Soldering Earring Posts
I saw this neat little trick at a demo given by Cynthia Eid regarding soldering on an earring post. The key is to making this little tool and heating the metal up indirectly. She used 20 gauge binding wire that was forged into this shape. You forge it so that the grippers are flat. They have to have enough tension to grip the earring post. The post is placed into the tool with only the top of the post being held. On a charcoal block, you direct the heat in a circular motion from say from a 2:00 position to
Texturing Metal – raw silk
The texture of raw silk is very subtle but beautiful. I thought I would post a few photos of the process and what I’m doing with it.. Below you have the piece of fabric and metal. I put it through my rolling mill which is like a heavy duty pasta machine. It takes the texture of the fabric and transfers it onto the metal. I wasn’t happy with the first roll so I repeated 2 – 3 more times until I got the texture I wanted. I was able to do that as the pattern is pretty random. I then
Designing Jewelry
What’s next? I thought I would blog a little bit about my process. It’s always fun to start a new collection. This time, I’m beginning with the shapes below that I’ve cut out. Doesn’t look real pretty right now but hopefully things will begin to come together within a few days. Some shapes will remain as one – others will be cut up into sections. I love to see what evolves. Tomorrow I’ll begin to trace around the shapes and begin sketching out the designs.
Using the Silhouette Cameo with Metal Clay
I thought I’d share a small video of cutting of metal clay with the Silhouette Cameo. First a slab of clay is rolled out and then thoroughly dried into the greenware state. Once it’s dry, I attached it to the Silhouette mat and etched the design into the metal. As you see the machine running, it’s actually using a blade to cut through the metal clay following the design I set up in the software. The learning curve on this for me was a bit difficult, but once I learned what I needed to do for a successful etch and
New Beginnings
It’s a new year and time to freshen things up with a new website and a new blog. I’ve been creating art jewelry in one form or another for about 20 years now. Though some of you may know me I figured I introduce myself with my first blog post. I began beading around 1995 or so. I enjoyed making crocheted bracelets though I found the learning difficult as it was taught in two different classes. I found myself almost destroying the work I had done in the first class as my thread was fraying very badly. I knew there