Everything's Coming Up Druzy

I just love how dramatic these druzy cabs are, they look like they're filled with overflowing sugar or a dimension to some other sparkly galaxy. Druzy crystals take hundreds to thousands of years to form, as molten rock begins cools with trapped gases inside. The gases cause gaps in the rock and groundwater flows through the gaps. Centuries go by like this and minerals crystallize forming this concentrated crystallization. I've used PMC (Precious Metal Clay) pure silver for the setting which is why it has an organic look and textured design. I chose an open back because these pieces look so beautiful when the light shines through. These are all available in my Etsy shop.

PMC Flex - This stuff’s made for bezels!

Sometimes things…align. Just as I’m getting back into setting stones using PMC (Precious Metal Clay), Mitsubishi releases a new clay that is PERFECT for making bezels. I’m referring to PMC Flex. I couldn’t have wished for a more appropriate product. This is kind of a technical blog post, hope my PMC peeps dig it. (Please leave a comment if you do!)

I still use the same technique that I came up with a decade ago and that was first published in Lapidary Journal in ‘05. I then refined things and came up with some variations for Tim McCreight’s book PMC Technic in ’07. If you don’t have the book, the digital version was just released for sale through the Apple Ibooks Store, Amazon (for Kindle) and plays on almost any phone, tablet or computer.

The “Kahn Bezel” (as some have called it) is made up of scanning a cab, printing it 118% larger and using that template to make your back sheet. I still use PMC Plus for this (cause why not, it works great for this purpose and is less expensive than the newer clays).

Originally I used PMC Paper for the bezel because it was available, uniformly thin and created a great bezel wall. Then I moved to using PMC Plus or PMC3 because of the length limitation of the PMC Paper and because I wanted to create textured bezel walls. Rolling those clays super thin was difficult but even more difficult was handling them when dry.

This little Flipagram illustrates me making a bezel from start to finish. 

First I would roll out a snake of clay at 2 cards and then drop down to 3 pieces of paper on each side and roll onto my texture. Then I would cut bezel strips and I let them dry. (They need to dry so they don’t get hurt while working with them and so they stand up without flopping over.) Then I would re-wet the one side so it would become soft and flexible and bend it around the back sheet and mark where to cut it. I would sand beveled ends on the strip and in that time, it would dry and become rigid again and potentially break. I would wet it on the inside again and bend it around the back sheet, this time adhering it to the back sheet as I bent it around.

PMC Flex allows me to avoid some steps. I can simply let it dry and then it is super bendy and flexible - no cracking! It’s amazing that something so thin can be so pliable and worry free! 

So now, once it’s dry I can take my strip and bend it around, mark it, cut it, sand the ends, bend it around again and attach it to my back sheet, saving those re-wetting steps and saving me from holding my breath! What a treat!

 

Once fired, it is rigid and acts just like any bezel wall, I use a bezel roller followed by a steel burnisher to set my stone.

PMC Flex is so flexible that it is challenging to sand but for the purpose of making a bezel it is perfect. I’m loving setting stones again. I have 3 new turquoise pendants in my Etsy shop and more  on the way! 

Back in the blue...

...blue/green - I just love Chinese turquoise and I'm back to making my signature collar pieces and single pendants, all with rich textured backs. Thanks to Molly who encouraged me to get back into this! (By the way, check out her brand new blog which I encouraged her to get into!) These pieces are now available in my Etsy shop. I will also have them at my last Artist Market of the season, this Saturday. 

 New Turquoise 3 Piece Collar

 (the back)

 Turquoise Pendant with tribal back

 (the back)

 Turquoise Pendant with flower back

 (the back)

Also very happy to have just sent this order out to Wake Up Little Suzie in D.C.

Necklace for Molly

For the past few months I've had the luck and pleasure of having Molly Williamson helping me crank work out. Molly is an amazing jeweler and jewelry artist. She works at Global Pathways on Church St and she makes gorgeous high end work, lots of raw minerals, diamonds, opals, in sterling and 14k gold. As she says, she "uses contrasting elements to produce something playful and feminine with a hint of grit and intrigue" - love that! She has her own voice and vision and she shares my love of rustic, earthy, simple but edgy designs. She has been helping drill, heat and file my metal shapes. And while we work we talk about the jewelry biz and Etsy and wholesaling and every little part of how one goes about selling jewelry.

Molly and me.

Molly is a native Vermonter and she loves making unique, wearable art in her studio in Cabot. She's happy to tweak any of her current designs and she loves custom work, she also does jewelry repair. I send all of my customers who want wedding rings and engagement rings her way (since that ain't my jam). 
She's new to Etsy and I'm helping her get her biz going. Check out her shop IgniteMetals and like her business page for news and sales. Use either page to contact her about custom work!

Some pieces in her Etsy shop - check them out - amazing!!!

Molly had been requesting one of my turquoise necklaces. I haven't done this kind of work for a really long time... years! I've been so focused on fast, simple designs and I was a bit reluctant to work on a more complex, higher end piece. Celie is always encouraging me to keep up with higher end work and the Stowe Craft Gallery asked me to make some "show stopper" pieces to add to their collection so with all of this rallying I decided to go for it. 
It's good to keep the PMC muscle/setting stone muscles alive and working. It also didn't hurt to be in Santa Fe last month, surrounded by turquoise and it's deep beauty. Seeing it all there made me look forward to diving back into my HUGE Chinese turquoise cab collection. Molly was thrilled that I was on board to create a necklace for her. I had her pick out the cabs and choose textures from my Tear Away papers.
I sat down to work on this last week and it was like riding a bike, my fingers knew just what to do and I was faster than ever at making the bezels. I was trying to get this done in time for Molly's bday and I did and she loved it! I'm going to make a couple more of the three piece necklaces and I plan on making some single pendants again too. 

The front.

The back.

 Molly and her new necklace!

I'm SUPER excited to be getting some work from Molly too, I have my eye on her twig rings. I'm thinking the bottom two rings from this set with her opal twig ring in between...

Update::: So in love my new twig stacking ring set! Feels like it was meant for me! This opal is crazy and the diamond and gold leaf fall into place so well around it. 

These go so nicely with my ring and my style but they are so fancy and special. 

My New article in Jewelry Artist Magazine!

The June issue will be on sale on June 3rd, subscribers will get it earlier - mine came in the mail today!

    Three years ago I wrote a project called “Metal Clay Bezel: Setting stones in PMC after firing” (Lapidary Journal, May, 2005). I wanted to find a way to set stones in PMC that could not be fired in place. In it I describe how to make an entire setting out of PMC by making the setting big enough in fresh clay so that after firing (and shrinking) the stone fits. (I didn’t want to make a mold of my stone and a plaster replica to fire in place, I just wanted my stone to fit.) Through trial and error I found that if I scanned my cab and enlarged the image by 118% (to account for the 15% shrinkage), I could print that image and use it as a template to make my setting. 

    I have set over a hundred stones, in all shapes and sizes using that calculation. In that article I used PMC Sheet for the bezel wall, which works very well. The technique did not require soldering, so it provided those without metalworking skills a way to make beautiful jewelry out of their stone cabs.

    I recently had the honor of contributing a chapter on setting stones for Tim McCreight’s book “PMC Technic”. Writing that chapter caused me to think more about settings and to create some pieces that go beyond surrounding a stone in silver. I wanted the settings themselves to be compelling.

    I wanted the backs to be beautiful, in fact, why not reversible? I wanted the sides to be decorative too; why not textured even? In that chapter I touch on the techniques that I expand on in the article.

    Instead of using PMC Paper, I use very thin strips of textured PMC3. This comes with its own advantages and challenges. This project also features an open back setting, a lovely option if you’d like to show off the back of your cab. In the first article, the bezel wall was attached to the edge of the backsheet, in this project the backsheet is extends beyond the setting and I use a PMC syringe to help support the bezel wall on top of the backsheet.

I hope you enjoy the article!