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!)

Hammer textures

Hammer-cut and Driftwood with a high polish

 Driftwood with satin matte

Driftwood with satin matte

 

Driftwood with a high polish

Driftwood with a high polish

Water texture with satin matte

Water texture with satin matte

Hammer Cut with satin matte

Hammer cut with a high polish

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

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

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

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!

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!

I won't lie

I got into making jewelry for the stones, not for the metal.

(Although, 18kt gold is winning me over to the metal side slowly but surely. )

I've always been a magpie, ever since I was little. I love shiny things, especially if they are translucent. I have a huge collection of marbles. Yes, I own jars (that's plural, I won't tell you just how many) of marbles. I like clear things and things that shine and things that sparkle. So my first priority when I started learning goldsmithing, was not so much the goldsmithing, but more the stone setting. I guess I sort of viewed the metal as the delivery method for the stones. I still do sort of feel that way (as my designs can attest), but I'm getting more into the metal stuff. I don't think (actually, I KNOW) that I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for shiny pretty stones.


But I don't want to limit myself. So I'm really going to try to focus a little more on the metal. Not too much, since I adore (and that is not hyperbole) stones. For example, the little raw pendant pictured above and below. I could have left it plain, it was simple and lovely plain. But I couldn't! I had to (HAD TO) add a stone.



But these! I restrained myself and left them plain. Although I do think I will be adding stones to them in the future. Maybe just small shiny ones....maybe one or two sparkly ones set into one of the columns. Maybe.....

Ok, I'm over it

Ok, I've gotten over my little disappointment from Monday. I can't be upset about things I have no control over. I did write the guy, but he didn't respond. Oh well. I want to thank everybody who left some really nice comments, it's crazy how nice people can be. I'm always surprised when things aren't going too well and I blog about it, and then I get lovely support from people. Strangers are awesome!