EtsyMetal Blog Carnival - April 2012

It's been a while since I last participated in EtsyMetal's Blog Carnival.  The team chooses one topic that we would write about for the first Monday of the month.  This month's topic is "Nobody's Perfect". 

I have to admit, I usually spend time to think and/or sketch a design before I start working a piece.  A lot of times, it works out exactly how I imagined it, but a lot of times...well, let's say, things happen.  LOL

Just the other day, I made some simple bezel set gemstone post earrings.  I didn't want to have a puddle of solder at the base of the posts, so I was being careful not to put too much solder.  I was so happy everything worked out just right, and threw the settings in the tumbler to bring a high shine to them.  I use the tumbler for 2 reasons:  to harden the posts after heating and to see if the solder joins can withstand the forces of tumbling in steel shots.  Well, they came out nice and bright, and I went ahead and set the stones.  Well, lo and behold, one of the posts snapped off when I did a final test by tugging gently with pliers.

Aquamarine Post Earrings

Well, I know that once the stone is set, I can't introduce heat anymore.  So what to do?

Aquamarine Earring turned into a Pendant

I refinished the back of the earring where the post came off and made it into a matching pendant.  The jump ring bail was carefully soldered close while I put the stone, face down on a heat sink pad.  After that, I made a new single earring for replacement.  This turned out quite well, so I made another matching set using garnets.

Here are the 2 matching sets of earrings and pendants.

Lessons learned here are:

• Use a little more solder than the snippets I cut 
• Test the earring posts thoroughly before setting the stones
• As makers, we have to remain open with our designs and adapt with surprise accidents.

See what my other teammates have to say about this topic:
1. Silentgoddess - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
2. Gracebourne - http://gracebourne.blogspot.com/
3. 2Roses - http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
4. Inbar Bareket - http://www.inbarbareket.info/blog
5. Anne Walker - http://creativeinclinations.blogspot.com/
6. Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
7. wildflowerdesigns - http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com
8. Michele Grady Designs- http://michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com
9. Evelyn Markasky - http://markasky.blogspot.com/

Savanna's Pendant - Process Photos

This is a commissioned piece for Savanna.  I visited her in downtown San Francisco on the same day that Vice President Joe Biden decided to come join our party.  Well he was in town for a fundraiser lunch, which of course caused major traffic jams and detours.

Savanna chose this picture type jasper where it looks like someone painted some red blooms across a gray canvas.  So pretty and definitely unique.  With the long rectangular shape of the stone, we decided to reiterate that shape with rectangles and squares.  Placing the toggle clasp in the front not only reflects the organic shape of the brick red inclusions, but also makes it more convenient to wear.  I promised Savanna I will take progress pictures so she can see the step by step process.  Below the photos are some general, less technical descriptions:

From top to bottom and left to right:
1.   raw materials - recycled sterling sheet, recycled fine silver bezel wire, and the jasper cab
2.   measuring and fitting the bezel wire for the stone and solder the ends together
3.   solder the bezel onto a piece of the sterling backing that I cut from the big sheet
4.   I then sawed out part of the back because I want to have the back of the cab showing
5.   here it is, back is cut
6.   I have to keep checking to make sure the stone still fits
7.   and this is how the stone looks from the back
8.   I file the sawn edges smooth - first the inside rectangle on the backing
9.   then I use a larger file for the outside edges
10. cut the decorative square holes
11. drill a hole for a jump ring to later attach the ring part of the toggle clasp, and sand the metal smooth
12. looking from the back
13. toggle and chain attached, patina applied
14. signed the piece and quality stamped it with "STER"
15. all ready to set the stone and pushing the bezel against it
16. voila - finished

Here's a closer look at the finished pendant:

Front 

Back

I will be making her ring next.  She chose a lepidocrocite quartz with faceted top.  Come back in a few days and I will post those process pictures as well.  :)

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 52/30 - Pyrite in Quartz

A cute button shaped quartz with glittery pyrites, and it has such a wonderful tactile feel.  I might have to keep this one.  :D

RAW 52/14 - Tension Set Ring

Just finished today - tension set ring.  Sterling silver and CZ.  Tension rings rely on the stiffness of the metal to press the stone to hold it in place.  That also means, the stone need to be sufficiently strong to resist the compressive forces.

RAW 52/12 Kinetic - No Nuke Ring

No Nuke Ring

This week's Ring A Week challenge is to create a ring with moving parts, a kinetic ring.  I've never made one and thought I should.  It took me so long to decide on a design concept, but I know that I've been following the news on the recent Japanese disaster.  The reports have saddened all people around the world.  Imagine, even an economic and technological powerhouse like Japan is at the mercy of the natural elements and nuclear catastrophe. It reminds us how vulnerable we are.

Closer to home and as of this moment, I still haven’t heard from our 5 year old nephew, Rui, living near Tokyo. I can only pray for his safety, not just from the events so far but also for the tainted food chains and for the uncontrollable radiation.  Radiation particles have spread to the northern hemisphere.

My response to the ring design challenge is based on my views on nuclear power plants - we need to seriously focus on alternative clean energy.

Raw Materials - Sterling sheets, wires, and tubes.
I hammered 1 of the 2 pieces of sheet stock for texture.

The windmills spin and turn to catch the winds.

Another view of the No Nuke Ring

I'm having trouble loading the video, so you can see it on my flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkmetalarts/5572047268/

RAW 52/10 - Latte Ring

Latte Ring, with Ocean Jasper

Trying to set this stone a little differently, using tabs.  Instead of using a thinner bezel wall, I cut strips of heavier gauge sterling silver to surround the stone.  The little tabs were cut and pushed over the stone to make a secure capture. 

Latte Ring, with Ocean Jasper

With this opaque milky white ocean jasper, it works perfectly with a darken bezel wall to make the stone pop.

Custom Moonstone Necklace

Posting a custom designed necklace for a client who bought my Ring A Week 52/02 Marquise Moonstone Ring.  Thanks, Nicole, for this wonderful collaboration opportunity.

Marquise Moonstone Necklace

Custom Moonstone Necklace, back

RAW 52/04 - Green & Pink Ocean Jasper

Green and Pink Ocean Jasper Ring

For the third ring, I used one of my favorite stones, Ocean Jasper.  It is one of the orbicular jaspers which contains variably-colored orbs or spherical inclusions or zones, found along the intertidal shores of northeast Madagascar.

RAW 52/02 - Marquise Moonstone Ring

This is the second ring for Ring A Week (RAW) challenge.

A relatively transparent piece of moonstone with a lot of blue pearly opalescence. 

You can make out the ring band through the stone.

I kept the back open.

In this picture, you can see the profile of the band that I hand forged from a straight piece of round wire.

I sculpted out a curve on the bezel.

With the stone being a long marquise shape, I thought a delicate setting will be more suitable.  It is a US size 6 and is posted on my website.

RAW52/01 - Hammered & Engraved Band

RAW stands for Ring A Week, a ring making challenge project for a group of artists.  For my first submission, I made a silver band with hammered edges that contrast with a matte background for engraved text. Aside from the matte texture at the center of the band (which I curved slightly for a comfortable fit), the ring has a high-polish finish, even on the 18k gold accent. 

At my last show when I explained to a customer that I typically use reclaimed silver, he thought that was why my rings and pendants have matte finishs. To proof the point, I have the 2 finishes on this ring.

This design can be for men or women, a casual ring or wedding bands, with or without inscribed text. Yes, the text can be customized. On this prototype, I engraved the last two lines of Invictus, a poem by British poet William Ernest Henley. This quote was inspired by the movie, Invictus, that I recently watched.

New Pendants

Finally got some time at the bench during the holidays, so I made a few pendants and will be posting them to my website.  Links are below the images.


Reflections, a Landscape Type Jasper

Cripple Creek Jasper, also a type of picture jasper

Storm, Red Creek Jasper

Rhodochrosite

Seasons Greetings



Seafoam Green Druzy Agate Pendant Necklace

  Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season!

The Crucible Gifty Art Sale

This past weekend was my last show for the year, and it was at The Crucible in Oakland, CA. It was an enjoyable weekend with lots of cool people. There were demos for some of the classes they offer, including blacksmithing, enameling, glass works, welding, ceramics making and wood working.  Wish I live closer to take advantage of the classes.

Here's a video of the  fire-dancing by their instructor.  It was taken from my booth.  Doesn't this look fun?

Don't try this at home!

A Few New Rings

Managed to make these new rings during the past long weekend.  They will be posted to my website and etsy shop real soon.  You can also meet them in person at my upcoming shows as well.  Click here to see my Events schedule.

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.

Transition

Please excuse the construction dust and noise, I'm in the process of re-organizing my business.  This includes a business name change from Studio 618 to TKMetalArts.  Stay tuned!

Ikebana & Kusuma Necklaces

Just finished these 4 pendant / necklaces:

1. Ikebana with Red Quartz. This red quartz is really unusual because it has these really sparkly mica inclusions, like pieces of glitters embedded.

2. Ikebana with Labradorite. I thought this half round labradorite makes a perfect "bowl" for this miniature ikebana arrangement.

3. Kusuma is an Indonesian name that means flower. These agatized Fossil Coral is a natural stone formed when ancient coral is gradually replaced with agate. They usually have small flower-like patterns. Each piece of coral can display different colors, depending on weathering/oxidation and original mineral content.

I added some 14k gold dots to complement the warm tones of these coral.

4. The back of this pendant is inscribed.

Raised Bead Setting

This is my latest commission piece - a 14K gold pendant with a 4mm round faceted ruby. Due to the high cost of gold (eeek!!! $1,004 per oz as of this very moment), I sweat solder a piece of 14K with a piece of 10K, to achieve a .006 inch (1.5 mm) thickness of this pendant. Hey, you skimp where you can , right? The rest of the necklace is all 14K.

The ruby was set with bead prongs that were raised from adjacent materials. This technique is the basis of pave stone setting, which is one of the most challenging of all stone setting techniques.

After setting the stone, I put a sandblasted texture on the front and back. Edges are brought to a high polish. Finally touches are the quality stamps and then I signed on one of the edges. Ah yes, I still need to design and have a hallmark stamp made. Soon!

The group of photos below are my progress pictures.