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.