Article update

I finally heard back from the editor this week on my article.  She liked it and thought it was very thorough, just needs one additional side bar on raising the fine silver.  I sent this off yesterday.  I will mail the ring to them on Monday, then they will send me the contracts.  They've decided to send me two contracts, one for each part of the article (wax carving and setting the stone).  Once they get that back, they will pay me!  The other bit of news on this is that the article is now scheduled for January 2012 (vs. March 2012).

Repaired Link to HCJ

Yesterday a friend told me that the link to the Handmade Contemporary Jewelry Project (HCJ) was not working.  That is now fixed.  She also wanted to know what it is.  Well...this is a new site to me that looks very exciting.  Here is an excerpt from the site's about page:
"What are the project's aims?
1.To provide comprehensive, up-to-date information related to contemporary jewellery, contemporary silver ware, and small "object art".
2. To aid easy distribution and dissemination of submitted content. Increase exposure for those taking part."
I am going to look into it a little further, perhaps you should too.

New Page

I have updated my blog to include a separate page with soldering tips (see tab at top of blog).  I originally planned these to be quick little tips which I would submit to a magazine on an ongoing basis, I still may do that but in the mean time I thought people may be able to get some use from them.  I wanted to put them in my blog as a printer friendly page but have not been able to figure out how.  So, for now, you will have to right click and print the blog page.  As time permits, I hope to post more pages on different subjects.

I have also included a search bar on my blog.

If you have not already, sign up as a friend and you will be notified when I post.  Also, if you want, please feel free to pass this page on to people who might find it interesting.

Sweet

Last week I broke down and sprung for a Benchmate. For those of you who are not familiar. Benchmate is a tool system made by GRS that has interchangeable components. One of the nice features is its inside ring holder. I have been setting a lot of stones lately and it will make my life a lot easier. Here is a picture.

This is a practice setting that I had on bench. In the back ground you can see two additional ring holders. The one on the left goes with the Benchmate, it is very similar to the ring holder that I was using, also made by GRS, it is on the right with the gold knob on the end. The Benchmate also came with a bench pin (not shown) but I will probably keep using my old bench pin.

Been a while.

It's been a while since I posted. Those of you who know me, know last year was not a fun one around the Eslinger house. Anyway, it's a new year now and hopefully, I will be able to keep up with my blogging. The last time I posted I wrote about an article that was accepted by a magazine. The article is done and at the publisher. It is scheduled to be published in March of 2012! I will write more once they pay me but in the mean time here is a picture of the ring I did for the article.

I had a hard time photographing it. Hopefully the pro's at the magazine can do it more justice. I am currently in the process of carving waxes for alternative designs of the same basic ring.

Accepted!

I am very excited; I got an email, from the publisher that I submitted the magazine article to, saying that they want to publish my article. I have been published before, but that was for my woodcarving and they where short articles that they wrote. This is a full fledged article for advanced techniques; wax carving and finishing of cast rings. My original proposal was for casting also, but they did not accept that part and instead will run an article on sending work out to be cast.

Grand Finally

OK, so it has been a while since I have posted. Here is a partial why...I volunteered to head up a collaborative sculpture project for the Downtown Highland Park Coalition (kind of like a chamber of commerce for the downtown merchants in Highland Park, IL), to promote their 4th of July fireworks show. My thought was that I would put in a few hours coordinating and another couple of hours spinning a base for it, out of copper.

Well...about 80 hours later we finished. That is, about 80 hours of my time. I figure there is at least a couple of hundred man hours in it. We had six of my students, five of their kids and two other instructors working on it. It was a lot of work but all-in-all, I think it was a positive experience.

Here is a not so great picture of the finished sculpture which is now on display downtown Highland Park, IL (in front of the old Border's store).