in with the new

More Class!

Sorry about the long time between posts, Kim, daddy and Joyce!

I started the "advanced" jewelry class last Saturday. We started our project yesterday. We have to design and make a ring that incorporates a bunch of different techniques. We can pick from any of the following... reticulated metal (description next), wire work, braided wire, metal cut-outs soldered on, engraving, cut out and filed grooves in the ring shank, stamped work, hammered texture. "Reticulation is a heat induced texturing process of sheet metal, utilizing specific natural properties of the silver alloy". It looks like this.

Here is my plan for the design of the ring! Once it's drawn out, you have to construct a plan, what happens while the ring is still flat, and what happens after the ring is formed.

I bought a Swiss Blue Topaz. It's 6.73 karats!!!

Here's the "flowers" stamped into the metal bowtie shape.

Then I hammered texture into the ring.

Then I had to file the edges flat. I'm going to solder on wire to both sides, and it has to be nice and even to look nice.

Here is the wire that I made longer and square in the mill. I'll make it round again next week. And then I'll attach it to the ring on both sides.

If you'd like to see any of these pictures bigger, they are here. They're at the bottom, the "200 series".

Last Jewelry Class. BOO.

I finished my pendant last night! I sweat soldered, riveted (2"t"s?), set my stone, polished, satin finished, sanded. But not in that order. I also sanded off some of a nail and three fingertips! I didn't know I had done it! I saw the sanded nail, then I saw blood. I thought, "where'd THAT come from?" It didn't hurt until I washed it in warm wtaer. Then it BURNED!

Here's my hurt hand! SO funny!

The stone setting soldered to the top piece:
Cut out rivets from a tube of metal with a special rivet holding tool:
Rivets in place, but not secure. More work to be done first:
Setting the stone while the piece is stuck in shellack stuff:
Riveted up. Pose with your riveting tools!
All done! Ready for chain:

Jewelry Class 5

I started my pendant last week. Another 3 hours of fun. And of sawing, bending, filing, drilling, annealing, stretching, soldering...

These are my Pac Man cutouts and the labradorite stone that will sit atop them.

I will set the stone inside this piece of silver. I have to anneal it before I stretch it.

Flatten/stretch the metal in the mill.

Anneal again and then bend it with half round pliers.

Waka waka waka waka.

Clamped for drilling.

Tiny drill press!!!

Ready for rivets.

My pieces at the end of class.

Jewelry Class 4!!!

Last Wednesday I finished the ring! I wanted to wait until I had a picture of it to post about class. (I forgot my camera this time!) I filed it smooth, I used a tool like a dremel (but more powerful) for filing and sanding. Then I polished and polished and polished! Don't mix up the compounds and the brushes! Here's my finished product, taken artfully by my teacher, Michael...

Also, last Wednesday morning, Caroline took us to a few different shops in the jewelry district. We went to Myron Toback, a metal supplier. They have a lot of chain and silver sheets and findings. Then we went to a Tito Casting. The owner, Tito, took us through the whole casting process, from making a mold to pouring the metal. Last, we went to Dikra Gems and picked out a flat stone for our next project. I chose a 14mm round labrodorite stone.

Our new project is a pendant with a stone setting. It will be held together with rivets instead of solder. COOL.

Jewelry Class 3

Again, class was the most fun three hours I have spent! I cut out the sides of the ring and soldered them on. We cut off all the extra silver. I finished cutting off the excess of side 2 at home on Saturday. I should be finished with it this coming Wednesday!

Here's my progress!
I had to saw out the first side.

And then solder it onto the inside and out of the ring.

Here it is all soldered up!

Like my pretty glasses?

Sawing around side 1.

Side 2 soldered on!

And here is some of my classmates' work...

Jewelry Class 2

Tonight was the most fun three hours I have spent in a LONG time. I cut out my inside and outside rings, and designed the top, whic looks like railroad ties. I used flux and solder and FIRE and I annealed my ring parts. Neat stuff!

Jewelry Class 1

Last night was my first jewelry class! There were three of us making up the first class that we missed. I learned how to cut metal with a saw. Turning and making corners is much harder with metal than wood! I used a baby drill press to make a hole in my metal. We had a GIANT drill press in the garage growing up... this one was SO cute and small! I learned to use fire (!!!!) to melt silver. Michael showed us how to make a "kiln" with bricks to keep the heat as concentrated as possible. I poured the MOLTEN! metal into a long, half inch wide mold, and had it looked proper, we could have made sheet metal out of it!

I have homework! Our first project is to design a ring. It will start out looking like this from the side...

It will be hollow in the middle, and (start out) rectangular on top. Our homework is to design the shape of the ring. Michael showed us some finished projects, One person made a ring that looked like mickey ears! This is kinda what its side profile looked like, though mine is more "teddy bear" than "mickey mouse"!

I have a couple of ideas, but nothing definite. I have to be sure of my ring by tomorrow night.

Jewelry Class!

I am starting a jewelry class this weekend! It is a 6-week metal work class.  I'm going to learn "sawing, filing, sanding, annealing, soldering, hammering, riveting, ring sizing, stone setting, polishing, introduction to casting and more"!!! It's at Studio 174 in Brooklyn. I am so excited to learn from professional, talented jewelry designers! I have been stringing beads for a few years now, so it will be satisfying to learn a new aspect of making jewelry. Thanks, Will, for such a great present!

PS, "annealing" is when you heat and slow cool metal in order to make it stronger. Neat, right?

birthday earrings

I had "ladies' dinner" on Tuesday. That's a fun meal with 3 or 4 of my sorority sisters. I've been dining with them once a month since November (that would be 3 times). It's a fun time for gossip, love and support, pictures, gift giving, and of course eating and drinking. Tuesday's meal was a celebration of us (they all are) AND of 2 birthdays.

I made earrings for each birthday girl. Here are phone photos of the earrings. It's the first time I've worked with chain. They're aquamarine (I think) and labradorite. I like how they came out. The labradorite reflects light very coolly.

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Craft Fair Success!

I worked a craft fair in Brooklyn yesterday, and it was great! I was much more successful than last year. There was a steady stream of traffic (not a LOT, but constant). I sold a few rings, five brooches (FOUR to one woman!), and one necklace.

Once I'd made a little bit of money, I bought myself a lip slick. The makeup's creator, Brian, was there. He was so nice, and applied some lip stuff to my pout, and I loved how it looked and felt, so I treated myself!

I also bartered with two vendors! I traded a pair of earrings and a ring for these great painted wine glasses. They come in great packaging... a Happy Meal type box! I also traded a brooch for a purse that matches a scarf I got in August, when I did the Long Beach craft fair. Bartering is so "olden days", and such a cool way to get nice things and make new friends!