Bead set

Here are the finished horseshoe earrings. I think the settings turned out pretty good considering this is only the second time I have done bead setting.

The first earring went fine. The top of the stone's girdle was even with the surface of the metal. I used number 52 round graver to cut burrs which would act like prongs. The graver glided through the metal easily and lifting it towards the end of the cut; brought the burr up over the stone. After cutting each burr I used a small beading tool to round them off.

The second earring was a bit of a challenge. I had not paid close enough attention to which stone went in which earring. Despite using machine cut stones, the stone that was left would not fit in the seat. Fortunately I had plenty of others and after trying several I found one that fit but it sat with the top of the girdle just a bit below the surface of the metal. Ignorently, I thought it would not be a problem. But, with the first pass with the graver; I cut the burr completely off! Evidently, the girdle acts like a dam causing the metal to pile up as the graver is being pushed. Without this dam creating resistance, it was harder to control the graver. Fortunately, I was able to recut the burr without any difficulty.

Horseshoes and forget-me-nots

These earrings were somewhat of an artistic challenge for me. A request from my niece, who is an equestrian jumper, they needed to be post type and not too big. She also wanted horse shoes and garnets. I generally do not care for commissions because of the constraints and this was similar. I played with several concepts, most of which had roses in various places, before settling on this one with forget-me-nots. Putting the flower in the center provided a place to attach the post so the opening on the shoe is up (I'm told if they are upside down the "luck falls out" and no true equestrian would wear them...thanks to one of my students I did not make that mistake). Anyway, after depletion gilding, I put them in the tumbler with some burnishing shot. I will set the stones with bead settings.

Ginkgo choker and earring

I cast the components to this many, many...many years ago. As is so often the case, necessity forced me to finish it when I needed a piece to wear to a semi formal wedding. Sadly, after the event, I lost one of the earrings somewhere between here and Seattle.

I made the leaves out of modeler's wax, each one is individually carved. I folded back the stem of each leaf to form bails. After casting the leaves in sterling, I attached jump rings to the bails to link the leaves together.

I used 22 gage wire on the earrings for the ear wire (special thanks to my advanced students for their help in the design of the ear wire.

I then raised the fine silver (depletion gilded) and used a plannishing brush to create a satin finish.

Steel

Here is my latest. Steel, 14k gold and raw sapphire. I had a lot of fun working with the steel and it was especially fun using one of the raw sapphires that we found this past summer.

I used vinegar and hydrogen peroxide as a pickle and Grifflux for flux. The piece that looks like barb wire and the clasp are very old pieces of wire we found buried on our property.

This is also the first time I am using my iPhone 5 to blog.

So many rocks, so little time!

This is turning into a good trip for finding rocks.  On the way out west we stopped at a little town on the north side of Yellowstone Park.  There was a guy selling rocks on the side of the road so we stopped and took a look.  I bought an interesting piece of black tourmaline from him.

After we left Lopez, Island we drove down to Oregon to visit with relatives in that area.  On Saturday morning we went to the Tigard Farmers market where I met a gal from Rocks 4 Life (www.rocks4life.com).  She and her father cut and sell gemstones as well as their own handcrafted jewelry.  She was very nice and we chatted about lapidary. During the conversation, she told me of a Gem and Mineral Show not too far from there.  I also purchased a piece of uncut gold ritulated quartz from her.

The next day, John and I drove to the Mineral and Gem show at the Canby, OR fairgrounds.  There were not a lot of vendors but we did talk to a couple that we really liked.  I bought a small piece of rough Oregon Sunstone from RRR Gems and More (www.rrrgemsandsunstones.com).  Owners, Randy Reinikka and his wife have a claim in eastern Oregon which he works and he also does beautiful lapidary work.  Unfortunately, I don't have the name of the other vendor that I bought from but when I find it I will post it.  She was very helpful and I bought an awesome fire agate cab from her.

After Oregon we headed west to Wallace, Idaho.  I had picked up some brochures from there on the way out.  Not too far from there at Emerald Creek the Forest Service runs a sight where you can mine for star garnets (www.stmarieschamber.org/garnet.html). Unfortunately, it was closed for the season.  But a lady in town told us about a place where we could mine sapphires in Montana.

The next day, we drove to Phillipsburg, MT.  Our first stop there was Opal Mountain Gems (www.omg-mt.com).  Again the people there were very nice they do not have a claim but they do sell bags of gemstone bearing gravel which you can screen yourself insight.  I did not get any gravel from them but I did get several stones including a star garnet rough form Idaho.

Our next stop in Phillipsberg was Gem Mountain (www.gemmountainmt.com).  There we bought some rock hounding tools and got directions to their mine.  At the mine, we each bought a bucket of gravel for $20 which had been dug from their mine.  They have all the tools and will show you how to screen the gravel but we ran into a very nice couple who, coincidentally were from very near my hometown.  They showed us the ropes and chatted with us for a couple of hours while we all worked on the task of finding sapphires.  Between John and I we found quite a few, seven of which are gem quality.  It was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again.

After the Gem Mountain mine closed we drove to Butte, MT where we spent a couple of days.  In the morning we ran into a guy in the hotel who does a lot of rock hounding in the area and told us where to go to look for smokey quartz and amethyst crystals.  Before we drove up in the hills, we went to the the Mineral Museum at Montana Tech (http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/museum/museum.asp).  If you have never been, you really should go.  They have a huge, I mean HUGE smokey quarts and the largest gold nugget still in existence.  We spent quite a bit of time talking with the curator about rockhounding in the area and he told us about Crystal Park (http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/bdnf/recreation/rocks-minerals).  We did not go there which is a good thing because it is temporarily closed.  Instead we headed for the hills.  We did not find the area the guy, that morning, had told us about but we did come close and found a spot we want to go back too.  We took a couple of samples of rocks that we think are smokey quarts but not the large clear crystals that we were hoping for.  Since we did not have any shovels, we could not do the required digging for these.

Today we drove to Sheridan, WY.  On the way we stopped in Montana, along the Yellowstone River at a county park and picked up a couple of Montana Agates and some other stones, probably quarts.

Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera in the hotel with me tonight, so I will have to post pics another time.

Goodbye Old Friend

Sadly we had to have our pet and friend of 13 years put down this week.  Last Saturday our pet sitter called with concerns that Goober was not doing well.  Not much appetite and just laid outside the studio looking longingly at the house.  By Monday things had not progressed.  She had not eaten in 3 days and was very week.  We called our vet's office -- Antioch Animal Hospital, and they kindly agreed to go and pick her up and examine her.  She has had problems with constipation in the past an we were hoping it was just a matter of an enema.  Unfortunately, it was not that.  A blood test pointed too advanced cancer.  I asked the doctor if she was uncomfortable and he said she was just a puddle of coal.  We really wanted to be with her but it did not seem right to make her wait until we drove back.

Gooby (short for Goober), was a sweet kitty that we found on our property.  She had apparently been thrown out of a car and was very "goobered up".  Her hip was broken,her tail jetted out at 90 degrees to her body and she was very bloated from starvation.  She loved us very much and would always want to be held. She would signal that she wanted to be picked up by repeatedly whapping us on our legs with her front paws. When I was too busy to hold her she would sit on my shoulder and watch me create.  Last year when I started my production company, I named it in her honer, "Black Cat Productions" since she truly was the production supervisor of the studio. 

Goodbye Goober...we miss you.  Be at peace.

Orange Marmalade Quartz

I am currently working on a stone that I believe is quartz but its intense orange color and chunky texture remind me of orange marmalade.  Thus, that is what I am calling it.

Here I have cut it into a tonge shape and started polishing it. At this point, I am leaving the sides flat.  Not sure if I will leave them that way or not.  The two slices on the right are from the same rock.

This is the same stone in the same state of finish only it is lit from above.  It realy lights up nice.

Good News!

Just found out that my latest article proposal (making wax carving tools) has been accepted by Art Jewelry Magazine. I don't know anything about dates yet so keep checking back.

Kindle, calander and carving tools

I recently bought a Kindle Fire.  Amongst a whole list of awesome things I was hoping to be able to do with it was to post to my blog.  So far, I can read a book, email, watch TV, surf the web but not blog.  Unfortunately, Amazon has not developed an app for that.  They did forward my request to their App Store so hopefully...

In the meantime, I have added a reminder to my calendar to post once a week.  Will it happen? Time will tell, but so far I missed the first week (this is the second) and next week we leave for a two month vacation.  We will be on the road for about ten days but after that I should have time to post.

Now for the fun stuff...I have submitted another article proposal for making your own wax carving tools.  Keep your eyes pealed, maybe I will even put some sneak peaks in here.

Frustrating and completion

I had a frustrating day injecting wax.  I had carved a new ring last week and made a silicone mold of it. I also made a mold of a wax that I had carved a long time ago (a square bezel) and never got around to making the mold for it.  After cutting them both open (one of my favorite things to do) I went about the process of injecting them with wax. The square bezel injected beautifully first time and every time save one. The ring, however, was a problem child.  From the get go I was getting large air pockets. I tried every trick that I know to alleviate mold problems, including making air relief cuts, lowering the pressure, raising the pressure, more air relief cuts, dusting with corn starch, more air relief cuts and I even resorted to cutting a vent.  None of this worked.  Of all the tries I only got one good injection of which I was never able to repeat. The only thing left, that I know of, is to lower the wax temperature.  Since this takes time, I will try it tomorrow.  However, I suspect that I did not sprue it right in the first place and that will only be resolved by making a new mold of the one good wax that I got (I broke the original model when I was cutting the mold).

I did finish a pendant that I had made yesterday from a stone that I found on Lopez, so all is not lost,  I am not sure what the stone is but it is an awesome pale green with patches of brown.

Here are pictures of today's work.

These are the failed injections.  The one on the bottom left is the only one that worked.  The one above it would due in a pinch, only a small dent from a collapsed air bubble.  I could build this back up, if I had to.

These are the good injections.  I have never had a mold perform so well.

This piece I titled New Life because of the fern like stampings on the bezel.  It is fabricated from copper.  I don't know what the stone is but it is stunning with its green, brown and copper tones.  I found it, as is, on Lopez.  This piece measures about 7/8" wide by 1" tall.