a little ditty

There once was a post about progress

a picture was posted of bench mess -

pieces were shown in various state

and if I could finish, they just might be great.

I managed to work in some bench time

cut, file, and polish to high shine,

it really was fun - now the earrings are done.

they glimmer and sparkle and glow

just take a look

and then comment below.....

please?

ha. :)

Now in my Etsy shop. :)

Back to Metalsmithing!

Seems I've been posting mostly 'off-topic' lately -

not that I intend the blog to be SOLEY and ONLY specifically metalsmithing, every post, all the time, 24/7/365........

its a Metalsmith's journey - and part of this metalsmith's journey is balancing family, full time job, and other hobbies/interests.

However, I know that many of you reading are my fellow 'smithers' so I am very happy to say that I've gotten some bench time over the past week and I have some new (in progress) pieces. Such as the little peridot ring to the left.

YAY! New work makes me so happy. :) Or maybe its more the creating of the new work that makes me happy.

Oh heck, its probably a bit of both.

I don't know how I went so many years without a creative outlet. For so long I really wasn't 'into' anything. Not seriously, if at all. I went through buying stages but not really 'doing' stages. I bought all the stuff for making candles, but never made any. I bought all the supplies for dried flower arrangements, but only made a few. I have bought all sorts of other crafts supplies and just never found my stride. I spent some time working in pastels when I was a youth (back in the dark ages) but that was so long ago the old drawings have probably turned to dust.

I am sure the other smithers out there can relate to getting lost in the making. That is what it was like for me last night.

I was in the zone.

Be sure - being in the studio has its ups and downs - we have good days and bad days - days when the solder flows and days when it doesn't......days when it flows but not where we want it.....or flows in previous joins when we don't want it.....

days when the sawblade wanders or each and every one breaks


I actually had a blade break last night - ok, probably more than one.

But this one broke and a piece of the blade flew off and went right through the skin of my finger!

how weird is that?

and is it weirder still that I had my camera RIGHT there?

or weirder yet that I thought of you all, grabbed the camera, and took a picture?
(does that blade make my finger look fat?


Now I need to remember to keep that far away from the pickle.

For the non-smithers, 'pickle' is a substance we use to clean off all of the remnants of soldering - glassy bits of flux, oxides, dirt, etc.

And its caustic. No matter what formula is used - commercial, home-made, 'green' or not....they are all caustic. They 'corrode' the 'gunk' off.

And make no mistake, it will BURN your owies.

So yea, last night I was zoning. Not that everything went perfectly, it didn't. But I was just zooming right along anyway. From one thing to the next, several pieces going at once. I know many of you get to enjoy that every day - I'm positively jealous of those of you who do this full time - but for me, its been a long time since I've slammed through a bunch of pieces at once.


I had the tunes on and was bopping along. I finished a pair of earrings, made a ring, started another pair of earrings.....



well, when I say finished I mean stones set - ready for polishing/finishing.










As many of you know - I am horrible at actually REALLY finishing things......

I leave them in various states of pre-finish most often -

still needing polish or oxidizing...or earwires!











but I'm getting better!

Partly because I've amassed more than enough personal jewelry.

I need to begin getting more of it out the door. (more on that later)

I have placed a moritorium on 'incoming' items though. I am on a stone buying freeze. I MUST use what I have at home.

However, that hasn't stopped the mailman, fed-ex guy, etc from coming to my door. Just yesterday I received a lovely Fretz chasing hammer as a contribution to the monthly giveaways at the Jewelry Artists Network. If you haven't entered the first one yet - DO IT NOW!

The Fretz hammer was so kindly donated for the JAN to use in their giveaways by Fundametals. Check them out - every time I look, I see new unique items and some of the latest tools releases, Not only that, but everyone I have spoken with who has used Fundametals has stated unequivocally that the service is THE best. And that certainly means a lot when we're buying online.

Dont' forget to enter the giveaway and the April EarthDay challenge!

GOOD LUCK!

New, New, New

I have been saying I made these weird little earrings -- and they are weird, but actually I rather like them.

They are from my new 'bumpy' series.....but I need a better name. 'Bumpy' just doesn't cut it and although I like 'warts' I'm not sure thats a good marketing name. ;-)

I have had trouble photographing them which is why I hadn't posted them, but I'm tired of trying to get a good photo, so this will have to do.




These are hand chased sterling with oxidation.

The earwires are really long so they hang down quite low. I think I will shorten them a bit. . . but I like the idea of having an earwire that is a little longer.

I have another pair that isn't domed, they are flatter and they are cut out around the edges of the bumps. I don't like those as much as I like these. I have many more bumpy pieces in mind. Its a fun technique and its quick, which I love - instant gratification! YAY!



Some of you have asked about the whole eating raw thing.

I don't have a juicer. Well, thats not exactly true. I have a juicer. Somewhere. Your guess is as good as mine as to where. Really. OK, my guess might be minimally better, but thats about it. And it wasn't expensive, just a Juicemanjuicer kind of thing...under 50.00 bucks, but that was a dozen years ago -- it looks like this one: http://www.builderssquare.com/xp_196879-Juiceman_JM1_Jr_Juice_Extractor.aspx but since I have NO idea where it is, I may buy another. Juicing is part of eating raw, but just a part. So far my days consist of lots of raw fruit and veggies. Sometimes with a little oil and vinegar over them or fresh lemon juice. Last night I discovered my mother's quisanart food processor, I've never used one before! I used it to julienne a yellow squash and a zuccini squash. I dried the squash on paper towels, then put them in a bowl with grated carrot and chopped scallions. I made a dressing of soy, chili pepper oil, rice wine vinegar and then tossed in a handful of flax seeds and a few pine nuts. It was SO good! I've been eating salads with lots of fresh greens and little or no dressing.

At night, for a snack, I blend a cupof soy milk with some frozen fresh fruit. I've cut up bananas, strawberries, and peaches and froze the pieces in singlelayers on baking sheets. When frozen just dump into bags and keep in freezer for a month or so. When you want them, just pull out and grab a handful! With the soymilk in the blender it makes a GREAT smoothie!

There are recipe books out there, that get VERY creative with raw foods - making 'meatballs' and all sorts of things. ALL the raw food books at my library were checked out, AND had 4 or 5 holds on them already, so this weekend I will be off to the bookstore. Well, in between my workshops with.......................

DAVID HUANG.

Yep, you hear me. (read me?)

*heart* I heart his work so much and can't WAIT for this class! *heart*

Ohhhh, today is FF day. Sorry - I guess a fave of mine is David's work....breathtaking.

That's it for now! TTYL!
Janice

Tension, not always a bad thing

Tension, sawblade, 'twang!!!' - not a bad thing.


Tension, headache, ow - bad thing.


Tension, sapphire, sterling - not a bad thing.










Yep, my first tension setting. What a sweet little baby.

Maybe something only this mother will cherish, looking past any newborn oddness, bumps, or weirdness -- bless your haaaaaaaaaart little one, you're all mine.

This was made yesterday when I got together with 3 other metalsmiths in PA. We converged AGAIN upon Rina - in her awesome studio. Lisa, Gary, and I all arrived before noon and stayed until at least 8pm. I was the first to arrive and the first to leave. And I had a blast. We hardly made anything, in fact, I was the only one that actually made anything although Lisa and Gary started a project very late into the day, and partway into a bottle of bourbon. They never finished. The ring that is. (actually they didn't finish the bourbon either - it was a HUGE bottle!) But they had fun anyway. ;-) Gary helped walk me through my first tension setting and I think I'm hooked. Can't wait to try another. And can't wait to get together with my pals again! Rina's studio is central for all of us - it took me less than 2 hours to get there, Lisa comes from the furthest but was there in just about 2 hours. Besides the yearly retreat in NC, this is the only time I really get benchtime with others. Can't say how much I enjoy it. :)


On Saturday I had some rare free time so I made a couple of rings, with my trademark shank.

This one is opal in sterling.

The other ring was damaged during polishing, I need to remake the setting. :(









I decided I needed to make something other than rings for a change, so I made this sweet little pair of sterling and garnet earrings.


I am leaving for vacation on Saturday but hope to get some bench time this week in addition to my Tuesday night tomorrow night. I am having a renewed 'fun' creating lately. )


It was a busy weekend and will be a busy week, but I hope to have a few more intersting things to post this week. STAY TUNED!
Janice

TT - Earrings

Today is Earrings day. :)

Forged Earrings by Elizabeth Scott

ROUND Earwires by Deryn Mentock

Creative Earwires - from Orion

Fine Silver Earring posts - from Deb Fitz (fine silver and metal clay)

Wire Earrings by Dianne Karg Baron


I selected each of these tutorials because, #1 - they are offered free and I LOVE a Pay It Forward spirit, and #2 because I think they offer something that can be built upon in a number of ways. So be inspired!

Oh - and a special shout out to Columbia MD! Berger Rd.... :) Helloooooooooo! :)

Tales from Tuesday (TFT)

I think this will be a new 'regular' blogpost here.

Now that I have Tuesdays tightly tucked away for my bench time (ahhh, alliteration - I love it! don't know why, I just do!) that means Wednesdays should be ripe with rich reports of resplendent results. (ok, I'll stop)

Here is how lovely last night was. I arrived home to find a BIG bag of chinese food sitting on the kitchen table -which was set by the way....so we just poured drinks and dug in! YUM! After that, I helped clear the table and put away some food and then I was summarily dismissed to the basement! I was so surprised and so grateful and glad!

I wanted to work on whatever I wanted to work on, however, I've had a couple of 'promised' tutorials or 'HIDIs' pending, sooooooooo, that is what I did. I went from camera tripod to holding pliers and wire for a shot, back to the camera. Can I just say "UGH!"? NOT fulfilling. At all. But necessary I suppose.

In the midst of that I did manage to almost complete a pair of half-hoop earrings. First time I've attempted anything remotely resembling hoops. They are for my 'lines' series - like these I did not long ago. The wire is a bit more hefty, and with the tight curvature of the hoops (they are sort of small) they sawing was a bear or maybe it was holding the piece while sawing. Whatever it was, there are a few unwanted nicks here and there. I hit them with sandpaper and then ran a buff with ZAM over them just to get an idea of whether or not they were 'clean' enough to procede. I think I am going to sand them some more tonight and then polish them up and then odixize them. They may not make it to sale (MINE!) but I'll have a much better idea how to proceed next time. And who knows, maybe they WILL clean up enough....

I am hoping to have pictures of the earrings tonight.

And then I really need to organize the photos for the tute. Its for a ring similar to the one at the left. But last night I used heavier gauge wire and a turquoise bead. I don't think I like the heavier gauge wire (10 ga) although it provides more space at the top to put the bead. I didn't bother cleaning up the ring and photographing the process of sanding and polishing - maybe that's a good one for a free HIDI. :)

Its mid-week - hope everyone is having a happy, SAFE (Lisa), and productive week! Only two more days and its TGIF! :)

~Janice

Post smash-up earrings

These are the new earrings - not the smashed ones! :)

I was working on a pair of earrings last week that just weren't going well - I ended up stressing them and one broke and then I got frustrated and cut up the other one, pretty well smashed them up. Kind of felt good - a release of tension that I think I really needed.


(click to enlarge)



So the next night I started a new pair of earrings, new concept - and the result is a very pleasing, albeit very LONG pair of earrings. These are sterling and sapphire (yellow and blue) with handcrafted posts. They are 3" long.


I REALLY like the way these turned out and I hope to make some variations of these - I just need to purchase a few more (ok, a LOT more) tiny stones!

~Janice

A busy week last week!!

I wanted some items to put out to sort of 'exhibit' at a small jazz festival/show - I wasn't able to complete all of these for the show, but I did get them done shortly thereafter. Some rings, pendants, cuffs...

It was a hard but great week!