A Week for Learning

Wow, I had such a trip!! I spent a whole week at a beautiful lakehouse with a bunch of very talented jewelry artists. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for me!!

These first earrings have many new techniques. I got to roll the silver sheet through a rolling mill to give it that matte look. Then I sweet soldered the curvy copper ribbons on the edges.....then I put a rivet in the top....not my new favorite skill, I almost ruin the whole thing!! BUT, I LOVE doing the bezel setting!! Those are carnelians and I set them in the there bezel!!!

The next project was the three rings. I ran them through the rolling mill pounded them on the anvil and cut the and soldered them, then reshaped them and finaly hammered the texture in. The dumped them in the pickle and finally the tumbler for a super shine!

This next project was the hardest! II had to cut out a shpe to match the stone from a sheet of sterling. Then I had to measure the stone with the bezel wire. Then solder it all together...easier said than done!!! Then I soldered on the decorations...then I SET the STONE!!! YIKES that was hard!!! Got a couple of scratches on it, but not bad for a first try!

This is just an idea I had for mixing metals. This copper disk seemed to want to be dressed up with a silver ribbon!

And this to the left is my first success with chainmaille!! I still have a ways to go before it's done, but I am so hapry to be able to DO it now. This is a Euro 4in1 and I love it!!!!!




I may start to show pics here of my jewelry making expiditions, if anyone would like to see the behind the scenes of how things like these get made I would be willing to do a little of that for fun.......