RAW 52/31 - Black Tourmaline in Quartz

Here's a ring where I used a quartz that has black tourmaline inclusions.    According to Wikipedia, Tourmaline is a crystal boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. You can see the roughly triangular outline of the elongated crystal structure.

Tourmaline in Quartz Ring

RAW 52/28 - Labradorite Ring

Blue Labradorite Ring

This labradorite has a really nice brighter blue sheen to it, which contrasts nicely with the silver.  Ring is listed in my etsy store.

New Necklaces

A couple of new necklaces with some Montana Agates that has amazing picturesque coloration.  Since these stones have translucent backgrounds, I left the back and parts of the sides open to allow the most light through but still securely holding the stones.

New Moon Rising

Tahoe Sunset

Long Green Turquoise Pendant Necklace

Green Turquoise Pendant Necklace

This long slender green turquoise (32 x 8 mm) matches the ring I listed in the last post.  It is set the same way, and finished with the same texture on the silver.  The heavy bezel provides such a nice frame to the stone.  Yeah, a bit more silver used but so worth the uniqueness.

RAW 52/21 - Green Turquoise Ring

Long Oval Green Turquoise Ring

Love the dark matrix and the long slender oval shape of this green turquoise cab.  I thought of setting the stone horizontally and make it a two-finger ring.  But then the stone didn't quite span 2 fingers.  Hmmm, ideas are spinning for future rings.

RAW 52/15 - Dovetail Ring

Dovetail Ring

The dovetail joint is one of the oldest and yet most common joinery in carpentry.  Examples can be found in tombs of ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese civilizations.  The concept is to rely on a series of trapezoidal shapes to interlock two pieces of wood boards.  When fitted properly, it requires no glue or fasteners like nails or screws.

Since the dovetail joint and hundreds of others joinery techniques are not rigid connections, the wood (being a material that flexes a bit) can expand and contract in different humidity and temperatures, allowing some lateral movements from winds and earthquakes.

For the May 1 Ring A Week challenge, I wanted to spotlight the dovetail joint as found in many traditional Japanese structures.  Had it not been for the tsunami, I believe many buildings would have survived the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in March earlier this year.  This ring, together with many other artisan created rings as featured on flickr, is donated and the proceeds will go toward relief for Japan.

My ring was cut from one sheet of heavy gauge sterling silver.  No solder was used to join the trapezoidal ends together.  It is free to flex a little.  Only a small disc of silver was soldered to provide enough thickness for setting the garnet.  Fits like a US size 5.5.

1.  I drew a template first for cutting.
2.  The sheet was bent into a ring shape.
3.  Dovetails are locked in and pilot hole drilled for the stone.
4.  Finished ring, garnet is set with the pavilion facing out.

Willow Earrings

Willow Earrings with Dark Patina

Willow Earrings in Golden Bronze

These earrings have the willow leaf shape and are cut out from flat sheets of bronze.  After series of hammering and annealing, they are shaped into these swirling leaves.  Quite time-consuming to make but well worth it.  The curves lines have a lot of visual movement.  They are available in golden bronze or a darkened bronze.  The darker version has burnished edges and spine (back side) for a very dramatic contrast so you can really see the curving lines.  Holes are then drilled and ear wires attached.  I hope you like them as much as I do.

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.

Etsy Front Page Today

So cool to see my bangle bracelet making it to the Etsy Front Page today.  Sweet! It is the third item down on the left column.



A lot of people would ask me the font I use. Well, it's really not any word processing fonts or any other machine generated graphic design. It's actually my handwriting, inscribed onto the object with a sharp tool.

The ingredients? Lots of concentration and a steady hand. The result is personalized scripts that average about 1mm tall for lower case letters. If I need to squeeze many words onto a small area, the inscriptions can be smaller. You might need to use a magnifying device to read them.