8/31/07
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Both of these Carrick Bend Rings were made on the same
jig. The one on the left is like Loren's except it
added 2 wires and makes it doubled.
The one on the right is upright and has a double shank.
These are 20 gauge, but I think would work better in 21 or
22 gauge since there is so much wire.
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8/24/07
 Well,
I figured out how to tie the bowline in wire. I
have tried it over the years with little success.
The trick is to start it backwards. When you tie a
traditional bowline, you form the small loop first then
the larger one and feed the ends through. To tie
it in wire, you form the bottom of the wire first and
feed the long end of the wire through to form the knot.
Also, you start with smaller wire and work your way
up. This one is 16 gauge and I might like to try a
14 gauge one. It really is a little hard on the
wrists to do several of them in a row.
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8/23/07
This is the piece I used for the step-by-step photos
for Wildacres. Kyanite has 4.5 MOHs hardness on
the long axis and 6.5 MOHs across the long axis.
This piece has an interesting transition in the
weaving on the right side from the longer weave facing
the front of the piece to another weave that sort of
faces the side of the stone.
The transitions from the first coiling on the lower
right side to the flat weave to the perpendicular weave
and then to the coiling on the left side is all in one
piece of silver. It really did work harden.
I added larger beads at the top of the bead wave to
bring some weight back to the top of the piece after
adding the bezel across the bottom.
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8/22/07
Susan at Bella Online has put up an interview from
Don and I at
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art15177.asp
She did a great write up and made us look good.
Very exciting.
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8/18/07
 This
is the woven bracelet we will use in the class. It is
not that difficult, but it does take a lot of time.
I tried several different hooks before settling on the
simplest one.
It is very comfortable to wear. I have this urge
to put it in Liver of Sulphur.
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8/11/07
We have been invited as 1 of 12 designers to
participate in Susan's Jewelry Showcase. Susan is
the fashion jewelry editor at Bella Online. We put
up a page so she could chose the information she needed.
It is at
http://www.jewelryspectrum.com/bella We will
use it as the basis for the online Media Kit, which has
been on the list for so long.
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8/8/07
 These
earrings are woven of .999 fine silver and have
lapis stones. I think the stones are a little
big for these earrings and maybe would not be if the
earrings were a little shorter. However, I
really like the twisted weaving as each wire
twinkles in the light when you move.
I like the idea of not setting the stones in
exactly the same way. There is no law that
earrings must match. I like for them to look
as if they belong together, but have their own
individuality.
Found a new technique to make these weaves
straight. I just use the dowel I used for
shaping as a beater.
The step-by-step pictures for Wildacres are
better since I have started using the tripod.
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8/7/07
Running in circles today - need to get busy on
those earrings. Of course don't you know, I
got distracted and uploaded the first of my Squidoo
Lenses
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/workshop/jewelry-workbench
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8/6/07
I finally got my design planned for the earrings for
Wildacres. I hadn't really been able to come up
with exactly what I wanted until yesterday. I hope
to start them today and get the pictures as I work
along.
Several of the sources on Google Alerts have
referenced an e-commerce spending report from ComScore
and Stated that online jewelry and watch sales have
increased 32% in the second quarter of 2007.
This may not be in artisan jewelry, but at Christmas a
huge increase was posted and even in the Second Quarter
with this increase, it appears that we have a good
chance at penetrating this online market now.
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8/3/07
Blog Carnival - a link list of blogs that
are writing about a specific topic.
We are hosting a Jewelry Artisan's Workbench
Blog Carnival (see links at right). It is
a good opportunity for Artisans to develop
incoming links to their blogs. It will be
interesting to see how it works out.
We removed the surveys from the site - they
weren't that interesting and had gotten so they
had fewer participants.
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8/2/07
 The
handouts for Wildacres are finally coming together.
I am putting together a workbook style notebook so
the students can use the information as well as fill
in their own information and do some sketches as
needed - at least that's the plan.
I am not making tutorials for each piece, but I
am using pictures for the steps rather than drawing
them out. My drawing is not so good and it
takes forever. One interesting thing I am
doing is a safety section which includes hand
exercises.
This is a soumak basket and I am using a dowel
as a form to get the sides straight and make it
round. It is the first basket I have made from
precious metals. Before it was copper and
floral wire. It is so nice to work with good
metals.
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8/1/07
 This
is a much more spare piece with cleaner lines.
It was harder than the more ornate pieces
because you can't hide any problems behind other
weaves or coils. Lots of discipline
needed.
I need to work on some very small pieces to
see if I can get it down to 30 gauge and about
dime sized.
This is 28 gauge on 18 gauge .999 fine
silver. Very little tool work is done with
this type of weaving. Most of it is hand
work.
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