Four Dollar Photo Studio

I have been looking around trying to find a good way to take pictures of some of my jewelry. I have a digital camera, but just taking snapshots is not good enough any more. I picked up a $3.99 set of plastic bowls, cut a circle in the bottom of one of them set my camera up in macro mode, stuck the lens through the hole and this is what I got. What do you think?

DON'T BUG ME!

I've been getting lots of flack from my family & friends for not carrying my weight on the blog sight. Sorry, Anthony....you've done the lion's share of entries lately. But, I have been working hard (sort of) at my bench. Here's a little something I'm working on as a gift to my friend, Jane.

Jane and I work together and she is probably the most capable and competent person I've ever met. She is also extremely generous with her capabilities; and thus, we all depend on her to a shameful degree and we bug her for stuff all the time. So, this is a kind of homage and thank you gift for Jane. Jane, I like to say that you are too competent for your own good and even though you never say no to us....I'll bet there are times when you wish we didn't bug you so much so you could get your own work done.

This is still under construction, but I thought you might like to see what's done so far. This is sterling silver; the wings are roll printed for texture; the legs are fabricated from 16gauge ss wire, 2mm ss beads for feet and tubing for the upper leg to give it some dimension. (I LOVE how the legs came out!) The stone is African Pietersite that I purchased on-line from Blue Heron Gems (http://stores.ebay.com/Blue-Heron-Gem)and the eyeballs are red coral beads I had hanging around in my bead stash.

I will put findings on the back so this can be worn as either a pendant or pin and will use a purchased chain to hang the pendant. I'll deconstruct the chain and will scatter bits of bug debris (roll printed with the same texture as the wings) along the length of the chain that are stamped with the motto "DONT BUG JANE". I thought it appropriate to make this little pest's stinger a bit jammed up...fair warning of what will happen to you if you bug Jane too much!!

Photo courtesy of Bonnie Tucker.

Lava Beads

Over the weekend I went to the local bead store I found these really cool lava beads. They are about the size of a quarter. I made a simple pair of earrings and am working on a necklace. The necklace will use 8 lava beads. The center 'bar with stone' is a piece of round silver wire. It's about 5mm in diameter. I forged one end to be square, then I files off the edges. The top has two rings and the bottom a stone mounted in a bezel. The stone is pink tourmaline. It's not quite finished as I need to drill a hole in the silver wire and I don't have a drill press.

Bench Addition

Last week or so I made quite a few ear wires. Each wire was measured and cut to length. I added this to my bench to help with the measuring. It's a simple plastic ruler taped to the bench with packing tape. Now I always know where my ruler is.

More Earrings

I had some time today, so I made a few more pair of earrings. These were some beads I had hanging around, I don't really know what they are. I needed some ear wires so I made some based on this tutorial.



This is a simple set of 4, 6MM hematite beads.


These were hanging around, don't know what they are, but I really like these. I made these ear wires also. Once you get the hang of it, making ear wires is pretty simple.


A little different this time, two beads on opposite ends, lightly hammered to strengthen the curve, homemade ear wires.

New Earrings

These would be a new pair of earrings to go along with the bracelet I made. These are very simple to make. Each one consists of two 8MM hematite beads. To make the earring I cut a small piece of 1.0MM round wire about 40CM long. I heated the end of the wire to form a ball, then popped on the beads and made a loop with round nose pliers. Couldn't be any easier.

A new design

Helen asked me what I am planning for my next project. I just made a couple pair of earrings (photos to come soon) but longer term I want to learn CAD/CAM. Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing. In one of my previous jobs I worked with a guy who had a milling machine and it was fascinating watching him create things out of blocks of metal.

There are few different disciplines to learn and master on the path to understanding CAD/CAM. Here is a nice explanation of what is involved.

It's common to think of a metalsmith as hammer and anvil, torch and metal. CAD/CAM design and production places the metalsmith's artistry in a new location, the computer lab and machine shop. Do these techniques make you any less of a traditional metalsmith or more of a metalsmith? Does working in the same medium where you could as easily design a door knob or pair of shoes take away from the experience of being a metalsmith?

Bracelet Complete

Well, I did finish the bracelet. It came out OK, not as well as I had hoped. For the stone settings I used some prefab ones I had purchased from RioGrande. They were a bit stiff, and not exactly the correct size for the 8mm X 10 mm Hematite stones. Next time I will build my own bezels.

A New Bracelet

If I can get it together, this will be a new bracelelt for my wife. It's about 7.5 inches long and will contain 8 Hematite cabs.

I Suffer For My Art

Last weekend I was supposed to attend a workshop on setting faceted stones at League of NH Craftsmen's Studio in Hanover, NH. But, because of the weather, it was rescheduled for late March. So, with a little unexpected time at home, I decided to play around with an idea I got from the latest issue of Art Jewelry http://www.artjewelrymag.com/art/default.aspx. I've been obsessed with hollow forms and when I saw the cover of this 'zine, I was taken with the idea of enclosing space this way. Here's a photo of the first, second and third attempts at a hoop earring using wrapped wire to enclose the space. I'm still not satisfied, but it was kind of fun to do....except when I used my pliers to pull a wire taught and the pliers slipped and I hit myself in the mouth - hard!! I didn't see stars, but I did actually see $(@#)&^&$*## and today I have a fat lip to show for my efforts. So, yeah I truly do suffer for my art.

Now, I am not at all sure where this is going. A lot of times, I'll see something and feel compelled to give it a try and then put it down and the idea submerges and incubuates for a while and will come around again at a later date. Today, I'm going back to working on the space debris project I posted last time around. I spent all of class last Tuesday getting the post set on the flap and expirementing with the catch. I think I've come up with a gauge and dimensions that will work and now have to shape the catch, grind away a bit of one layer on the bead to make some room for it and then solder it in place. I'll post the finished work when it's complete...whether I'm successful or not.

heat shattered metal

I've been exploring hollow forms and surface decoration and have actually done some work with the heat shattered metal technique that Anthony talked about his in post. Here's a photo of a hollow form using that technique. The silver is roll printed and reticulated then heat shattered and formed in layers. One of the top layers is hinged and hides a tube set sapphire.

I am really excited about the ways using heat shattering breaks up the lines imprinted in the surface of the silver and allows me to create layers and space and still have the eye connect the broken lines. It's exploded, expansive and yet still maintains some cohesion and continuity.

It Doesn't Take Much

Tonight I stopped in the local book store and picked up a couple of my favorite magazines, Art Jewelry and Ornament.

In the past I have been intrigued by textures inside of confined spaces. Hollow forms, interiors filled with mesh or roughness with the bounding beauty of a highly polish surface.

I built the earring to the right for a course I took at UVM a year or so ago. I like their lightness, and how they seem to have a certain weightlessness, simple yet defined.

Flipping through the magazines I became inspired to build another piece. I would like to build a tornado ring. I haven't drawn it out yet, but imagine a stack of pierced silver. Each one containing a section of the tornado, and when stacked on top of each other you could look down inside and see the inside of the tornado. Maybe the bottom will contain a jewel.