Archive for the ‘Creating’ Category

Anvils and Hammers: Hand Stamping in a Small Studio

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Railroad Track Anvil

I’ve recently published an article on the equipment that I use for hand stamping.  I make many poker tournament champion bracelets and hand stamp the event and year on each one to customize it.  Recently, I’ve wanted to use more intricate stamps to create designs on cuff bracelets and pendants and discovered that my old tool setup was not working as well as I would have wished.  The results of my tool research are in the article.  I hope you’ll stop by and read it if you are into hand stamping jewelry.

JewelryLessons.com: Anvils and Hammers for Hand Stamping in a Small Studio

New Materials to Work With

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Celtic Bangle
I’ve returned from my buying trip in Tucson, AZ with lots of new goodies to be made into jewelry and many tools that will allow me to explore new techniques. Stones include peruvian opal, kyanite, tourmaline, sunstone, rainbow moonstone, assorted beryls, boulder opals and blue lace agate.  I’m planning several new cluster bracelet, earring and pendant sets with the new stones.

I’ve also purchased several new tools that will allow me to expand my inventory to include bangle bracelets, cuff bracelets, neckwires and torcs.  New pendants featuring wirewrapping around stones or corrugated leaves will also be in the works.  As I complete things, I will post photos here to the blog and on my facebook business page.

Jewelry and Beading: Pom Pom Earrings Tutorial

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

My tutorial on how to make pom pom earrings has been published on the Jewelry and Beading Blog.  I used to make dozens of these earrings to sell in my booth.  Sadly, I only have a single pair left…the one I saved for myself!

Please stop by and see the tutorial:  Jewelry and Beading

Connie Fox Earrings

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

Connie Fox Earring Trio

I took workshop with Connie Fox yesterday and I thought that I’d share a few of the earrings that I made via techniques inspired by her class. This is my second workshop with Connie. It is such a genuine pleasure to learn from a giving and gifted instructor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to study with her.

Education as an artist is something that I didn’t value during the first eight or nine years that I was in business. I felt that being self-taught was more important in order to develop your own unique style. While I still feel that it is important to have your own voice as an artist, I’m starting to realize the value in learning from others. I no longer reinvent the wheel when I attempt new techniques and at a class I’m able to meet with other like minded artists and gain more understanding of the medium.

The earrings on the far left are turquoise and bali spacers. The hammered sterling station is the “eyelet” pattern that I learned in the class. The earrings are hammered french hooks. The earrings at the top have a handmade cone earwires in sterling silver with african turquoise coin shaped beads dangling below. Finally, the all sterling earrings are a combination of the cone shape and coiled swans. Learning how to create a loose enough coil to hammer after coiling was very interesting. I love the little swan hooks too.

Earrings similar to these will be part of the new line of jewelry to be found in my booth this coming spring. I’ll have them in a wide assortment of stone choices. For those of you that request copper earwires, I will try and stock a few of the new earwire shapes in that metal. Please feel free to ask me about them while you visit my booth.

Copper Leaves

Friday, December 1st, 2006

Copper Leaves

Despite being swamped with work due to the time of year, I decided to participate in a group necklace project slated to be sent in to the Belle Amorie contest that has a deadline in Feburary.  Our group decided to have an autumn theme to our work, with the ruddy hue of copper being one of the chosen colors.  The ladies of the group are all members of “Jewelryhaven” one of the many jewelry themes yahoogroups here on the net.

I was uncertain what to make as my contribution, but I decided to make up some leaf shaped frames in copper and then to embellish them with a thinner gauge of wire and a swirl to give them more substance.  Each charm is 1 1/2 inches long and about 1 inch wide.  The frame is made of 16g copper wire that has been either coiled or hammered and the interior is wirewrapped 24g copper wire.  Everything has been tumbled to work harden the wires and make them nice and shiny.