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! 

Top 10 Signs you live with a Jewelry Artist

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. 

A New Year, A New Line Emerging... the year of the Wrapture.

I've had the idea to make arm/boot cuffs for a couple of years but it's pretty much been simmering on the back burner. Many things have aligned for me to finally move forward with this. Last fall I bought an old Singer sewing machine. Found it at a barn sale right in town. It came with a beautiful wood table that it folds down into. It's one from the 1920's and it works so well. Best part, it sews leather which really opened the door for this new line.

I've also been eager to make an attempt at combining the best of the fashion world with the best of the jewelry world. (Maybe even have a fashion show!) While in NYC over NYE we stopped in an amazing trim shop and I bought some feather trim, some lace and leather and from there the idea really took off.

My new line is called:
Wrap·ture
n.1. To cover, envelop or encase in something that gives way to feelings of ecstasy.

I've been pretty wrapped up in it too! For 2 weeks I've had my sewing machine crankin' and piles of leather and fabric scattered around. I made 7 to start and through them have learned so much about how I want these pieces to work.

I've always loved getting 2 for 1's or items that reverse or transform (including transformer's as a kid!). So it was important to me that these pieces be really versatile. They can be worn so many different ways which really adds to their value.

I see this as being great adornment for the global nomad. A piece of jewelry that you can move from arm-to-boot-to-calf, maybe head, depending on your mood, outfit, desire. The thin wrap even detaches from the thick wrap and can be worn separately as a wrist wrap or anklet. Such a great travel piece.

Made of Silver and stones, brass, upcycled leather, feathers, silk, tribal fabrics and lace. These designer wraps are bigger, bolder and brighter than typical jewelry and can adorn many places on the body. Yet they are more substantial then a mere accessory. Hand made, with silver hand stitched, each one's a unique work of wearable art.

I love this look. Very Warrior Goddess.

My boots are really simple and I love the idea of dressing them up, and being able to change them up.

Which made me realize, you don't need the boot! In warmer weather this would make a great calf cuff.

The Wrap is made up of 2 components and the inner wrap can detach and be worn on it's own on the wrist. It fits 3 times around.
x
Or it could be an anklet, wrapped twice around.

Just wanted to share where I'm at with this so far...I'll debut them this spring. Gotta figure out pricing and such, but for now I'm really excited!

On the Cover of Metal Clay Artist Magazine!

Exciting news...a bit belated...it's been a crazy summer. My Chinese turquoise necklace is on the cover of Metal Clay Magazine and I have a lovely 5 page spread. It features 9 photos (all by Robert Diamante) of my work -to me it feels kind of like a retrospective of my last 10 years working with PMC. So many thanks to Jeanette LeBlanc and Margaret Schindel, this is such an honor and a thrill. They've made an amazing magazine, it just turned 2 years old with this issue. Thank you to Julia Rai for a great interview.

It's funny, the first thing some of my friends and colleagues have said upon reading it is "You were born in Miami!?!" I know, it's pretty random. I tried to read it as if I was reading about someone else and I thought 'I like what this person has to say', so that's a good thing!

It was so exciting to walk into Barnes and Noble today and see my piece, right there on the magazine rack. A tiny "I've made it!" feeling soared through me and motivates me to keep working away. My mom went to the Barnes and Noble near her and picked up a copy too, making sure to tell all the people that worked there that it was her daughter's work on the cover. Awe, mom.

So, that's the end of my gushing...I'm just really happy about this.

Modern Relics in a Modern Era - One Way I'm Handling the Rise of Silver

For several years I've had 4 bronze pieces sitting on my desk. They have been waiting, patiently for me to set them in silver as I've done before with my Modern Relics series. They've waited while I've been consumed with making less expensive pieces, always getting pushed to the back corner. This year I was determined to make them into jewelry, into the pendants they were meant to become...and then the cost of silver began to rise...and rise...and RISE. And with it, my interest in creating settings for these pendants, diminished. I had already rolled out the textured backsheets in PMC but I didn't want to spend the silver - or the time to make them into settings. Then it hit me! These pieces are not fragile turquoise, or shell or other thing in need of protection. They're solid bronze and they're STRONG. They don't need sides! (I wouldn't want them to be pendants by themselves because I wouldn't want them to turn people's skin green.)

So I decided to rivet the silver backs onto the bronze. I LOVE riveting and it was easy to drill the bronze. I even drilled large holes for tube rivets so I could use sterling jumprings for bails. The riveting was easy cause you can smack that bronze with a hammer no problem!

I love the way they look and feel and I like having the sides exposed because they are cool and cracked and craggy.

Now they're actually reversible (although I still warn about wearing bronze against moist skin).

With the rise of silver I began to have a mid-jewelry-life crisis. But the first thing I did was cash in 10 years of saved scrap. This was a lot of scrap and it yielded a lot of credit at Rio Grande. Enough to get a kiln, a Flex shaft and drill press, a torch and some tools. Enough to start MY OWN STUDIO! Now it was a scary idea to start my own studio when I was worried if I could afford to keep working with silver but then I thought about my work and the materials I use. I work with copper, brass, bronze, found objects, fabric, shells, stones, leather and feathers. I use silver with most designs but as accents, as embellishments.

So I'm not about to stop making jewelry, just to start making jewelry a little differently, with a little more focus on the other stuff. In April, these pieces were the first ones I created with my new tools and it was very exciting stuff.

My mentor Celie wrote a great blog on her way of dealing with the price of silver, check it out HERE. Now that I have my own kiln and now that I love these new Modern Relics, I will be working with more BronzClay and I'm really looking forward to that. Silver has been down in recent weeks too, maybe it will keep going down, but it's good to know that you can let creativity overcome anxiety, that you can adapt.

Commemorative NYE, NYC, MSG Token

Ever since I attended my first Phish show, I was taken with the community, the art and most of all, the music. As a maker of little things, I love the merit badge concept and it inspired me to create a token. Since I work in metal and I'm excited for the New Years Run in NYC, a token, reminiscent of subway tokens, was an appealing idea. It's made of pure silver and is the size of a quarter. Each one is hand made by me. A great gift for your favorite Phish head! It comes in an archival coin display holder for $25, HERE

It's also available as a pendant HERE and comes on black waxed cotton cord (16" or 18") with sterling ends and a sterling lobster clasp. Or on a sterling chain for $45 - just check my shop.
In addition to the commemorative fish and apple, and "NYE, NYC, MSG", all three show dates are inscribed among the lines on the edge. A limited edition of only 100 tokens will be made to order. Definitely a collector’s item, and maybe the start of a new token series?

I'm donating a portion of every sale to the Mockingbird Foundation because as important art is to me, I couldn't live without the music and I want that to be true for future generations.

Check it out, the token is featured on CashorTrade.org!

Some Personalized Pendants, just in time for the Holidays!

You get to choose, one of the twelve classical signs of the Greek/Roman Zodiac. We've been fascinated by the zodiac for ages, the idea that our lives are influenced by the heavens above...

I've made my own textures and I press them into pure silver. The process of pushing the texture into the silver allows for a funky, cracked, natural edge. My favorite part! For that reason every piece is different and unique. A great necklace for layering with other chains. A great gift and perfect for a man or woman.
The back has my JK logo (also the Chinese symbol for 'forever').
Or a sweet little initial pendant...
Made to order! Find them in my Etsy shop.