Revisited Cuff

 

Sometimes I like to revisit pieces I have made in the past.  About 30 years ago, I made two cuffs similar to this.  So the other day, I decided to make another one.  There’s about 1.5ozt Sterling Silver in this.  It is all hand polished, no tumblers used.

 So I tried something new.  This is a double sided bezel used to be the same on both sides of the stone. It took a bit of work and finesse to get it to sit evenly on both sides of my stone.  But well worth it!  I like the open effect.

In the works

 

 

I’m finally back in the swing of things!  I took some time to do some pick soldering.  This is a technique wherein we use a very small amount of solder between the wires to hold everything securely in place.  It is a great technique to use for a more polished look to your jewelry.

 Wishing each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas season!

I am currently catching up on last minute orders and hopefully will have happy customers by the end of the month.

I am looking forward to a New Year filled with bright ideas and lots of completed concept jewelry pieces.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here we are, once again in Arizona where the temperatures are in the high 60’s and 70’s. Beats the heck out of snow any day!

So, the silver shop is very slow right now as all the snow-birds haven’t arrived yet.  That will change a LOT in the next couple of weeks.  

I have been working on simple soldering projects for new people to do who come into the shop and would like to know if this is for them.

 

 This is going to be one of the examples.  I will use the piece of rolled metal as the back plate for two pendants. One will have a Laramar stone the other will have a piece of turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty mine.

Stay tuned for process shots showing the progress of these pendants

Hydraulic Press

 

So here’s another work horse in my shop.  This is a 20 ton hydraulic press.  It can be used in so many ways when it comes to forming metal.  It can be used to make impressions from plates, shot plates, cut bracelets using pancake dies, cut all sorts of shapes using pancake dies, shaping metal with forming tools, and much more.  I love having the best tools for the job!

Rolling Mill

 OK…time to show you how some of my jewelry is made.

This is my Pepe C130 Rolling Mill.  This is how I impress images onto my copper/silver sheet to make pretty designs.

I am fortunate in that my hubby is very good at mechanical things and was able to add on a motor to my mill as cranking with a handle is pretty much impossible when you want to achieve a good, deep impression.

The really cool thing about using a rolling mill is that you can make impressions from just about anything. 

Personally, I use brass plates, steel plates, papers and leaves.  Pretty much many things that have texture that can transfer.  Some things work better than others, but I am aware of an artist is Arizona who uses cactus spines and makes some gorgeous jewelry.

 I love making jewelry for my family.  Since my granddaughters are having families of their own I love making bracelets for the babies.  It's the custom work that I really like.

 

 I have been uploading pictures to some new pages.  Now I just need to figure out how to get those pages to show up so you can access them.

Sorry if this gets confusing .

 Sometimes it’s not about the jewelry…it’s about marketing.  I am getting ready for some shows and decided I want T-shirts to wear.

My granddaughter is starting up her own custom store and does some really great designs.  Check her out on Instagram at Emily’s Customs.

 Ok, so it’s nearly 100* outside and I don’t have any A/C in my studio.  So I am doing a bit of wire wrapping to pass the time.  I am using some African Turquoise I purchased a few years ago.  It’s just thin slabs but interesting to look at.

I’m keeping to simple swirls so as not to over whelm the stone.  I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!

 So I have many different interests and one of those is cooking and food preservation.  Last year, I found an amazing recipe for Sour Dill pickles.  My family loved them and wanted me to plan on making them again this year.  So we planted a small garden and included pickling cucumbers, garlic, and dill.  These pickles are not processed in a water bath like other pickles…they are fermented like sauerkraut.  I am really excited about these pickles because they are so good for you.

6 years - Seriously???

 Has it really been 6 years since my last post on here????

Holy Cow, time flies.  I’ve messed around with a couple of web pages, but to no avail.  So I decided to come back here and use what I know to be a bit more friendly!

Hopefully this time I will be a bit more diligent and keep up to date with pictures and info.

Hi again!

Well, now that we are back home, I have plenty of Gigs to work with!  So now I can post more pictures of items I have made and tell you more about our time in Mesa.

Monday thru Friday, the park has "Happy Hour".  There is live music by the pools and beer is $1.00/glass.  There is also a water Volley Ball game going on and people are dancing to the music of the live groups.  It is a party every afternoon!  The weather was exceptional this year.  Temps stayed around 10-15* above normal which translates into 70's and 80's most of the time and a few 90's too.  It is amazing to have 90* weather in February and March when we are used to 20's and 30's.  I think I have found a new life style!!!

You know those commercials for the 55+ Active Adult Communities?  Well, they are pretty accurate!  If you can't find something to do from knitting to shooting pool, bocci ball to water volley ball, then this is not the kind of place you want to be.  I spent the majority of my time in the Lapidary Shop and Silver Smith Shop.  I also held several classes on the patio for beginning wire wrapping.  I have already had several people ask if I will be teaching again next year.  My answer???  You Bet!!!  So I will be working up projects for beginning wire and intermediate wire.  There is also a great class for stained glass that I really want to take next year.  They made some really cool glass tables with southwest motif.  So since I already know how to use a soldering gun/iron and I know how to cut and shape glass, I think I will totally enjoy the class.  The really neat thing about the different groups is that in their shops, they have great tools for you to use.  I really got spoiled in the Silver Shop.  I had rolling mills, large shears, lots of gas and tools for me to use.  Now I have to figure out how I'm going to do some of my projects without these tools.  I may have to go up to Draper and visit my friend Melissa Muir who is a fantastic metal smith.  She has some great tools to play with.

So some of my projects included cutting out designs on the backs of my mountings.  I love to put something different in my work.

As you can see from these two pieces, I am tired of the same ole bales so I did something different.  I quite like both of these pieces.

This is a beautiful piece of Pietersite that I have been trying to figure out what to do with.  I finally decided to do a simple front and make the back the art work.  I love doing Coyotes and this is one of the new bales I learned to do this year.  This is one of my favorite pieces.

It's been a while since I've tackled a ring.  This is a simple Cigar Band ring made from a piece of Sterling Silver that was run through a rolling mill to put a pattern on it.  These are great little rings for everyday ware!  I will most certainly be making more of these!!!

OK, enough for today.  Hope you are all well and happy and if you have any questions about RV life, or even comments, I would love to hear from you!

Holy Cow - how did this happen?

All of my good intentions went straight out the window when we started eating up GB of data in no time at all. It seems that Apple in their infinite wisdom turned on a switch with the last update that kept our phones and i pads updating constantly and it just burned through the data in no time at all.  Well, thanks to tech savvy friends, we were finally able to find the problem and turned off the background update switch and now have some extra data left this month!  YAY - I love a happy ending!

So - can I just tell you how much I have enjoyed being in Arizona for the past couple of months!  It has been 40 years since we have spent winter in the warm sunny climes of California.  Arizona even has that beat!  We have been in the 70's, 80's, even 90's this past few weeks and it has been wonderful!  No frozen toes, no shoveling snow, no cold cars, lots of ice cubes in our drinks, sunshine on our faces, walks in the evenings with the citrus trees in bloom.  It has smelled like heaven around here for over two weeks.  There are orange, grapefruit, and lemon trees all through the park and the blossoms have just out done themselves with fragrance.

The warmer climate has been wonderful for me and my muse.  Yes, my muse decided to come along this time.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being in the Lapidary Shop and the Silversmith Shop here.  I have learned a few "down and dirty" tricks and have revisited some best practices as well.  And they have finally decided I have some information they needed too.  So it has been a win-win.  I have been polishing some beautiful Rhodachrosite while I've been here.  It is a lovely pink stone with white ribbons and even some cool bubbles in it.  I have set the cabochons in fancy bezel wire and made pendants out of them.  I have learned to make some really cool bale carriers from a gentleman who is 90 years young.  He does great silver work and is always willing to share new ideas and even show you how to execute it.  I love learning from Roger.

It seems like our best way to learn is by trial and error.  Whenever hubby and I go somewhere new, it is best to get lost before finding our way to where we are going.  We are now very well acquainted with the streets of Mesa, Arizona!  Yes - we do have Google Maps on our phones - yes we DO know how to use it!  But what's the fun in that???  Besides - we've never been lost in the same place twice!!!

I will be doing a download of pictures and in a separate post I will share some of the items I have made.  I will be sharing and selling much of my jewelry on March 19th at the Arts and Crafts Fair here at Mesa Regal.  So hopefully I will make some money so I can go shopping at the local Jewelry Supply Shop before I go home and can stock up on new bezel wires and plate so I can continue creating when we get home.

This is Rhodachrosite.  The left hand picture is of the rough stone and is marked for shaping.  The middle stones are shaped and ready to be polished and the right hand pic shows the stones all polished and shiny!  I love taking a stone from start to finish and seeing all the transformations in between.

This is a piece of Chrisocola I purchased over 10 years ago.  I finally found out what I wanted to do to it to show it off.  I love this piece as it has the first "Carrier" I made on it.  And of course, there had to be some decoration on the back, too.  So as you can see, the juices are flowing and I am loving it!!!