Switching Gears

I am on a huge pendant kick, I don't know why. I used to be designing rings like crazy, but that has changed recently. I think I came up with five doable designs in one night, and they all use different techniques. I found that it's easier to draw up a design in a larger scale, and then shrink it to the actual size. It seems to get more of the kinks out, since I have to draw it a couple extra times.

I have a few stones heading my way this week, and depending on costs I might just order some gold. These are the stones, I have pretty solid ideas for 2 of the 4 so far.

Sunset Padparadscha Sapphire


Kiwi Topaz

Rhodolite Garnet

Mozambique Garnet

Will be interesting to see how the stones look in person. I'm still trying to hunt down a big round stone for one of the designs I came up with the other night. I suppose it would be better to start making the ones for which I already have stones.

So, I checked out this International Gem and Jewelry Show that is/was at the state fairgrounds this weekend. I had no idea what to really expect going into it, other than:

1. It might be super-tacky
2. It might be a great resource for loose stones/beads
3. It might be a waste of $7 and time

I found out:

1. It was full of middle aged and older ladies
2. Mom said it felt like Vegas
3. I have ridiculously expensive taste in beads - one strand I looked at was $150 (at 50% off, yeah.)
4. There is a great local resource for cabochons and unusual stones - bought a great piece of rutilated quartz...but I'll get to that in a bit.
5. There are a kajillion beads out there. Seriously.

So, overall it was worth going. I'm currently in the process of designing a pendant around this piece of rutilated quartz. I actually think I might do a sterling/14K yellow gold combination, since the rutiles have a slight golden color.

I feel like I want to do some one of a kind pieces for a while. Doing multiples is challenging and good practice of specific skills, but it doesn't seem to flex my design muscles enough. I feel like people appreciate unique jewelry pieces, too - at least I do.

I've added another deadline besides the Fall art crawl, which is good. I need to have deadlines otherwise I feel like I'll never get anything finished. A friend and fellow artist wants to have a jewelry party with my stuff in the Fall. It should be fun and hopefully I'll have things that will interest the people. Wine and excellent food will be involved, so no matter what it'll be a good time.

Took a Break

Well, I did not mean to take an entire month off. But somehow it happened?

I have been working on some drawings and designs for some new items, and I still have the pod earrings sitting half-finished on my bench. My job has been going pretty well, business seemed to pick up once the weather started to resemble Spring.

I finally have all my finished items up on Etsy, will be interesting to see how that pans out. I also just put in an application at a local bead store. Maybe I'll get some weekend hours to help finances, plus a discount on beads. Just have to keep trying different things, I suppose. Something will stick eventually.

The Art Crawl is going well - lots of good feedback from the public! It's reassuring when people I've never met seem to respond positively to my designs - not that opinions of friends and family don't do the same. The website has been updated, thanks to my dad. He redid the site as well as shot the photos of the new work. So if you want to go check out the new stuff, head over here.

Tomorrow is the last day of the crawl, and whatever I have left is heading to Etsy!

I located display supplies yesterday! Yay! I'm going to keep it simple, a few neckforms and a box with a lid for the expensive pieces - so sticky fingers won't be as much of an issue. I wish that didn't have to be a concern, but I'd rather not risk it. I just have to find a good neutral grey fabric to cover the table, since I have some pieces that disappear on the black velvet forms.

After the Crawl, I plan on playing with some packaging ideas. One of the perks of living in a good-sized city is the number of local resources for boxes and the like. I'd really like to have a brand, and not just use the same cotton filled cardboard boxes that everyone else has.

Today I got the two pearl rings ready for their final polish. Those will be finished on Wednesday for sure. I have four or five split channel rings (in non-tiny sizes) in the filing and sanding stages. Three bird rings are in the sanding stages. Two bayonet balls are in progress - and those take a lot longer than I expected. It takes about 5 hours to file the inner band so it will fit within the other half. One of the balls is sanded, the other needs to go through the 5 hours of fitting then cutting the bayonet grooves. I think that will be my Saturday project. The pods - of which there were going to be 5 - have decreased in number to 3. They have color schemes that remind me of elemental things, so I have fire, water and earth in progress. So it looks like I will have around 15 metalwork pieces to show. I'm honestly surprised - in a good way.

My goal is to have everything ready for final polish on Tuesday night, so I can be completely finished by Wednesday night. I plan on taking portfolio quality photos of everything Wednesday and Thursday. Then overhauling the website on Friday during the day.

I'm feeling the pressure, but it feels like the senior show...and that's not a bad thing.

Weekend of ruined projects...it got better!

I had a bunch of days in a row where one thing would work, and the next step went horribly wrong. This was quite annoying. Things were melted, solder went everywhere it wasn't supposed to, and I learned that the purple 2-part silicone mold putty from Rio doesn't make great molds. Good thing I bought some green Castaldo putty. I now have three molds that are ready to use!

As a side note, for some reason I am better at mixing the stuff at home than I am at work. I'm thinking it may be the temperature difference, or maybe it's just a matter of having more practice. Either way, I'm very glad to not be screwing up that end of things.

Only 19 days until I have to be ready to display, speaking of which...don't have a display figured out. I guess I'm winging that on the last week. I'm surprisingly not stressed, and have all of my lower end beadwork/enamel pieces finished. I found three enamel panels from school while cleaning and organizing the studio, and figured they were worth putting out there. I'm hoping that the beaded pieces will sell and help me fund the metalsmithing. I really would rather put my focus on metalsmithing, however the beading was kind of a nice relaxing activity. Time will tell. Here are a couple pictures of the enamel and beadwork necklaces:

Vitreous enamel on pierced copper, sterling silver findings, vintage German glass beads, amazonite & apatite

Agate, glass & hematite

Bayonet Ball #2

I just finished the bayonet ball in sterling. Also discovered that it will hold one Excedrin Migraine or two Advil. I'll take it to work with me and give it one final polish to really get a nice mirror finish.


I toyed around with a brushed finish first, but it just didn't look quite right. My bayonet skills are still a bit rusty, but I think if I make a few of these that won't be an issue for long.

Today I also carved a "normal" sized bird ring. I plan on casting both that and the "normal" sized v-channel ring this week. If I didn't have skinny fingers I would have been able to just make molds off of the rings I already made. I think the rest of the day is going to be working on a bunch of beadwork to try and get that out of the way.