FAM 1/12 - Candy Colored Rings

A new design challenge on flickr - Four A Month, or FAM in short.  We come up with 4 related designs each month.  This will push us to think in terms of series or sets, or even beginning pieces of a full blown collection for future explorations.  By the end of each month, we post our work on flickr to share with others.  Here's the link to check out what everyone else makes.

Wide Band Candy Colored Rings - available in my Etsy store

For January, I came up with some rings.  I was just dying to try to make some wide band rings, and I managed to find some delicious candy colored stones for them.  The stones I used are (from top to bottom, left to right) blue chalcedony, lapis lazulli, amazonite, larimar, rainbow moonstone, chrysoprase, and tangerine orange chalcedony.  What do you think?  I already got a custom order to make a round amazonite ring (center) at a size 7.  YAY!

RAW 52/06 - My Pearl Ring

Ring made with sterling, bronze and pearl.  I'm hoping to convey movements by setting the bronze skewed from the sterling band, and by setting the pearl off to one side.

I must admit that I had a nightmare trying to re-apply a patina to the bronze, so I finally just stripped it.  I was hoping that the patina will darken the bronze in order to bring out the row of silver dots running down the center.

Sweet Hearts Pendant for Valentine's

I always have these designs in my head of what I want to make for Valentine's Day.  I must be getting better because I made ONE of the designs this year.  Such a procrastinator!  Well, here it is.  Thought the prong setting is more appropriate for this stone since it has uneven top.  This is a tall stone too so a solid silver bezel will cost quite a penny. 

Sweet Hearts Pendant

A secret heart on the back.

This white druzy (sometimes spelled drusy) agate has nice medium size crystals to catch the light.  Whichever way it turns, some of the crystal points would catch the light.  Lots of fun rubbing a finger across the top.  The back of the stone has a glass-like polish, so I made a "secret" heart cutout.  I put a mottled black patina on the silver setting to contrast with the white stone.  Comes with a black satin cord.

I made three other similar but different pendants and will post them real soon.  Stay tuned.

Rectangular Pendants

Picked out a few stones from my stash. They are rainbow moonstones, labradorite, and turquoise. Unfortunately, the marquise shaped lab disappeared after dropping onto my floor. Maybe I'll find it, I hope. And then disaster hit the setting for the turquoise on the left. I'll try to fix that pendant next week.

While photographing these pendants, I'm beginning to understand why moonstones got that name. It's like the darker the surrounding, the more vivid the irridescence.

Check out the orange diagonal strip on the moonstone to the left. It is so striking and makes for a very interesting stone. On either side of the stripe are some gorgeous blue and green schiller. The labradorite in the middle is small but has an intense icy blue flash. The smaller moonstone has soft peacock color and a dash of orange. I chose to use a chain with rectangular links to go with the pendant shape.

To see more pictures, click here.

Goldsmith's Workshop, AD 1576

Etienne Delaune, Goldsmith's Workshop, an engraving showing the interior of a goldsmith's workshop in France, AD 1576

This pair of signed and dated engravings by Delaune (1519-1583) document the practice of sixteenth-century goldsmithing. The walls of the workshop are lined with the tools of the craft: pliers, files, drills, gravers, and hammers. The boy turning the winch on the left appears to be drawing wire. The worktable is placed perpendicular to the large window, in order to provide maximum natural light to the craftsmen. On the right a youth holds a pair of tongs in a small forge, with a bellows and an anvil by his side. Each workman sits with a leather apron tucked into his belt and attached to the table to catch filings of precious metal.

The second print shows the older man with spectacles serving a client through the window. He is possibly a self-portrait by Delaune. A display of chains and pendants hangs from the ceiling in full view of the street but out of reach of passers-by.

Delaune is recorded working as a goldsmith in Paris in 1546 and briefly in the royal mint six years later. His first dated prints were made when he was 42 years old. As a Calvinist, he left Paris at the time of the St Bartholomew's Eve massacre in 1572, and moved first to Strasbourg and later, according to the inscription on this print, to Augsburg.

Medieval Craftsman: Goldsmiths

"The goldsmith should have a furnace with a hole at the top so that the smoke can get out. One hand should govern the bellows with light pressure and with the greatest care so that the air pressed through the nozzle may blow upon the coals and feed the fire. Let him have an anvil of extreme hardness on which the iron or gold may be laid and softened and may take the required form. They can be stretched and pulled with the tongs and the hammer. There should also be a hammer for making gold leaf, as well as sheets of silver, tin, brass, iron, or copper. The goldsmith must have a very sharp chisel with which he can engrave figures of many kinds on amber, hard stone, marble, emerald, sapphire or pearl. He should have a touchstone for testing, and one for distinguishing steel from iron. He must also have a rabbit's foot for smoothing, polishing and wiping the surface of gold and silver. The small particles of metal should be collected in a leather apron. He must have small pottery vessels and cruets, and a toothed saw and file for gold as well as gold and silver wire with which broken objects can be mended or properly constructed. He must also be as skilled in engraving as well as in bas relief, in casting as well as in hammering. His apprentice must have a waxed table, or one covered with clay, for portraying little flowers and drawing in various ways. He must know how to distinguish pure gold from latten and copper, lest he buy latten for pure gold. For it is difficult to escape the wiliness of the fraudulent merchant."

Alexander of Neckham, 12th century
(quoted in Medieval Craftsmen: Goldsmiths)

Artistic Luxury Exhibit & Lecture

The Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique exhibit is here in town at the California Legion of Honor museum. This morning, I fought the rain and traffic in order to be able to attend Alan Revere’s lecture on The Art of Jewelry Making, as a bonus to the exhibit.

Here are a few of Alan’s words of wisdom (in making jewelry) that I walked away with:

- The quickest shortcut is to do it right the first time.
- It is a race for quality and not a race against time.
- There are 10 techniques but 10,000 tricks.

The exhibit captured the moment when these three designers rivaled each other at the 1900 Paris World's Fair. It was an event where each of them presented their most spectacular creations to show the world what they were capable of in order to win future commissions. It was an exciting time in design history.

At the turn of the 20th century, Art Nouveau (a design style and philosophy) spread throughout Europe. I remember my architecture history class where we studied about René Lalique’s bronze figures, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s stained glass, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, Antoni Gaudí’s lava-like Sagrada Família, Victor Horta and the Vienna Secessionists, and Hector Guimard’s metro entrances.

Seeing the works of these masters at the exhibit, I feel sad to see some of the techniques are extinct or had gone out of favor. In this economic climate, I felt I had to keep my work simple so that they are affordable. Yet this exhibit inspires me to keep pushing my limits, learning new skills, and to not lose my sense of purpose.

What Smith Are You?

A blacksmith works with iron and steel. The ancient traditional tool of the blacksmith is a forge or smithy, which is a furnace designed to allow compressed air (through a bellows) to superheat the inside, allowing for efficient melting, soldering and annealing of metals. Today, this tool is still widely used by blacksmiths as it was traditionally.

A bladesmith forges knives, swords, and other blades.

A coppersmith, or brownsmith, works with copper.

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals, usually in modern times to make jewelry. Historically goldsmiths have also made flatware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils, and ceremonial or religious items, but the rising prices of precious metals have curtailed the making of such items to a large degree. A goldsmith should be skilled in delicate manual work, have creative imagination and artistic flair, be good at drawing and designing, and be interested in metals and minerals.

The term, metalsmith, often refers to artisans and craftpersons who practice their craft in many different metals, including gold, copper and silver.

A pewtersmith works with pewter.

Traditionally a silversmith, or brightsmith, mostly made "silverware" (cutlery, table flatware, bowls, candlesticks and such). Only in more recent times has silversmithing become mainly work in jewellery, as much less solid silver tableware is now handmade. Unlike blacksmiths, silversmiths do not shape the metal while it is red-hot but instead, work it at room temperature with gentle and carefully placed hammerblows.

A tinsmith, tinner, or tinker works with light metal (such as tinware) and can refer to someone who deals in tinware.

A whitesmith works with white metal (tin) and can refer to someone who polishes or finishes the metal rather than forging it.