Ring a Week 2/52

I had planned on something slightly different this week but I am happy with what DID result -

Spinning Splat Ring

This combines two things I am currently intrigued by - kinetics and recycling my scrap.

Its fun. :)

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!

TFT - Step away from the bench

Ever have one of those days (nights) in the studio?

Where everything you touch either melts, cracks, or somehow just ends up garbage?

I know we all do, but I have to be hoenst, I haven't had one in a really long time.

Or at least not to this magnitude.

Truthfully, I'd call comedic error but there was nothing funny about it.

Not even remotely.

Except possibly my persistence.

When every shred of evidence suggested I should turn off the tanks, put down the pliers, and just step away from the bench....I failed to listen.

So I melted more.

I burned my finger.

I pinched my thumb in a pair of scissors.

I got my specs stuck in my hair.

I created a lot of scrap.

But I just could not walk away.

At first I was sad - frustrated near tears.

Then I was mad.

You see, I only get ONE night dedicated to the bench. I may score some other time here and there over the week - but Tuesday night is my ONE guaranteed 'me' time to work. To try to alleviate my brain from a weeks worth of designing, and dreaming and planning.

But a clean schedule is no guarantee of clean work - or any work at all. There have been times when I have begun aching to get to my bench by Sunday night and when Tuesday rolls around I am DYING to dig in...and then I get there...and....like my issue with blog post titles - it strikes. Some weird sort of performance anxiety...and I freeze up and just stare at all my lovely tools and stones and metal. *sigh*

In reality, last night was a little bit like that. I had cleaned off my bench over the weekend and I arrived there last night and thought "hmmmm, what to do, what to do..?" I didn't have a clear objective. Well, I might have had an objective - but it involved LOSing and polishing already finished work and I just ummm, well, decided to ignore that and turn my energy in a different direction.

Big mistake.

So I wasted more than an hour fiddling with a stupid box. . . before deciding I just wasn't meant to make a box last night.

Then I decided to use a stone that I bought earlier this month -- pulled some materials and made a bezel. Ooops, a little small - stretch it....errggggg, ok, it fits. Grab a piece of scrap sterling that had a lovely texture on it. Flux, heat, apply solder....great. Quench. Inspect. RATS. Bezel popped open just a tad -- ok, easy fix. Heat, flux, solder........crap. Melted part.

No big deal, do-overs are relatively cheap at this point.

Grab metal, measure bezel big enough this time, snip, file, solder, quench, grab a different backplate, heat, flux, solder (yea, yea yea rinse repeat blah blah blah)...great.

ouch, gap under bezel. Tiny one. Fix it. No problemo.

Flux, solder, yadda yadda....oh @^*#! wasn't watching my flame - melted a tiny bit of the top of the bezel. Hmm, stop, inspect. Measure stone.......

OK, was going to shave it down anyway. Quench, dry.....ok...not bad. (so tired.....)

Clean up backplate - carve decorative edge - grab scrap for ring shank - solder.

OK, success. FINALLY.

But wait.

Howzabout adding a little sparkle. Some visual interest...

how about a little faceted stone up there somewhere?

*rummage* *rummage* oh look - a little blue sapphire - 2mm - PERFECT!

Careful now - lets go to some easy solder.......drill hole, apply solder, balance setting...heat.

melt setting.

Clean up hole, grab new setting.....apply solder, heat....reposition setting, heat...reposition setting repeat.

repeat

repeat

repeat

And then, just shy of throwing the whole damn thing across the room. . . .

Success.

pfft. Sure doesn't FEEL like success.

I left the basement around 10:30 half promising never to return.

Oh wait - pictures...right? You want pictures.

*sigh* The ring isn't done.....not cleaned......but here is a quick peek of what will be MY ring. It has issues. I have issues too.

We were meant for each other

So what about you? When was your last totally frustrating day at the bench?

Come onnnnnnnn, share, you know you want to!

Misery loves company ya know.

~Janice

Retreat (obscenely image heavy)

JAR 2009:

It went off without a hitch - we had a GREAT week! YAY!!!!

I am already planning for next year - and thinking about tiny ways to make it even better! We had 10 people and it was PERFECT. One change for next year is that I am thinking we will cap at 10 rather than 13. It provides a little more breathing room and allows us all to set up in the garage.

Its great to all be in one room and just feed off each other. You get to hear all this hammering and flexshafts whirring, and sawing, and lots of talking and laughing and we can't forget the music on the ipods. And all the materials - metal and rocks......great stuff.

Good times. For sure. :)

And the view.........its lovely, isn't it?


Now for some down to business photos:

And then some pics of a few things I made while there:

This is a rather large pendant - turquoise, aquamarine, citrine, and onyx. . . I completely chased the background, intending to LOS it, but just haven't gotten there yet. The entire piece has a lot of different texturing. It has been a royal pain to try to get a decent photo of this - its much prettier in person.

I luv it.

This is a ring someone there showed us how to do Christy? Saree?...mmm, Saree I think. She had found a similar one in a book or magazine and a few girls made them. Mine is a bit different than theirs but they were all really neat. This is the most comfortable ring! It began as 10 ga sterling wire - I forged it down a bit, stamped, formed, LOS'd. After I got to looking at it - it began reminding me of our life's journeys - so that is what it is - a Journeys Ring. I will be making more of these.

This one is up on Esty.

This is one of my favorites.

A flashy little ring (comparitively speaking) featuring a little garnet and custom cut jasper.

This ring is a direct reflection of creating on the lake - as it reminds me of the meandering shoreline of the lake we were on.


Available on Etsy.

LOVE this ring too! lol This features a very large red ocean jasper stone that is cut with generously sloping sides which allowed me to keep the bezel really low and still provide for a good secure setting. This stone is highly polished, as is the setting - the whole thing just glows and its super comfortable to wear!

Available on Etsy.

This next one is totally NOT me, but it was a GREAT experience to make. The little prong settings are pre-fab, not something I usually do, but they came to me in a studio buy-out, so I'm using them! The ring has a handcrafted scroll base and then features a large blush topaz and 5 3mm amethysts. Totally bubble gum, candy, sugary sweet. Not me.........and yet, this ring has really grown on me - its just so PRETTY!

Finally a little pendant - for practice. I was supposed to demo bead setting but never got around to it. This was my little practice piece to ensure my gravers were sharp and that I could still raise a bead! I then went round and round with a milligrain wheel a couple of days later, just for fun.

Other stuff:

H1N1 has arrived at our houe. Its thrown quite a wrench into our lives this week. LG has had a temperature ranging from 99-103.8 for most of the week but he is FINALLY fever free today Strike that - phone just rang - temp is back up to 101.3. Hopefully that will continue and he will begin to feel better each day. Unfortunately others are not recovering quite as well. A young man in our are just lost his life from H1N1 and complications - he was just 18.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/21363895/detail.html

There have been other deaths in our area. Its almost mind boggling to me. I tend to think that w can 'fix' or sustain or work around most 'common' illnesses - flu, colds, sore throats, that sort of thing. To know that someone can be 'healthy' and then in a relatively short period of time be gone......sort of unreal.

There is a very real possibility that someone you know will end up with H1N1, in fact it is more than possible - it is probable - at least here in the states.

So watch for symptoms, stay healthy, and get treatment if you begin to show any signs of flu-like symptoms.

PSA done. :)

Take care

~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 - A little late

Tutorial coming - pics of 'fold and gold' for now.....

Yes, Tuesday Tutorial WILL be posted today, but its going to be a LATE date post - well, more like a night time post. :) Hope you'll come back tonight or check in tomorrow. I'm having a good time posting metalsmithing tutorials that I find and also sharing those of friends.

In the meantime, I said I'd try to grab a photo of the fold and gold ring now that its oxidized. I didn't get to it last night - swim team is going to be a killer! Yesterday was our first practice. My father was good enough to take LG to the pool at 5pm at which time we found out he'd be in the 6:15-6pm group. They decided to stay and wait it out, so I ran home and picked up little Lisa and took her to the vet. I returned home with Lisa around 7pm and little guy and Pop-Pop pulled in a bit after 7:15. Needless to say, dinner was on the late side last night, little guy needed a shower after being in the strong chlorine, and after he went to bed, I crashed.

Ohhhhh, No, scrap that. I did go to the bench - - got started with the 14k gold bezel - on a lovely little triangular (trillian) cut aquamarine cabochon. After fiddling with that a bit - I then crashed in front of the tv for an hour and went to bed early. (again!)

So I snapped these photos on my way to work this morning and now that I'm taking my lunch break have uploaded them.

Whatcha' think?

I don't really like the way the LOS was left on there....I may redo the LOS and use pumice instead of steel wool, but my pumice doesn't arrive until Friday, so the ring is going to stay as is for now.

:)

Don't forget to check back for the Tuesday Tutorial - if all goes well it will be up whilst its still actually Tuesday!

Oh, and for fun, here's little guy playing Ultimate Frisbee at the school fair this past Saturday.

Isn't he just too adorable?

~Janice

Treasury Snag!

YAY! I've only gotten one before.

Since making the 'asteroid' ring I've got space on the brain, hence my treasury:

To Infiity and Beyond!

Enjoy!

Reserved - ring

TEST - RESERVED.

SOLD

THANKS SO MUCH!

"TFT" and other stuff

Tuesdays are not all created equal - despite the fact that I want them to be!!! Last night was another jumbled mix of family and jewelry making. One that frankly left me purely exhausted.

My daughter came by to sign her tax return and drop off paperwork to send in to the county re: a car accident where she drove over a large pole of a downed sign. Unfortunately, she tried to continue driving, drained all the oil from the smashed oil pan and compltely fried her engine. To the tune of a 5,700.00 dollar quote. So, here's hoping the county pays some or all of that.

I threw some leftovers on the table - although I also threw together a FAB-O pasta salad - I had some leftover noodles in the fridge, to which I added: diced onion, chopped zuccini, broccoli, and cauliflower, cubed beets, black beans, salt, and some fabulous tart garlic salad dressing that we make. YUM!!! It was so good. And guess what I brought to work for lunch today??? MMMMM.

Then I helped my son just a bit with his first 'real' research paper. We have already done the research and now he is taking his 'grid' and creating complete sentences/thoughts for the written portion of the project.



We started the visual display the other night and will work on that more tonight. We need to add some strings and the burners and some flames, and of course all the labelling. (you can see how low-tech we are with this project!)

But last night I needed (and I do mean NEEDED) to get to the basement!! So we left this 'as is'. And away to the basement I went.


And he only came to visit me twice. :)

Once at the bench I did some sketch work on a commissioned necklace.

Then I turned my attention to another 'commission'. This one from a family member. I had received a request a week or so ago for a pendant - an 'amulet'. Thankfully it came complete with a sketch and a bit of background story. My first attempt at the pendant was a sawn shape from 22 ga sterling. But that got vetoed. Apparently it wasn't 3D enough. I totally agreed. I just thought it would be 'easier' to saw out of sheet rather than planish wires evenlly and then solder them to a disk or center ring. But, that is exactly what I ended up doing. (note to self - next time, just do it right the first time!) And I have no idea why that sterling looks all black and icky - it is white in person - from the pickle -- I guess editing software icked it up.
I dont know if that little guy in the corner is a Huntik or if that it totally unrelated....

I actually ended the evening REALLY early. I've just been tired this week - a little 'off'. At about 9:30 I called it a night - odd. I went upstairs and vegged in front of the tv - watched "House" - ya either love him or hate him. Then off to bed.

Did I mention I got a toothache somewhere in the midst of all this? I may end up at the dentist before the week is out.....ow.


Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - and Monday was a snow day and I didn't even SEE my bench.

I did have fun with my son though. ;-)












He dug and climbed and flew down our back hill on his sled.










We made angels and had a snowball fight and hugged each other as we rolled down the hill together laughing - until we just lay on our backs looking up at the treebranches and cold winter sky...it was great fun!





In other news..............I will be announcing the giveaway in the next day or two and it looks like I'll go with the MOO cards. . . or maybe "winner choice". . . yeaaaa, that sounds better - it will be a winner choice - either MOO cards or...well, something else. Likkkkkkkkkkkke...............


this ring.


OR






A piece of jewelry - just not sure what.

Maybe a one of a kind,-you get what my muse makes -but in your size-ring....ala this one...or more like any of the ones shown below.

Will figure out the wording for the giveaway and post it tomorrow or Friday. :)

~Janice

Disappearing Act

It seems my 'home page' or 'index' page has done a disappearing act. And in trying to entice it to come back I have messed up several of my other pages on my website.

ARGGGGGGGGGGH! I have no business trying to create my own website. By myself. Maintaining it I can probably do...but I am no longer really confident that I should be creating it.

I love my webshost - bluehost - they are FABULOUS. But the tools for creating webpages etc aren't as user friendly to me as bravehost was. Maybe its just me. So I am trying to figure out how to get my index page back......it says its there but when I publish I get a blank page. grrr.

Like I need this headache right now.

And just when I have put up my second tutorial which is for a pendant using a telescoping rivet - at least THAT page is working...but thats only if people can find it!

So I REALLY need to get the website fixed.

On to rivets -- The really cool thing with telescoping rivets is how much you can do with them if you have a good imagination.

This is my little 'pagoda' pendant which is in itself very versatile. It can be worn with something straight through or just at one corner so it hangs at an angle.

A cheat sheet on how to create this pagoda will be sent out (at a later date) free to anyone who purchases the above tutorial. Once you know the basics its not that different to build and add more - but there are a few tips on riveting order and whatnot to have successful reproducible and even results, so I am in the process of mocking up a quick sheet on how to do this one.

And then there is this ring - which is ALL cold connected.

Fun huh?

It needs a little work to be a stable piece and if I want to offer it as a tutorial I need to iron out any small glitches. Maybe after the first of the year on this one.

I have also been re-taking photos of some of my pieces as well as taking measurements of them which I need when I go to list them either on my website or in my etsy shop. There is so much more to the selling side than one might think! Or at least than what I thought....ya know, take a few photos, calculate the price - good to go, right? Wrong.

I need to write the desciprtions, complete with measurements and materials etc. I am really hoping to get them done by the end of the week and have a handful of things ready for sale (Finally. It sure has been a long time coming).

Finding the time for all of this is the hard part. With Christmas just around the corner we're starting baking and shopping and wrapping and ohhhh, decorating! We put up decorations this weekend, got the tree up with lights and orbs (as my son calls the balls!!). YAY! So pretty. :)

I guess I should run - need to keep cracking if I want to stay even remotely on schedule. ;-)

~Janice

Tension translated

Things at home continue to be very very stressful and I haven't been getting much sleep and thus haven't had any real energy to be creative. I still have a commissioned ring, sitting unfinished which I really need to complete. However, I can't begin to think of working on something for a customer when I may end up smashing it to pieces in frustration just because I'm so tense.

I tend to work harshly when I'm stressed.

But I felt I needed to make something, so I pulled out some huge round wire, grabbed a stone, and had an idea for a ring. The result - nothing like I had envisioned (again, good reason not to work on customer piece) - but not to shabby all the same.

This is a faceted garnet with a flared tube setting and a heavily hammered (tortured) ring shank.

~Janice

I haven't been posting consistently - life has been busy. One of my little chihuahuas is feeling poorly and has been back and forth to the vet. Poor little Pedro.

This is Pedro:

and here he is with the other chihuahua, Lisa:

He is somewhat settled now on a course of prednisone so I got some bench time this week and made this:

Poison Ring-prototype:

Tuesday Tutorial!

This week the tutorial is more like a snapshot of how to create this ring:



There are pictures in a quasi-step by step manner. Some metalsmithing experience is assumed.

The tutorial may be found here.


As always, if you make something with one of the tutorials, take a picture and send it to me. I'll periodically post pics from everyone!



~Janice
http://www.doxallo.com/

EDIT - tutorial removed, pending edits!