What's Happening

It's that time again...my Aspiring Metalsmiths Team blogroll.  This month we're talking about what we're working on right now. 

If you've been listening to me blabber on for the past few months you know that I am working on about a bazillionish horseshoe pendants for the Primetime Emmy Awards celebrity gift bags.  I also have customers YAY!!  So in between horseshoes I work on their orders.  

My organized chaos

As you can see, I'm in various stages of completion of horseshoe pendants, 1 Star of David dog tag, and 3 personalized double disc name necklaces.  

It may look like a hot mess but I know exactly where everything is.  If so much as one horseshoe gets moved out of place I WILL KNOW.  And heads will roll.  I'm serious man.

Oh and I actually finished something last night!  There are those rare occasions when I get an idea, sketch it out, and finish it all in one day. 

So, besides providing jewelry for the gift bags, a few of my pieces will be displayed at the celebrity gift lounge by The Artisan Group.  This lounge is hosted by Gavin B. Keilly of GBK Productions.  Mr. Keilly gets his very own gift bag and he doesn't exactly seem like the skull/dog tag/guitar pick type. 

This was hard for me!  I thought and I pondered and I consulted and I finally gave up.  And wouldn't you know, as soon as I stopped thinking about it I had an idea!  Isn't that always how it works?

A sterling silver Trash Metal Collection® personalized key chain.

I had to throw a little of my "trashed" vibe in there, I couldn't help it.  I hope he likes it!

Check out what my super talented friends are working on...

Esmeralda http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com/

Happy Tortoise Designs http://www.happytortoisedesigns.blogspot.com/

Crow Steals Fire http://crowstealsfire.blogspot.com/

Contemporary Jewelry by Beatriz Fortes http://cjbf.blogspot.com/

steph http://stephstargell.com

Jessica @ Abella Blue http://www.abellablue.com/blog

Pennee- All Wired Up Jewelry Designs http://www.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Sylvia Anderson http://www.sylviaanderson.blogspot.com/

Stacy http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/

Mary Anne Karren http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/

Brightstar109 www.brightstar109.blogspot.com

Amy Nicole Artisan Jewelry Http://Rubymtnbeads.blogspot.com

Resurrection Silver http://www.resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com

Kwant Essentials http://kwantessentials.blogspot.com/2011/07/show-and-tell-from-start-to-finish.html

Kit and Caboodle Shop http://thisartistsjourney.blogspot.com

Julie http://jamauerer.blogspot.com

Lilian http://www.girllovesglitter.blogspot.com/

 

   

All Things Emmys - Part 2

At the risk of developing rough scaly man-hands, I chose to make 100 Trash Metal Collection® horseshoe pendants for the Emmy Awards celebrity gift bags.  Way back in April I made 1.  No problem.  As I set out to make 100 I slowly realized what I had gotten myself into.  And being the procrastinator that I am the clock is ticking...louder and louder.

I've recently set aside all household duties (not that they were ever high on my list anyway), friends, family, and beautiful sunny days in order to make some progress.  So here's what I've been up to...

The process begins with sawing

I saw all the horseshoes and rectangular backplates by hand from sterling silver sheet.  I also threw in a couple of copper horseshoes to mix it up a little.

Then I file them all to get out the rough spots.

Next step is to drill 5 tiny holes in each horseshoe.  The holes serve no purpose, they are just part of the design because I thought they looked cool.   After drilling 500 freaking tiny ass holes I began to rethink their coolness. 

Now the rectangles need to be treated to my signature "trashing" technique and the backs stamped with my logo.

Ok so now horseshoes and rectangles are ready to be soldered together.  But since I saw them all by hand none of them are exactly the same size.  So I sort through them all pairing up the ones that look best together.

Let the soldering begin!

My favorite part, playing with fire heeheehee...

After the torching all the pieces go in the pickle pot for clean up

Take them out, rinse them off, and now I have a big pile of pendants

They still need to be sanded, oxidized, buffed, tumbled, polished, attached to chains, etc...and finally packaged. "I'll get to it, I swear.  I do my best work under pressure", said the procrastinator.

Ahhh...Summer

Summer is finally here!  We had a pretty rough winter in New York.  Blizzards, record snow fall, and freezing cold temps.  But we survived and can now enjoy the crazy heat wave and 99% humidity YAY!!  OK, really, I shouldn't complain.

Anyway, the sudden onslaught of oppressive heat and humidity has me reminiscing about summer and what it used to mean to me. 

When I was a kid, summer vacation was just the most absolutely magical time ever.  It meant hanging with my cousin who was like a sister to me, riding bikes, meeting skater boys in the cemetery, and spending time at my grandparent's.

Even though my grandparents were only 20 minutes away I would stay by them for days at a time. 

I would get to play with Pete The Schnauzer

And chill with grandma and grandpa

I even remember playing in the woods behind their house for hours by myself, and this was totally fine!  I guess no one was worried about creeps and kidnappers back then. 

Grandma LOVED to take photos.  One day she made me hold hands with the neighbor boy for a photo op.  This was the first boy who ever held my hand.

I was totally grossed out but sure that we would get married someday. 

When I look back now my summers seem almost Wonder Years-ish, complete with bicycles, an older sibling (cousin) who tortured me but I loved it, and my very own Kevin Arnold. 

So here's to summer!!!  May you ride a bike, spend time with the ones you love, and hold a boy's hand...or a girl's hand, whatever you're into. 



All Things Emmys - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago the lovely ladies at The Artisan Group asked if I would like to contribute some of my jewelry to the celebrity swag bags at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards this year.  Duh!  I immediately said yes and I don't think I've slept since. 

I'll be providing 100 pieces for the swag bags, 10 pieces for the press bags, and a couple of pieces for the display.  Besides the jewelry to be made, I have a crazy long list of other things I need to do, buy, create, think about, email, blog, post, photograph, etc...not to mention my website and Etsy sales and general life stuff.  Not that I'm complaining, I'm just a bit overwhelmed. 

Luckily, I have the help and support of  Valerie and Nikki, of The Artisan Group, as well as all the other members.  They are truly an amazing and talented group of artisans that I am proud to be a part of.   A big thank you to Valerie and Nikki for this amazing opportunity!

To find out more about The Artisan Group you can... 

or

Adventures in Etching and Meeting Mr. Bucephalus

When a friend asked me to make him a piece of jewelry that resembled a cave drawing I was a bit stumped.  Then I thought of etching, duh!  Etching metal is typically done with nitric acid or sometimes ferric chloride.  Either way I know I will burn my face off. 

Luckily, one of my MetalSmith teammates was kind enough to offer up instructions on using saltwater and batteries instead.  While there was still a chance of burning my face off, it wasn't quite as risky as the toxic chemical route.  So off to Home Depot, Radio Shack, and the deli I went.  I picked up some kosher salt (no iodine), distilled water, D-batteries, and a small aquarium pump, among other things.  

After some brainstorming my friend decided he wanted an image of Bucephalus on a rustic pendant.  I had to Google this of course.  Bucephalus was Alexander the Great's horse as well as a figurine in the movie The Black Stallion.

Photo courtesy of The Black Stallion

In order to properly etch the metal I had to draw this crazy looking horse on a sheet of copper with a permanent marker.  It turned out like this.



Looks like a 3rd grader did it huh? 

Whatever, I've come this far so I'm determined to follow through.  As I'm rigging up battery lead wires to a container of saltwater and duct taping like crazy, I suddenly feel like a mix between Macgyver and a mad scientist. 

  I set my iPod to "Electric Head" and let the etching begin! 

As you can see the water turns blue and gets cloudy as the electrical current strips electrons away from the atoms and the solution fills with particulates of copper salt (yeah my nerdy side is showing).  The permanent marker protects the parts of the metal you don't want to be etched. 

After about an hour it looks something like this...

A little sawing, oxidizing, and buffing and Mr. Bucephalus is born...and I didn't burn my face off yay!



Front



Back



This Is How I Do It

Typically when I'm banging away at the bench I have my ipod on shuffle.  The usuals are Rage Against The Machine, Alice in Chains, Sublime, and Korn.  My ipod just seems to like these best, but sometimes a random Beastie Boys or Sting song gets thrown into the mix.  Then I'll get tired of this and switch to something jammy like Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Rusted Root,  or Phish.  And then finally bring it down with some John Mayer, Bob Dylan, or Van Morrison. 

These are my jams, what gets me moving, motivates me, inspires me, and sets my mood. 

But then there are the other days.  The days when I don't really feel like listening to music.  The days when I need mind numbing reality television to soothe my soul.  Yep, day-long marathons of Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, Kourtney and Kim or Kourtney and Khloe or some sort of Kardashian, and Bad Girls Club.  I'm  not proud of it, but I can't help it.  Please don't judge...you know you do it too.

Check out what my Aspiring Metalsmiths teammates are listening to while they work...

Kat - http://artistikat-scratchingpost.blogspot.com/

Stacy - http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/

Clarity of Scrollwork Designs - http://www.thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com

Brandy - http://thefrogspond.wordpress.com/

Happy Tortoise Designs - http://happytortoisedesigns.blogspot.com

Claire - http://brightstar109.blogspot.com/

Silver Pearl Jewelry and Metalworks - http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com

hemlockhollow - http://gloria-hemlockhollow.blogspot.com/

Beatriz Fortes - http://cjbf.blogspot.com/

Resurrection Silver - http://www.resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com

RadianTrace - http://radiantrace.blogspot.com/

nancycreations - http://nancysjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Jessica @ Abella Blue - http://www.abellablue.com/blog

A Love Affair

My love affair with stones began as a child.  I would collect random rocks with no intention of ever doing anything with them. I just thought it was cool that they were old and that something so interesting could come out of the dirt (plus it was a good excuse to play in the dirt).  Then when I started making jewelry I found out I could actually put them to use. 

I started off with beads because bezel setting stones scared the crap out of me.  One of my first pieces using stones was this pair of earrings.  I used rivets to attach peridot stones to sterling silver Jewish Stars. 

 

Eventually, I began to get jealous of my Aspiring Metalsmith teamies and their stone addiction.  I wanted to buy stones too dammit!!  I just didn't know what I was going to do with them once I got them.  It didn't matter, I wanted stones and I was going to have them! 

These were my first two cabochon stone purchases...

 

After much encouragement from my AM teammates I took the plunge and set these bad boys.  This is what they became.

Since I had relative success with my first two stones I decided it was safe to move forward.  I asked Laura of CabbingRough to cut something dark and horn shaped for me.  She made this amazing Apache Gold cab just for me :)

I'm so excited to get it and pet it and and hang out with it.  Then when it's ready it will tell me what it wants to be. 

For more stone licking goodness check out my teamies posts...

Clarity @ Scrollwork Designs - http://thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com/
Stacy Low - http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com
Chrissi Lynn Designs - http://www.chrissilynn.blogspot.com
Sylvia Anderson - http://www.sylviaanderson.blogspot.com/
Jessica @ Abella Blue - http://www.abellablue.com/blog
Contemporary Jewelry by Beatriz Fortes - http://cjbf.blogspot.com/
Esmeralda - http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com/
Steph Stargell - http://www.stephstargell.com
Pennee - http://allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Silver Pearl Jewelry and Metalworks - http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/show-us-your-stones/#more-4
ArtistiKat - http://artistikat-scratchingpost.blogspot.com/
Claire - brightstar109.blogspot.com/