Still loving the palladium

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

Old style, new metal.

And the 2nd

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

(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

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!

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!

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

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

Studio Thursday

Does This Float Your Boat?

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

(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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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)

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

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!

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

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

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....

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

A Year Ago

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!)