Yellow Beryl

I finished this ring yesterday. The stone is yellow beryl that a friend of mine and her husband mined at Gem Mountain in North Carolina. They also had it cut there.

Emeralds and aquamarine are also beryl. While I never cared for the color of emeralds; yellow beryl, aka golden beryl or Heliodor is quite pretty.

This piece is sold but if you would like to see similar heavy bezel settings that I have, visit my website http://www.jpstudioinc.com. 

Broken Pixie

About six and a half weeks ago I tripped on a cord in my studio and broke my humorous in half. I was hospitalized for three days and had surgery to implant a titanium rod. Keep your studio free of trip hazards. 

Working is now very difficult and painful but doable. 

I have been working on some casting which I can do without to much difficulty. Wax carving has been nothing but frustrating but, I did sculpt a model for a bunny napkin ring out of soft wax and cast eight of them in pewter.

I am also trying my hand at cuttle fish bone casting. I am trying to make a model for a heavy wall bezel ring.

The first one I made, I did not vent properly and it did not cast completely. I had also made it so the seem was in the middle of the ring shank…rookey mistake. 

The next one I made so the shank was flat (to be shaped, sized and soldered after casting). On this one, after two tries and getting nothing more than the button to cast, I decided the shank part of the mold was not thick enough to allow the barely hot enough bronze to flow into it. I think possibly a covered crucible would help. I do put a chunk of fire brick over the crucible during melting but have to remove it when I poor.  For the third try, I've carved the shank deeper and will use sterling silver instead of bronze.  Here is the mold. 

To the people of Lopez

This is the completed pendent "Blackfish". I cast it in sterling silver and used Max Black for the patina. It's dangerous stuff but I really like the look of it on this piece.  I plan on making another with a yellow gold surround and bail. This will be my first time doing bimetal casting…I am really excited to try it.

The bigger the glob, the better the job?

NO! Not when it comes to soldering. Excess solder looks sloppy and is unecessary. Cleaning it up is generally a painfully long process if mechanically removing the excess solder by grinding, sanding and polishing. Since this rarely results in a pristeen looking job, the best thing is to not use too much in the first place. 

If you are one of those that just can't resist the urge to use a hole bunch of solder, there may be an alternative method of cleanup. When I worked in electronics we used a product called solder wick to soak up  excess solder. Now that was low temperature solder so I had no idea if it would work but thought I would give it a try with silver solder. 

First I melted a big glob of solder on a piece of copper sheet, cooled and quenched it. Then I put the copper sheet in a third hand (to act as a heat sink). I put some flux on one end of a one inch piece of copper braid (Rio Grande p/n 132-526 FB 1/8) and held the other end in a pair of cross lock tweezers. Holding the fluxes end of the braid on the solder I put the flame of my torch on just the braid. When the braid got to the melting point of the solder, the solder melted and wicked up into the braid. Be careful not to over heat the fine wires of the braid and melt them into your piece. There will still be a thin film of solder on your piece but that's better than a big old ugly gob. 

Let me know how it works for you. 

Blackfish

Here is a carving of an orca that I did while I was playing hooky from doing inventory. I plan on casting him (her?) in silver then putting a black patina on the body and rubbing back the white patches typical of an orca. 

Honorable mention

Sail Away With Me

Here is my latest work:

Sail Away With Me

14k/18k yellow gold, 0.16 c tw chocolate diamonds

3" long