NODEFORM

Pink Sapphire Wedding Band

2012-02-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

I am starting to work on new designs for the upcoming wedding season. The first one is a wax prototype for a rounded wedding band with multiple small flush set pink sapphires. It also has a texture of tiny circles randomly around the sapphires. This ring has six 2mm sapphires in total. The stones are only on one side and don't go all around the entire ring.

Lets see how this will turn out in metal. If it's nice I will offer this with other gem stone options too like diamonds, moissanites and blue sapphires.

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Precious Metal Options

2012-01-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

I often get asked by customers about the differences, advantages and disadvantages of all the metal options I offer for my designs. I write these long emails late at night, when it would be so much easier to just send them a link to a blog post. So here it is:

I do work with various precious metals. I don't ever use copper, bronze or brass for my rings. It's just not my thing really. I personally don't wear those metals as I don't like the color and they react to my skin by turning my fingers green. But there are some amazing artist that do beautiful jewelry with these metals. My preferences are sterling silver, palladium, a mix of both and white or yellow gold alloys. I haven't touched platinum yet but hope to do that in the future. I can't currently work with Titanium or Steel, although I would love to use those. But they require some totally different tools that what I have in my arsenal.

Casting grain of Sterling Silver, Silver/Palladium alloy and 18 karat yellow gold.

I most often use sterling silver in my designs. I love it since it's fairly inexpensive, a very white metal and polishes beautifully. Sterling silver is an alloy of 925 parts of fine silver and 75 parts copper. The copper makes it more durable than the fine silver alone. Fine silver is too soft to hold up well in rings. It's better suited for earrings or pendants. Sterling silver is still softer than white gold or palladium. It will scratch deeper and can bend easier out of shape when subject to impact. It's not that suitable as a wedding band for someone who works a lot with their hands. It will tarnish over time, especially when not worn daily. Tarnish can easily be removed with special solutions or polishing cloth. Please don't ever use tooth paste as tarnish remover as it will leave fine scratches on your silver. The best way to prevent tarnish is actually to wear it regularly as the oils from the skin will keep oxidation at bay. Sterling silver is the whitest of all metals but also the softest. It's the cheapest of the precious metal alloys on the market although is has risen in price quite dramatically over the last year.


From left to right: Tahitian pearl rings in18k palladium white gold (18KPDW), Palladium (950PD), Sterling Silver (925)

White and yellow gold jewelry come mostly in 14 or 18 karat, some people also sell 9 karat, 10 karat and 22 karat jewelry. The higher the number the more gold is in that alloy.

Gold is always yellow. To make white gold, other white metals get added to the yellow gold. For instance: 18kt white gold is made by mixing 75% gold with 25% other white metals. This could be either a gold/palladium/silver alloy or gold/nickel/copper/zinc alloy. Most of the white gold jewelry you see in malls is standard white gold, which contains some nickel and was rhodium plated to give it it's white color. Without the plating it has a not so pleasing yellow gray tone. It needs to get plated every couple month or years depending on the wear and tear.
Nickel white gold has some issues with allergy problems for quite a few people. Once the plating wears off, the nickel can get exposed to the skin and cause allergic reactions. Europe has restricted the use of nickel in a very severe manner. In the US it is still very common. I only use palladium white gold as it does not require to get rhodium plated and I don't want to get exposed to nickel if I don't have to. The palladium white gold has palladium added to the yellow gold instead of nickel. It is more expensive than the standard white gold as palladium is a lot more expensive than nickle. But will it will save money over time as it does not need to get re-plated. It has a warm gray color, definitely not as white as Sterling silver.

Custom Wedding ring set in 18k Palladium white gold with 18K yellow gold settings, sapphires and rough diamond cubes

I do use yellow gold too, mostly as accents combined with white metals. I can make most of my made to order designs in yellow gold upon request. I prefer 18 karat yellow gold over 14 karat due to it's richer color and easier workability. I am not a huge fan of rose gold as it can be quite difficult to work with, but I can use it if requested for a custom order.

My personal preference for wedding and engagement rings is palladium. Palladium is a member of the platinum family. It is 30 times rarer than gold. The alloy I use is 950PD which has a high purity level at 950 parts of palladium per 1000 parts. It is very durable (similar to 14k white gold) and perfect for wedding and engagement rings that get worn every day. It is considered hypoallergenic as it won’t cause an allergic reaction when worn. It does not have the warm hue that palladium white gold shows, but rather has a neutral gray color.

Ceylon Blue Sapphire in Palladium

Palladium does not tarnish. It is lighter than platinum, similar in weight to 14 karat gold. I find that at current precious metal markets the same design cost a bit less in palladium than it cost in 14k palladium white gold. This could change in the future as palladium is becoming the new kid on the block in the bridal market and might gain more momentum in coming years.

I recently started working with a hybrid alloy, called Stulladium. Stulladium contains approximately 54% silver, 25% Palladium, and 21% Copper. It is not sterling silver and not white gold. It has a higher tarnish resistance and more strength than sterling silver. Due to the high palladium content it is more expensive than normal sterling silver but way less that palladium alone. The color is almost identical to palladium without the warm tone that palladium white gold has. I think this is a great alloy for engagement and wedding rings when palladium alone is out of one's budget.

Pink Spinel in Silver/Palladium (AGPD) ring

There are also some other hybrid alloys with lower palladium content, some are called palladium sterling silver as the silver content is still 925 parts but some of the 75 parts of copper was replaced with palladium. I don't really think the 3% or 4% palladium does much to increase durability compared to normal sterling silver but I haven't tried this alloy either.

I can cast Sterling silver, yellow gold and the new Silver/Palladium alloy in my own studio. I can't cast Palladium 950PD nor palladium white golds as those require melting temperatures that exceed my melting furnace maximum temperature range. Palladium, similar to platinum, actually requires some special casting equipment. For palladium I use Techform as my preferred caster as they provide the best quality and service I have seen so far from commercial casters. Unfortunately they don't cast any white gold so I use a local caster in Downtown LA for that. For the metals I can cast, I recycle some of my old silver. Typically a mix of max 50% old and min 50% new metal is required to avoid casting issues. I do buy most of my new recycled casting grain from a local supplier in Los Angeles, D. H Fell, they also do my metal refining for scraps I can't recast directly. The Silver/Palladium alloy I get from Stuller as it is currently not locally available.

Old silver like casting buttons, prototype designs and screwed up pieces are getting remelted into new designs.

Metal Allergies:
A few people seem to have allergic reactions to Sterling silver. This could be due to the copper content. My guess is also that some actually are allergic to plated silver. My designs are never plated, but some cheaper commercial jewelry gets plated with rhodium to prevent it from tarnishing. As I understand it, to plate silver it needs to be plated with nickle first and then with rhodium. Once the rhodium wears off, it exposes the nickle layer underneath which causes allergies.
Some are also allergic to yellow golds as those contain copper too. Metal allergies are complex and it's often hard to really be able to pin point which of the ingredients in an alloy causes the reactions. Keeping jewelry clean is crucial to avoid skin reactions. Sometimes trapped soap residue is actually the cause for rashes and not the metal. If someone experiences allergic reactions it is best to consult with a medical specialist.

I will add to this post in the future with new metal options that surface and other findings. Feel free to leave comments or questions below.

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Tail Pearl Ring

2012-01-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

While working on some wax models the other day, I started playing with some broken off tail wax parts from my Mermaid rings. I connected 2 tails and figured this could be a good start to a new ring design using some white freshwater pearls I have. I added a wax bridge at the top to make the setting for the pearl. This part still needs a bit of work before the design is ready for a test casting. I think I like the direction this is heading to. It's a very dynamic design and will get lot's of attention when worn.

Wish you a bubbly New Year!

2011-12-31T14:15:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how fast 2011 went by. It was an year with lot's of exciting changes. The customer response has been overwhelming in the last year. I am proud to have been a part in the life of so many newly weds and recently engaged clients by creating their custom rings that will stay with them for many years to come.

I finally made my Nodeform business a full time gig in 2011. It has been so much fun the last couple month working for myself. In September I went on a 6 month leave from my day job as an Architect to try to concentrate on really kicking this into the next gear. It took a while but the Holiday season finally paid off . I think it could be possible to be doing what I love and be able to support myself. Tax season will show me if I am right or just an illusionist.


RAW52 #26 & #30 gold and silver Bubble rings rendered in Brazil for Rhino Modeled in Tsplines and Rhino. Freeform bubbles.

I learned a lot of new thinks and developed my skills. The Ring a Week (RAW) challenge was a great experience in trying to learn 3D modeling software. I did not make 52 designs in the end but it still helped me coming back to it from time to time and try something new. I will continue in the next year developing this a bit further and eventually even incorporate it into my ring production and custom designs.

3D print in stainless steel of RAW26/52 model. Printed by Shapeways.

3D print in stainless steel and Frosted Ultra Detail of RAW26/52 model. Printed by Shapeways.

I also started playing with rendering software in the last couple days. It's could be a nice way to be able to post new designs and material options without actually having to produce them in expensive precious metals and gem stones. This could keep my money, usually tied up in inventory stock, in my pockets until I actually get a order in. Well, I have to get better with the software until I can produce convince able images of how the finished piece will look.

RAW52/31 Palladium Bubble ring with Diamond rendered in Brazil for Rhino

RAW52/33 Gold Bubble ring with Diamond rendered in Brazil for Rhino

RAW52/32 Silver Bubble ring with Sapphire rendered in Brazil for Rhino

To see all my submissions for this challenge go to Flickr.

With that I thank all of my friends, fans and clients for your interest and support in my adventures. I wish you all a Happy New Year! Enjoy some bubbly treat tonight to celebrate New Eears Eve.

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RAW52 #25 & #29 Wavy Ring

2011-12-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

I recently got a few of my latest RAW submissions printed in different materials. I send this wavy ring design off to Ponoko and Shapeways to test service and printing quality.

Wave ring printed in Stainless Steel

I have to say I am way more impressed by Shapeways. Their material choices are greater and the prints came out cleaner. Their Frosted Ultra Detail prints are impressively detailed with only very fine printing lines. I still have to try casting one of those in silver to see how they burn out in the lost wax process.

3D prints of RAW25/52 model in Stainless Steel, Black Detail and White Detail plastic and Frosted Ultra Detail. Printed by Shapeways.

The stainless steel rings are always great with an interesting texture. It took 2 weeks to get models delivered from Ponoko and 3 weeks from Shapeways. Ponoko has trouble with printing lot's of my designs as they seem to small for them. Not an issue with Shapeways, especially the ultra detail material allows very thin parts in the model. Uploading models and organizing it for printing is easier on Shapeways. So I guess I stay with Shapeways.

A couple shots of the stainless steel print.

The model was done using T-splines for Rhino 4. The smooth wave was laid out flat and then bend into a ring shape. I also tried lofting curves and 2 rail sweeps directly in Rhino without t-splines but it got some wonky areas. The edges are sharper with this approach seen in the images below.

Rhino4 render image

I did start playing with a trial version of Brazil for Rhino to render some designs more realistically looking. I am still a bit confused with all those settings that need to get adjusted to get an image. Easy to spend hours on this.

Rendering in Brazil with gold material settings

Holiday Previews

2011-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

New month, new topic for Etsymetal team bloggers. We are entering the busiest time of the year.
The Holidays are fast approaching! Give us a preview of what you are working on for this special time of year.

The Holiday season is apparently also the time for people to propose to their big love. The last couple weeks I already started gearing up with new engagement rings listed to my new wedding shop. There are still some on the bench that need some cleanup and stone setting. But oterwise the engagement season is already in full gear and should continue till Valentines Day.

For my other main Nodeform shop I have a few special one off rings to finish for the Holidays. Here a preview of what is still on the bench.

This is a rough casting that still needs lots of work. Its a wide armor type ring with an Aquamarine cabochon. The carved texture is inspired by rain drops falling on water, creating concentric ripples. I might also set a couple small blue diamonds into some of the ripples for some added sparkle.

I am also using some of the earth colored rough diamond cubes. When I sell my rough diamond wedding rings everyone ask for light gray cubes. With this ring I want to show off the beauty of rough diamonds with those wonderful warm hues. Four cubes will be set in a 18k gold setting that sits off center on this wide silver ring. The ring here is still only half finished and still needs soldering and applying the brushed texture on the silver that will get intensified by a dark oxidation.

I also played with some other textures as shown on the left ring. I am still contemplating if I set some of those beautiful cognac colored diamonds in the silver band next to the roughs. It would really accentuate the difference between rough and faceted diamonds.

Other than that I will go through my inventory and see if I can list some of those sample and prototype rings. My made to order rings usually have a 2 to 3 weeks turn around time and I will probably stop taking Holiday orders for rings I don't have in stock in the first week of December. Ready to ship rings can still make it into someone's stockings if ordered only a few days before the Holidays. I am also clearing out some designs I won't continue making in the new year and I am listing those sample rings in my sale section.

Please see what other Etsymetal Team members have planned for the holiday season.

Michele Grady Designs: www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com
Rebecca Bogan: http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Panicmama Jewelry: http://panicmama.blogspot.com
kate jones: http://katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
Evelyn Markasky http://markasky.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Erin Austin: www.metalmusing.blogspot.com
Cynthia Del Giudice: http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
2Roses: http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com

Rain and a Chalcedony Ring

2011-11-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Rain season seems to be slowly rolling into LA. Today was one of those rare rainy days after weeks or month without any rain. I love those wet days since I know tomorrow there will be sun again. Next day the air is clean and one can see the mountains clear and bright without all that usual smog. It's a great day to get comfortable with a cup of hot tea and be productive in the studio, while listening to the drops on the metal roof overhang.

To this rainy occasion I finally finished a ring I had carved in wax over a year ago. It was hanging out on my bench for month and month. From time to time it was picked up, rotated around, messed up a bit and put back to the other unfinished projects again.

I had set the Chalcedony in the silver setting a while ago but then decided it needed some flush set sapphires on the sides. And those took me a while to finish in between other jobs. Flush setting is not really my specialty.

Finanly photographed it a couple days ago and listed it last night. Today it already sold!!!!! Yeah!!!
I think that is a new record. Love it. Would be nice to sell always things that fast even if they sometimes take a while to get finished. So this baby will travel to it's new home tomorrow.

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Beach Break

2011-10-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Nice to be your own boss when it allows to go on a break in the middle of a weekday and take a ride along the beach. That's one of those nice changes of taking a leave of absence from my day job and doing jewelry full time. I love being able to control my own schedule. Unfortunatly I don't do these breaks often enough. Somehow I always get carried away in my daily studio tasks. Yesterday was such a beautiful day with a sunny clear sky and temperatures in the seventies that I just had to leave the studio for a while. So I took the bike and went down the couple miles to the Dockweiler beach.

Empty beach bike path and Santa Monica mountains in LA smog.

Tire tracks in sand.

No life guards on duty today.

Seagulls and foot steps.

Beach volleyball fields are unusually empty.

Someone gets ready for a kite flight.

Back along the Baloona Creek.

and trough Marina Del Rey back home.

Hope to do that in a couple of days again. It's so nice to see the beach deserted. Maybe I take my inline skates out again.

Etsymetal Blogcarnival: Food

2011-10-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Topic: "Lets Talk About Food!"
I love to eat and to cook. Usually my favorite cooking is more on the simple side. I don't like to spend an entire day in the kitchen to get something ready for one meal. I prefer recipes that take less than an hour to make. Especially after a long day at work nothing is more soothing than cooking something for dinner. Cooking relaxes me. I usually don't follow recipes to the point, I use them more as an inspiration and then change them up. Creating yummy dishes out of whatever one finds in their fridge is a very creative task.

One of my favorite dishes to make are quiches. Those open faced pies can be filled with whatever is on hand, like vegetables, meats, cheeses, or even fruits with a twist. The most famous quiche is probably quiche lorraine which is a bacon and egg filling in a pastry crust. But anything goes when it comes to a quiche.

I often buy premade pie pastry from the freezer aisle and keep those in my freezer until I feel like making a quiche. Further below are also some typical dough recipies which take a bit more time. I love to make multiple smaller quiches in those little 4.5" Creme Brulee forms that I have. They are perfect for one person meals. Mini quiches can easily be stored in the freezer and warmed up quickly during the week. Other options would be using cup cake forms for 2 bite appetizer sized mini quiches or the typical 8 to 9" forms. The fillings consist of whatever I find in my fridge or have in the garden. Often it's just some mini tomatoes, fresh herbs and then topped with a mix of eggs, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg and sprinkled with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes at 375F and voila, a yummy dinner is ready.

This week I made a quiche with some salami, a few last tomatoes from my garden, blue cheese and mini basil from my hanging herb garden.

The form was laid out with premade dough, slices of salami as the bottom layer, chopped tomatoes and sprinkled with some blue cheese and basil. The batter I usually use is a bit lighter than the typical cream-egg-quiche batter. I just mix an egg with some low fat milk, salt, fresh ground pepper and always add nutmeg. The cheese can be the classical gruyere, or any other shredded or crumbled cheese like parmesan, mozzarella or even blue cheese, feta or goat cheese for some different twist.

Some suggestions for unusual quiches:
Sauerkraut quiche recipe. Mix it up by adding some chili into the filling for some spice.
Pear and Gorgonzola quiche
Spinach, Olive and sun dried Tomato Quiche

The classic pastry is usually made from:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water if required
Put flour into large bowl, mix butter with salt and egg. Add mix to flour and knead to a moist clump, add a bit of water if required. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and gently knead until dough comes together (about 4 turns). Form into ball then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour. Dough can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.
Butter a 9 inch round tart pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 12 inches round. Transfer the dough to the tart pan. Press onto the bottom and up sides of pan. Trim any excess dough. Chill 1 hour.

An easier and faster version would be:
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
1/4 cup ice water
Mix the flour and salt with a fork. Beat oil and water with whisk or fork to thicken. Pour into flour and mix with fork. Press into 9″ buttered pie pan. Trim the excess dough.
Fill with whatever quiche mixture is used and bake at 400F until done (around 30 to 40 minutes).

Happy quiche making!

Please check out other food suggestions for Etsymetal Team members:

Inbar Bareket http://www.inbarbareket.info/blog
Cynthia Del Giudice http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
kate jones http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
nova of sweden http://www.nova-designs.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Rebecca Bogan http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Panicmama Jewelry http://panicmama.blogspot.com
Evelyn Markasky http://markasky.blogspot.com/
2Roses http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Jenny Baughman (Gecko J) http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/

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Bold Porcupine

2011-09-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 years ago I found some Aragonite crystals that so intrigued me to eventually make some rings out of them.

I finally made the first one into a ring and I am in love with the outcome. The spiky crystal cluster in it's reddish brown color almost looks like a porcupine. A nice contrast to the sleek brushed sterling silver band and organic shaped setting.

Unfortunately the silver ring band has a little flaw on one side just below the setting that somehow did not want to get fixed by all my repair attempts. Can't sell it this way. So I will have to make a new ring band. This will allow me to offer the ring to be made in any custom ring size.

The crystal is 25 x 23mm (approx. 1") , height above the finger will be 23 mm. The freeform sterling silver ring band varies between 3 to 6 mm.

Aragonite is a Calcium Carbonate. If one believes into crystal healing powers it is an excellent stone to have around in stressful times as it is believed to reduce anger and to enhance patience and acceptance under stressful conditions. It is a fairly soft stone with a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on a Moh's scale, which slightly harder than a pearl. This is not a ring for everyday wear but definitely a bold statement ring for special occasions.

I also found some Amethyst crystal clusters at the last gem show that I will attempt to make into rings. Working with these crystal clusters is so much fun.

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Pretty Splurges

2011-09-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a gem show was in town. I was contemplating for days if I even would go or not. I know I spend some serious money there. On Sunday I finally could not resist anymore and dove into the fun of hunting for little precious things. Here my newest gem stone splurges:

Found some new cushion cut square quartz again with beautiful tourmaline needle inclusions. Both stones are already listed in my shop for custom "Fold" rings.

The best treasure I got are a total of 10 Tanzanite gem stones in various shapes and sizes ranging from 0.6 to 1 carat. The best thing is they are natural, unheated stones which is pretty rare for Tanzanites. I love those blue sparkling stones with a slight purple hint. They will be used for some unique engagement ring designs.

I also got these natural unheated princess cut sapphires in shades of white, yellow, pink and light blue. So pretty! They range from 3.2 to 4.5 mm. Watch out for some new engagement rings.

I noticed a lot more rose cut gem stones from different suppliers in the trade only section. It's nice to be able to get more varity now for these still pretty rare and unusual cuts. It's so much better to be able to handselect each stone and compare them to each other than having to rely on photos from online sellers. I always like the freeform cuts the best for my rings.

Beautiful rose cut rutilated quartz with very fine golden needle inclusions.

This freeform rutilated quartz has gorgeous fine coppery red inclusions and will look great in a "Pebble" ring design.

Two free form rose cut blue topaz and in the back a rose cut Aquamarine.

Rose cut sapphires. The small blue gem is 8 x 10mm, the pink stone 10 x 13mm.

Free form rose cut Labradorite about 16 x 11 mm.

All those rose cut gems will be set in my "Pebble" ring designs.

Now a have a lot of new treasure to work with and can't wait to have these set in new rings.

Bowl Fun

2011-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

What better break from metal dust and polishing grid than spending a evening at the Hollywood Bowl. Sitting under the few stars one can see in the over illuminated LA sky, drinking wine and snacking on brought in food never gets old.

Great show from TV on the Radio.

Also loved Panda Bear a lot.

Engagement Season

2011-09-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

After weeks of designing a new collection of wedding rings I now switched over to engagement rings. The engagement season is coming soon. It seems the that the time between Thanksgiving and the Holidays, or even Valentines Day, engagements are on a rise. It's the time of the year that focuses on family and home. An ideal time to pop the question and then celebrate with the entire family around.

wax models for new engagement rings

I haven't designed rings with main focus as a engagement ring before. Lot's of my other gem stone rings were used as unconventional engagement rings. I sometimes find out from the groom or even later from the bride that my Tahitian peal ring, the Flow rings with diamonds or of course the rough diamond rings or even the unconventional larger gem stone rings were used to propose. I still also love when the bride to be selects her own engagement ring. Surprises are very romantic but one should have the ring they love to wear forever.
The last few weeks I was sourcing suitable stones and thinking about designs. Here a couple designs I carved this week in wax for some of the stones I already have.

Show here are wax models from "Fold" collection with 1.2 carat cushion cut 8 x 6 mm Morganite on left, 0.9ct cushion white sapphire in the middle and 1.1ct 6mm round Songea green sapphire. The white sapphire and morganite ring were sent out to be cast in palladium. I did a morganite ring before in palladium and that light pink beryl gem looks so great combined with that metal.

I do like the round stone version of this "Fold" ring design. I still have lots of other round stones that I can use for this and especially a 6mm round blue sapphire and 2 orange Songea sapphires. I am casting this round one today in silver first and will be perfecting the shape and setting a bit more before I send it out to be cast in palladium.

Wax model with freeform shaped roughly 0.45ct/ 6 x 4.5 mm rose cut blue sapphire. I do have a couple of similar rose cut sapphires in different shapes and similar sizes available. This will allow me to offer this design for custom sizes and different metal options. This ring is being cast in silver today, palladium options will follow soon.

A design for a marquise cut ruby. The stone is about 0.45 carat, 6.6 x 3.5 mm. It's a tough design to get the symmetry perfect with just hand carving. I might actually model this on a computer in CAD again to archive perfect symmetry and crisp lines. For now this hand carved wax is being cast in silver to see how it looks. I do have also blue sapphires in that size and lots of other marquise stones.

I also did a very minimalist design with a simple 4.5 mm band and a square bezel setting for this 3mm blue sapphire. It could be worn stacked with this shown matching narrow wedding band with optional 2mm sapphire set flush in the band. These are my prototypes that I am casting in silver. I will model this in CAD for a crisper look.

I accumulated over the years a lot of smaller gem stones especially sapphires, tourmalines and some rubies that are perfect for engagement rings to be worn every day. I also kept the bands simple to be able to wear a wedding band stacked next to it.

I don't plan to purchase any large faceted diamonds but rather go for moissanites instead. Especially after reading the book "The Heartless Stone" I don't feel compelled into using these large overpriced and politically so controversial diamonds. Moissanites are man made gem stones with more fire and brilliance than a diamond. It's hardness above 9 on the moh's scale and makes it harder than sapphires or rubies. No mining has to be done for these stones and they are guaranteed conflict free. Combined with recycled precious metal they are the perfect choice for the eco conscious person. I am waiting for some of these moissanites to arrive to then come up with some designs.

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A Few Tips On Buying Handmade Jewelry

2011-09-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

This month topic for EtsyMetal team blog carnival is to share some comments on buying handmade jewelry.

Choosing handmade over mass produced allows you to get a very special and unique piece of jewelry that was created with dedication and pride by the artist. It tells the story of the person that created it. Expect to pay a bit more for a handmade piece that someone put a lot of love, care and skill into it.

While some irregularity is part of being hand made, the overall craftsmanship should still be excellent. Gem stones should sit tight in a well balanced setting. Some tool marks may be part of the overall design but check that there are no sharp or jagged edges that may scratch you when putting the piece on.

Make sure you understand what materials are used in this piece. If something is unclear just ask a question. Most artist are more than willing to provide you additional information.

Take advantage of customization options if available. When jewelry is handmade there is often a possibility to do some alterations like different width, stone, metal and so on to fit your needs perfectly. Some customization will cost you a bit more money as it involves more time to do the work, added materials and time to communicate the type of customization in emails, pictures etc. Be aware that the outcome might not always be exactly as you envisioned. Everyone has a different understanding of what certain descriptions mean. Be clear on how much control you want during the customization process and how much you trust the artist in their own decisions.

Make sure you understand if this handmade item is already made or are you going to have to wait for it to be created. If it is something that is going to be custom made especially for you, how long is the expected wait time? If you need something faster than the listed turn around time just ask if a express option is available.

Check if returns or exchanges are possible in case you don't like the item you purchased or it does not fit. What are the therms? Note that items you requested to have customized to your needs might not be able to get returned for full money back as the artist can't just sell them to someone else. If you are not completely satisfied, contact the artist and see if they can make some changes. Some things can easily be fixed, unfortunately some issues might not be fixable.

The biggest reward for artists are returning, happy customers. If you found one piece you love, you will likely see more from them that fits your style. It's a great way to start a relationship with the artist and support their creativity and story for many years to come. Cherish and treat your handmade jewelry well and you will have a piece you love for life.

See what tips other Etsymetal members have:

Danielle Miller-Gilliam
Rebecca Bogan
Beth Cyr
2Roses
Inbar Bareket
Cynthia Del Giudice

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Etsymetal Blogcarnival: Our Roots

2011-08-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

New month, new topic for Etsymetal blogger. This time it's all about our roots. Where we came from. Family influences. Art in the family.

I am trying to think really hard but I am pretty sure there are no artist in my family. A creative family but probably not what I would call artists. Like most kids I enjoyed drawing, coloring and getting my hands dirty with other creative tasks. My mom loves to tell stories about my sister and me drawing on the p-lam fronts of our furniture. She never found out who it was. I don't remember either, so who knows if that was one of my first creative outbursts or my sister's.

As kids we did all sorts of creative little projects that involved macrame, knitting, crochet, cross-stitch etc. My mom was a kindergarten teacher and really good at keeping us busy with learning a few new things. My dad taught us wood working and other little construction projects. That came in handy when the whole family had to help building our home when I was a teenager. My mom is also an awesome landscaper and our garden always was the envy of the neighborhood.

I wasn't exposed much to art as a kid. I remember art classes in school were pretty lame and often did not happen due to teachers being sick. When I went to architecture school at the Bauhaus University I was stunned by the first few assignment that were all about conceptual art. I almost quit school since I was so intimidated. I somehow made it through this and after the first year the projects became more architecture related than abstract art pieces.

I learned a lot about art during those college years. I also started picking up a few other creative adventures. I loved doing pottery and supplied my family with some handmade pots, vases and little sculptures. Later I picked up B&W photography and even had a dark room in my restroom in my apartment in Vienna. I somehow lost interest in photography when I switched over to digital SRL's. I missed the excitement of having to wait for developing the film and prints in the darkroom to see how the shots came out. Well, a couple years later I discovered metal working and found my love.

Making of Custom Square Rings, Part 2

2011-07-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

I did finish the ring set for the Square 1 engagement/ wedding rings a couple weeks ago. I hope the groom to be already proposed so my post won't ruin the surprise. For a description of the first part in making these custom rings that used CAD 3D modeling see this post.

The rings cleaned up easily after the casting and the settings were so perfect that the stones went in smoothly. It's always such a treat to set something in 18k gold instead of 14k. The higher carat gold is so much softer and easier to bent against the stone. And the color is such a treat to the eye.

I love how the earth colored diamonds complement so well the warm colors of the 18K gold and the orange and green sapphire. Unfortunately the customer did not expect the diamonds to come in a range of colors. They had not seen my other listings and photos that show the entire earthy color range. They only looked at one photo that shows the ring set with one gray cube. I was asked to replace the colored stones with all light gray diamond cubes.

Lesson learned that there is never enough communication when it comes to custom orders. Something that is obvious to me might not be so obvious to the customer. Since the main goal is to have a happy customer, I had to do some research. It took me 2 weeks to actually find a couple more gray cubes in that particular size and in nice shapes.

Not all rough diamond cubes are perfectly shaped as a cube. They really are rough, they don't come all in the same even size like callibarted man-cut gem stones. Nature just does not work like that. To actually get a good set of 5 matching cubes I had do order a lot of more than 20 stones and then try each in the setting until I has happy with the combination.

The 18k setting fortunately was soft enough so I got all those colored diamond out without having to cut open the gold setting and having to solder a new setting one on.

Here the set with the all gray rough diamonds cubes.

I did use the rings as my submission for the RAW challenge and they became # 23 and #24. I also created some settings for 1, 3 and 4 stones. I will list those in my shop as I still find the off center setting with fewer cubes more intriguing than the row of 5 diamonds. This one will always be special for that happy couple.
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Botanicals - Bark

2011-07-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I started casting bark into jewelry pieces, mostly bracelets. This bracelet was the first of those. It's to this date the only bracelet I was totally happy about the outcome.

Since then I tried a few more, but often the castings did not come out right. The issue seems to be to find just the right thickness and density of the bark that will not get eaten up by the investment during casting and allows the hot metal to completely fill in the form. During the casting process a plaster type mix is used to create a negative hollow form of the bark piece. Bark is very porous and I believe the investment (plaster) enters into these pores and clogs the path of the hot metal. If the bark is to thick, the bracelet will be to heavy to wear and cost way to much.
Anyways, one that actually cast right was this bracelet.

The texture and details came out nice. But the bracelet is very big (7cm diameter) and does not sit well on a wrist. I probably need to modify it a bit by cutting it open at the overlapping seam and make it a bit smaller.

The bark that I use for these comes from an Eucalyptus tree. After a good rain storm I can find pieces of bark that fell of the trees in my neighborhood like this one. If they are still wet from the rain I form them immediately into bracelet shapes and let them dry.

I have a fill box of those dried pieces around that are just waiting to get cast.

Box of bark pieces, twigs, leaves, seeds and other organic goodies.

Unfortunatly the rising cost of silver put a bit of a stop into the bracelet casting. There is so much metal in one of these bracelets that I just can't afford to play around too much. But eventually I will give it a try again in the future. Maybe I try some bark rings instead.

Crazy Challenges are Good

2011-07-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a new challenge! Not that I am not challenged enough, but sometimes I just crave a bit more of it. Especially the the type of "there-is-no-way-I-can-do-this" challenge is intriguing. Life would be boring without those. That is why I signed up for the T-Spline Design Contest.

Submissions to contest in categories Architecture, Transit, Jewelry, Consumer Products and Miscellaneous are due on August, 9th. Gosh, that is in only 4 weeks!!!!! But deadlines are good too for me. But I am still a total beginner at this and have no clue at all how to even use it correctly. And I have to come up with a world changing design on top of it. Ok, it does not need to change the world but just make it a better place. I guess I am just competing for the last place in the jewelry category. Participation is everything, right?
I better get my thinking hat on this weekend and really get a hang of the software. Will watch T-Spline tutorials for hours.:) And I have to also learn V-Ray to be able to render my "better world" design. Double or triple challenge! Yeah!

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Etsymetal Blog Carnival on Influential Artist

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Topic: Artist's Work That Has Influenced My Own:

Erwin Hauer's infinite continuos surfaces and sculptures are a big influence in my work.

His biomorphic forms and "potential infinity," as he calls it, began in the '50's. His early Continua screens were made of masonry materials, painstakingly cast in complex molds. Now the use of computer modeling and digital fabrication technologies, Continua screens are easier to fabricate and mass produce and are available in different materials.

Shapes overlap one another or are mirrored against one another, revealing surprising relationships. The endless, labyrinth like forms are characterized by an intricate interplay of form, light, shadow and pattern.

Photo by by Ajmal Aqtash of Erwin Hauer Studio-May 07,

Photo by Theo Morrison

I highly recommend the book : "Erwin Hauer: Continua-Architectural Screen and Walls" for more informationon his work.

This post is part of the Etsymetal Blog Carnival. To see what other Etsy Metal members have written for the subject "Artists who have inspired you", click on the links below to visit their blogs

Theresa - http://tkmetalarts.blogspot.com

Kate Jones - http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
Fluxplay Jewellery (Maria Whetman) - http://www.fluxplay.blogspot.com
2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Scott - http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Andrea Ring- http://www.amuckdesign.blogspot.com
Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Inbar Bareket http://inbarbareket.net
Cynthia Del Giudice - http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
Evelyn Markasky - http://markasky.blogspot.com/
AdobeSol - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Quercus Silver - http://quercussilver.blogspot.com/

RAW52 #9 to #13 & #17- Elliptical Loft Rings

2011-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

I am cheating a bit with my RAW submissions by using slight variations of the same design for multiple weekly entries. After all the final outcome is still multiple "different" rings. Small lies sometime help to stay in the game. If I would feel like being more than 10 weeks behind, I would probably just give up on this challenge. I am basically just cheating my brain a bit. So far it seems to work as I still continue to play with the software and come up with some new designs when creativity strikes and time permits.

RAW #9 to #13 design was done by lofting ellipses and then flowed over a ring tube surface of different width to make the various ring width from 3 to 15 mm.

Here the screen shot from Rhino.

Rings were 3D printed by Ponoko in white plastic.

I attached casting wax sprues (gates) to the insides of the rings to maintain the printing texture on the outside face and cast it in Sterling silver. The inside of the rings was sanded after that and polished, the outside was just lightly polished and tumbled.

Silver rings in various widths.

Love the layered texture from 3D printing process.

The middle ring was oxidized with LOS.

Rings can be worn stacked together.

I think the narrower rings have some potential but the design needs to be cleaned up a bit. The very wide ring is a bit too wide to be comfortable.

Botanicals - Palm Twigs

2011-07-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Every time I walk my dogs though the neighborhood, I am looking out for some new botanical finds. Best treasures are found after a windy night. Under one of those tall palm trees that are so commonly found along LA's side streets (don't ask me what kind they are) I found some twigs that looked perfect for my next botanical ring experiment.

I cut about 6cm lenghts from a couple twigs and cast it directly in Sterling Silver without making a mold first. The straight sections came out nice. Then I bent it in a forming block into a ring shape and soldered the ends. Somehow the texture changed a bit when forming them round. When forming straight sections into curved pieces the outer surface stretches a bit while the inside face of a ring gets a bit contracted.

Still overall the texture with all those little nods is pretty interesting. I could imagine setting little stones in those nods. I have a couple tiny green diamonds that could complement great the nature feel of these rings.

Beautiful image by Dick D'Agostino of palm twigs. Mine where just not as bleached from the sun and sea yet.

I found a shorter palm with a bundle of those twiggy things in another part of my neighborhood.

Not sure if those "twigs" are technically twigs or rather flower stems.

Here a story about palm tees in Los Angeles and a picture of the one in my neighborhood. What kind is that one?

The palm I found my twigs under.

RAW52 #8 and #18 - Loft Ring

2011-07-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

I just organized my RAW submissions on Flickr again. I am still a couple weeks behind with my weekly challenge but hopefully I am on a roll again for a couple more.
Here is a lofty ring I finished a couple weeks ago but never blogged about:

Playing with simple lofting for this wonky ring. It looks a bit like an endless worm.

I also sent out some designs for 3d printing at Ponoko. Not all modeled ring designs were suitable for printing. Some had areas that were too thin or the model was not clean.

This lofted design looks like this in 3d printed white ABS plastic and became my #18 RAW ring (sorry I am jumping ahead a bit).

It's probably not a design I will keep making more in the future but it was a nice experiment.

Botanicals - Pine Twigs

2011-07-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

I grew up with a lot of pine trees around. My German home state Brandenburg, the area around Berlin, has some of the most extensive pine forest in Europe. As a kid I used to climb these trees at our summer home and some winters we even walked in the forrest and picked out a pine tree as a christmas tree.
Now I have a huge pine tree in the back yard of my Los Angeles home. It brings back old childhood memories. It also creates a constant mess in the yard. Pine needles everywhere.
To turn the mess into something nice I started my own little project. I picked some dry twigs from our tree and made rings out of them.

The first set I did by pressing the twigs in a molding clay and creating wax replicas. The advantage was that one side if the resulting wax rod was already smooth and almost perfect for the inside of the rings. Some texture gets lost this way, but the outcome was still amazingly detailed.

For the second test I did cast the wooden twigs directly without molding them first.

The twigs were attached with wax to rubber sprue base before plaster investing and burn out.

Twigs right after casting. There is still some investment in the recesses.

Cast Sterling Silver twigs

After casting I formed them in a forming block to a ring and soldered the ends together. The insides were smoothed out a bit. Oxidation was applied with Liver of Sulfur and then lightly polished to just leave the black in the recesses.

I love to just stare at the rustic texture and admire the beautiful nature of the twigs. I am not planning to offer those rings in my store but rather treat this as my own little science project to explore the beauty of botanical things. I did some other test with different twigs and bark too. So stay tuned for more botanical inspired posts.

Summer Treat: Watermelon

2011-07-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July weekend! When I think of summer treats, watermelon comes to my mind. Nothing refreshes better on a hot day than those juicy and sweet tasty slices of fruit.

And the color combo of green and pink is just delightful. No wonder that watermelon tourmalines are my new favorite eye candy. I recently got a bunch of rose cut tourmalines in beautiful shades of green and pink.

Selection of rose cut bi-color tourmaline s

Tourmaline is a gemstone that sometimes contains more than one color. Watermelon Tourmaline is a unusual and rare variety of tourmaline. The coloring resembles the pink flesh and green rind of a watermelon. They are frequently sold as slices with the pink in the center and green shade all around. The colors occur naturally in tourmalines and gems are not treated. The rose cut stone I got are mostly bi-color stones in different shapes and sizes.

Here a couple more tourmalines.

I set one of those rose cut tourmalines in a 14karat gold bezel on a sterling silver freeform shaped ring.

New Tool Love

2011-06-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

I am in love... with a new tool. Don't know why I waited so long to get it.
Now that it's here with me, I can't imagine how I lived without it.
All this excitement is about this baby:

A GRS Bench Mate system with stone setter kit.

The GRS Bench Mate basically a vice. I know, kind of strange to get so worked up over just a vice. But it makes my life so much easier. Rings stay put while setting stone. No more cramps in the hands when trying to grip tightly to a piece. And there are so many accessories available. It can be converted into a bench pin, a soldering station or even a belt sander with some extra equipment. I did not get the belt sander or soldering accessories as I like to have my separate soldering station on the side of the bench. But the inside ring holder is great.

All the pieces just out of the box

A mounting plate gets screwed on the face of the bench and then the pieces just slide into the bracket. It's super fast to exchange the vice parts for the bench pin. (Sorry, it is kind of messy under my bench as usual.)

There is a inside ring holder as shown and a second vice type holder for clamping pieces. The holders move easily in every direction or can be locked in any position.

I find the arm rest on the right a bit uncomfortable. Would be nice if it would be slightly padded to give more comfort for my wrist. But I guess could easily put a small leather or neoprene piece on it to provide just that.

It was so much fun stone setting with this new vice that I set most of the rings that were piling up for weeks.

Summer is finally here!

2011-06-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Summer made it finally to the west side of Los Angeles. Ok, it's basically always summer here, or maybe more like spring the entire year. But June usually brings some winterly vibe with this never ending "June Gloom" going on. The coastal morning cloud was hanging over my neighborhood almost every day. It is a bit depressing having to wait for the sun until 1 or 2 pm every day. Now it seems to be over and the sun is out early in the morning.

This is the time my veggie garden comes to life. The few patches I have to plant around the house only get sun until the early afternoon. Most veggies need 6 hours of sun minimum. With that in mind I decided this year to go vertical to double the garden real estate and used hanging planters. I bought the commercial pods even if it would have been pretty easy to built some myself from big plastic buckets.

Hanging planters with upside down tomatoes.

The 6'-6" long wood planters below are built from 2" x 12" x 8' pine planks. Just have some one at Home Depot cut 18" off the 8' plank and screw it all together at home. Cost about 30$ in materials per planter. Fill with good garden soil for lush growth. The little trellis pieces are there to keep my dogs out of planters. They love taking a nap on warm soil.

Those hanging pods have the advantage that my dogs don't get to it. Lena loves picking fresh fruit and vegetables right from the plants, just a few days before they are ripe enough for me to pick. Last year I barely ever had any red tomato, only plenty of green ones. Tomatoes are her favorite but she also snacked on zucchinis, eggplants and strawberries. At least I have healthy organically fed dogs.

Here Lena during her morning stretch.

Chillies and Peppers seem to like the hanging platers quite a bit.

Tomatoes don't really like to grow down wards, at least not mine and honestly I don't blame them. All my tomatoes plants in the wood planters are way bigger and look healthier. I also planted herbs, eggplants and even zucchini in the hanging pods and they seem to do ok - not great, but ok.

Strawberry pod with some mint.

Linen shoe rack converted into vertical herb garden. Plants don't really grow lush in there but they survive. The pockets need water every day as they dry out really fast.

I love the large bright yellow zucchini flowers.

My first mandarines are about to be ripe too.

I probably still have to go to the Farmers Market for the next couple weeks before some of those veggies should ripe enough. Maybe next year I try to use my flat roof as a veggie garden as this would get sun all day long. I only have to figure out how to bring the soil and planters up there and extend the drip irrigation to the roof. I am a bit concerned about the weight those planters would put on the roof. Not sure yet if that will be a good idea anyways.

Handmade or the Art of Getting Dirty

2011-06-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

I do love to get my hands dirty. Let it be jewelry making, building little projects around the house or digging in the dirt in the garden. There is something very satisfying about using your own hands to create things, way more fulfilling than moving the computer mouse around. Handmade means dirty hands to some extent.

These hands are always rough, never really clean. Polishing compound seems to be burned into the skin pores. Soon enough I won't have any finger prints anymore because I tent to polish off the skin when finishing a ring. Hands that have cuts, nicks, burn marks and bruises. They hurt after a productive day in the studio. They get a treatment in a hot paraffin bath on some days if the pain gets too much (highly recommended mini spa treatment :)).

If I continue jewelry making for the next 30 years I imagine my hands to look like these:

Beautiful photo by Yellow Sky Photography : Jeweler's Hands - Hands that made jewelry for 35 years. These days they spend most of their time holding mugs of hot coffee.

PS: Love his sweater too, looks very comfortable.

Making of Custom Square 1 Rings

2011-06-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am working on a custom order for a engagement/ wedding ring set from the Square 1 collection. The rings are to be done in 18k white gold with yellow gold settings and 4 to 5 rough diamonds instead of 1. They still include the rings with the orange and green sapphire.
The square settings I usually use with the silver rings are only available in 14k gold and making them by hand did not work out so well without having a square bezel punch set. I did a couple tries with silver bezel but I could just not get them perfect enough to be happy about them. Since the rings will be done in such an expensive metal, I want them to be absolutely perfect and not wast any gold in making them.

I decided to use some of my still very limited 3d modeling skills that I gained through the RAW challenge and modeled the rings and settings in Rhino3D.

The advantage is that especially the underside of long setting now matches exactly the curve of the ring and fits like a charm. And the seats for the faceted stones in the small square settings are perfectly even. I did model a couple alternate settings for 3 or 4 rough diamonds to be able to play around with the design a bit more and offer more choices in the future.

Then had them 3d printed on one of those really high resolution wax printers. It cost a lot more than the printing available through firms like Shapeways or Ponoko, but it's worth it since it requires less sanding to get the parts smooth. And I needed very crisp edges. Thats how they look in printed wax.

Glad the diamonds and sapphires actually fit in there.

The longer settings are really fragile in this state and break easily as one can see. I should have modeled the casting sprues (gates) already on them to be able to handle them better. Lesson learned.

After smoothing the sides of the rings a bit with fine sand paper they went off to my local caster. I can't cast Palladium White gold in my studio as the equipment does not go up to high enough temperatures. I also did not want to take a chance with the yellow gold settings and sent them out too.

Luckily it only took 2 days for Precious Metals West to get them back to me. They got most of the settings cast without braking them, yeah! That is how they look after casting without being polished.

Now I will spend my weekend with filing off the rest of the casting sprues, cleaning and sanding all parts and soldering the settings to the rings. Then stone setting and final polish. I will post the final rings when they are done.

More photos can be seen on Flickr.

Etsy Metal Studio Tour

2011-06-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

June's Blog Carnival Topic: "Etsy Metal Studio Tour"
Show us where you work!

This is my messy studio with the outdoor extension.

I converted this office room into my metal studio and I am loving every bit. The bench is right next to the sliding door to the patio and gets lot's of light. When I am in the studio the door is always open. Right now thats my only ventilation system. Luckily living close to the beach in LA, the climate is most of the time nice enough to just keep it open. But I really need to invest in a dust collection fan system in the future. I don't do a lot of work inside that creates fumes, I don't solder much since I do most work in the waxes before casting and the kiln for the casting burn out during is outside. The metal dust from grinding and filing is really my only concern. A dust collector is high up on my tool wish list.

Earlier this year I set up my vacuum casting equipment in the studio and moved out the computer to make more space. I love that I can now have more control over the timing of my castings. It also let me to try out a few more ideas and some tests with casting organic material like these found twigs.

If something does not come out well, it just gets melted in the next casting run. Another advantage is that I can recycle a lot of my clean scrap silver, which was nice when the silver price started to skyrocket a few weeks ago. Sending castings out to a outside caster cost a lot in labor charges. I would have thought twice about testing so many new designs in the last few month. However the equipment was expensive and I still have to see how much my energy bill went up due to running the kiln and melting furnace almost every weekend. I only regret that I can't do any castings with palladium alloys, my new favorite metal, as the melting temperate of palladium white gold and palladium exceeds the temperature range of my melting furnace and kiln. Casting palladium does require some special equipment anyways, so its better keep that for those professional casters.

Please take a walk through the studio's of these other Etsy Metal Artist's

Rebecca Bogan - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Shirlee Grund - http://lichenandlychee.com/blog/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Scott http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Cynthia Del Giudice http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
Michele Grady http://www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com
Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
Evelyn Markasky -- http://markasky.blogspot.com/
Kathryn Cole - http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com
2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Lauren Anabela Beaudoin/Creative Dexterity - http://creativedexterity.com/Blog/main.html

Pages From My Sketchbook

2011-05-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

I don't sketch, ever! Ok, sometimes. But those ideas that I sketch, never actually make it into a real thing. It seems that once I sketch it, I got it out of my system and don't have any desire to work on it anymore. So therefore it's better I just don't sketch. Like these ideas for new rings:

Idea for a wavy, fluid ring design with a pear shaped blue topaz. The sketch still hangs on my black board month after I sketched. Still never worked on making it into a wax model or even cast in metal.

Elaborate design for fused gold on sterling silver with garnet sparkle.

I am more productive without sketching. I do brood over new design in my head for days or weeks before actually trying to model them. I sometimes have a vague image in my head and then just start with a new piece of wax and just carve it out there. Once I get into carving the design changes a bit, which is good. I find new ideas when I model in wax. It's as if there is a piece hidden in the wax block that just wants to grow out of it. The wax block, heat pen and carving tools become my "sketch book".

I have the advantage of working/ sketching in a cheap material like wax. If I screw it up or decide I actually don't like the design, I can just trow it away or melt the wax into something else. If I would do more fabrication work, I would start sketching more. It would be way smarter to sketch on paper before actually cutting into expensive metal.

I also do not think I am a good sketcher. I just can't get those 3 dimensional shapes translated on the 2 dimensional paper. Sketching in wax stays all in 3 dimensions, so it feels more natural to me.

To sketch decent one needs to stay in practice. At the beginning of my architecture career I used to sketch more and had a fairly good sketching hand. Now everything is done in CAD model and drawing software and I barely ever sketch anything. If I ever have to sketch now, it looks horrible to me. Gone are the times when I just hand the contractor a sketch of a detail I want him to built. Now I have to go back to the office and sketch it up in CAD.

Wax model of ring for fancy cut sapphire

Once I am satisfied with a new design it goes into the next casting run and eventually will be finished in a few weeks time.

Please check out what other EtsyMetal members sketching up right now.

Rebecca Bogan - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Shirlee Grund - http://lichenandlychee.com/blog/
2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Beth Cyr - http://www.bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Kate Jones http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
Erin Austin http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
Michele Grady http://www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Scott http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Su Trindle http://quercussilver.blogspot.com/
Evelyn Markasky http://markasky.blogspot.com/
ArtigianoJewelBox: http://www.artigianojewelbox.com/category/blog
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Salt formations in my quench pot

2011-05-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

The water evaporated in my quench pot and left salts in the water to form amazing patters around few silver drops.

I put soldered pieces in the water before it goes in the pickle pot to quench them. The water is also used after pickle cleaning to remove the acid from the pieces.

Pickel is a water diluted acid solution to remove oxides on precious metals produced from heating and soldering as well as glassy flux residues. When I cast new jewelry they come out black since the silver is covered with oxidation. Putting them in the heated pickle for a couple minutes removed all the oxidation and leaves them white.

Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Tool Nerds

2011-04-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

EtsyMetal's Blog Carnival for April explores the tool topic:

Most coveted tool. Why? How would you utilize it if you got it?

I am a tool addict. Seriously! I do love tools. There is always something out there that can make a task easier, faster or just more fun to do. The joy of feeling a nice, beautiful, well crafted tool in your hand is just enormous. Well, most task in metal smithing can be accomplished by tools our ancestors already used. Nobody really needs more than a file, saw, torch and maybe some simple casting equipment like a self-built brick oven and a sling shot. But hey, live is too short to waste time with simple tools if it can be done faster some other way.

The last tool splurge I did brought me my casting equipment with a vacuum caster and a kiln. So thats covered. Next on the list would be a bench mate system to be able to hold those rings while giving me both hands free for the stone setting.

If I really dream high I would love a 3d printer. One of those high resolution printers that built a wax or resin model that were designed and modeled in a 3d software. Those are still expensive. I would have to make 3d modeling my specialty to ever justify such a splurge. Until then I will stay with my hand tools and send out the 3d models to a printing house.

One more affordable printer would be the Thing-O-Matic from Makerbot. It's definitely not a high resolution printer but it just looks nerdy enough to be a great addition to my studio. But since I am short on space and have no time to figure out how to set it up and get a good use out of it, I just keep dreaming. I wonder if the cute blue bunny comes with the kit, hmmm...

Please check out what others have on their dream list:

Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
2Roses - http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Scott - http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Tosca Teran - http://nanopod.wordpress.com
AdobeSol - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
wildflowerdesigns - http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com
Evelyn Markasky - http://markasky.blogspot.com/

Wedding Ring Prototypes

2011-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Wedding season is here and I am starting to get request from customers for wedding ring designs. I will give it a priority over the next few weeks to come up with a couple option and new designs.

Here the first prototypes playing with a couple different textures that I made yesterday in wax. They are being cast right now.

1. Sponge Rings, 2. Dimple Rings, 3. Saw Cut Rings, 4. Chiseled Rings

The Sponge and Dimpled rings use textures I already made for other rings. Here I am using those same texture techniques to create narrower and less heavy rings suitable for everyday wear as a wedding ring.
The Saw Cut rings and Chiseled rings use new techniques that I am curious to see how they look in metal.
I will also concentrate my RAW designs on making wedding rings for the next few weeks. I hope by May I have a few wedding rings listed in my shop. I will offer them in silver, white and yellow gold options and in Palladium. Stay tuned.

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RAW 07/52 - Vow Ring

2011-03-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

Just realized I never updated the bog with my more recent RAW submissions.

RAW ring #7 is a wedding ring with vow that reads: WITH THIS RING I SEAL MY VOW OF LOVE TO YOU.

The text is extruded and flowed around the ring opening. I have to figure out how I can squeeze the letters together so they overlap and would not need the ring bar to hold them together. Thats another week's assignment.

I am curious to see how the texture at the band top will look when printed in 3D and if the text is still readable when printed.

Rainy Weekends

2011-03-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night and I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow again. Weekends are always too short, even with having the Friday off. I am still trying to work only 4 days at the office, but it does not work out this way all the time. I don't know why some people love to schedule meetings on Fridays... At least this time I pulled it off and had my 3 day "creation" weekend.

I needed it. Esty is keeping me busy and with the Spring Artful Home catalog out now, there were also some orders for the featured "Aquarius" ring.

Seems the catalog exposure really brings in sales. Since it looks like they want to put the ring in the next catalog too, I need to order more of those aquamarines. Wish they would choose another of my designs with stones that are easier to be sourced. I have such a hard time finding nice oval aquamarine cabs in the size I need. Luckily next weekend happens to be the International Jewelry and Gem show in the LA Convention Center. Already checked with my new supplier for these stones and he confirmed to bring a batch of those gems for me. Hope I don't overspend on other pretty little treasures again. I "hate" going to these shows. It's so tempting. Too many pretty precious things to admire and trade for credit card information. Some girls spend all their money on shoes, I spend it on gems.

Normally I try to do the wax work for the weekly orders all on Friday to be able to do a Saturday cast. But I switched it this week to get a head start on finishing last weekends castings and get a few rings out of the door. I also needed to go to downtown LA in the morning to get some more silver for all these new orders. Almost fainted when I saw the bill for the sterling silver casting grain. It's now over 40$ per toz, crazy! After finishing some rings, I ended up starting on the wax work at 8pm. This meant having to put in a long night with vacuuming the investment for 6 rings at 2am. And then the rain started.

I realized I really should have checked the weather report before scheduling my casting for Sunday. It was poring cats and dogs all day! Living in LA, I almost forget that it does occasionally rain here. And when it does, it rains hard. My dog Lena did not get out of her bed all day long. She snuggled up in the pillows the entire day and only got up for food and the occasional look out of her doggy door. Wish I could do that too, the pillow part. I miss spending rainy Sundays in bed.

With the rain, every time I checked the temperature outside on the kiln, I got drenched. For better fume ventilation the kiln is outside under a little roof overhang where it does not get direct rain on it. But the overhang is not wide enough to protect me too. Fortunately the kiln electronics did not get affected by the humidity and it finished the 6 hour burn out cycle without problems and one wet caster. Now I have a few castings to finish over the week before next weeks new batch.

Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Private Jewelry Collection

2011-03-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog Carnival?
It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic.

March Topic: Private Jewelry Collection
What do you wear?
What is your favorite piece (or pieces) from your private collection?
How many finished pieces do you keep for yourself and why?
What is your favorite piece of jewelry that you didn't make?

I actually don't wear a lot of jewelry. I always run out of the house in such a haste every morning that I usually forget to put some jewelry on. The only pieces I actually own, that I did not make, are a cuff and earrings from british artist Jane Adam. I do love the colors and texture on my anodized aluminum bracelet that I got a couple years ago as a birthday present. The earrings I bought myself after completing my first successful show.

I never had a wedding nor engagement ring. But looking for the perfect wedding ring got me into jewelry design in the first place. Just never actually designed the ring since I felt I could not settle on one design for the rest of my life.

After making jewelry for some years now I realized that my favorites change so fast. It's always the last design I love the most. Once a new piece is finished, it becomes new favorite kid on the block until the next one replaces it the week after. I put them on the counter to be able to look at them when I am brushing through the house. I do end up with a few pieces for my own collection. Those are either the early prototypes or rings that I screwed up in some way and would not want to put in my shop for that reason. Some are rings where I chipped a stone when setting it. Mostly those chips are barely noticeable but never less they are not sellable anymore.

I ended up this way with this "Rock in Paw" ring with an amazing Imperial Topaz.

The prototype for my "Square 1" collection I have in my own collection too. This was a old cast ring from my first year of jewelry classes that was upcycled with a square orange sapphire in a gold setting and gave me the idea for the new collection.

The other problem is that I don't make anything else that rings. It would be so much easier to slip on a pair of earrings for the office than wearing rings. I could even wear earrings when being at the bench, can't do that with rings. Rings and power tools don't go well together, at least not for me. I should just design some earrings for myself, but just never find the time to do so.

A few earrings I do wear and made years ago are those 2 sets with simulated ruby and some blue sapphires.

I have a few pieces from my first years of jewelry making that I keep as a reminder of how far I have come.

This pendant I did in my second semester at the SMC class where the assignment was to do some forging. Lot's of fun hammering on metals until it starts bending into these nice shapes. I did add a small citrine in a bezel setting.

Im my permanent collection I keep the first prototype of the "Big Mama" Ring and the first of the "Mermaid" series and a couple of other prototypes like this Jade ring. It was the first ring with the freeform shank design that I now use in so many of my other ring designs. Not letting that one go.

Please check out what other EtsyMetal members are keeping in their own jewelry collection:

Rebecca Bogan - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Inbar Bareket - http://www.inbarbareket.net/
Twigs and Heather - http://www.twigsandheather.com
2Roses - http://www.JewelryTutorial.blogspot.com
Quercus Silver - http://quercussilver.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Thomasin Durgin - http://metalriot.blogspot.com/
Michele Grady- http://www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com

EtsyMetal is an International group of metalsmiths who create handmade jewelry. More information about the group and it's members can be found at http://www.etsymetal.com

RAW 06/52

2011-03-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Good news was that Rhino came out some weeks ago with a free beta version 5 for OSX MAC and I had to give it a try. Since I am a total beginner anyways I can't really say if it works any better or not. But it's nice not having to work on the window's version via Parallels.

This weeks ring was a spin off from the open strip ring I did in RAW 03 to 05. It's a bit higher version and more sculptural. Since there are no plugins (T-spline etc) yet for the new beta version I just modeled it completely in Rhino. It actually was not to hard to model. I haven't tried to 3d print any of my rings yet. I am curious if some of those edges are to thin to be printed. I guess I will see when I get there.

The only problem I really had with the Beta version for MAC was that the render function seemed to crash the program. Therefor I only have a screen shot pictures.

Now I am only 3 weeks behind with my challenge. I guess I have to find some time this weekend and model rings instead of doing my taxes. It's more fun anyways.
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RAW 03, 04 and 05/52 Rings

2011-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

I am so behind already in my RAW challenge and that only after a few weeks since it started. I haven't found much time to play around with 3d modeling lately. January an February were pretty busy (which is a good thing). I struggled keeping up with orders and all those "millions" of rings I cast with my new casting setup. So much fun to do the casting again. But as a result I have a stack of raw cast rings on my bench that need to be filed, polished and stones set. Unfortunately my challenge for RAW is about learning the software and therefor I can't use those cast rings as my RAW entries.

I did play around with some simple anticlastic strip shapes in Rhino. Originally those were just options with some deformations for the same idea and should be counted as only one weeks challenge entry. But I decided now to count each option as a ring and get up on my schedule again. The deformed shaped originated from the simple strip on the left. I just moved pointed around to widen certain parts and give them a more dynamic feel.

Overall I still struggle alot with getting a feel for the software. It just does not feel as natural to me as modeling wax by hand feels. But I hope over time I get more used to it and really develop new possibilities for my ring designs by using 3d software.
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Yeah, Front Page !!!!!

2011-02-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to PapersandProse's beautiful treasury my Light Blue Drusy Ring was featured on Etsy's front page in the early morning hours.

Check out the other items here:

Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Non-Metal Creativity

2011-02-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog Carnival?
It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic.

February Topic: Non-Metal/Jewelry Creativity
Tell us about other kinds of art and craft you do. What other media do you work and play with? How often do you get to create? Does it relate to or inspire your metalworking?

Between my day job as an architect and making jewelry at night and on weekends, I don't find much time to do other creative endeavors. However, if I see creativity a bit broader and define it as the way to create or make things, the picture changes a bit. Even simple daily tasks like cooking are creative, making something new from a few simple ingredients into a delicious dinner is for me just a form of art.

A video that really sums it up perfectly is this TED Talk by Dale Dougherty. The world around is is made by us, it is our creativity that shapes our surroundings.

I love to make things. Thats why I find jewelry so intriguing. The joy of dreaming about a shape and then translating it with our own hands into a physical piece of art is just addictive. I also enjoy building things around my house. I always have a few projects going on but never enough time to complete them. Last year I designed and built a new fence around my house and designed all the landscape areas.

I guess I could say that my day job is somewhat creative work being an architect and it definitely inspires my jewelry designs. But one thing I never get from just designing and drafting the spaces is the part of being actually involved in the making part. I am on construction sites all the time, but I am just watching other people built it. I do love to get my hands dirty, but can't do that when working with contractors. To many liability issues. I would be probably better off having a design-built firm where virtual and physical creations are in all in one hand (or still requires a few more hands).

Please check out what other EtsyMetal members are blogging about their artistic endeavors outside metal:

kate jones
kathryn cole
2Roses
Twigs and Heather
Erin Austin
Thomasin Durgin
Beth Cyr
stacey hansen
Nina Gibson
elizabeth scott
Evelyn Markasky
Amanda Conley
Jenny Baughman

RAW 02/52 FOLD Ring #2

2011-01-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

I got a bit behind with the new designs for the RAW (Ring A Week) challenge since I was trying to catch up on orders and test my new casting equipment.

For the second ring I still went somewhat with the fold scheme. I modeled a simple ring. it has a fold line at the center with various depth. After I thought about how to model this design for the last two weeks it was actually pretty simple do get it to work at the end. Just drew the outlines and some cross sections and created the inner and outer closed loops with a 2 rail sweep. The sharp edges were bend by a bit to make it more comfortable. I am curious to see how this actually feels on a finger.

I think I will model one more design before I sent it off to the 3D printer.

RAW 01/52 FOLD Ring

2011-01-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

My first RAW (Ring A Week) ring is finally modeled and ready to be 3D printed. I used my inspiration images posted a couple days ago for the FOLD theme. For the first ring I kept it simple since I am still struggling to figure out how to model things with this software. The simple bands outer face has a smooth folding surface that resembles something close to flowing fabric folds.

I modeled it using T-splines plug to get the smooth folds. Lines were laid out flat over a surface to create creases. Peaks and valleys could be adjusted by moving surface points. After that I used the command "flow along surface" to wrap it around the inner tube.

side view

Top View

I uploaded it to Shapeways for 3d printing in stainless steel. But there is a minimum order amount and I will wait 1 to 2 weeks to have a couple more rings modeled before I order them. I also still want to inscribe my name and the RAW ring number into the inside of the ring. Since this is stainless steel I don't think I can use my normal steel stamps to put my makers mark in them.
So I guess I will play around a bit more this coming week.

Update:
Got printed ABS models back from Ponoko and did some test castings. Love the texture of the 3D printing lines. The inside was polished and the outside was left with printing texture.

RAW Inspiration : FOLDS

2011-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am trying to get my head really into the RAW project and set some parameters before I design my first ring. I decided to treat this project a bit different than how I usually design my jewelry and return more to the conceptual design that I learned in architecture school. Most of my other ring designs are influenced by gem stones I own. Once I play with a stone the ring shape usually materialized without ever sketching anything on paper. I use a very intuitive sculpting of the wax around the stone until I am satisfied wit the sculpture in my hand.
For RAW I am using CAD software to model it and print the rings in stainless steel or plastic. With that I want to explore more the formal aspect of form and shape and forgo using gem stones altogether. That won't be easy as I love those pretty starkly treasures of nature. But I believe the return to simple shapes and forms will be a great reward. And no one says I can't do variations of those shapes by incorporating gem stones later on.

I wrote down some themes I want to explore a bit more with my ring designs in the next 52 weeks. Some themes will last for multiple weeks until I am done with them or they will morph into each other.

The first one will be FOLDS.
Here some inspirational images I found on flickr.

1. Folded, 2. The Town School, 3. milwaukee museum of art, 4. green glasses in folds, 5. Chelsea Modern, 6. Folds, 7. Folded Spike, 8. jorge ayala/ folded surfaces (6), 9. Dress, 10. Fin_Shelter_07.jpg, 11. Folded, 12. the bends, 13. inner folds, 14. Habitat Egg - 4 Views, 15. folding facade, 16. 3 spine concertina fold, 17. stri_06, 18. Edificio Av. Mexico - detail, 19. Curved Fold Study, 20. garden inspiration, 21. ARKTURA_Flow Bench 2, 22. （Neil Denari）, 23. 2006 09.24 | Neil Denari - Endeavor Screening Room, 24. Textured Panel with Window, 25. Folded rock, 26. Folds, 27. Red rock folds, 28. Folded by Air, 29. Facetious from another angle, 30. bracelet cuff, 31. a land not mine, 32. Eyelash Viper (Bothriechis schlegeli, Greifschwanzlanzenotter), 33. voluptuous curves, 34. Satin steel, 35. Origami Romanesco, 36. on the window sill

Other themes for the next few weeks are:

slices
tubes
surface deformations
cellular/organic patterns
nesting
growth
chaos
moire
mikado
screens
interlocking
flow - water - ripples
bubbles
hives
roots
branches

I am really getting excited about this project. I am hoping to post the first ring design on Sunday. I am still software challenged but hope to figure it out. Stay tuned.

Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Resolutions

2011-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog Carnival?
It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic.
Our New Years Topic: Resolutions

Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr!

Is that time of the year again that everyone makes a few resolutions for the new year and I am no exception.

First goal: I will learn 3d modeling for my jewelry line and create one ring per week.

“Old dogs can learn new tricks” and I really wanted to get into 3D modeling for some time. Well, I use CAD in my day job but it's mostly 2D and the shapes are simpler. The software I use at work does not work well for jewelry. So my goal is to learn form generation in Rhino3D. It's a software used to model simple or complex forms.

Playing around with different tools in Rhino to create a simple New Years ring.

To stay on target I joined Ring A Week ( RAW ) group on flickr. This is a challenge to create a ring a week. I did RAD (Ring A Day) last year but could not keep up with the photography portion and flaked out after some 30 or so rings. RAW will work better with my schedule. Just creating a ring a week in my usual wax working technique would not really be a challenge for me but doing so in CAD will definitely get me some gray hair. So I will have to finish a ring design every week in 3D and then have it printed on a 3D printer like Shapeways. There will be a 2 week time delay between the modeling and actually getting the printed design in my hands but I think I will just roll with it. I am really hoping to expand my ring designs and come up with some new shapes and maybe even rings for new collections.

Second goal: Find more revenue streams.

Selling on Etsy has been pretty good so far and it is constantly growing. But to kick my business into the next gear I will need to find more places to sell. Artful Home has been a good addition for the last 3 month. But I also need some local presence. I tried a couple retail and trade shows but it did not pay off. So I will have to start approaching galleries. Since I am really shy, this won't be easy to just go in and pitch my line. But I have nothing to loose and no excuse not to try.

Third Goal: Try more techniques and learn new skills.

I am in the process of setting up my own casting equipment. I am still working out some technical challenges but hope to be able to do a couple test castings in the next few weeks. If all goes well this should allow me to cast pieces that my local casting shop won't do, like casting with stones in place and burn out of organic materials and plastics like the 3D printed models from the RAW challenge. With silver metal price still climbing this also allows me to recycle some of my old metal and scraps. One way to a greener studio.

The biggest goal for this year: Escape Cubicle Nation.

By the end of 2011 I would like to quit my day job and do my own business full time. I know it's a pretty big goal and I might not get there. But one has to aim high to accomplish something. For the last few month I tried to do a 4 day work week only and I really enjoyed that. It gave me a little more time for my jewelry and made the work week fly by really fast. I'd like to continue that for the next few month and eventually even reduce it to a 3 day work week. I still work the other days in the studio but at least I have a few nights off to do fun things like meeting friends or just reading a book.

Other than those business goals I love to have more fun and take extra time to enjoy my personal life. I need to get out of the studio more on weekends and take the bike and the dogs to the beach. What sense does it make to live only 3 miles from the beach but never ever go there to enjoy the nice sea breeze. I also need to practice more yoga to keep those back pains at bay. And then there are still a few remodeling projects around the house that need to get done.

Please check out resolutions by other Etsymetal team members:

Inbar Bareket http://www.inbarbareket.net/
ebeth http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog/
Hartleystudio http://annhartleystudio.blogspot.com/

Catherine Chandler http://www.catherinechandler.blogspot.com/
Thomasin Durgin http://metalriot.blogspot.com

Jenny Baughman http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/

Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Custom Orders

2010-12-18T17:04:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog Carnival?
It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic. Our December Topic:
Do you take custom orders? What kind of custom work do you do or not do? What has been your favorite custom piece?

Custom orders can be a lot of fun. I like working with my customers to make their wishes become real. Custom jewelry orders are gratifying in some way. I see it as a compliment that someone likes my skill and designs enough to commission and trust me with a special request.
The easiest custom orders are pieces that are based on designs I have already done before but need a little tweaking to suit that special person. It may be a different gem stone, or the setting gets changed a bit (higher or lower), the band of a ring gets wider or narrower etc. Those are easy to predict what it would take to make that jewelry piece. Material cost can easily be estimated and the time for design and making is predictable.

One one those was based on my Wrapped Pearl design. The customer had a gorgeous Tahitian pearl that she wanted to use with that design. However, since the pearl was so beautiful we decided to lower the setting to show off more of nature's perfection. Out came such a lovely design that now became one of my bestselling rings. It probably does not have the special meaning that her ring had with the pearl she got as an engagement gift but it is still beautiful with the Tahitian pearls I now use for that design.

On the other hand, I sometimes struggle with custom orders that go beyond the tweaking of an existing design. The responsibility of creating this special piece of jewelry can be a bit of a burden. There seems to be so much more pressure involved in finishing a commissioned piece. What I love about jewelry making is that I can just design with my own flow of creativity. With custom orders this flow dries out very fast. I start to self-doubt myself, my skill and taste. What if the customer does not like the finished piece? What if something goes wrong with the special, unreplacable gem stone they gave me to create this piece? Every time I agreed to make a ring with a gem stone they gave me, I totally started to freak once it came time to set the stone. One little second of not paying attention and that stone could be broken or chipped. Most jeweler or stone setter will not give any guaranties for stones they get from their customers, but its still a huge burden to deal with. So my rule now is not to accept their stone. I turn down such request because it does not seem to be worth the stress it creates for me. Maybe in a couple years I am a bit more relaxed about it.

One commission that turned out great was this Tetra ring with the customers Tanzanite.

Custom orders can take a lot more time than when I just design my own pieces and because of this time they usually cost more that other already made jewelry design. It all starts with a discussion about the piece, its size, stones and metals to be used and the price of the piece. A 50% pre-payment is required before I start making the model in wax. If the custom piece includes a stone they own, I have to get the stone before starting to make a model. This ensures the stone will fit perfectly in the cast metal piece. If the piece is very different from my other design, I usually sent pictures to the customer for approval. After all agree the piece gets cast, set and finished.

Due to this time involvement I often can't commit to custom orders as a I still have a day job and only leaves me nights and weekends to work on my jewelry.
I sometimes make exceptions for really good friends like this special engagement ring.

This was my first CAD CAM ring. It is a collaboration between 3 architects to design the perfect engagement ring for another architect. The groom had the idea of the honeycomb texture with a marquise sapphire embedded. He originally had a way bigger stone in mind but it would not have worked for the honeycomb band. Since my own 3d skills were not good enough to actually model this in Rhino, I asked my ex-husband and also a good friend of the groom to model it. Not easy to work with a person on a design when you are in divorce with them. But it worked out and the ring came out beautifully.

A couple month later I was asked to design the wedding band that matched the previous engagement ring. Both rings are cast in palladium and set with natural Ceylon sapphires. The wedding band was modeled by hand.

So yes, I do custom orders when they fit my schedule and skills, and are in line with my own design ambitions.

Please do not ask me to copy or reproduce another jeweler's design.

Please read the stories of other EtsyMetal members:
Inbar Bareket http://www.inbarbareket.net/2010/12/blog-carnival-december-2010.html

Elizabeth Scott http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Kerry Alice and Heather http://www.twigsandheather.blogspot.com
Victoria Takahashi http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
2Roses http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com/2010/12/do-you-do-custom-orders.html

Fancy Rubellite Tourmaline Tetra Ring

2010-12-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

I finally finished this Tourmaline ring with an awesome Rubellite fancy cut gem. The ring was modeled in wax and then cast in sterling silver.

I was actually dreading to do the stone setting for a while since I knew I had to try a new setting technique for that. I had to make a special pin burnisher from a old steel scribe. One can also use a old worn-out bur to make this miniature burnisher and then just mount it on a dowel or other handle. I followed the instructions in John Cogswell's book "Creative Stonesetting". The steel tool first needs to be annealed at the tip with a torch flame. When cooled it will be filed and polished to get a rounded tip. I started to set the stone by slightly tapping the heavy silver bezel with my hammer handset to lower the metal over the sides of the stone and basically tack it in place.

Then I started to rub down the edge of the metal rim by holding the burnisher in a 45 degree angle. This pushes the metal in a slight bevel over the rim of the stone. The pressure of the burnisher focuses on the metal rim. Since the steel was annealed it is softer than the tourmaline and therefore does not scratch the gem in the burnishing process. As the metal continues to move over the stone I raised the angle of the burnisher. At the end it leaves a beautiful uniform, reflective, inward-sloping rim. Then just the corners need some touch-up with gravers. I think overall this technique is actually faster and easier then my typically hammer handset technique and it leaves this beautiful bright rim around a stone. I will try it out on a few different shapes in the future.

This ring is an incredible way to wear strong color. The pinks in this fancy cut Rubellite tourmaline cabochon is truly stunning. The dynamic angled setting displays the beauty of this rare cut stone with gorgeous natural inclusions.

The rubellite is a member of the family of tourmalines, and where its color shines in beautiful nuances is the range from red to shocking pink. I am drawn to a number of precious and semi-precious colored stones, mostly for their unique and beautiful natural color and/or inclusions. Inclusions should not be seen as flaws, but as proof of nature’s hand in creating an element of beauty.

Square 1 Ring Collection

2010-11-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

This week I officially released the new Square 1 collection. This is the refined version of the up-cycled ring I blogged about a couple weeks ago. I created an entire stacking ring set with this simple design.

Square sterling silver ring set with rounded sides and a textured and oxidized groove at the top. A 14kt square gold setting sits asymmetrical on the top groove of each ring and holds a rough diamond cube, a orange sapphire and a green sapphire. The grooves have a light texture and have been oxidized to give a higher contrast between the gold setting and the blackened silver. The entire set is 15mm wide.

The rings are also available as single rings. I always love how rough diamonds look in yellow gold. Its just a better color contrast then sterling silver.

The gold setting in this ring is 4mm square and the diamond ranges between 3.3 to 3.5 mm (0.4 to 0.5 points). The color of the diamond range from a warm yellow to a dark gray or whitish gray.

The new addition is a green sapphire ring. The band is 5 mm wide. The gold setting is 3.5 mm square and the natural sapphire is 2.6 mm square. The green sapphires range in color from a forest green, over olive to lime yellow.

The narrowest ring has a gorgeous orange Sapphire that looks like it is on fire. The band is 4 mm wide. The gold setting is 3 mm square and the natural sapphire is 2mm square. Vibrant Reddish Orange color, just awesome.

I am adding rings with blue sapphires and rubies in the next few weeks. If you are interested you can contact me about a price quote. All rings are available on Etsy and my web site. I will hopefully also get them onto the Artful Home site.

Birthday Present

2010-11-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday and I forgot to give myself a nice birthday present. Duh...
I wanted make a nice ring for myself with this amazing blue Topaz stone that I chipped a couple month ago. With the small chip on the side I can't sell it to anyone anyways, but I can still make a ring for myself and hide this chip in the setting. Unfortunately I am not that well organized when it comes to preparing for my own birthday. So here is the day and I can still only stare at the loose gem stone. Bummer! I guess I can still make it into a nice Christmas present.

But I finished a nice new ring yesterday that I have an eye on to just keep for myself. That might be the substitute birthday present and not a bad one either. Love how it came out.

It has a beautiful light blue Drusy Chalcedony which somehow looks like it has tiny brown freckles under the drusy crystals. I added some 18 karat gold bubbles on the side that look like tree dimensional freckles. It's wired that lately I am starting to add some gold accent to some of my pieces. Must be the Holiday season being around.

The ring is somewhat a mix between my Tetra line and the Ergo rings. It has the freeform shank design and the underside of the ring is molded against the stone. It's very comfortable and fits me perfectly. This might be the sign to keep it. I guess I will have to make up my mind in the next few days.
I don't have this exact stone again to make something in custom sizes for my shop. But I have some other drusies in similar shape, one is black and the other red. Those would look perfect with the little gold accents too.

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Mandarines and Aquas

2010-11-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

I finally spend last night until the early wee hours to work on some photos and post new rings in my shop.
I created these smaller versions of Tetra rings in late August but did not get the photo shoot done until yesterday. The Tourmaline ring on the right was posted in my shop since a couple weeks and just sold last week. It's now on it's way to the Netherlands to find a new home. The other two rings use quite rare stones: a fiery orange Spessartite Garnet and a rare intense blue Santa Maria Aquamarine.

The garnet family of gemstones is large and varied, but spessartite garnet is no ordinary garnet. Spessartite is a brilliant gem that has a refractive index even higher than sapphire. It shows an amazing sunny glow. I have one ring made in size 6.5 and still have 2 other similar stones available for custom sizes. One is a cushion cut like the gem in the ring and the other has a brilliant trillion cut.

Spessartite Garnet Tetra Ring

As with most gems, the more intense shades of aquamarine are the most popular, and the intensity of the shade changes depending on the source of the stone. The most sought-after color is known as the Santa Maria aquamarine. Santa Maria aquamarines are a deep ocean blue and have an enchanting fire and brilliance. Found at a single mine in Brazil called the Santa Maria de Itabira mine, Santa Maria aquamarine stones are quite rare. Lose yourself in the rare, intense blue of this Santa Maria Aquamarine gemstone ring. The faceted aquamarine has a amazing blue color. It's size is 7 x 7 mm and it weights 3/4 ct.

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival: Business Success Secrets

2010-11-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

Each month, EtsyMetal artists write about a different topic related to the arts. This month it is:

Business Success Secrets:

What does it mean to you to be "successful" in business as an artist?

This is just the second year I run my jewelry endeavor officially as a business. Or at least I believe I need to treat it like a business to get it from nowhere to somewhere. It is still a part time gig for now and the real success would be to be able to concentrate on this full time. So far I am measuring my success on the small steps I accomplish every day, every month, one ring at a time. The biggest reward are the compliments I get from my customers. If I made someone happy with a little art piece to wear, it's the best accomplishment I can hope for.

There is something good about starting a business during a down economy. A slow economy means slow business. But that is true of a startup in a strong economy too. I can grow slow during these quiet times, and be positioned to grow explosively as the economy recovers. I can make all the errors now, learn from them and get stronger once things start up again. So far the second year has been so much better for me than the year before. Yes, I made a few mistakes, but I had at least to try them to see they are not working. Learning from errors is still the fastest way to learn.

How do you walk the line between creativity and profitability?

Having still a full time job as an architect, I don't have to worry too much about paying the bills with my art. It gives me the freedom to try out a lot of new things without worrying too much about if they sell or not. If I get good feedback and rings sell; great. But I don't sweat it, I can always melt those pieces down and make something new out of it. I often turn down request for custom pieces if I feel they don't fit in with what I am on right now. Sometimes they simply don't fit in my schedule and would get me overwhelmed. Being stressed out is not worth the money it might bring in.

I definitely love to do new designs more than I like production work. I have so many designs in my head, there is never enough time to get them all out of my system and made into a tangible object. The few pieces I do multiples, I actually somewhat enjoy making since I still like the designs. However, I don't see myself making 100 rings of the same design. I probably start changing it up just to keep it fresh. Usually that's how new lines start. They grow out of designs I did before and usually they are better than the previous version. It's a design evolution.

I strongly believe that you have to love what you make to be truly successful at it. If you don't stand 200% behind your creations they won't sell either.

What is the best thing you've done for your business?

Connecting with like-minded artists like the Etsymetal team has been the best thing for me to get a step closer to my business goals. I learn so much from their point of views, hearing tips and tricks on how they got to where they are right now. Knowing there is always someone you can ask and get an answer. It's such a great resource. I also discovered the power of social media and how fast one can get ideas out there and get some feedback. I am still kind of a dork when it comes to blogging, Facebook and especially Twitter. But those have been a great tools to built customer relationships. I see people coming back to my store that saw a posting on my blog or Facebook. To use it to it's full potential I should really post more often, but it is a challenge sometimes to find that time.

Check out what my fellow etsymetal members think about this topic.

stacey http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com
victoria takahashi / experimetal http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com
2Roses: http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Jenny: http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr: http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
Twigs and Heather: http://twigsandheather.blogspot.com
Purified: http://purifiedart.blogspot.com
Nina Gibson: http://ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com

Sparkly Black Drusy Ring

2010-11-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

If you like some sparkle in your live and love to wear the color black, this sleek ring is just right for you.

This amazing ring from the "Tetra" collection features a trillion Black Drusy Agate gem stone. The black colored stone is quite unique as tiny quartz crystals, called Drusy or Druzy, form within an agate, adding beauty and uniqueness. The ring fits a US size 7 but it can still be re-sized one size up (8 ). The stone is 14.4 mm by 14.3 mm. The sterling silver ring has a satin brushed finish and the bezel setting has a polished rim around the stone.

For any custom sizes I have a few other black drusy stones available that have a similar shape, some smaller, some wider or narrower etc. Everyone will yield a different unique ring.

And if you rather would like to add some color to your life you can choose from these 2 peach or the brown drusy.

A druzy (or, more commonly, drusy) is the term that refers to a blanket of tiny, sparkling crystals often found inside a geode or an agate. The sparkling appearance of druzy is like that of spilled salt or sugar. By far the most commonly found drusy is quartz (agate or chalcedony), but many other species can exist in this form : chrysocolla, uvarovite garnet, rainbow pyrite, rainbow hematite, psilomelane, cobalto-calcite, calcite, dolomite, sphalerite, melanite garnet, demantoid garnet, azurite, dioptase, siderite, vanadinite and turquoise.

The formation of the tiny crystals occurs after molten rock begins to quickly cool, trapping gasses within it as it solidifies. The trapped gasses cause crevices and cavities in the cooling rock. Nutrient-rich groundwater later flows through these gaps and crevices, depositing layer after layer of minerals which crystallize on top of each other. The resulting encrustation is called druzy (drusy, druse, druses). This process doesn't take days or weeks, but a few hundred or even a few thousand years. Naturally colored quartz drusy is found almost exclusively in muted colors such as white, grey, tan and cream. Many quartz pieces, though, are dyed black or other vivid colors such as purple, red, green and blue, and some are coated with titanium or other metallic vapor which creates various iridescent finishes.

Fall Colors on Metal

2010-10-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

I just came back from my morning walk with the dogs and was inspired by all those beautiful fall colors out there: pumpkins on every porch, crazy Halloween decorations, colored Maple leaves on the concrete sidewalk, Bird of Paradise flowers with Hummingbirds over them and to top it all, a beautiful blue sky and sunshine. So I created my first ever Treasury list on Etsy: "Fall Colors on Metal".

It's a lot of fun browsing through the items of other amazing metal artist on the site. But it's also very time consuming. With that I have to go back to the studio to work and be productive. Since I haven't bought any candy yet, I will have to hide in the back with the lights out to avoid all the trick-or-treating :)

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New Luna Ring Collection

2010-10-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

Nodeform is releasing a new collection called "Luna".

These rings are inspired by the luminous light and soft contours of celestial forms. They are the tamer version of the earlier Alien Ring line. The first released rings show off some amazing bullet shaped gem stones: color changing Labradorite, white, peach and gray Moonstones, and one-of-a-kind Tourmalinated Quartzes.

Those are the stones I currently have available: 2 Labradorites, 4 peach Moonstones in different shades, one white and one gray Moonstone and 3 Tourmalinated Quartzes with different inclusion patterns. The cabochons are 11mm diameter and 10 mm high. Overall height is about 1.5 inches or 37.5 mm depending on the ring size. I haven't totally set the stones in the rings pictured yet. This way I can still remove them to offer any custom ring size.

Color changing Labradorite and a translucent peach colored Moonstone.

A clear Quartz with threads of black tourmaline running through it.

A bullet shaped natural Tourmalinated Quartz with black to reddish inclusions is the center piece of this art piece. The stone reminds me a bit of a Jackson Pollock painting with its tiny filaments running in different directions through the stone. A very unusual gem.

Some rings with color stones and gold accents are still in the works and will be release in the next few weeks.

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Upcycled Recycled Repurposed Ring

2010-10-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Precious metal prices are rising and it is time to bring my metal scrap to the refiner. last week I was digging through years of scraps, old and screwed up designs. I found a couple of pieces I created in my first year of jewelry making. One of those plain simple rings was kind of interesting but never really got the love it deserved from me. Instead of melting and recycling the metal I gave it new up-cycled look.

I renewed the texture in the grove at the top of square shaped ring band and added a square glowing orange sapphire in a 14 karat gold bezel setting. It now still has it's simplicity but with a new twist and added sparkle. The texture at the top is oxidized to provide a nice dark contrast to the yellow gold setting.

This ring is growing on me and became you favorite ring I wore all week long. It became part of my own jewelry box. I will probably add a new line with this design but need to revise the shank design a bit to make it cleaner and more comfortable. So watch out for new designs coming to Nodeform. This one will be called Square 1 ring. (I know it's very creative :))

South Sea Pearl White Gold Ring

2010-10-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

A white South Sea pearl can be a good alternative adornment for this classic ring design. Typically I had offered this only with a black Tahitian Pearl. I do like the contrast between the satin finish gray palladium gold and the beautiful white pearl.

This ring is shown with solid 18 karat palladium white gold. One advantage is that few if any people show any allergy or sensitivity as opposed to the more commonly used nickel based alloys. Palladium white gold does not yellow over time and therefore rhodium plating is optional. But it is more a warm grayish color than the rhodium plated white gold rings seen in so many stores. Still, one advantage is that it can be re-polished quite frequently without having to send it back to be plated. This is really great for people how work a lot with their hands and will scratch the surface of a wedding band.

My preferred choice for wedding or engagement rings would be using palladiums alloys (950 PD). As part of the platinum group of elements, palladium shares some of platinum's physical characteristics, including durability, luster and a similar silvery-white color. Palladium is still cheaper that white gold and a lot cheaper than the really expensive platinum.
I haven't actually cast this design in palladium yet. So far I used palladium mostly for rings that required stone setting where this metal is really great to work with. I am really looking forward to seeing this design done in palladium metal.

Sooth Your Heart with a Rose Quartz Ring

2010-10-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

A new limited production ring is added to my shop: sterling silver ring with a trillion Rose Quartz gem stone. Three paw like prongs hold this stone securely in place.

The cushion cut natural Quartz is hand set and the ring has a polished finish. Overall height of the ring is about 30 mm/ 7/8" inch. The height above the finger is about 10mm. The stone is 15 mm or 0.6"

I only have a total of 3 stones in the same size and cut for this design. So this will only be a very limited edition.

Rose quartz is one of the most desirable varieties of quartz. The pink to rose red color is completely unique, unlike any other pink mineral species. The color is caused by iron and titanium impurities.
And the best is: it heals your heart! "Rose quartz is an excellent heart-healing gemstone. It is a nature remedy that can be used for treating any issue that needs emotional healing. Rose quartz is a pink-colored crystal that carries a very gentle and soothing energy and gives comfort to anyone whose heart has been wounded." Who doesn't need a bit of a heart healing, we all go hurt at one time in our live.

Blushing Pink Mold For Tetra Rings

2010-09-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I finally got a rubber mold made for my Tetra rings. Here it is in it's nice blushing color of non-shrink rubber.

I did try to do molds myself some time ago in school and could never really get a nice working one. I think it's an art to cut rubber molds correctly. This one is actually a pretty simple ring shape and not that hard to cut. In comparison some molds I got for my Mermaid rings are awesome with all those undercuts and multi-part pieces. Nowadays I send my masters out to get a professional cut mold. Those work so much better when I do the wax injection. It also saves me from all those bloody cuts in my fingers from the cutting scalpel. If any one cares and want to try it out on their own, here is a pretty good description on how to make molds.

Here the master model and some wax copies from the mold with the injection and casting sprues on them. The master has to be larger than the final intended ring and setting to allow for shrinkage. This pink rubber has less shrinkage that normal rubber (about 2% vs. 8%) but also during the casting there is shrinkage from the wax to the final cast metal.

This mold will help me to speed up the Tetra ring making for the 10 mm stones. I still have to adjust the settings slightly for some of the stones. There are always slight differences in the trillion shaped stones I got. Some stones have a bit rounder sides or rounded or pointy tips or even deeper or shallower cuts. But adjusting the setting is so much faster after having the main shape already there. Then all else I do is sizing the band in wax correctly and send it out to the caster. I try to avoid sizing and soldering in metal and usually cast every ring to the intended ring size.

Here are a few new Amethyst colors I recently got in darker shades. For the smaller stones and fancy cuts I will still have to hand carve each ring separately and cant use the wax models from the mold.

bye, bye green beauty!

2010-09-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is not easy to be a jeweler. I get so attached to some of the jewels I create. It is hard to let go and send them off to their new destination. Last weekend I fell in love with this green ring. It has a large one-of-a-kind chrome green quartz set in the Rock in Paw design.

When creating a ring I stare at it for hours, trying to imagine the final look. And once it is all finished, I am so proud of this new little character that will hopefully make it's new owner happy.

Pale Blue Chalcedony Ring

2010-09-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Some days when business is slow and I feel in the mood of dreaming about new designs, I take out my box with those gems stones I bought probably 3 to 5 years ago. It feels like going through a treasure box you found at the attic of your parents house. Most stones in there are small; sapphires in different shades, garnets, some rubies, lots of citrines, topazes etc. These days I am more into large stones that make a statement.

Here I found one stone that I did not even knew I had. A beautiful pale blue Chalcedony cabochon measuring 14 mm by 24 mm. So sleek and modern looking. I played a bit around and designed a ring thats very simple, clean and seamless. Below is a photo of the wax model that will be cast in sterling silver. I might flush set some small blue sapphires or diamonds on the sides of the setting but I am not sure about this yet. I will see how it looks when it is cast in silver. Maybe it will just stay clean with those architectural simple lines, no sparkly add-on needed.

Fancy Cuts

2010-09-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to play with some fancy cut gem stones that I had in my treasure box. I designed two one-of-a-kind rings in wax and I can't wait to see them all finished in metal.

The first ring has a triangular fancy shaped tourmaline cabochon that has a incredible blood red color. I found this stone last week at my stone supplier in Downtown LA when I was searching for Morganite stones for a commissioned ring. Anyways this stone really caught my eye and I had to buy it. The tourmaline is 14 mm by 10 mm. I so love tourmalines especially when they have some natural inclusions. The variety of tourmaline colors and it's brilliance are just adorable.

Those asymmetrical lines were just perfect for a very dynamic design that is somewhat based on my Tetra ring collection. I am not sure yet what metal I will cast this in. This would look so great in a warm yellow gold. But 14kt will be so had to set the stone in and 18kt is probably out of my reach.

The second ring is pretty similar. Here I used a faceted fancy shaped pink sapphire.

This stone I acquired years ago just waiting to find the right design for it. It is 11 mm by 5.5 mm and a bit smaller than the stones I typically use for my ring designs. To give it volume I shaped the sides of the setting in an angle to the stone. Let's see how that works once it is cast in metal.

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Etsymetal Blog Carnival - Back To School

2010-09-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

I recently became a member of Etsy's team Etsymetal. Every month members blog on a different topic and this month the topic is:
Back To School - Where did you go to school? Are you still a student? What kind of student were/are you? If you had the opportunity to go back to school, would you? Where and what would you study?

I grew up in a small town right outside of Berlin when it was still East Germany. My way to school from Kindergarden to 10th grade was always the same. 3 minutes walk and I did not even had to cross a street. The buildings for the different grades were all located next to each other. Babies years 1 to 3 in the first building, Kindergarden (age 3 to 6) in the middle and Polytechnic school, grades 1 to 10 on the other side. This setup up of all school levels right next to each other in the same street block was very typical for East Germany. In the GDR school system, high school was only grade 11 and 12. Just before I started high school, the wall came down in 1989 and we switched over to the West German school system. It was essentially the same. A couple classes were not taught anymore; like "Staatsbuergerkunde", which was all about how great Communism is and how bad capitalism is for it's people. It was easy to let this one go. And we could now get 6 grades instead of 5. I never really got that change because getting a grade 5 on a paper already meant fail, so why the need to a grade 6? Luckily I never got a 5 or 6. I was generally a pretty good student and really liked math and physics.

After that I decided to study Architecture. I got accepted into the Bauhaus University In Weimar. This was where the original Bauhaus school started. It was originally founded by Walter Gropius and stayed in Weimar from 1919 to 1925. Later it moved to Dessau and then Berlin until 1933. After the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, a school of industrial design remained in Weimar. This school was eventually known as the Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and in 1996 changed its name to Bauhaus University Weimar.

The main building of the university.

At the time I studied there, the school did not have craft departments anymore. But the overall teaching was still based on the original Bauhaus idea to integrate craft, art, technology and science with lots of interdisciplinary projects. In 1994 they added a department for Art, Design and Media Studies and for a brief moment I thought about switching over. But I eventually stayed in Architecture. Sometimes I regret not haven taken the opportunity at the time, as Architecture is so much fun when you are in school, but the real world is not so glamorous and life changing as one would think. I spend an exchange year studying in Lisbon at the Universidad Técnica de Lisboa and finished in 1998 my Diploma in Weimar.

Since then I worked in architecture offices in Vienna, Mexico and moved to Los Angeles in 2003, where I still have a full-time job as an Architect. I had a brief thought about going back to school a couple years ago and applied to Harvard's GSD school for a master program in real estate. Fortunately I did not get in and it saved me from having to deal with huge school loans. School in Germany is free, I can't really get used to the idea of spending 30k and more a year on school tuition alone. If I have kids, I might have to move back to Germany to give them their free education too. It doesn't sound too appealing having to start a college fund for a kid before it's even born.

I did not discover jewelry making until a couple years ago. I first took a metal class at Santa Monica College to learn some basics. After buying some tools and starting a small shop in my garage over the summer, I was hooked and wanted to learn more. I eventually found a extension class at Loyola Marymount University taught by Sue Dorman. The class came with 24 hour access to their studio space and with all the tools one would want. I went there for a couple semesters since it was so nice to have the exchange with other jewelers and learn a few more tips and tricks. When I finally had space for my own studio, I quit going to class and now enjoy working in the quietness of my own space with my dogs under the table. At the moment I do not have any intentions of going back to any school anytime soon. But that can change in a couple years in case I get bored with Architecture and Jewelry.

Please check out the blogs of my fellow etsymetal members, as they share their thoughts on the "Back to School" theme.

Victoria Takahashi - Experimetal
Caitlyn Davey- Discomedusa
Thomasin Durgin - Metalriot
Danielle Miller
Stacey - Wildflowerdesigns
Ann Hartley
Beth Cyr
Jenny Baughman
Kathryn Cole

The Sky is the Limit - New Rock in Paw Ring with Swiss Blue Octagon Cut Topaz

2010-08-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am adding some colored stones to my "Rock in Paw" ring collection. This colorful cocktail ring features a vivid faceted octagon cut Swiss Blue Topaz stone in a very unique and sculptural design. Four "Paws" hold the central faceted stone.

This is a super clean stone with exceptional brilliance. Very fine cut! No visible inclusions. An amazing color and great light reflection. The faceted topaz is 16 x 12 mm (5/8" x 1/2").

The ring is hand carved and the stone hand set by me. The setting allows the stone to have light enter from all sides to really bring out this amazing color and sparkle. The ring is finished with a high polish shine.

To Purchase from Etsy or go to my web site.

1. DSC_9877, 2. DSC_9872, 3. DSC_9896, 4. DSC_9879

Captured Yellow Citrine Rock Ring

2010-08-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

New to the Rock Collection is this beauty, a very organic looking sculptural ring. A gorgeous tumbled large Yellow Citrine gem stone is held in place by six snug fitting sterling silver prongs.

The sides of the silver ring are narrow and the bottom is wider and flat to balance out the heavier top. This way the ring does not slide around but follows the natural contour of the finger. It is a very ergonomic design.

The natural stone in the ring is 31 mm long, 19 mm wide and 13 mm high and shows lot's of inclusions which vary the color of the untreated stone from a cristalline white to a clear yellow. Citrine is a variety of quartz. It is one of three traditional birthstones for the month of November.

To purchase this ring please visit my web site or go to my ETSY store here

Rocky Weekend

2010-08-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was really productive. I had two full days without any distractions and could just enjoy my time in the studio. After finishing some custom order rings, I finally started to work on some of those half finished projects that were starting to pile up on my bench.

Out came a colorful bunch of rings, all with different kinds of prong settings.

From left to right:

Oval faceted Tourmalinated Quartz, octagon cut Rutilated Quartz with coppery needle inclusions, huge tumbled natural Citrine rock, trillion shape checkerboard cut Rose Quartz and octagon cut Swiss Blue Topaz.

The ring with the rutilated quartz and the tumbled citrine are one of a kind creations. The stones are very unique. But I still have two oval tourmalinated quartz of similar size and look, two of the trillion rose quartz (one slightly larger and one smaller) and a blue topaz to be able to offer some custom size creations in the future.

I will now have to work on the photos this week and slowly list all those rings in my shop.

Creative disorder or how to embrace your messy desk (or bench)

2010-08-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

I am the proud owner of a messy desk - actually two of them. One at my day job and one in my studio at home. I have to say that the office one does not nearly look as exciting with all the paper work on it than my jewelry bench covered with tools and half finished rings.

So this is my desk at my corporate architecture job. The idea of a paperless office seems to be far, far away.

"An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands." www.nytimes.com

With that I am proudly saying yes to my cluttered mess and even show you some pictures of it.

This is a panorama of my studio. The work bench for metal work is on the left next to the window and on the right is the wax working set up and computer station.

I heard that people with messy desks may actually be less prone to procrastination. That's because tools are all in front of you, not filed away in a filing cabinet where they'll be easy to forget. Your desk may be messy, but at least you can see at a glance what needs to get done.
It takes time to organize. Some experts have suggested that the time it takes you to organize your desk can be more productively spent doing your job-and that organization doesn't save you a large amount of time to begin with. Disorganized people like me often claim that they know where everything is.

I actually do have some organization behind this mess, believe it or not.

Next to the metal bench is the soldering station with pickle pot in back, various fluxes , coal soldering blocks and third hand.

And right underneath in the file cabinet all tools for soldering.

The bigger torch I keep outside in the laundry shack, since I am always worried that there is a gas leak and I would kill my dogs in the house. When I solder I keep the sliding door open for good ventilation.

The next drawer has finishing supplies: sanding paper and polishing compounds. I have to keep those locked away from the dogs, they have a sweet tooth for this toxic compound.

That is the drawer with the hammers and dusk mask. My dog Pele always has to check if he can "borrow" my rawhide hammer for a little chewing session. So this drawer should better be locked too.

Say hello to my two shop apprentices: Pele (lying on floor) and Lena (looking for some trouble). They are good to keep around for the occasional sweeping of the floors. When I am not at home the studio space is off limit for them.

Drawer with finishing tools for the flex shaft. Those nail files are really great for sanding new castings.

My most used finishing and polishing tools I keep right on the table. Trying to put them neatly back in the drum would just be a waste of time.

Drum with not so often used finishing tools. In front there is a box with half finished rings which still need to get the stones set. I am always working on multiple rings at the same time. This allows me to keep working when one of the steps in the process requires to either put the piece down for a while to cool from the polishing, or it needs to go in the tumbler for a while or needs to be soldered and stay in the pickle for some time. I also get bored with some rings really quickly so this keeps me engaged, because I can switch between different designs. It's a bit of a bad thing when I really need to finish one order but rather want to continue working on a new design. On the left I keep a couple designs where I hit a dead end. Either I screwed it up, lost interest or they are bad castings and need to go in the scrap bin for precious metal recycling.

Over the wax table is a black board with current orders written on it. I typically have about 5 orders at any given time. It takes me 2 to 3 weeks to finish a typical order. Once it comes in, I mark on the board the customer name, ring name, size, date of order and where it is in the process. Once I made a max model, I will bring it to my local casting place. I typically get it back in 7 to 10 days. After that I sand, tumble, polish and set the stone. If I get more orders that I can put on the board, I create a quick spread sheet with all the info on it.

My messy wax table with ton's of wax shavings. In spring I decided it was time for a cleaning and totally wiped off the entire table. All tools where in their drawers, no wax shavings on the table, gem stones neatly packed away... After that I could start with any new designs for a week or so. It felt like having a writers block. The table was so clean I did not know how where to start. After I finally got some orders and was forced to start, the table was messy again in one minute and the creative juices were flowing. Since then I keep the table in a state of what I would call the "just got up-stage". Everything is right there, I just need to plop down in the chair and start right away. No putting out tools, or finding the right wax type. This is very efficient for me, since I sometimes only have 2 hours at night to work on my jewelry.

My favorite tool: the electric wax pen. And the newest addition to the tool family is the magnetic tumbler. It saves so much time in pre-finishing castings. In the bottle is a wax polisher.

Once rings are finished they go to my in-house photo studio which I put up on my dining table when needed. A light tent and tripod is a must. My camera is a Nikon D50, which I put on macro setting. All rings are photographed on black back painted glass with a black velvet background.

The photoshop work and listing to Etsy and my web site is all done on my laptop on my dining table. I hate to sit on the PC in the studio. Working on good photos sometimes takes as long as actually making a ring. Something that does not really reflect in my prices for some one-of-a-kind pieces. I only make money with rings I can reproduce when I can just use the same photos again and re-list. Unfortunately I really love making one-of-a-kind rings.

On sunny California weekends I move the office to my garden to catch some sun rays.

BTW: the clutter looks so much cooler if you use a hip Iphone photo app (Hipstamatic). Pictures from my Nikon SLR with its sharpness and true colors would just be too scary.

"The best part about the messy desk myth is that it allows many of us to proudly view ourselves as creative geniuses just waiting to be discovered." (muse.tau.ac.il)

So if you embrace your messy desk, feel free to share your story and pictures.

Bound Magazine Arrived

2010-07-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

This week the paper copy of Bound Magazine finally arrived from Australia.

It is so much better to see the page in the the real print than just the PDF.

And yes, my bench is pretty messy right now. I am working on way to many rings at the moment and really need a spring cleaning.

Need Some Sunshine?

2010-07-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

These last couple days the weather in Los Angeles was strange. It's cloudy, overcast and even some drizzle. Getting up in the morning was really hard. So I decided to bring a bit of my own sunshine into my day. I used the first ring that I designed for the Alien line for my sunshine experiment. It's a ring called Lemon Babies.

It has two yellow faceted Citrine stones of different size sitting really high in these organic shaped sterling silver settings. I had this ring for a while. It got a lot of attention at shows and ton's of hearts on Etsy. But so far it hasn't found a new home yet. So I decided to give it a make-over and plate the sterling silver in 18kt gold.

The gold now makes it almost glowing like the sun on a clear summer day. It's a sparkling golden sculpture. Whenever i look at it I feel I need to put some sunglasses on. Well, almost ;-))

Get your own carry-on sunshine!

A New Lodolite Quartz Ring

2010-06-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

This bold cocktail ring features a large Lodolite Quartz gem stone. It took me a while to get good photos for this ring. I had to do two photo shoots. But finally it worked.

The stone is held securely by six prongs and the ring has a polished finish.
This is truly a one of a kind piece.

About the stone:
Lodolite Quartz (Lodalite) is a type of included quartz crystal with inclusions of many possible colors and types, often having the look of gardens, landscapes, or underwater scenes. Thus, lodolite is often called garden quartz, landscape quartz, or scenic quartz. One of the most common metaphysical uses of lodolite is to bring energies to effect manifestation of one's desires. This particular stone reminds me of these mosses or algeas that I have seen on rocks in the Mojave Dessert.

Photo of desert rock.

1. DSC_8486, 2. DSC_8488, 3. DSC_8483, 4. DSC_8487

Feature in a magazine

2010-06-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Monday night I finally got the long awaited email from the Fashion Editor of Avalon Media - Publisher of Australian LOTL and BOUND Magazine letting me know that I was featured in their last issue of BOUND. A little dance around the dining table followed right after that ;-D. I was so happy to see a whole page dedicated to my jewelry.

They had contacted me back in January via Etsy and requested some high resolution photos of some of my rings. It took a while to finally get them published and I am so happy to see how it turned out. Can't wait to get my hands on an actual copy of the magazine. Apparently it's already in the mail.

"BOUND Magazine is the world's first international magazine for gay women and women with a connection to the gay community available through all news agencies from 12th Nov 09 for $7.95. The premium publication will be an innovative lifestyle monthly with content drawn from around the globe. With the tag line "Different culture, same lifestyle", BOUND will target the discerning female reader who has broad horizons regarding lifestyle, health, fashion, travel and culture. Inspired by the success of Sex and the City and The L Word, BOUND acknowledges and aims to please the growing sophistication of media-savvy women."