Jennifer Culp

Polymer clay, brass rod. This little guy owes his shape to Carleton; I enjoy making variations on that shape when playing around with polymer clay. I like that purple color and its contrast with the brass.

I took the image from a vintage postcard. The entire original image features a red-cheeked, sweaty, naked baby holding a tennis racket. I scanned the image and printed it so I could keep that demented postcard intact. Shine on, crazy postcard.

I backed the image with a stiff cardstock to make the baby a little more durable, made two brass rings, and stuck ‘em together. This ring is oddly comfortable to wear.

I’m rather fond of this little plastic bull; he came out of a margarita pitcher shared with friends at a dinner in New York in summer 2008. I have two of the bulls and originally intended to make a pair of earrings with them, but the ring challenge called for one of them. This was a terribly busy day, so I ended up just popping the bull onto a cheap base metal ring that came into my life from Claire’s or some similar supplier, and voila! Now he’s a ring.

Another busy day! I tried to make another ring and burned one of my fingers in an attempt to heat and bend plastic. That inspired me to go this route. I suppose it can double as a broken heart ring if worn on the left ring finger.

Clementine peels are an old favorite of mine. I raided my stash of dehydrated peels, artfully arranged and attached a few of them, and put a loop of steel wire on the underside. This ring is actually much more comfortable than the Band-Aid ring of the day before.

This ring honored Friday and Mrs. Skinny Bone Jones, who introduced me to Bulleit. I spotted the teeny bottle in a liquor store the week before, and had to have it. A thick brass band attached to the back side with strong adhesive holds it on the hand. I can’t stop smiling at this thing.

This one is made up of copper wire scraps left over from making 90 days… last year. I laid them out flat, soldered them together to suit my fancy, then wrapped the result into a circular shape and soldered the ends together. I’m a little sick of looking at copper, so I dunked it in a black patina that tends to make metal look matte and a little weathered. I’m pretty pleased with the result.

This was a hectic, stressful week, and it turned out several rings of the “object stuck to a shank” variety. I’m ready to branch out a bit! Next week, I plan to play with clay and focus on structure.

You can see more pics of the rings on the Culp Baubles Facebook page and my Flickr.