singleB

The Wedding

2012-01-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

Okay!

2012-01-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Okay! I'm finally legally wed and finished with all my work. Off on my honeymoon trip with my honey! Glad to be done with everything!

And now!!

So close!

2011-12-26T16:50:00.001-08:00

Keep on keepin' on

2011-12-22T10:19:00.001-08:00

Almost there!

2011-12-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

2011-12-16T17:53:00.001-08:00

KRAY-ZEEE

2011-12-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

The Be-Moustached Bachelorette

2011-12-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

I had the loveliest of times at my speakeasy themed bachelorette party on Friday, hosted by two of my future bridesmaids (see the two with the handle bar moustaches). I don't think I've ever had such a lovely and thoughtful party thrown for me. It was fabulous! This has nothing to do with jewelry, but I couldn't resist the chance to post a photo of me with a moustache. I've always wanted one!

In case you were wondering

2011-11-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

Whatever happened to those projects with the cool sapphires?

Well, here they are. Turned out pretty spiffy (if I do say so myself...yuk yuk yuk...).

And now I'm going to do this:

With this!:

Not the best of blog posts, but I'm pulling my hair out here trying to get everything done so I can have a breather before the wedding. Starting to get excited about it, it now seems like it will actually happen and be a pretty fantastic party.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Misc.

2011-11-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

To cast or not to cast:

I was thinking yellow gold with little green diamonds in the settings?

Puggery:

"Oh, did you want to sleep here too, Dieter? Too bad. Only room enough for one pug."

"Oh, did you want to enjoy the space heater in peace? Too bad."

Pug Tetris, beginner skill level.

New stuff:

My second foray into platinum. I'm really loving it. I can see why some jewelers work with it exclusively. I really love the tapered band on this one and the stone was very unique. GSI1, with a crazy black inclusion right almost centered, but somehow it just got lost in the sparkle.

Finally! I've blogged about how I wanted to use one of these silvery gray natural diamonds and I got my chance shortly thereafter (thanks Joey!). I love the way it turned out. It is hard to photograph, but I love the way it sort of glows from within because of all the inclusions. If I can get more of these stones I will be offering it in my shop.

All right, I have to get ready for craft night! My lady friends are coming to the studio to work on crafts! So excited, but I need to sweep up all of the pug hair that has accumulated over the last few days.

Well, it's official,

2011-10-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married in a couple of months. Now that I've had a bridal shower there is no backing out. Just kidding! I can still back out if I want. Kidding! Kidding!

Anyhoo. So it was a pretty stressful weekend for me. You would think that having a bunch of lovely ladies throw me a big (to me, anyway) bridal shower with fabulous gifts and a delicious Israeli/French themed lunch (which, btw, are the two places we are going on our honeymoon...how cute was that!?!) would make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And it did, theoretically. It also made me sweaty, dry mouthed and extremely uncomfortable. I HATE (!!!!!!!!) being the center of attention, it makes me want to cringe. I'm not a shy person, just a bit more reserved than some, so this was (WAY) outside of my comfort zone. (Picture a reserved British lady at a big Mediterranean (read: effusive and loud) social function and I think that will give you a bit of an idea about the cultural distance that I was/am trying to bridge). But that is my own issue, and doesn't detract from the lovely sweetness of these ladies and the effort that went into my shower. Which was lovely, and I'm super lucky that I have these wonderful people in my life now. This is probably a deeper glimpse into my not-well-socialized psyche than you were looking for, so let's proceed to the jewelry themed portion of this blog post.

I blogged earlier that I was making some earrings as little thank you gifts for the 4 ladies who organized the shower. I just wanted to give you guys a quick peek at how they turned out. I had a bit of trouble coming up with things that wouldn't be too big or flashy for the recipients (since I like diamonds and large dangly earrings, making these didn't come as naturally to me as some other things I make. Which was nice, I like a challenge).

I like the way they turned out. It was great to be making something a bit different from my daily sort of work. I tried to make each pair a bit unique, I wanted them all to be really different. I think it worked out.

I put them in little thank you cards inside envelopes and then just handed them out without choosing which ones went to which lady. But I think they ended up going to the right person anyhow, so that worked out really well.

So that is that. And now I have to get back to my day job. I've been completely overwhelmed since the middle of September. It's been CRAZY. I can't wait to close for the winter in December. I guess I should make an announcement about that. I'll start that here:

ATTENTION EVERYONE THINKING OF BUYING JEWELRY:

I will be closing around the middle of December to get ready for my wedding. If you would like to receive your jewelry this calendar year, you will need to order by the 15th of NOVEMBER, at the absolute latest. I CANNOT TAKE ON ANYMORE RUSH JOBS. RUSH JOBS MAKE MY LIFE HELL. I will not be working on a last minute project right before my wedding. So if you would like your jewelry before I go on vacation, get it ordered now. I will not be answering emails about new orders after the 15th of November and I will not be answering emails AT ALL, from the 20th of December until the 22nd of January 2012. If you have your order in by the 15th of November it will go out before I go on vacation towards the middle of December. But if you get an order started after November 15th, it will not go out until 3-4 weeks after I return from my honeymoon at the end of January. All right! I hope that makes things clear. Let's review:

1) I am closing for the year in the middle of December.

2) If you would like your order delivered before the end of February of 2012, order it by November 15th.

3) I will not be taking on last minute rush orders. AT ALL. I know you want to propose on a certain special date, or that you want to have the engagement ring to show the family during the holidays, or that a vacation/birthday/anniversary/elopement is coming up next week/2 weeks from now/tomorrow, but my work time is 3-6 weeks, with most orders shipping in the 4th week. Anything sooner than that is virtually impossible for me to do. I can't just drop everything else that I have going to make your order. I really can't. I would love it if I could, but I can't.

All right. I think that is all I have to say for now. It is a bit hard to focus when I feel like a chicken without it's head.

Signing off.

Pret-TY stoked!

2011-09-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

I love doing things that are bit different, so I'm am excited to be working with different stones from my usual (diamonds). I have a three orders right now that I will be making using unique stones. One is with a natural silver-gray diamond. It's gorgeous! Even better than I expected, I almost squeaked a bit when I opened the package. Gorgeous! Almost opalescent, a light glittery fog. I LOVE IT. If I can get a good picture of it I will share it here.

The next project is with a lovely, blue-green Montana sapphire:

Lovely! And I will use a blue diamond with this project as well, so I'm excited about that. I really love colored stones. You can't really tell from my Etsy shop, but I do really love the colored stones. It is just a bit harder to work with them since they really vary from stone to stone, so it's hard to guarantee someone that you can get something exactly like they see in the photos. Does that make sense? But I would really like to see some more color in my shop, so I'm going to gradually add some in. I am really digging on Montana sapphires at the moment, especially oval cut ones, so I think I might have to also make an oval ring to add to my shop. I've been wanting to branch out in terms of stone shapes for a while now. I think I'll start with oval and then add cushion.

And the last special project with a colored stone will be using a purple-blue sapphire that I have yet to pick out from my dealer, but I plan on doing that next week. It is going to be lovely. This is the same guy I blogged about earlier and he is fabulous, so helpful. While I'm there I might pick up those smaller padparadscha I'm in love with. I still need to make my wedding band, so maybe they will show up in that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sapphires Sapphires!

2011-09-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've had a few requests lately for unusually colored sapphires, so I made a treck downtown to see this stone guy who buys everything himself in Asia and brings them back to Portland. I was looking for a greenish blue sapphire and a purple sapphire. It was a big NOPE on the greenish blue, apparently he tries to avoid them since no one requests them. Which makes me think he is selling to an entirely different group of people than I am. Probably older, more traditional people. He told me no one is interested because you can't get a true emerald like green from a sapphire. I was thinking, that's exactly why I like them. They are unique and more earthy. Oh well. There were some really pretty forest green oval stones that I might go back for, and some LOVELY light yellow round sapphires. And some orange-pink ones that I think I want for a new eternity ring. No pictures on any of those. But I do have some of the lovely purples I am thinking of for a special project.

I'm also loving these lighter ceylon sapphires.

And he also had these gorgeous zircons, but they are too soft for wedding jewelry, unfortunately.

Absolutely LOVE the color though.

And finally, these two tiny pugs that work at the studio with me want to say hello:

Have I mentioned

2011-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

how much I love it when people send me photos of their rings/weddings/engagement? I particularly loved this one:

How fun is that? I would never have thought to stage rings this way, but I think it is lovely. Maybe I should go out looking for a pine tree (although they are sort of scarce around the studio. Industrial areas tend to be low on lovely trees).

I also love this one. Nature and the woods seem to be a theme here. Just lovely!

(p.s. I've been a little preoccupied with my new hobby. Let's just say it involves a new machine and lots of gorgeous cotton fabric!)

Sea Creatures! Ahhh!

2011-08-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

So, my future mother-in-law and her lady friends are throwing me a bridal shower (!!!) in October. I wanted to do something nice for them in return, so I think I'm going to make them each a pair of earrings. It's fun to experiment and do some stuff that is outside of my normal day to day job. Of these two, only the first pair is for one of these lovely ladies, the second pair is a bit large and strange and I don't think they would really suit any of them. But I have a few more things knocking around inside my head, so we will just have to see what comes out.

SEA CREATURES! AHHHH!

It is fun to be designing for a different audience. I'm not sure if many women in their 60's are really shopping on Etsy (of course, I could be totally wrong). They are probably not snapping up moustache decals, graphic tees, or mason jar up-cycled lamps. So I don't really make many earrings with that age group in mind (ha! I don't really make many earrings for the shop at all!). Not that they all have the same tastes, but I don't think they would be too excited about giant silver hoops or super dangly earrings, so I have to keep things at a certain size. That is really the only real restraint, I think. Am I wrong? Maybe some older ladies would like crazy earrings? Maybe it's just that the women I have in mind share a more restrained style, maybe that is why I'm feeling like I need to keep things moderately small?

All right, I've started to ramble. It's like my internal voice is eager to spill out all over the internet. I went for a run this morning, and since then I've just been in the best mood. Almost bubbly (which is unusal for me). I had to keep myself from talking the head off of my chiropractor this morning and then I totally chatted up this kid outside a resale shop and bought the table that he was trying to put on consignment. I always thought I was an introvert, but I think I'm becoming more extroverted as I age. Anyhow, before I force any more boring details from my day onto you I'm going to sign off.

Have a nice Friday everyone!

I guess it is decided

2011-08-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

I won't be changing my business name. Yet. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

So, there have been a few additions to the studio that were a long (too long) time in coming. Seriously. You would think I would be more concerned with my own health and safety. And I am. But for some reason these changes were always pushed to the end of the list of "Things To Do".

So, there they are:

I'll tell you what, if you are in the market for a new office/studio chair, I would recommend this very highly. I got this a back pain speciality store. I'm sure you've seen your doctor or dentist on one of these. It is fabulous.

I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to get a pair of these. Especially considering how much hammering I do. I will probably have hearing problems later in life. Maybe. But now I'm protected. Thanks Amazon American Express points!

Perhaps you are under the impression that jewelry making is a glamorous job. Well, maybe some jewelers are glam and style-ly, but I am generally wearing clothes that should be going to the Goodwill, and covered in the disgusting grit created by silicon polishing wheels. It is the worst feeling ever to have this grit all over your face and neck. So I finally snapped and bought this shield. If I wear it with my apron (not pictured here) it blocks all the grit spray from adhering to my face and I can go home without grime all over. It's a bit heavy, but if you are sitting you can sort of prop it on your chest. I would recommend something like it if you HATE polishing dirt getting on your face. (Also an Amazon purchase. It was pretty cheap.)

Hehehehehehehe. This is for stone setting and carving wax (for me anyway). It's a magnavisor. I like it pretty well. I think I might upgrade to those little glasses dentists have sometime in the future. You have to get measured for those, so that has sort of deterred me.

And this is an air purifier with a HEPA filter. It just makes the studio air seem fresher somehow.

And this is a picture of two exhausted pugs. Sleeping on the couch and eating treats all day sure is rough. They shed like you wouldn't believe. Many a perfectly staged photograph has been ruined by a stray pug hair. But I wouldn't give them up, being alone all day would drive me batty.

And the requisite picture of jewelry:

I like the tapering band. I am going to add it to my shop, I just need to find more photos. I recently purchased an external harddrive (another shop improvement! I feel more and more like a real adult!) and moved most of my photographs onto it. But the thought of sifting through all of those photos searching for this particular ring makes me tired.

So! I have new earrings to share! But I am not going to put them in this post. It's already too long and I'm sure you have better things to do than waste any more time listening to my ramblings. I will probably post on Friday, I hope to have a few more to add to the two designs I have now.

Possible name change?

2011-08-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

When I first started my business in Feb. 2009, I didn't really have a plan. I was just flying by the seat of my pants really. I began by hanging out my shingle (so to speak) and making a few things to sell. It's hard to really describe how it went after that, it all went so fast. But I hadn't really given my business name that much thought. I actually had a website for my drawings and that is where the singleB came from (indirectly, it was singleB in the first place because of my nickname, Bean). Now I am regretting it, a bit. I want to change it something a little more, I don't know, evocative? Grown up? A name that makes more sense?

But I'm afraid that I can't! I'm so heavily invested in my Etsy shop, with the name singleB (or singleBbeautiful....another accidental name. I had previous etsy shop with the name singleB, and when I opened the jewelry shop, I couldn't use just singleB so I tacked on the beautiful. It has caused some minor confusion.) Argh.

Some people have lovely, dignified, romantic, memorable names. And they just use their own name, or a version of their name. But don't feel that I can do that. Justine? Ugh. It sounds like it came out of a Harlequin romance novel (which, according to my mother, it did). I can just see "Justine" as some aristocratic young woman (with self-esteem issues and/or who is strong willed and never thought she would find a man who thinks she's beautiful and/or who was confident enough to put up with her having her own opinions) who gets abducted and then falls in love with her pirate/barbarian/bandit/rake kidnapper, because he is so noble and gentlemanly underneath the gruff exterior. (LOL! LOL!)

Anyhoo, so Justine Collins Designs, or Justine Collins Jewelry is out. I just don't like the way it sounds. It sounds hokey. No? Am I crazy? It just seems sort of generic?

This is what is in my mind at the moment:

I don't really know why, the name just calls to me. It means "bright" in Hebrew. I love the way it sounds (at least the way I imagine it is pronounced: baa-here-ah?) and the way it looks printed out. And I could keep my little lady head logo too. But I have a built a little bit of name recognition with singleB, so I'm afraid to give that up. I don't know. This has been tormenting me for some time now. I need outside opinions. Have you ever changed your business name? What do you think would be a good name for my business? Do you like BEHIRA? Or is it silly? Hard to pronounce? Hard to remember? Weird? Pretentious?

Well, I'm glad it is Friday. I'm going to go home and have a glass of wine and not worry about this for a while. Have a great weekend everyone!

The Grass is Always Greener

2011-08-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Readers. While I looooove my sunken treasure engagement ring,

sometimes, when I finish making a set of rings, I feel like this:

and I wish that reality was more like this:

rather than this:

Oh well. I knew that I would have a hard time pleasing myself, no matter what I made. If I had made that other one rather than the one that I did, I would be "waaah, I wish I had made this other one instead. Or maybe that other one....or that one. Maybe that one." Darnit.

Happy Friday!

Friday, the goodness edition

2011-08-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

And just because I love this pug insanely. Have a happy Friday!

Big Sky Sapphire, Dual Tone Project, Rambling post

2011-08-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

I love it when I get to make something a bit different from what I am usually doing. There have been a few things things this summer that I was really pleased to work on. The first was a lovely wedding set using a Montana sapphire. The second was a dual tone wedding ring set with a big fat diamond and 18kt yellow gold.

When you take photos only with natural light, the time of day can really change the feel of the photograph. The first photo was probably taken in the early afternoon. The second photo was taken in the evening, just as the sun was just starting to ease off. I love the cool blue tones. It doesn't work for everything, but I do love it. I am going to take pictures of rings in the second photo again today, when the sun is really shining and see how different it looks.

I'm really happy with how the two tone turned out. I think the color of the diamond, which is on the warmer side, looks really great with the 18kt yellow gold band. It seems to help tie the two colors together. I personally love mixing yellow and white metals together, but it definitely isn't everyones cup of tea. Most people seem to prefer white metals. I did a little survey a while back, and that was certainly how it played out.

White metal wins by a mile! But maybe I should have added a dual tone category? My instincts tell me it wouldn't have won many votes, but maybe I'm wrong?

Unrelated: I want to use one of these for something:

It's a "rough" diamond. I just love the cloudy, silvery, foggy character. Anyhoo. I was supposed to be adding new stuff to my shop this morning, so I should probably get back to it.

Conquered platinum, but shortly thereafter melted into a puddle

2011-07-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Dearest readers. I am hot. But I love it. I would rather be hot than cold any day. At least in the heat your muscles can relax. Cold just ties me into knots.

So, I finally finished my first project in platinum. See below:

I don't know why I was so reluctant to start making things in platinum. It just seemed intimidating for some reason. I remember when I first opened up shop. I had so little experience! It is shocking when I look back on it. I was so nervous about EVERYTHING. Everything was a cause for worry. There was just so much I didn't know (it's still that way, incidentally) and it made it hard to know what to expect. I like to know what to expect. I'm not a nervous person, not at all. But I NEED to know what to expect, even if it what to expect is bad and hard and intimidating. As long as I have a general idea of how it will go, I'm fine.

Anyhoo, I shouldn't have been nervous. It was bit harder to finish (i.e. polish), but the stone setting was very similar to palladium. I really liked the color as well. It was very white, and the weight! I love the weight of platinum. I'm toying with making this ring in platinum for my wedding band:

All right, I think I need to wrap things up here, Mr. Gunter is trying to give me a hint about his needs and desires:

(That is the door that he is leaning against. Subtle, very subtle.)

p.s. I had my first fitting for my wedding dress yesterday (I'm having it made by a Cambodian tailor). It is going to turn out fantastic. Almost exactly what I was picturing! It's a bit excessively pretty, pretty princess, but I'm throwing caution to the wind (along with my radical feminism, apparently).

Jewelry maker finds it hard to return to work, decides to read a fantasy novel instead

2011-07-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Damn you George R.R. Martin. I might be able to make a living if you didn't write such beguiling tales of epic/tragic heroism.

So, I am finally back into the swing of things, having just finished the newest Martin book. Yes, I'm a huge and geeky fan. Luckily, I'm also a quick reader, so when I fall into a fantasy induced stupor it doesn't last very long (I think bought it on Sunday, finished it last night. I can't believe it! So and so can't be dead!) I think I might start from the beginning (again). Or maybe I should save that for the month before the 6th book comes out. (Unrelated, but was anyone else terribly disappointed by the final Harry Potter? What a let down.)

All right. This is what I've been meaning share with you all:

In case you were wondering

2011-07-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed my vacation.

I think I will schedule one for every two or three months. I just feel so much more positive about my life and my job after having a bit of a break from both.

Pictures of Hands

2011-06-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

pebble ring

palladium and moissanite hatshepsut

three stone ring stack

spring evening pink gold solitaire

I love it when people send me a photo of their rings! It's awesome to see what I've made on someone else's hand (instead of my own, which can get pretty boring). I also have pictures of smiling couples, which is also super awesome. But hands are more anonymous and most people probably don't want me to give their image to the internets for all eternity. But I LOVE getting them all the same.

I promised

2011-06-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

pug photos, and I have to deliver.

I took this epic series of photos of Dieter a couple of weekends ago at the coast. I love the Oregon coast more than any place on earth (except for the Oregon countryside and Oregon forests and rivers. I pretty much love all of Oregon. With a passion. And I have to admit that I am pretty happy that the dismal, gray, depression inducing weather keeps the population down.)

(This is what the sky looks like 3/4 of the year, so

just keep that in mind when you are thinking of

moving here. I've seen the Oregon winter break

people and send them scurrying back to drier climes.

Hehehehe.)

This is what Dieter looks like when he is trying to get up to full speed. He's adorable. And he has to be, since he is also incredibly evil.

Gunter has three great loves: eating (obviously), fetching (as he is getting ready to do here), and staring lovingly at me (at least I think that is what he is doing, maybe he is just thinking about how succulent I would be roasted with an apple in my mouth).

Why so many pictures of Dieter? Has he displaced Gunter as the Tiny Pug Dictator of your heart? No, he is just more photogenic, plus he is around to take photos of. Gunter is usually off in the distance, chasing down his Evil Cuz toy (see the 4th picture down, upper left hand corner).

Dieter likes to eat sand. Gunter likes to dig in the sand. It is a symbiotic relationship. Gunter digs and Dieter stands behind him eating the sand chunks that land nearby.

Okay, I realize this is a pug heavy blog post. But they are irresistible and if you only knew how many photos I didn't post. They make my day, every day. (Geez, lady, get a grip.)

This is ostensibly a jewelry blog, so here is the requisite photo of jewelry.

I finished that pink gold solitaire yesterday and I absolutely love the combination of the pink gold and the diamond, which is K color. I've decided that K color diamonds are my favorite. So colorful. (I also love stacking jewelry together, it makes me feel as though I've accomplished something).

I've been debating whether or not I should get back into the eternity ring business. I put it on hiatus because I was finding them to be a huge pain in the tuchus, but I think I've perfected them now and I might be ready to sell them again.

Shows over folks, move along

2011-06-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

No, not really. But that is sort of how I felt when I finished my engagement ring the other day. I don't know why. I seriously wondered if I would now completely lose my urge to make jewelry after I had made my own ring. Luckily that wasn't the case. :-)

I can't explain how nervous I was making this ring, especially setting the stone. It was crazy. I'm not a nervous person, so the feeling was a novel one. I hope it doesn't stick around.

I went this route because I wanted to wear a single ring and because I have gigantic ogre hands and wanted something substantial. Plus, it just sort of appeared in my head like this, and it felt like something I would be happy with in the long term. I'm easily bored with jewelry, so I needed to make a piece that would withstand my fickleness. I have one pair of earrings that I've never gotten tired of, I made them a thousand years ago and they are still my favorite. White faceted agate drops with two disks of turquoise stacked above. Super simple, but I looooooove them. And I needed to looooooove this. And I do. It feels like a piece of German engineered machinery. It feels like sunken treasure.

I totally crack myself up. While I want to share my ring with people, I also feel incredibly uncomfortable at the same time. I feel like it is bragging, I feel like I'm showing off. It seems a little gauche (man, I love that word). I just can't get too serious about the whole thing. It all seems sort of silly (I also feel this way about wedding dresses. But I'm going to be wearing a ruffled, pretty pretty princess dress, so I am a total mental hypocrite!). But then again, this is what I do for a living so I guess I get a pass? Plus, wedding rings are pretty, and I find them all interesting to tell the truth. I always find myself looking at hands when I am out and about.

(Mental process going on in the photo: okay, how do I get my hand in the shot without looking awkward. Just sort drape it across your chest. Like this. No. Like this. Just Look Natural. Okay. Too obvious. Relax your fingers. This looks dumb. Go with it.)

All right! Have a wonderful weekend. I plan on posting pug photos next week. We had an epically good trip to the coast the other weekend and I have to share a few of the best shots. Pugs are awesome. And so are giant gold rings. :-D

What to do when you are flagging..

2011-05-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you are flagging? Because I have been flagging left, right, and center over here at the studio. Here I am, living the dream, and I'm still struggling to appreciate it. What is my deal? I ask you, what is my deal?!? It has even been sunny outside!

I'm think I'm suffering from a lack of motivation. A stifling malaise. I love my job, but I'm feeling lackluster right now and I need to figure this problem out in order to make my job sustainable mentally. The only way is to keep on keeping on! Coming up with new stuff. New stuff is the exciting stuff! To be honest, I really just want to make more earrings...I loooove earrings. But people don't seem to want to buy earrings (why is that? or am I wrong?). And often the earrings I want to make take too long to be economically feasible. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, or maybe I haven't made the right earrings, but they don't seem to be good sellers. But I want to be trying new things, in different ways and earrings have been calling to me. I have been very focused on trying to get myself to a certain level of quality for what I make, but I have lost sight of making new things, maybe imperfect things. I really like perfection, almost to the point of folly. I need to let that obsession go in order to move forward.

I don't really make earrings to sell in my shop, for various reasons. I generally make earrings as gifts, usually the day the gift is to be gifted. And I'm always in a rush, so I never take photos of these experiments. So I have no record of my random creations, and I think I like it that way. Maybe. My obsessive side wishes I had multiple photographs from every angle of everything I've ever made. But sometimes a candid mobile phone shot is even better:

BFF in B-day earrings

On an unrelated note, my engagement ring is almost finished. The casting turned out gorgeous! So yellow! So chunky....solid. That's all I'm going to say for now. It's super solid.

I've got it! I've got it!

2011-04-26T17:46:00.001-07:00

Finally! I've decided what to do for my engagement ring! There was this super spectacular recycled diamond available a few weeks ago, and I snapped it up. It's freaking gorgeous! It arrived last week, and I've been taking it out and admiring it every day. .87ct, VVS2, K color! Lovely, lovely! I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the color, since it is "lower" down on the color spectrum, but I think I'm in love. There is nothing super yellow about, it is just darkly sparkly. I'm not sure how else to explain it. I plan on setting it in 18kt yellow (what else?).

I've also decided on a design for the actual ring. But I will save that for another post!

Tax Day

2011-04-18T15:12:00.001-07:00

Let me just give all of you reading out there a little bit of friendly advice:

MAKE SURE YOU PAY THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF ESTIMATED TAXES EVERY QUARTER.

If you just do that you will have a relatively painless tax day. If you do not, you might find yourself wandering around the natural foods grocery store with a dazed expression, trying and failing to soothe the sting caused by writing ginormous checks to the IRS with a cup of coffee and a chocolate cookie, at a loss as to whether new burt's bees lip balm will make you feel better (hint: it won't). Oh well.

So this morning, when my car didn't start (yay!!) and I was waiting around for my future father in law to come and rescue me, I was reading this (another only semi-successful retail therapy purchase):

Toward an Art History of Medieval Rings

Tell you what, I love that title, that's fo'sho. My jewelry and design related book collection is gradually growing. There is little that I like more than a glossy book filled with photographs of things made with gold and accompanied by much small print. Seriously. And this book is especially nice. There are photographs from many different angles! Even from the bottom and back! (Not on everything, but enough to make it very exciting.) Most of the time jewelry books don't provide multiple angles, with the result that it is hard to tell how something is put together. What use is one gorgeous photograph from the most artistic possible angle, if it hides how the thing is constructed? No use, that's what. I want the nitty gritty. I want to see how the bezel is attached to the shank, I want to know what these medieval goldsmiths did and how they did it.

And this (!!!!!):

ZOMFG!

That is a sword hilt made of diamonds. Holy sh*t. The skill! The skill!! The size of those rocks. But mostly the skill! The beauty of the design! I love the three curves that arc over the largest cushion/round shaped diamond in the hand guard section. Maximizing a simple design with tons of bling. Gorgeous. (This isn't from the medieval ring book, btw, this is from something else, snapped a quick picture at Powell's Books.)

oh, oh, oh!

Will I ever be this skilled? No. Probably not. I'm sure this guy spent his entire life from the age of 8 on as an apprentice. And this was probably made by a whole shop of people anyway, each doing a certain part of the process that they specialized in. But I can dream. I can dream.

9:00 in the A.M.

2011-04-14T09:38:00.001-07:00

Ladies and gents, I accomplished the impossible today. I arrived in the studio at 9:05am. I don't know why it is such a struggle for me to get out of bed (it's really not even the getting out of bed, it is the getting around and dressing and eating and getting out of the door that is the hard part for some reason). But I did it!! I made it! And I think I can keep it up. Now that I'm no longer living in a Shadowland (i.e. the NW during the winter) I have much more motivation for full days and lots of work (and working out! I have to tackle the results of all that winter cake eating!).

And why would I be compelled to attempt this feat of early morning (I realize 9am isn't early, I used to have to get up at 3am to get to work when I was in the Navy) bravery?! To finish these:

It really took me forever to get this finished. I think I had the wax kicking around forever, and then the cast pieces kicking around for another forever. But they are finally done. I think I will do some adjusting to the design and maybe some other variations. I just wish I had made them in my size!

I really like how they can be worn more ways than one. These photos aren't ideal, the light right now isn't the best. And I don't have a solitaire on hand to photograph them with. They look really nice facing out from either side of a simple solitaire, very lacy.

All right! I'm forcing myself to pack up and head home early today. Cheers!

A possible?

2011-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm still struggling with my own wedding ring, but I finished this set the other day for someone else (it is actually a complete set, solitaire, woman's wedding band, man's wedding band) and I liked them all together. I love the chunkiness. Of course, I will probably go with yellow gold, but it sure looks nice in the palladium.

I also like the idea of wearing just a super wide plain band for some reason. A bit ironic for someone who uses stones in almost everything she makes?

But I love shiny things (almost) as much as I love cake with cream cheese frosting, so I'm not absolutely sure I would be happy with just a big fat band. But maybe I would be? And then maybe I could make myself an outrageous pair of diamond earrings? I'm excited to make something for myself, I think I have 4 things total. A couple of pairs of earrings (one set an experiment), a necklace made of scrap metal, and my current engagement ring(s). Oh, and some bangles (a return from a customer who wanted a larger size). Sad? But I actually don't wear that much jewelry (more irony?), so I'm not complaining (too much).

All right, I'm starting to ramble and I should probably get back to work now. That way I can go home early. Tonight is burrito night!

The Jackpot

2011-03-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't won the lottery. It is hard to if you don't play. (Let us just pause here for a moment and imagine what I would do with 60 million dollars. Would I continue working? I would like to think so. Maybe just doing whatever I wanted, crazy, expensive, time consuming projects that probably wouldn't sell! But that would be fine, because I would be swimming in money, Scrooge McDuck style. Maybe I would go back to school (glutton for punishment?) and get a degree in art history and maybe one in literature, or history, or radical feminist theory? Or perhaps I would buy a vineyard and spend my days among the vines, steadily getting fatter and fatter on a diet of fine goat cheeses and tender French bâtard? Well, I know that I would like fund a scholarship at a women's college (or maybe high school?!?). Can you imagine how fun it would be to read the application essays?! Especially while I'm sipping on wine from my own vineyard?! But maybe I would just bake cupcakes all day long. And on the days that I didn't bake cupcakes, I would do all the yoga that I could ever want at all of the expensive yoga studios in town.)

Okay. Enough of that. Please feel free to fantasize about how you would spend your 60mil in the comments section. I find it fascinating what people would do.

So, no, I didn't win the lottery, but I did hit the jackpot with this here book:

Please ignore the cheesy 80's style cover (check out that pyramid in the center!). I love it that it looks so much like a textbook! Concepts and technology! It's a real goldmine (har har!) for the relentless jeweler who loooooves to slog through things like this on her lunch break:

(yeah yeah!)

Thus far I have made it through filigree. Remember that I am planning on making some little filigree pieces for a wedding necklace? I figured I had better read up a bit on the finer points of filigree construction before letting myself loose at the bench. I knew the basic idea, but now I REALLY know. This is the most instructive book I've found. (Tim McCreight's The Complete Metalsmith is a total joke compared to this book. Sorry, Tim.) I really feel like I can go out and do filigree after reading the filigree chapter. It was very thorough (am I the only person who can't spell thorough? Other toughies: necessary, beginning, and accommodate) and as far as I can tell it is worth every last expensive penny that it cost. Can't wait to read the the section on granulation!

No Post, Just Pugs

2011-03-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

Oh the joys of newly shorn head!

2011-03-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

(I'm a bit of a ham...)

Bold move, I know, since I will be wearing a pretty-pretty-princess dress at my upcoming wedding, but I just couldn't stand my long hair any more. And since I've had this haircut for the majority of my life since I was in the second grade, I just feel that is more authentically me. I would rather get married looking like myself (even if it will look slightly ridiculous with a big fairy dress), than have hair that doesn't suit me. I should be married as myself, not some hair-sprayed be-lipsticked version. (Not that there is anything wrong with lipstick and/or hairspray.)

What have I been up to in the studio? Well, the wedding rush is upon me and it is only March.

I have to admit, I have the most awesome job in the world. Sure, sometimes I am tired and my back hurts from sitting hunched over some project...or I feel that I just can't deal with answering any more emails...

But then I look down at my sweet little studio from my perch in the loft, and I just feel so incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to make things. And to define my life however I want to. To keep my own hours, and to have the work of my hands and brain benefit me; I'm so thankful that I'm not working to line the pockets of the people who own the company. I love working for myself, I can't imagine working for someone else. I have the chance to explore my own interests (which happen to revolve around jewelry and art in general...luckily enough!) and follow my own pursuits. Many (most?) people don't get to do this, and I am lucky. Extremely lucky. (I also don't think I could take orders from someone else (5 years in the Navy taught me this) so it is probably for the best all around that I take orders only from myself!).

And I get the chance to make beautiful, meaningful things. How sweet is that? I know (or at least I am fairly confident...fingers crossed!) that when the little black box is opened, happiness comes out of it! That people are reminded of those that they love when they look down at their hands. And I MADE that thing that reminds them! It's a great job, and when I'm feeling worn down about my work I need to think about that.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Micro rose cuts

2011-02-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

I love diamonds. And not just because they are sparkly. I love them because they are hard and easy to work with. Plus they are sparkly. And I've been a magpie since I was a child. Seriously. My mom used to buy me big chunks of semi-tumbled rose and crystal quartz when I was weeny and I loooooooved them.

Anyhoo. I found these micro natural color rose cut diamonds and I just HAD to use them in something. So instead of making three matching bands (I had two of these already finished and was just planning on making the 3rd exactly the same) I ended up setting these new stones in instead of the white diamonds. I like it!

I think I'm going to use them in something for a necklace for my wedding (which is coming up in December....never too early to plan. Plus it is such a great opportunity to make something extravagant that I would never feel permitted to make/wear at any other times. Ridiculous, I know. I also found a dress...well sort of, I'm having it made in Cambodia. Hand loomed silk! Supporting a small business owner! A woman business owner! Sweet!).

Um...yes, back to the the necklace. I'm thinking 18kt yellow (of course), with a ton of these cognac/champagny/silver gray natural diamonds (maybe with some white traditional ones in there for good measure), in a gathered swoop sort of, and then two "medallions" of 18kt lacy filigree on either side? Too much? It won't be huge. I suppose I should figure out the wedding rings before I start on the necklace....

You remember that thing....

2011-02-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

I had a post recently about a custom design that was taking the mickey out of me. It was for a friend, and she had provided a few stones for a three stone ring. The center stone was an old cut sapphire, oval and very round on the bottom. It made it interesting to carve a setting for, but I eventually got it finished:

I recently completed the actual ring. I think it turned out well. But it was difficult to set. I think I need to expand the stone shapes I work with. I tend to stick with round stones since they are so easy. I also tend to design with round stones, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to the fact that I only work with round stones? Maybe I think in round stones....

But I do like this oval shape. I also like square shapes...older square shapes, not the super sharp cornered ones. Maybe I will start doing more ovals in the near future. I also think it is interesting how much bluer the center stone was after it was set. It seemed really light when it was loose.

(On a completely unrelated note, I've thought about using Tumblr recently, I don't know why. It seems like an uncomfortable mishmash of blogging and twittering. Maybe you need to be a 17yr old fashionista to understand Tumblr. I tried twittering for a while too, but in the end I decided I just didn't give a rat's a$$ about twittering. What a useless time drain. Am I getting too old and crotchety for the internets? I like books more than anything, I prefer blogging to twittering, and I prefer writing in cursive in my journal to blogging. I pretty much despise facebook, but can't get away from it since it lets me keep track of people. Am I doomed? When the singularity comes will I be left behind? Probably, but I prefer to remain an old school human being, even if that means dying eventually and leaving no electronic soul behind....I realize this has nothing to do with jewelry. But I don't care.)

LOOT!

2011-02-16T11:17:00.001-08:00

When I gather it all together like this, it doesn't seem like a whole lot does it? But it sure is lovely. I want to eat those two gemmy candies in the middle. Mmmm! And I'm particularly stoked about that piece of petrified coral. I'm sort of seeing it as a wedding necklace for myself? Maybe? With some 18kt gold and diamonds? That is a pink rough cut sapphire, a rose cut tourmaline, green diamonds, faceted white agate, and I can't remember what that seafoam green one is called...I'll have to look for the name. And I totally forgot to write down the name of the two middle ones, so I haven't any clue. Note to self: next year remember to WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING.

Now, I know I'm a little late to the druzy lovefest, but I couldn't get enough of it. I really couldn't. There is just something so velvety about them. Of course, they don't look as sparkly in this lighting as they do under some direct light, but I think you can get the idea. Now I just need to figure out what to make with them. Definitely want to make some earrings.

All right kids, that is it for my gem show treasure show and tell. I didn't get much, but I did get a few good contacts. I have some natural champagney rose cut diamonds on their way to me right now!

Gem Show Madness

2011-02-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

Dearest readers, it wasn't really madness. But I have to say that the whole Tucson gem show was a bit more than I felt up to handling. I only went for two days, but it was still so overwhelming. I know for a fact that some people adore the gem show, but I just felt so much pressure to make the whole trip worthwhile by finding lots of cool things and bringing back tons of treasure that it was almost too much. I did bring back a little bit of treasure, which I will share with you in another post. Maybe it would have been better if I had given myself 4 days instead of 2? Maybe next year. And to relieve the pressure still further I will limit my purchases to the last three days of that 4 days? That way there will be no impulse purchases (oh, hello there piece of petrified coral).

It was a fun trip, if hectic. I hadn't been to Arizona since I was a kid, so it was neat to actually see it as an adult. I traveled with this girl:

Who just happens to be Kellie, my BFF. We're getting close to 20yrs of friendship (wow, that makes us sound old!). And we stayed for the first couple of nights at a lovely little place called Solar Haven, the delightful straw bale house owned by Kellie's adopted Arizonan parents. This place was so lovely, I can't even describe it. Solar powered, the water came from a rain water collection tank, there were 3 adorable dogs just wandering all over and it was so peaceful! And did I mention the decor?

It was so well done, like staying at a desert spa almost! Gorgeous!

We did a lot of driving:

And a lot of dazed wandering up and down aisles filled with shiny things:

And eating:

That is tortilla soup (or what is left of it), and a delish brie and apple compote sandwich in the background.

After we finished at the gem show....(I just couldn't take anymore! It felt like being at a bazaar where you had to bargain or get screwed. I hate that. And I really hated the unmarked, sketchy pricing. That's BS. I felt like I got taken for a ride a couple of times. Since I mostly work with diamonds, I don't really know what a reasonable price is for a lot of what I wanted to buy, so that left me at a disadvantage!)

...Anyhoo. Enough about that, if I think about it any more I will throw in the towel and go get a desk job.

So, after we left the gem show eating our dust, we headed to Tubac to meet up with a friend of Kellie's, a local artist that we would be staying the night with. Her name is Vicki, and she was lovely. We had a nice relaxing evening eating stew over rice and watching Prince Caspian (which was worlds better than the first one, trust me). While we were there, Vicki let Kellie and me pick out a piece of her artwork to take home with us. Check out this sweet (and creepy in a good way!) box (that is smoke from incense coming out of the mouth!):

So, I guess the moral of the story is that next year I need to have a plan. I need to know what I want to buy. It's so hard to speculate though, about what I will be making this year. And next year I'm going to bring the Shop Monkey with me. The jewelry industry is changing, but it is still dominated by a bunch of crusty old dudes and I think I would do better with guy with me. How jacked is that? Pretty jacked.

Stayed tuned for pictures of the loot that I brought back!

Sunshine, thank god.

2011-02-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

I post this picture, not to reveal myself as a messy, disorganized person in desperate need of the services of a professional organizer and/or diligent custodian (Oh, the custodian! I wish I had one of my own...) but to provide photographic evidence of the sunshine that is streaming into my studio at this very moment. Perhaps it isn't a big deal to you lucky readers who live in more clement climes (alliteration!), but for me here in the beautiful PNW, a little bit of sunshine in early February is something to be celebrated and eagerly (read: voraciously...if it were possible, I would roll around in it like an enthusiastic dog in something stinky) soaked up. I can't explain to you how joyous a tiny bit of sunshine can make me. It doesn't even have to be warm and cheery, it just has to be direct sunshine, not a weak light filtered through a veil of thick gray clouds, watered down to a dull ooze. I swear, the winter here feels like you are living underwater. The light is very like what you see when you are fairly deep during a scuba dive.

I feel like the increased light of the last couple of days has really helped me, today I got to work at 9:30! Unheard of! During the summer I will wake as soon as it is light, but during the winter I don't want to really move or be productive until around noon. I've been sitting in front of a happy light every day, and I think it has been helping (who knows? but it is bracing, that has to count for something).

Anyhow, I'm going to get away from the computer (which is in the loft, away from the windows) and join the pugs in a little sun worship.

Bad night, Happy Tuesday?

2011-01-25T12:44:00.001-08:00

There is nothing like being woken at 3:30 in the morning by the sound of two pugs fighting like a couple of gladiators over a fallen half of rustic baguette. I'm not sure if you readers are familiar with the demonic sounds a pug can produce when locked in battle over food, but crazy and somewhat like a cross between an angry howler monkey and an out of sorts gremlin probably describes it fairly well. The kitties and pugs have decided to work in tandem against us now, it's four on two at the House of Bean. The kitties must have knocked the baguette from the kitchen island (it was wrapped in paper and the kitties love to shred paper), and the fighting then commenced between the pugs over the forbidden booty. Gunter, angelic in all other respects, has a food obsession that clouds his better judgement, Dieter is just a devil. (And yes, it was hilarious, despite the early hour.) It was a rough night though, and I'm now trying to motivate myself to leave for the studio. This is one of the harder aspects of being self-employed...having enough internal motivation.

Ah well, enough of the winter blues. I finished the wax from yesterday and wanted to share some photos. This is probably the largest stone I've really worked with, so I'm interested to see how it will turn out.

Meet my muse

2011-01-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

Ha ha. Just kidding. But I do love him a great deal. Especially when the tiny pug is being a wicked devil. (Like the other day. Another venture onto the kitchen table, thank goodness there wasn't anything up there for him to eat.)

It is so nice to be able to take them to work! On the days that I don't take one of them, I feel so lonely! (Of course, the tiny pug can be annoying. He really likes to chew on stray pieces of carving wax that find their way to the floor..I'm pretty sure that isn't good for him...)

Speaking of carving wax..I'm working on this three stone ring for a friend, and I'm having a bit of a problem. I thought it would be pretty straight forward, but the center stone that she provided is a old cut sapphire, super deep and rounded on the bottom. Almost like a cabochon, but obviously a faceted gemstone (but one that you could turn upside down and make into a rose cut almost...it's also a strange oval, 6.5x7mm) Anyway, this is making my life difficult. The center stone is so deep that to set it in a ring with two side stones that are significantly smaller is creating,....,.....,....., um.....weirdness. In order to not look like they are on separate planet, I have to lift the smaller side stones up a bit, and to add to my troubles, I can't just make the ring flat to the finger, she wants the wedding band to sit snug with the three stone. I'm not sure if I can do it now, after spending hours and hours working on it. It might be a bit clunky and awkward...but that is my task for today. I also need to answer all the emails that piled up over the weekend. So I'm sitting in front of my happy light (a new addition to the home studio and one that I think I really needed. The PNW winter was starting to get to me) preparing to dig into my email...

Okay mes amis! Have a great Monday! (I'm going to try!)

Niello! Nee-ello, ni-ello, you say potayto I say potahto...

2011-01-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure how to pronounce this, but I love the effect anyway. Of course, working with lead is a bit of a drawback.... the black parts of the design are created by "a mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal. The Ancient Egyptians are credited with originating niello decoration, which spread throughout Europe during the late Iron age and is common in Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and other types of Early Medieval jewellery." (Thank you wikipedia!)

I love the black! It is just solid and there. I've done a series of illustrations using mostly black calligraphy ink, here is an example:

I'm not sure if they are super related, but I feel there is a slight connection.

Here is something a bit more recent that I've been working on lately. I think the connection here is much clearer, yes?:

I am loving these gold and silver paint pens I recently bought.. Pen-touch and Krylon, I'm sure your noxious fumes might one day lead to my demise, but I care not!

I probably won't ever work with niello, but I think I might look into some enameling classes soon. I'm going to do a bit of research and maybe write a quick post about the different types of enameling out there (I'm almost 100% sure that I would be most interested in cloisonné, but who knows!?).

Okay, not the most coherent of posts, but I'm hungry for lunch right now and am probably not thinking clearly. Have a great weekend everyone!

This is the year of organization

2011-01-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

This is it! This is the year that I embrace rationality and organization. This is the year that I become an adult about my finances. Instead of an envelope/desk drawer/paper bag of crumpled receipts, I will keep meticulous records! I will develop a process for analyzing my out going and incomings! I will not be crushed at tax time like a tourist fleeing before the bulls of Pamplona! I will triumph over entropy and have an organized studio and mind.

Ugly used file cabinet (50$, City Liquidators) taking up precious studio space, CHECK!

Hanging folders, CHECK!

Interior folders, CHECK!

Plastic tabs, CHECK!

The discipline to organize receipts, CHECK?

Good tax preparation person? No. Still looking, any recommendations?

Decision about the new website? No. Contemplating, template versus custom site, any thoughts on this or experience out there? I'm really not sure what route to take.

Spread sheet to calculate prices and costs? CHECK! Now I am pricing according to a rational formula instead of just guestimating and wildly pricing, willy nilly! It makes answering emails much easier and less stressful. Credit goes to the Shop Monkey, an Excel Wizard.

Spread sheet to calculate a rough (very rough) estimate of what I should withhold for taxes? CHECK! (Has anyone noticed how quick the government can cash those estimated tax payment checks? It's like KAWHAM! We can't provide health care for you, or even decent public schools, but we can sure cash checks efficiently. Keep'em coming!)

So there I am. Planning for the future (sort of) instead of flying by the seat of my pants. What a strange feeling. Do any of you seasoned small business veterans have any tips or pointers? What else can I be organizing? I would love a reason to go to the Container store, I heart that place!

Growing up

2011-01-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

I'll tell you what, getting older has is perks. Perhaps I don't look as good in a bikini as I once did (and didn't appreciate it, of course...), but I feel I'm starting to have that certain something that it takes to actually pursue things with diligence and perseverance. Taking the time to actually learn things, instead of expecting it to just "come to me". I look back at my early adulthood and cringe. How could I expect to know things that I hadn't yet learned? So silly (and arrogant), and a waste of my youth, in way. Too impatient to practice and research. But, the lesson is learned and I hope that my best years are still to come. I would really like to be creating the best stuff I've ever made when I am a little old lady with short silver hair.

This book is winging its way towards me as I type this (I love you Amazon!...Seriously, I have a bad Amazon habit, I shudder to look at my account and see all of the orders I place over the year (which I just did, to get my business receipts in order, and it was an eye opener, let me tell you. Vow made to be more selective in my purchases from now on, scouts honor.)). I'm pretty excited to get it, I hope it's useful. It had decent reviews.

I (and I suspect many of you reading share this ability) can sometimes create/draw/cook etc. etc. something that is pleasing/beautiful/well balanced/visually interesting without quite knowing how I did it, or why it turned out well. I was satisfied with that (and myself...but that is another story for another time) for a long time, but now I want to know why things turn out well, instead of groping around with blind instinct. At the same time, I'm a little afraid that if I delve too deeply I will muck up the gears somehow and will no longer be able to do what I did before without thinking too much about it. But I'm also beginning to get the idea that I am reaching the limits of what I can do without conscious effort. I know that the gears are turning in there somewhere, I can almost see it, but actual control over it is another thing. (Related? This also happens with math problems and puzzles, my unconscious mind solves things, never really letting my conscious mind in on the process (show your work!). Leaving me just as confused as before, but with the answer. Crazy?) So, I'm faced with the prospect of hitting a wall, or possibly ruining my natural creative ability with too much thought and study. Does this sound like a lot of self indulgent navel gazing to you? Oh, it is!! But this is my blog and my life, so I'm going to try to make the most of it. Feel free to tune out. :-D

Another thing I've been contemplating lately:

What if all of the ideas in my head are not endless, like I have always supposed (and taken for granted). What if they are finite, and at some point in the future the well will run dry? I look back in horror at all of the great ideas (or even mediocre or bad ideas! Who can say?! I can't remember them!) that I just threw away because I was too lazy to write/draw them down...foolishly believing I would remember them later. I really feel like the mind is an evolving thing, that changes and goes through different stages/periods over the course of a life. And what if in a few years I don't have any more ideas!? What if the fertile idea making period of my brain will come to an end? I guess I would just have to turn back to my old ideas and refine them. That doesn't sound so bad, but I might need to have a record of these ideas to turn to when the flood is over. (Ah, a metaphor! What if this creative, idea generating period is like the flood of the Nile? And the real making/creating happens after the flood ceases, leaving a rich deposit of ideas to work with/grow from? I like to think of the fields of my mind being steadily covered with a thick silty muck of ideas, bits of plant matter and the tiny skeletons of water bugs strewn throughout.)

Okay, that is probably about as much of a glimpse into my inner workings as you wanted (or more than you wanted! Ha!). It might be the coffee...onto my second cup.

Oh yellow gold, how I love thee...

2011-01-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading this blog, you probably already know that I have a deep and abiding love for 18kt yellow gold. I love it. I. LOVE. IT. But judging by the little poll that I'm conducting (over there on the sidebar), I'm one of the few people that do. Why does everyone love white metal so much? Please explain. :-)

I don't know why the color of yellow gold is so appealing (to me anyway)....I do like bright colors and high contrast. Plus, yellow gold is so festive! (..according to my future MIL, and I couldn't agree more. It is festive!).

White metals are lovely, I don't deny it. And they tend to make a white stone appear larger, but my heart belongs to 18kt yellow (ever since the day my mom got a fat, heavy chunk of it for her wedding band...). I do find it slightly ironic that as much as I love yellow gold, I hardly ever get to make anything in it. So you can imagine how stoked I was when a customer approached me to make this ring:

in 18kt yellow. Oh the joy that burst out in the singleB studio! Yellow gold! Finally!

What is the difference?

2011-01-13T15:11:00.001-08:00

Two solitaires, white gold. One is 18kt, one is 14kt, one stone is G color, one is H color, one is VS1 clarity, the other SI1. But can you tell? Not really. White gold is white gold, G and H are similar. The difference in color between 14kt and 18kt yellow gold is noticeable, but I couldn't really see the difference between the white. Maybe the 18kt was less gray? Not really sure. The main difference between these two is stone size:

Right around 1mm difference in diameter, but the difference in appearance is noticeable. The larger is around 1ct and the smaller is a half carat. Both are fabulous, and big enough to get noticed. I just wanted to post a side by side comparison, because I know that people sometimes have a hard time visualizing what the the difference between the two is. This is also why I don't get too caught up in the numbers, a .49ct stone is going to look the exact same size as a .50ct stone, and the difference in price can be substantial. :-)

(RE) Opening!

2011-01-10T16:05:00.001-08:00

Okay! I'm not sure if I'm ready to start the year, but I think it is best to plunge right in. If I wait any longer, I might decide to sell my equipment and move back to Hawaii and spend the rest of my life surfing and eating eggs and rice with portuguese sausage.

I had a whirlwind trip down to Hell-A this last week. Seeing family (and meeting new family) was fabulous, but it was definitely not a relaxing trip. Plus, I hate southern California with a passion that defies description (I'm sorry so-calians, it is just a personal preference and I don't hold it against you...). Urban sprawl, strip malls as far as the eye can reach. People people people....I think I might do better out in Montana, I like a low population density (I think I'm a bit of hermit, deep down).

But, now I'm ready! (Ready, as in ready or not!) The shop is open, and the pugs are snoozing away in their old shipping box/dog bed, and I'm waiting, breathless, at the other end of the internets. :-)

This is something new that I'm pretty excited about:

I really dig two tone jewelry...especially rings for some reason. This one is palladium for the shank, and 18kt pink for the bezel. I love the 18kt pink, it is so peachy! I think I might have to do more dual color versions. I think an 18kt yellow shank, with a palladium bezel would be pretty awesome.

Adjustments

2011-01-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Since moving in the with the Shop Monkey in September I've had to make a few adjustments to my schedule. Things are just different in a new house in a new part of town. Now, instead of being a mile away from my studio, I'm more like 10+ miles away. It makes the studio day more separate from my life somehow. I do spend part of every weekday there, but I would like to have a spot at home to do some more creative work. Enter the home studio:

I remember when I was younger how I would look longingly at photographs of artists studios in random magazines or books. Maybe a home and garden magazine that showed photos of a home studio, built out back, with gray french doors...white shelves of books, and cases of drawers, and small containers, large flat tables....organization and light! Oh, the light. The majority of my childhood seems to have been spent in dark rooms with one small square window covered by plastic venetian blind (I'm sure there are people out there who can relate...)...Then I would sigh, and go back to my painting/whatever random art project, the only space I had for it would be on the floor by the bed.

Of course, I've carefully framed the above photo to avoid the unmade spare bed, piled with my clothes (which are homeless after finding mold in the closet in the master bedroom....but that is another story and one that hopefully does not include another 1 month stint at the future in-laws), the telescope, the un-boxed sewing machine sitting on the floor homeless, and the dog crate. I'm sure there is more junk in there, but I can't bear to describe it.

It is a good start, and I feel pretty cozy in there when I get to work. The Shop Monkey put up the shelf yesterday and it has really been helpful to have my pens etc. out where I can see them instead of jumbled in a drawer. I could put some more effort into the work studio (which I already like pretty well..) but I can't shake the feeling that the work studio is temporary and I don't want to pour money and time into it. I would really like to build a home studio when we buy a house (we start looking in a year!), so I guess I will have to continue sighing over Dwell magazine clippings....at least I'm no longer working on the floor. :-)

I've been working on some sketches and color studies of flowers. Nothing too naturalistic, I really like a stylized look. It's been interesting to just sketch and practice and do multiple renditions of things without any particular aim in mind. I feel like this is what I should have been doing from day one (at 6 or 7 years old), instead of thinking that every thing that I made should be a piece of art. It seems so silly now, to assume that something can be perfect straight away (or at all), instead of the product of countless hours of practice and refinement. I'm finally learning this lesson at 31. Better late than never!

(( I think these are my two great life lessons of the last couple of years:

1) If you want something to happen in your life, just stretch out your hand and make it happen. It is that easy. All you have to do is start.

2) The only way to accomplish something is to practice, study/research, and DO. Again and again. Anything is learnable. It just takes time and patience. ))

So what did these sketches teach me? That my vegetation needs some work. I can't just scribble in the stems and leaves. I need to think more about what will make a pleasing flow, what relationship the leaves and blossom have to the stem.

Wait! I thought this was a jewelry blog. What happened to the gold and shiny stones! Get back to regular programming, please.

Well, I am planning on a floral ring soon. I would really like it to be Persian or Turkish inspired. I looooooooove the floral designs on Turkish pottery. So I am practicing. When I go to design the ring/earring/bracelet/necklace I want these flowers to drop from my hands naturally, I want the style to have seeped into my design process, instead of it being a struggle. I need to understand the relationships between the sizes and the lines and curves...and I think the only way to do that is to practice.

But I do have new stuff coming out that doesn't require this sort of legwork! I plan on sharing it with you all soon. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of shiny stones involved. ;-)

(p.s. I am closing in on an engagement ring for myself....a possible stone for the solitaire arrives tomorrow....I'm pretty excited, but I don't want to get my hopes up.)

Oh Lordy...

2010-12-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hello Folks!

This blog has been lying neglected in a far dusty corner of the internets (and my mind) for the last few months. Why? Because I've been running around like a crazy person since September. The last half of the year for me was crazy busy, at work and at home. I moved in with the Shop Monkey and got engaged! Then end of the year exploded at work for me, and I was forced to shut down my Etsy shop just so I could finish everything I had already taken on. This was great, but I was just about to have a nervous breakdown, and this half-down time has been just what I needed. Not having to answer a thousand emails every week has been so refreshing!

I'm just about ready to jump back into the fray though! Big plans! New designs! I'm about ready to get my own website going, so that will be the new and improved face of my business by the spring (I hope!). I'm also trying to decide what continuing education class I would like to take this year....maybe pavé stone setting, or maybe enameling? Maybe both? Chasing and repoussé? I just feel like I need to expand my skill set and become better at certain things. I've been looking at a lot of books of beautiful jewelry and it has been very humbling. (I actually sort of hate/love it when I see something and I know that I wouldn't even know where to start...) I will keep you posted on what I decide.

I'm contemplating hiring someone... But that is such a big step that I start to PANIC when I think about it too much. But it would be soooooo nice to to have a part time person come in once or twice a week and do the cleaning and polishing of the rough pieces. That is probably my least favorite thing to do, and it is so time consuming as well. If I had someone to do that, I could spend more time on other things. I still need to think about it....(panic....panic....)

I've been too busy to blog and that means I haven't shared any of the new things I've made. I just have a couple here:

I also finished the giant bling bling ring, but I haven't had a chance to photograph it. I can't wait to share it!

Hmmm...what else? I'm planning on going to the big gem show, but I'm not sure if it will all work out. But I would really, really like to go and get some unique stones to work with. I think it would be a fun trip as well.

Been doing a little bit of wedding planning. I think I have a dress chosen (J.Crew), and a veil style (mantilla). May be making my own invitations.....not sure about that just yet. Seems like it would be a lot of work (but it is also just the sort of thing I like...projects!). I'm also working on an illuminated ketubah...which is turning out quite nicely, I will share some photos when the rough draft is finished. We picked a date (one year from today actually!). We have a space....everything is going to come together just fine I think. :-)

Okay! Best wishes for a great New Year for everyone out there! Peace and joy and happiness and prosperity and everything good! 恭喜发财！

2010-11-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

I am a GIANT Jane Austen fan, I'll admit it. Just so all of you know, I often listen to Jane Austen novels (and by often, I mean every week. I probably listen to two of them each week. Wait, you might say, aren't there only a few novels total? Why, yes, I would say. I listen to them over and over again. Especially Persuasion and Mansfield Park) as I work. I reveal this incriminating detail in order for the next silliness to make some sort of sense.

A couple of weeks ago I went camping on the coast with a few lady friends. It was awesome. I love my lady friends. And I also love the ocean. And Jane Austen. And so, when you combine two of these three loves you get:

"...and still descending, they soon found themselves on the sea-shore; and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze on a first return to the sea, who ever deserve to look on it at all...."

Whenever I see the ocean, I think of that quote. And I sort of love how it is protective of the sea, and basically says that if you are an ass-hat who can't appreciate the ocean, you shouldn't be looking at it at all. Period. I wonder what Jane Austen would think of ATVs. Effing ATVs.

I looooooove this old gnarled piece of wood, burnt in spots, worn in others. Textures! I want to make something with this same beautiful texture.

And just for fun:

I texted this drawing to the Shop Monkey, and he was like "hahaha, very funny". I was a little confused, since I had drawn it with the sweet intention of cartoonizing (I draw lots of these little cartoons to document our life together) our engagement, so I sent back: ? And he replied that he thought I meant: "Where's my rock?" Hehehehe! Where is my rock, btw?

And tiny Dieter. Sweetness pug. He seemed cold, so I put him up on the chair in front of the heater. He was just sitting there, dozing, but I didn't get a picture of it in time. Just as I was getting the camera ready he laid down.

All right my sweets

2010-11-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Okay! I feel like I've totally been dragging ass on this blog, but I think I am ready to return to once a week posting or more. I am going to schedule it in and drink a cup of coffee and blog once a week at least (the coffee will be a real incentive since I've forbidden myself coffee during the weekdays!).

I've had this wax kicking around for quite a while and I think I am about ready to cast it in 18kt yellow and set some diamonds in the ends. Perhaps this will be my engagement ring?

Right now I have switched from the Today and Tomorrow ring stack to the Helios ring, since it was recently returned to me after being used as the stand-in proposal ring prop for my friend Suzanne (congrats!). I'm glad to have it back, and I think a solitaire might be more my speed. The problem with me is that I get bored very easily with rings and jewelry in general. I don't actually wear much jewelry anymore (I used to be a real earring girl, and I like a good bangle), so I think it will be an adjustment to start wearing something every day. My job really sort of makes it hard as well, not only am I working with my hands, but I'm also making new and sparkling things all the time.....and the grass is always greener.....

Anyhow, I think I might tweak it, make the upper curves just a little smaller. They don't feel bulky on or really look that way (the picture on the hand is not at all true to life), but I'm afraid they will be too heavy in gold.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Goodbye Summer

2010-10-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished something that incorporates the rose cut diamonds I bought a thousand years ago. I love the color on this particular stone, in the sunshine it seems to glow. I think that is from the inclusions and how the light enters the stone. Anyhow, it is lemony and lovely and I'm glad I can finally stop feeling guilty about those stones (I can hear them calling "use us! use us!).

It is a size 7 and will be available in my shop soon.

Shmancy Cocktail Ring

2010-10-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

For the holidays.

I tend to gravitate towards wearable rings, and since I do a lot of engagement rings and wedding bands I seem to be making endless numbers of solitaires. Don't get me wrong, I love a nice solitaire as much as the next girl (the sparklier the better!), but the artist in me was aching to do something large and flashy. I have several cocktail rings in the works, and this is my latest. The center stone is a cushion cut chrysoprase cabochon, and the little settings circling it will probably be blue topaz? Or cubic zirconium. I haven't decided. The outer ring will textured in some way as well.

Sorry the picture is so bad, it's from my phone:

The choices the choices!

2010-09-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

How can a person make up ones mind when the choices are pretty much limitless? (Excepting, of course, prongs and pavé...) What is my personal style? I'm not sure that I can identify my professional taste as different from my personal. Are they the same? I know that I very rarely make things that I wouldn't actually wear myself (but there have been a few....), but then again I don't make many things that I could make because they wouldn't be feasible to make all the time. There might be something that I could make once or twice, but that I wouldn't make on regular basis for one reason or another. When I start to think about something to make for my business, I generally have in mind a great many things that I wouldn't necessarily have to think about for my own ring (i.e. profit margin, time required, sale-ability etc.).

How do I free my creative mind of those requirements (except of course cost!) so that I can create something that will suit me? Something that I won't get tired of....(I do tend to get tired of jewelry quite quickly....but there are a few pieces that I've never stopped loving. Jade bangles and a pair of white and turquoise earrings I made a thousand years ago...that's about it.)

Until I can come up with something (or maybe several different somethings and take a survey?) I am wearing these (this style will be available in the shop this week under the name Today and Tomorrow rings, 950 palladium and diamonds):

Bean and Shop Monkey make it official

2010-09-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

I love old cuts

2010-09-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

There is just something so nice about a old European cut diamond. Too bad they are so hard to find!

I've been a bit preoccupied

2010-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

(this exact post is also posted on my personal blog, sorry Bean and pug stalkers,

I'm still too busy to blog regularly. See below for details.)

I'm sorry folks. Most of August feels like Wedding D-day in the singleB studio. There are so many weddings happening over Labor Day that all I do is work (at least that is how it feels to me!) And there are always a few last minute rush projects for people going on vacation or visiting with family etc. and they NEED to have a ring by then. And as much as I love them, rush jobs make my life hell. I'll be honest. I'm not the most organized of people (truly). I just tend to rely on my giant brain (ha! Better keep popping those fish oil supplements!) to keep track of everything, instead of having a system in place to keep track of things for me (like what an organized person would do....I'm not even sure what that would look like. Sticky notes? File folders? Spread sheets?) It has worked so far.....I haven't missed any weddings.....yet. (Fingers crossed, knock on wood!)

But besides being the busiest business month out of the year for me, I also had my brother's wedding, a visit from my sister, and worst of all a move. The studio is still in the same spot, but the cute little apartment that the pugs and I inhabited was left behind for a cute little place that has room for me and the pugs and the Shop Monkey. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that I HATE moving with my whole soul. (Can I get a show of hands?) I swear, every time I move I think "I'm never buying a single trinket ever again. I'm done. I hate you Amazon!"

Now that the move is over (almost a week you say, from the 1st, which surely was the date your move finished?) you would think things are going to calm down. Sure. Except that a good friend of mine from my Navy days got married on the 4th, and that wedding was in Maryland. So the Shop Monkey and I packed our bags and traveled across the country for a lovely wedding (where I had waaaaay toooooooo muuuuuucccchhhhh to drink. A flash back to my Navy days as well?). And then when we arrived back in Portland (which, by the way is much better than any other place on the planet. Our tap water is the best in the country. This is true, google it), we had to repack the things we had just unpacked a few days before in order to move to the Shop Monkey's parent's house while our condo is torn apart in order to get rid of mold in the walls of the two bedrooms. Good Gravy! I actually RAN to work today in order to get away from the chaos that is my life at home. And now we* will be staying at the parentals for who knows how long. As much as I hope they like me now (hi Fanny!), I hope they will still like me after their house has been invaded by me and the pugs.

So, dear and gentle readers (including you, Nancy!), I will be back to regular (and by regular, I mean random) posting soon. Just as soon as I am not living out of a suitcase/plastic bag, perhaps.

*and by we, I mean me, the Shop Monkey, AND Gunter AND Dieter. Poor Shop Monkey parents.

Bling bling ba bling!

2010-08-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Busy Bee

2010-08-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't been posting more. It is wedding season around here and I am just trying my hardest not to ruin someone's special day by not getting their jewelry done on time (the horror! I have nightmares about it!). I absolutely love the people who get their jewelry a year or more out. It really takes the pressure off me. :-)

But here are some pretty pictures of what I have been doing until I can add more new stuff. I finished the wax for the giant cocktail ring I have been talking about. I'll take some photos and share it with you tomorrow.

What do you think of this new white and yellow photo setting? I really like it! Does it create a certain feeling? I don't know, it does for me. Cool and quiet and private.

I also like this yellow pine. There is this furniture shop by my studio that specializes in reclaimed wood and custom furniture. So I stopped in there a bit ago and bought two boards to take photos on. One is walnut (which I love, but I think it needs to be varnished, right now it is just oiled and I think the texture is too distracting. See first photo above. I am hoping I can convince the shop monkey to sand and varnish it soon.) The white board from the yellow and white photos is a reclaimed cabinet door that I got at this salvage place, the yellow is curtains from Ikea!

Motifs

2010-07-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am really loving stylized nature motifs. I have never been one for realism (probably because I'm not very good at it! And also because I think sometimes the feeling and spirit of a thing is lost in the effort to reproduce it in a realistic manner). Some artistic traditions excel at this sort of stripping down of the object to its most meaningful parts. I recently have become enamored with Persian, Turkish, Islamic designs/motifs. Thanks to the glory of the interwebs and used books and I am now well supplied with research material:

Now I just have to figure out how to incorporate new ideas into my jewelry.

My poor fingers

2010-07-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Wow. Not the best day in the studio.

More Old Stuff

2010-07-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

What do I love about this? Well, I'm not so hot on the floral applique pieces on the upper twisted part. It looks a little cartoony to me. But I loooove the egg noodle twist going on there. The main attraction here for me is the enameling right before the knot. That overlapping blue and green scale type pattern just hits a sweet spot for me. I love blue and green (those two shades particularly). This pattern haunts my thoughts. And then of course the reef knot. I'll try to show you another example of a fantastic reef knot later. I'm pretty sure that interlocking curved shape will show up in my work at some point.

Next,

Swoon. Everything about these rings is awesome. The construction (check out the crazy shanks!) to the gold (yellow!) to the interesting stone setting choices. I love the flat sort of tiled look to the big round one and the crazy intricate urn set with a flat (semi-rounded?) stone. So much presentation! Sometimes a ring just becomes a vehicle for a stone, but these all have stones, but that isn't their raison d'être. The ring part isn't just there for the stone. The are a cohesive unit. The stones might even be sort of an afterthought really. But I love it.

Solitaires go marching one by one

2010-07-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that bright orange wax is probably not the best thing to give the idea of a white metal (or maybe 18kt yellow?), but I wanted to run this by someone (anyone?), it is just a simple solitaire, but the band is slightly thicker and carved with facets. Into the facets I see tiny stones. That is what the black dots are. Haven't quite decided to follow through, but that is what is hanging around on my wax table. I also have this giant blingy thing that I am wanting to get out soon. I bought these GIANT cubic zirconia, and they are so fun and sparkly that I am working on a big costume cocktail ring. :-)

Have a great weekend!

What I am loving at the moment

2010-07-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

I love old jewelry. I love it with a passion. I love the way it isn't perfect, I love the way it is unabashedly about the materials and the beauty. It's not self-conscious, it doesn't need a reason for existing. It is its own reason. Art jewelry is fun and sometimes thought provoking, but to me, the point of jewelry is primarily about the beauty. I'm sorry. I love art. I'm an illustrator in my spare time, but seriously. Jewelry to me is precious metals and fantastic stones. It is about the aesthetic value of the object and about what effect it is trying to have on the wearer. Jewelry can be a form of body modification to me. Adornment. Beautifying. When something becomes more about the idea than the object, it ceases to be jewelry in my mind. It might have the physical form of jewelry, but it is now a piece of wearable sculpture or something like that. Some pieces can be both, and I have great admiration for the jewelers/artists who pull that off. Until I reach that level, I will continue to worship at the altar of yellow gold. ;-)

These pictures are all taken from this fabulous jewelry book called 7000 Years of Jewelry. Expect to see more of it in the next couple of weeks as I work my way through it (over breakfast every morning. Nothing like crazy gorgeous pictures to get a person off to the studio in a mood for creating!)

Fancy Shindig

2010-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

So we got all dolled up ( and by we I mean the shop monkey and I. He looked so hot! I wish he would wear fitted pants more often! Maybe I should make that part of the Shop Monkey uniform?) and headed downtown. It was boiling hot and I was wearing a tight black dress, so not really dressed for the weather. But the place was nice and cool and they had fabulous eats and drinks and we met the Shop Monkey's brother there. My studio mate and former studio mate were also there, so that was fun, seeing everyone looking nice, instead of covered in shop dust!

Finally got a copy of the current issue of Oregon Bride (they were giving them away on the way out). It was very exciting to see my jewelry in print (is that what you say for photographs?). But they, of course, photographed the male ring with the solder seam facing towards the camera. The seam never shows in most lights, but whatever they were using to light the jewelry for the photographs made it glaringly obvious. To me anyway. I hope most people wouldn't notice...:-( But it was awesome anyway! Yay!

I have returned

2010-07-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, my last two weeks were sort of restful. Even though I was still working in the studio, the psychological relief of having my Etsy shop closed was nice. But I am ready to be back. I've reopened on Etsy, with a few changes. Also some new designs, with more to come. I have some blue diamonds on the way, and I really hope to have something new and different ready for the end of the week. So stay tuned. Until then, I have this new eternity ring finished just today to share. I'm not sure what to call these new eternity bands. It is easier for me to remember a design when talking to someone about them if they use the name. A description like "it was a white metal with small diamonds" all around doesn't really tell me exactly what they are talking about. But a name for each thing really helps me to identify just what piece they mean. What should I name this?

And what about the other two new ones? There is one with 5 diamonds all in a row, and then one (soon to be a set of three) with six diamonds spaced asymmetrically around the band. I think I will call that one the scattered band? No? Diamond scatters? Constellation bands? Coming up with names is the hardest thing to do, without sound pretentious and/or ridiculous. Help!

Mini-Hiatus

2010-07-01T10:59:00.002-07:00

I don't know if any of you readers (if there are many?) have been by my shop, but it has been closed for the last two weeks. I was just a tad overwhelmed and I was starting to have work nightmares. Those of you who make jewelry can relate, maybe? The kind of dream where you are working on something and then you make a horrible mistake and the piece just crumbles to dust (or something equally horrible). Am I the only jeweler/metalsmith who has these dreams?

So, these last couple of weeks I've been steadily working away on previous orders. I think I took on too much and just couldn't handle it all. It is hard to gauge what exactly I can do in a day, and I'm always a little overly optimistic. Everything seems so easy, until I am actually doing it. This job requires so much concentrated attention. When you need to focus, only 100% focus will do. It can be draining, for sure. So, for mental health reasons I decided to take a personal day...or, um, week...two weeks. It hasn't been totally complete, since I have still been working and trying to answer emails. I even took a few orders each week, but I think I should have waited on those. Summer is just so hard, since so many people are getting married and they NEED jewelry by a certain date. I always feel so bad. When someone has their heart set on a certain piece for their engagement/wedding, I feel like I should do all I can to get it to them. So I end up saying yes, when I perhaps should say no, since it stresses me out. But I just can't!! People are so nice, and I always find it so flattering when someone wants to buy my stuff that I just can't tell them no.

___________________

Well, I am getting ready to reopen. There will be some changes, new designs etc. I will also be discontinuing some items. Mainly my silver wedding sets and other silver jewelry. I will still be offering silver items, but mostly pre-made bangles, simple rings and earrings etc. Those will be first come first serve and I won't be taking custom orders in silver at all. If I have made something is silver for a mold, I might offer it as a sample sale. New items in palladium will also be available as sample sales. I will also not be making the eternity rings anymore (I don't think). I will have eternity rings, just not the ones I have been making. I had come to dread it anytime someone ordered one of those, since the stone setting was quite laborious and time consuming. I have to do this because otherwise I will be too busy to do things that I really enjoy doing, like designing, drawing and carving new stuff in wax. I know that some people will be disappointed about this decision, but I have to do what I have to do to maintain my sanity. I can't keep working at the pace that I have been in the last year, it will burn me out. I would like to continue loving what I do.

___________________

The fall/winter issue of Oregon Bride magazine comes out this month. A wedding set of mine will be featured in it. It is very exciting for me, but I'm not sure what effect it will have on my business. But exposure can't be bad. :-) The Shop Monkey and I will be going to a fancy cocktail party thing next week that the magazine is sponsoring (?? I'm actually not exactly sure who is holding it, but we got the invites through the magazine). I'm not exactly well versed in fancy parties, but I think I will like dressing up. And seeing the Shop Monkey all spiffed up will be super awesome too. :-)

___________________

I'm still experimenting with taking photos of my rings on people. Mostly just myself at the moment, since my lady friends are scattered all over the place (Alaska, Thailand, Arizona). But I am sort of planning (she doesn't know yet) to use my one Portland girlfriend as my model. She has gorgeous hands (tiny!), and is gorgeous in general. I think using someone else will make it easier to have a model, since I feel too self-conscious about myself in pictures. I don't want people to think I'm self-absorbed (although, I probably am! Aren't we all to some extent?) And it is really hard to take pictures of yourself anyway. See below. I feel all myspacey.

Okay, well, I've got to get to work to prepare for my "grand" (re)opening. I've also got a stand alone website in the works, but I had underestimated how hard it is to build one of those things. Anyone know of a good webdesigner? Recommendations would be much appreciated!

Finally!

2010-06-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

I posted about this a little bit earlier this month, but I have finally finished the project, thank goodness. Sometimes a project can really take it out of you for various reasons. I was telling my sister the other day that running your own business is like being in school perpetually. You always have something unfinished hanging over your head....lingering in the back of your mind....spoiling your weekends. Just like the guilt I used to feel about papers I needed to finished (or start!) writing.

But now I can put this one to rest....finally.

Still loving the palladium

2010-06-22T11:44:00.001-07:00

It is much harder to clean and polish, but I just love the feel and look.

Old style, new metal.

And the 2nd

2010-06-18T09:28:00.001-07:00

Also pure palladium and diamonds. I liked them stacked together, but I have a vision of the bottom one stacked with two others just like it. I wonder if the top one would look good as a stack of 3 as well? I am really loving the palladium, it seems to be awesome for the actual stone setting, but drilling the pilot hole is going to kill me. It's terrible. Like the metal is elastic or something. Argh. Nothing is perfect, I guess and I will just have to get adjusted. Of course, I will be making this in other metals as well so I won't always have to be breaking tiny drill bits.

Update (7/5): I got some fancy new drill bits that are made for harder metals and they work fantastic. Having the right tool makes all the difference.

Working out the kinks

2010-06-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

(oy vey)

Things are going well in the shop of Bean (also known as singleB studio, sometimes known as the B painbox)....but I am having a very frustrating jewelry week. Let me explain.

1) I had a casting company cast a couple of pieces (my casting operation is on hiatus for the time being...when things slow down I will start casting again. I think I've figured out my issues. My sprues were too circular, they needed to be more elongated. Anyway, that's neither here nor there). That would have been awesome, except that the alloy that they used (named 14kt palladium white gold) was way yellow. Not at all the beautiful color of the normal palladium white that I use. So, I had these two giant gold rings of a terrible yellow gray color. I freaked out because, one of them is already late (yes, I'm sorry potential customers, sometimes I am behind schedule. I don't think I've ever missed anyone's wedding date however!). And what to do with these two ugly rings!?!? And I was so disappointed because I was really hoping to use this caster in the future for some more things. So I called them and it turned out that the alloy they used was from Stuller (great for stones, not so great for metal), not Hoover and Strong. But they were totally great and told me to send them back, along with new waxes and they would cast them again in the Hoover and Strong alloy and also that they would keep that casting grain in stock for me. How great is that?

2) I've been working on a gold version of this ring:

I'm very exited about it. It involved a multi-step process in order to get it going. First, I had to create a model in silver, then I had to have a 3 piece mold made, then make a wax from the mold, and then cast the piece in the final metal (in this case 14kt palladium white gold). Unfortunately for me, the shrinkage in size caused by the wax shrinkage (when shot into the mold) and then metal shrinkage when is is finally cast made the setting for the stone in the final product a bit marginal. The height of the setting was just .50mm higher than the height of the stone. This meant that the stone point (the culet) would possibly touch the finger. Suck. So now, I have this giant and heavy gold ring that I can't use. Fortunately, it is an easy fix if a little time consuming. I just added a little bit of wax to the setting on a new wax shot from the mold I had made (I also altered the ring on the inside to make it smooth instead of triple banded, still maintaining the 3 bands on the outside), and then send the current ring to the refiner. There is a bit of loss to me, but better than eating the entire cost. It was just really frustrating. There are so many factors that you have to take into account, and that I just couldn't foresee. But now I know, and I will never be caught like this again. :-)

I also finally have some of the stones I need for a few new designs, and I hope to have those out this week. There will also be a ring with blue diamonds, but I have yet to get those, so that one will have to wait until next week. So excited. This is why I got into doing this. I love making jewelry in general, but there is something so refreshing about working on a new item.

Dental Tool Redux

2010-06-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

Finally. It took about a month to get these, but I think they are worth it. I get my dental tools from Interguide Dental, a company in the bay area.

Doot Doot Doo!

2010-06-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm in love this ring (I'm wearing it right now! Diamonds and palladium). I'd been hesitant to work in pure palladium....I don't know why. I just didn't know what to expect. Well.....it is a freaking stone setters dream! Oh my goodness. I can't say enough good things. It just feels so different for some reason (probably all in my head, but it feels smooth and soft). This is just one of my new designs (there are 6 in various stages of doneness currently). It's so exciting to have new things to work on. It's also a little nerve-wracking since I've never put out so many new things all at once. What if they all tank? I won't be heart broken, but I will be disappointed since I think they are all lovely (and they all fit me! hehehehe..).

The one above is meant to stack with at least two other ones just like it. One is sparkly, but a stack of them would be super sparkly (expect pictures of that next week). I also think a stack in different colors of gold would be fantastic. I'm toying with the idea of offering the first of new designs as a sample sale. No resizing, no alterations, you just get the item in the photos for a screaming deal....

Ok, this is just one of the new items I plan on putting out this week and next. Very excited!

New Stuff This Week!

2010-06-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

At least one new ring coming out this week. I promise! I am so excited for these to be finished. They are a bit different from my current stuff, so I'm nervous too. They will all be in pure palladium, but I will be making them in white and yellow gold as well. Stay tuned.

(Yay!)

My poor finger

2010-06-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

I am always doing this. I guess I get a little eager with the saw. :-(

Studio Thursday

2010-05-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Does This Float Your Boat?

2010-05-21T11:22:00.001-07:00

I get excited just looking at this picture. Seriously.

The right tool for the right job. Wow. What a difference a good tool can make. When I first tried carving wax, I made the mistake of using the crappy, awkward, clumsy things that pass for wax carving tools in the jewelry supply catalogs. What a waste of time and $$$. It's like they were made for hacking at a large block of wood or something. You know those plastic tools that they make for children? That is what the general quality/usefulness of "wax carving" jewelry tools are compared to dental tools. Oh, shiny, pokey, beautiful dental tools! I can't get enough of you. There are so many shapes! Almost all of them fantastic!

Dental tools. I love you.

Here are a couple of tips for making jewelry, but that I also think apply to life in general:

1) Use the largest tool possible for the job.

2) Do things in order (i.e. don't skips steps. You will just have to start all over again.)

3) Things take time. Small steps lead to progress. Almost nothing can be made/done in one swoop.

Ok, that is all I had to say. Have a great Friday everyone!

Man Hands

2010-05-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

(I especially like the stunned look on my face!)

I think I might need to find someone else to model my rings. I have giant hands. Way out of proportion to the rest of my body, and I think someone with more regular lady hands might be able to provide scale for the rings better than me. Really, look at my hands in comparison with my face. I wish I could take a picture of my hand next to a regular sized woman hand. I'm not being weird here, my hands really are large. (I love my hands and I'm not imagining things.)

And now that I'm 30, how long will my hands look good? I mean really, I work with them all day long and they are bound to start looking like older lady hands at some point (some point soon?).

Well, that was all I had to say. I was photographing a set of rings this morning and the largeness of my hands struck me (not for the first time. I would say my hands have been larger than at least 96% of all my past boyfriends hands, truly).

Sneak Peek

2010-05-17T18:34:00.001-07:00

There are 4 waxes of new designs, ready to be cast. Here is quick look at two:

I'm visualizing the bottom band as a stacking wedding ring, with 3 or 4 stacked together. I'm going to do it in pure palladium, and set it with diamonds. But I can see many different combinations. The top band I think would look great stacked with another like it, or alone. I'm super excited for them to be finished!

If anyone was wondering

2010-05-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

how this turned out in the end:

here it is:

I like it. Especially the big fat rim around the stone. I really tried to make that more even and symmetrical than my other pebble rings, although I like those as well. The more organic natural look is just different from this. I think I will be exaggerating that in the future and making the pebble rings more oval, rather than round, and have this one be a separate design.

Still haven't had a chance to blog about the rose cut diamonds. I was pleased with them, but they have more inclusions that I was expecting. I don't mind inclusions, especially in a natural stone, but a couple had inclusions that came all the way to the surface. I think they are gorgeous, but I'm not sure if everyone would agree. But maybe the person who is looking for a natural rose cut stone is the type who would appreciate the uniqueness that inclusions give. We'll see. Still haven't decided which to use first! I think I might wait until I have the ring in my hand and see which looks good against the metal. :-)

Ahhh...Almost (re-)Organized

2010-05-03T17:59:00.001-07:00

The new place is great! I love it. It is larger and just better suited to my work style. I really like having everything in one room. It's super bright too! And there is a fancy loft thing that is a great spot for piling all the junk you don't know what to do with. Out of sight, out of mind.
This is how I've tentatively set things up. I think it needs a little tweaking. And the pugs were very annoyed at being in a new place at first, but I think with a judicious amount of bribing with meaty bones they will come to terms.

On another depressing topic....
Since half of my last castings in the palladium white gold I use turned out like this (the other 2 turned out freaking perfect!):

(ooooh....bummer!)

New waxes!
Wax carving is becoming much easier, so I'm glad. I just casting to become easier too!

Ok, that is all for now. I did get the rose cut diamonds today, but I am too tired from the move/organizing to blog about it today. I think I'll post about them this week. :-) Thanks for all the comments!

Roses are blooming!

2010-04-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

The most exciting thing ever! A stunning lot of almost 3.5cts of natural fancy color rose cut diamonds! Oooh! Oooh! Soon to be in my possession! Even at this moment, winging their way towards me. I can't wait to get them. I have been wanting to use this sort of stone for ages now, ever since I first saw them. And I finally found a Kimberly Process compliant supplier. Exciting! I have a ring carved in wax now, just waiting to be cast in 18kt yellow, one rose cut center stone, 8-10 white brilliant cut diamonds surrounding it. Can't wait until it is finished.

Question: What color of center stone should I use in the first ring of this style?

Big Move!

2010-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to pick up the keys to the new studio. I can't move into it until Saturday (The Shop Monkey has been busy packing boxes and nagging me to make a u-haul reservation (which I did this morning!) An awesome brother of the Shop Monkey has volunteered (or rather, the Shop Monkey sort of voluntold him, but he was really super willing. I love the Shop Monkey and his family!) to help, which is going to make it all so much easier.)

The space was even better than I remembered. It's going to be great! I'm very excited to get in there and get everything reorganized. It's just a better space overall. More electrical outlets, more space, Pug friendly! I hope to stay here there for a couple of years until I buy a house and move my shop home.

Random picture of the day:

New Stuff:

Right now I'm in the process of designing a new ring that will incorporate rose cut natural color diamonds! So excited. I'm thinking a pink-red center rose cut, with 10 smaller white diamonds set around it. I can't wait until it is finished. I'm going to order rose cut diamonds today, I finally found a guy that sells Kimberly Process certified diamonds, so I'm excited to get them. I've been behind on my new designs, but I think I will be able to get some out really soon!

Working on the Weekend

2010-04-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

is a really bad habit to get into. But this whole thing with the vacuum pump has made it necessary.

Because this stuff will try to kill me if it gets the chance:
I get to wear this nifty mask. The Shop Monkey thinks it's the coolest piece of equipment I own. I disagree because I am in love with my engravers block. (I don't do any engraving, I set stones using it.)
But check out this sweet mask! I sound like Darth Vader when I am wearing it.

T-minus 6 days until the big move. I'm reeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy not looking forward to packing up all this stuff:

You might be wondering, after seeing the massive horrible mess that my workbench is, how I get things to turn out looking like this:

And the answer is, I don't really know. I'm surprised myself most of the time. Since jewelery is so pristine and beautiful, I'm always shocked at how horrible it looks until the very last moment when it is cleaned and ready to be boxed. When I first started out, I despaired over every piece ever looking good until it had been cleaned in the end, and then I was always thinking "wow, I didn't think this would turn out at all". Now I know better, but I still find the level of dirtiness all the way up until the last moment surprising.

Okay folks, that's it for now. I want to get these two last pieces invested so I can go out on a date with the Shop Monkey. We are going to this thing called Eat Mobile, which is big food cart festival! I love me some street food, so this is going to be very exciting!

2010-04-19T10:51:00.001-07:00

What does this:

Have to do with this?:

I can't really keep a secret. I'm terrible at it. Seriously, all you have to do is ask me and I will tell. (For personal secrets, I'm an unbreakable vault, but things like surprises and presents....it's like taking candy from a baby to get the secret out of me. But not like taking candy from me, since I will cut you if you try to take my candy and/or cake. If you think I'm joking, just try to get between me and a piece of pie.)

So here it is! The ring set from above is going to be in the Fall issue of Oregon Bride magazine! In a piece they called "Unveiled"! Awesome, right?!? I was pretty shocked when I got the email about it. They wanted to borrow the pieces for a photoshoot (a photoshoot!) and so I had to make a set up since I don't keep any on hand. But luckily enough, someone bought the exact set I needed to make and so I didn't have to waste any material making a set for the shoot (the shoot! it sounds so pretentious! I love it!).

So look for the issue in July (the fall issue comes out in July). I'll be in there somewhere, and when I say "I" I mean my jewelry. Fun fun!

Next post: Back to whinging about my casting woes. The vacuum machine hasn't been returned to me yet. (I had to send the whole machine to Oklahoma!), but I'm hoping it will get here on Wednesday. Gold stars for effort all around, especially to the Shop Monkey for being so helpful.

Moving Studio (again)

2010-04-13T09:34:00.001-07:00

It seems like I just moved into my current studio (8 months ago), but I'm moving again at the end of the month. One of my current studiomates, Alisha Alderman of Alisha Louise Designs, just bought a house with her husband (Congrats!) and she is moving her studio to a home space. My other studio mate, Cheyenne Weil of Gin and Butterflies, is going to move with me to a new and larger space in a cool old industrial building nearby. She might eventually move to a home studio as well, but for now I'm lucky to have her around. The new space is pretty cool. I'm excited to see it when it isn't full of the icky and slightly creepy grubbiness of its current hipster occupier. I'm pretty sure we can make it look really nice, and their are several bonuses!

1) I can now bring the pugs to work. Yay!

2) There is garbage and recycling! Yay!

3) USPS delivers and picks up from the site. Sweet!

4) Fedex and UPS make regular deliveries there. Yay!

Soon this:

Will be combined with this:

To everyones great satisfaction.

p.s. ... ..... .....

I have some very exciting news! It will be revealed to the public in July, but I might be convinced to share here on the blog earlier! It's so exciting!

No Dice

2010-04-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

It is 8 p.m.

I'm so frustrated, I can't even speak.

Unfortunately for me, the returned pump, which came late last week didn't solve the problem. It now pumps, but I can't get the proper vacuum level (which is 29.5 inches), I can only get 25-6. Which doesn't seem to be enough to make the investment boil. I'm going to have to try to invest and cast a few things (that are very late!) and see how that goes :-(. I'm not sure what will happen. At best I think there will be small air bubbles on the cast pieces which can then be removed physically. Nothing is really lacy or intricate, so that helps. At worst the molds will be weak and molten metal will burst through (!!!). I bought this machine brand new in October, so I'm pretty irritated that I'm having these issues with it already. The Shop Monkey is taking point on this and has been talking to Pepetools and Otto Frei. I'm hoping they will just send me a new machine. Anyhow, here are pictures of the molds I just invested, cross your fingers for me tomorrow, I'm hoping everything just turns out okay. As always, I'm not sure what I would do without my trusty Shop Monkey.

STUPID MACHINE.

Thank Goodness!

2010-03-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

My vacuum pump has been repaired. I expressed payment for return shipping today and I'm hoping to have it back by Wednesday of next week. What a relief! Now things can proceed.

Some recent wedding orders:

Design Monday

2010-03-22T09:49:00.001-07:00

You have to put it on paper when it comes to you. If you don't, you will most likely lose it. I don't know how many ideas I've had and lost because I was too lazy to find a pen and paper. Creativity is persistence, pure and simple.

When Things Don't Work Out

2010-03-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

exactly as you plan them to.

Behold, readers! My busted, broke down vacuum table! Behold the gory insides of a normally smooth and blue machine of goodness. Oh, woe!

Thursday afternoon, I was preparing to invest some molds...

...when I flipped on the investment table and it made a funny noise and didn't work. Normally it is loud and noisy and you can hear the pumping action. But this time it just made a quite humming noise. I opened the hatch, to see if there was anything I could do, which of course, there wasn't. I cried a few tears and then called my Shop Monkey who assured me we could figure it out. So, I left for the evening. Molds uninvested, shop work at a standstill.

The next day, I called Pepetools and talked to Ed, their all around machine fixer superstar. Actually, I called him and heard a little of the instructions and promptly asked if my Shop Monkey (aka, my boyfriend) could call and get the instructions instead. Now, I am capable of fixing things, but I was also making chicken mole for a dinner party that night and I didn't have the time to dedicate to machine instructions. Plus I can't really tell my right from my left, and when I called the motor an engine, I think Ed lost a little bit of confidence in my abilities anyway.

So that afternoon, before the tostada dinner party at my house, we opened up the machine and followed Ed's instructions. And when I say we, I mean the Shop Monkey. He's an engineer after all.

We had to run to the hardware store 3 times (turns out that though I have a million and a half tools, none are suitable for taking machinery apart. Apparently you need a screwdriver, a crescent wrench, and hex things). We had to give up for the evening, since we had guests arriving and dinner wasn't fully prepared (I love crockpots, but they won't make salad and guacamole for you as well as chicken mole). But the next day we found out what the problem was:

The engine, oh sorry, I mean the motor, works just fine. But the pump is frozen (whatever that means).

So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will be shipping that square pump piece to Oklahoma for repairs. My casting equipment will be out of action for at least a week or two and I now have to write everyone who ordered things that need to be cast and let them know about the delay. This I dread. But it has to be done. But at least I will have time to carve all the waxes and casting will go quickly once the pump returns. Fingers crossed!

Doo Doot Doo Doo, Doo Doot Doo Doo....

2010-03-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't tell by the headline, this post is about weddings (that's my version of the bridal march on a kazoo). Wedding season seems to be upon me, even before I recovered from the holidays properly. I've been desperately trying to get waxes carved for new designs, but I seem to be so caught up in making things that have already been ordered that I have no time for new things. I've made a resolution though, and that is that I will carve one wax (in order to cast it and then have a mold made of that design by people who know how to make molds....as I can't seem to cut a mold properly to save my life) each morning. This wax will be one of my current designs (i.e. the three stone, pebble rings, pebble ring squared) in several different sizes, until I have carved all of the current designs. Each week I will also carve one new design (from the many I have floating around in my head). I also got some cool new material that I think will figure greatly into my spring collection! I think I will have two "collections", just a regular spring 2010 collection, and also a weddings collection. I think I've mentioned it before, but I love wedding jewelry more than just about anything else (besides my pugs, that is).

Before I went on vacation I had a small tidal wave of wedding orders and I took some pictures of them some of them together.

I really liked this grouping since it represents the three types of stones I use most in my jewelry. Left to right: moissanite, diamond, white sapphire. The ring on the far right is the first one of that style that I've made in gold instead of silver, and I really liked how it turned out. I can't wait to see it in 18kt yellow (my personal favorite, and the ring on the far left is made of it).

I also experimented with ways to take photos of the ring on my hand, in order to show scale. This is how I normally do it:

But that morning I was feeling sassy, and decided to do a little photo shoot:

If you can ignore the crazy hair, I think it actually gives a better idea of size and what the ring will actually look like on, than the hand shot. What do you guys think? Since Etsy only lets you post 5 pictures, I'm not sure if want to use two of them to show the ring on the hand. I think people like photos of the item itself more, and I don't want to intrude onto their wedding ideation with a big picture of my face. You know what I mean?

Ok, enough of that. I'm hoping to be able to post about the new designs this week or next. But until then, here is a picture of me and the shop monkey on vacation!

When Bad Things Happen to Good Calipers

2010-03-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

A Year Ago

2010-02-01T09:50:00.001-08:00

A year ago this month, I screwed up my courage and put a few pieces of my work up for sale on Etsy. I had never really sold anything that I had made before, and for some reason I was terrified of what the faceless public would think. (This is also why I have never shown any of my other artwork.)

The first few months of business were gratifying. When I made my first sale (not including the first one from my sister!) I celebrated by taking my boyfriend (at the time) out for pho. But I am a perfectionist, and for these first few months I agonized over every piece and the wording of every email exchange. It quickly became overwhelming. I was so afraid that someone would receive a piece of jewelry and hate it (and by extension, hate me)! But as the wedding season approached I found that I had to let go of my perfectionism (to a certain extent...perfectionism can never really be cured) in order to deal with the volume of wedding jewelry I needed to make, and just trust that things would turn out all right (and if someone didn't like their jewelry, that was okay too...it didn't mean I was no talent hack who shouldn't be making rings...).

I still struggle with that. But for the most part I have learned to trust my skills and to believe in the quality of my jewelry. I've been helped in this by the incredibly kind support and enthusiasm of my customers. While dealing with people can sometimes be (extremely) frustrating, that is more than counterbalanced by how kind and supportive total strangers can be. Maybe I was jaded, but I didn't expect to find such a great crowd of people. They really just want you to see you succeed. It's crazy and awesome.

And now I just need to conquer my lack of organization. I have plans for this year that include a bunch of new designs and maybe placing some of my work in galleries or shops. But for now, as I sit at my desk in Portland, watching the pugs bask in front of the "fireplace" (i.e. this old school heater in the shape of a brick fireplace...yes, it is as awesome as it sounds), I can't help but feel grateful that this little venture of mine worked out so well. I truly am so thankful (and surprised) that people actually like the things that I make! (And now I just hope that they will keep liking it...will they like the new stuff just as much?!? What if I ruin things!? What if people stop liking what I make!?!?.....Onward 2010!)

Hammer textures

2010-01-27T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hammer-cut and Driftwood

Driftwood

Water texture

Hammer Cut

2010-01-27T12:07:00.001-08:00

Hello,

I am Mr Albert from UK i will love to purchase your item for my daughter as a new year present and i will love to purchase 1 unit and i will be paying via pay pal so send me your pay pal email address so i can send the payment to you immediately .also you can email me direct to my email : okoloalbert23 [!at] yahoo.co.uk .Thanks i await your mail

Hello There Seller

2010-01-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

I got like 5 of these this morning:

Hello
There seller i was suffering before i came ac cross this classified site and i really have big interesting in ur item and immediately purchase of the item i will like to asked some question before i tell my client to go ahead for the payment .
But i want to ask this question,Are you the owner ?is it in good
condition?,can you tell me more about it ?and above all how much do you want to
sell and the last price you will be willing to sell it for me?
Am going to pay you with cashier check.
Try and send the information below
(1)full name.......
(2)contact address........
(3)phone number...
for further discussion .
Awaits your urgent response as soon as possible
for us to talk more extensively about this transaction
and u can reach me through this email address janet0111114 [!at] yahoo.com

It's terribly annoying and it makes me incandescent with anger that someone is out there fishing, trying to steal from from people. Seriously.

On the whole

2010-01-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

I like my job pretty well. It gets kind of lonely working by myself, but I listen to a lot of NPR and books on tape and that seems to help. I also get a little stressed trying to answer everyone's emails and struggling to keep everyone's questions/requests/deadlines straight. (My new desk at home is really helping with that. I love this desk, I found it the other day on craigslist for 50 bones! Cheap! I love it so much I called my sister as I was driving away from the lady's house that I bought it from, giddy with excitement. I felt like a thief. I was so stoked that the conversation went something like this: "DESK!!!...Solid wood!....50!...Craigslist!!!! And now I'm doing it again on my blog...DESK!!!...Solid wood!....50!...Craigslist!!!!)

Okay, where was I?.....Besides being able to create things with my hands, and work for myself, the biggest benefit of my job is the opportunity to make things that other people use as symbols of their love for each other. I love making jewelry, but I LOOOOOVE making wedding jewelry. I can't wait until my friends start getting married! I hope some of them want me to make their rings.

I do a lot of womens rings, but I feel really super lucky when I get to make the male bands as well. And maybe something pretty for the lady to wear at the ceremony, like I got to do last month. A couple had ordered this ring months ago:

And then last month the future groom contacted me again about making his ring and a pendant for the bride:

It was so sweet. And I loved doing it. I really feel like I lucked into a job that lets me deal with people at one of the happiest points of their lives. I especially like it when people send me photos of their actual engagement! The huge smiles and obvious happiness is so touching, and that they thought to share it with me makes me grateful. I just have to think about that when the thought of sitting alone in my studio hammering away at something makes me not want to go to work. :-)

Slack-tastic

2009-12-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've heard of wicked stepmothers....but have you even heard of wicked stepdaughters? Because that is exactly what I am.

No, this is not one of mine. This is my stepmom's wedding ring. I've had this thing held hostage here in my studio for at least half a year. Leaving my poor mother wedding ring-less (or as she likes to call it "without her shackle"). Terrible. I've been wanting to size it up and put a new half shank on it. But when I got it sawed in two and prepared to solder on the new shank, it wouldn't solder, no matter what I tried. I think I am being too conservative with the heat because I am afraid of ruining something that has a lot of sentimental value. The ruby, in particular, worries me because it has inclusions. Which I think add to its loveliness, but they do make it more likely to crack when heat is applied. I think the stone will need to be removed. But I'm going to take it to someone who specializes in repairs, because I'm just too close to this thing. It's like a surgeon who can't operate on family (or something like that....).

Meanwhile, I couldn't leave my mom shackle-less, could I? And exposed to the advances of strange men at the grocery store? Not I! So I made her something pretty to wear while I get the ring repaired:

Finally!

2009-12-23T11:09:00.001-08:00

Dearest readers, If you have seen the last few posts you know that I have been struggling to get my casting operation up and running. I have so many new ideas in my head that are dying for a chance to make it into metal form and I have several pieces in my current collection that are much easier to make by casting rather than by hand fabrication. Well.... I did it! Or, I guess I should say "we did it!", because my faithful Shop Monkey was there assisting, and he managed to snap this very unflattering photo just after the event:
Man, am I happy. I can't even explain how happy I am. I've done casting before, but always under someone more experienced who was "in charge". This was the first successful casting that I did under my power. There is a difference. (On an unrelated note, for all of you jewelry junkies out there who might think making jewelry is glamorous....check me out above. That is pretty much how I look at work. Grubby, hot, hair pulled back, with dirty fingers. Not terribly glam.)

And it worked!

First I took a lot more care with my wax carving:

(in process)

Which is carved down from a slice of this:

Using these:

I don't know why it is, but somehow I automatically assume that when the ring comes out in metal it will magically be better than the wax. But that is not the case. You have to make the wax as perfect as you possibly can, because any flaws will be exaggerated even more in the metal and you will spend so much time finishing the final product that it makes it not even worth it to cast it in the first place. Checking the proportions:

I thought I had done a really good job on these waxes, but it turned out that every little file mark on the wax was a hundred thousand times more pronounced in the metal. So I spend a lot of time filing and sanding the next day. Live and learn. I then invested the molds and burned out the wax. I think what was key for the success here was that I bought a new casting machine:

This is a centrifugal casting machine. You wind it up and then heat your metal in an attached crucible. When the metal is almost ready, you have your Shop Monkey remove the flask from the super hot kiln and place it on the swing arm inside the drum. After you have pushed the exit hole of the crucible up against the mouth of the flask you let the arm swing around, forcing the molten metal in the mold. It works like a charm, and I trust it so much more than the vacuum casting method. The unfinished results:

They look pretty rough here, and I think I need to get higher heat investment. I talked to Jeff Hoover (at Hoover and Strong, my metal guys), and he suggested the centrifugal machine and different type of investment for the palladium white gold that I use a lot of. He said what I have for now is fine, but it would be better to get the other stuff when I run out. I have a 100lbs of it, so I don't know how soon that will be.... But here is the finished product!
Sapphires, diamonds, moissanite! I love stones!