the rose rocks because it absorbs into the material. Much to my surprise the rose rocks became so hard you can't cut them with a sharp knife and they will not rub red sand on your clothing.

Rose Rock wire wrapped pendants and earrings by Llewellyn Alspach

The rose rocks are beautiful stones that vary in size from tiny (1/4") to huge 10 pounds are more, and can form big clusters. So; the possibilities were limitless. The small ones for either stud or dangle earrings and the other various sizes could be made into single pendants or grouped for a rose bouquet. It was tremendously fun to see how many way they could be wrapped.

I use a soft wire because the wire must conform to the groves in the shape of the rose. Most rose rocks will have many layers of "petals" so it is easy enough to find two ways to route the wires around them. However; if there are not two suitable grooves, you can use a tiny file and help Mother Nature out a bit before you put the Paleobond on it. I don't suppose it really requires much talent, just the ability to work with wire and be creative.

Llewellyn wrapped this crazy lace agate with a simple rose gold filled wire frame.

Some say that I have artistic talent, I have always done something creative. As a child I did embroidery with my grandmother. Did hand tooled leather for years back in the 70's. I did original designs rather than the usual patterns. Then in the 80's & 90's I was doing oil and watercolor paintings, which I took up as my "basketweaving classes" when my husband died of lung cancer. It kept me sane at the time and I loved painting, it takes you to another world where everything is as perfect as you want it to be. In the 90's my new husband and I needed a hobby and rockhounding came into our life. Now we are totally consumed with rocks and the rock club. We have all the lapidary equipment from 36", 24" & 18" rock saws, to laps, grinders, tumblers and sphere machines. We have an all weather lapidary room in the shop for processing our rocks. 98% of my projects are made from rocks we have processed or found. All of our vacations go to where we can find rocks.

Llewellyn created this agate pendant from a dyed Brazilian agate which features a druzy pocket, in an subtle but ornate silver-coated copper wire frame.

A few members of the Gem & Mineral clubs we belong to made wire wrapped jewelry. It looked like something I would enjoy so I hounded them to teach me. I had one formal class and a few one on one sessions to get started. Have had a few advanced classes over the years, even one with Dale "Cougar" Armstrong. I now give basic wire wrapping classes in our rock club to anyone who is interested in learning.

It's creative and offers a challenge. I like to give it to people. It is a great way to use idle time and I enjoy the comments people make when I say "I made it with a rock and a piece of wire."

This gold filled wire and rhodochrosite elegant bracelet is wrapped by Llewellyn Alspach.

I have a web site but have sold very few, so I have to say it is just a hobby. Outside the web site, I have sold about 4-5 pieces to people who really wanted my pendants and insisted I make it for them. But I am NOT a salesman and that part bothers me, I'd rather give it away.

Llewellyn wrapped this Montana agate in gold filled wire - can you see the winter landscape in the agate?

Llewellyn wire wrapped this triangular agate with gold filled wire.

In my opinion, Llewellyn has definitely defined her personal "style", creating feminine, lacy, rich looking pieces with nice wraps and great stone exposure; excellent choice of materials too!

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