GS: Coming to the End

We're down to the end of the jobs... which means the end of the jewelry photos. But don't be sad, we still have a few more photos left!

This is a wonderful set of knife edge bands. But, as you can tell, the woman's band isn't actually a knife edge. But it has tapered outer walls, mimicking the knife edge of the men's band, but just a little more "blingy" in the middle.

Both bands are platinum. The woman's band has 3mm VS F diamonds equaling about 2.1 tcw.




If you can't tell, I have a new camera. And, obviously, I don't have the settings down yet. But I think you get the idea!

GS: The Website is Down

If anybody has attempted to go to the Green Spot Studio website, you may notice that it's different. Apparently, it was hacked. It looked fine if you typed the web address in directly, but if you Googled "Green Spot Studio" there was a notice that the site was compromised. We actually wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for a few emails from clients. What happened was somebody came in and put a bunch of image files into the site. Because the images were imbedded all over the site, we actually had to delete the entire thing (fingers crossed that I still have all of the images saved somewhere!)

We had been intending to build a new site, but put it on the back burner when I decided to close the business. But since I am hoping and planning on opening up my doors once again, down the road, I do want to keep a portfolio online. So, over the next few months, we will rebuild.

And I know that everybody likes looking at the pretty pictures... so don't worry! They will be back online again soon!

On a personal note, there is so much big stuff going on that I will share soon! There will be all kinds of new fun stuff coming up to blog about!

GS: Fingerprints, Part 2

When the palladium rings were returned to me, I was pleased to find that the finger prints survived the casting process. But I knew I had to handle the rings with the utmost care during the finishing/polishing process so not to disturb the fingerprints. Normally, I would use various types of files, emery and rubber wheels inside the rings to take off the top surface after casting (to remove any surface pitting, texture, etc) to create a smooth surface for polishing. But in this case, I had to clean lightly around the fingerprints, not touching them at all, and then I tumbled the rings for an extended period of time.

By tumbling the rings, it would not only remove any rough/sharp areas in the fingerprints while still retaining the pattern, but prepare the rest of the metal for final polishing.

And these are the final pieces.





When off, the finger print is clearly visible. But when worn, nobody else needs to know that they are there. The perfect little secret... more personal than most engravings.

And I was thrilled that my experiment worked!

GS: Fingerprints, Part 1

I have had so many inquiries about "Fingerprint" rings, which is the person's fingerprint imbedded into the ring (normally on the outside of the band.) But after I explain the process, nobody seems to want to go through with it. Until now.

There are a few different ways that jewelers make fingerprint bands. You can scan in a fingerprint and laser engrave the fingerprint, but I this process too mechanical and perfect. You can have the client sink their finger into clay and once the clay hardens, use that as a mold to melt wax into, but that can leave a rather faint imprint in the final piece. And then there is the way I decided to do it...

First, I lined the hard green (high melting temp) wax with a purple repair wax (low melting temp). Then I cut the rings in half (because they wanted to have the fingerprints on the inside of the rings.) And then I burned my fingers holding the wax over an alcohol flame to soften it up...




...for my client to SINK HIS FINGER INTO THE HOT WAX!



... e Voila! Wax imprint! (That is the fingerprint of the groom to be on the inside of the band of the bride to be.)



And then I make the bride to be repeat the process...





Then I had to reconnect the bands in the wax, do some light cleaning and have them cast. We actually did practice waxes to make sure the process was going to work, so if the casting didn't come out, I had backups.

Final ring photos later!

ME: Lino's Chair, Day 2 & 3

Just a quick post to show you what I've been up to. And, honestly, the pictures do not explain the amount of time and work that is going into this chair!

First I started building back up the head rest...


And then I covered the arms...



Then I had to work some magic to create the separation between the headrest and the back...


And this is where I left it...


And there is your sneak peek at the fabric for the chair.

Now, I'm sure you are thinking that doesn't seem like I've gotten that far... but trust me, this chair has been so much work. We actually had to do some re-designing today because the original spring cushion died on me. I didn't notice when I took it apart, but once we started to look at it we noticed that the structure had snapped in about 15 different places and there were sharp shards of metal over the entire thing. So, I need to build a deck to accept the new foam cushion. Oh well!

The funniest part is now that I'm finally onto my fabric and it's looking like I MAY finish by the end of the day on Friday, my instructor Seymour informed me that he didn't want to tell me on the first day, but I brought the most difficult chair... ever. And it would normally take him 4 days to do it, so I should be proud if I manage to do it in 5.

Keep you posted!

ME: Lino's Chair, Day 1

Just a quick post of what I accomplished on day 1 of upholstery boot camp!





I know it doesn't look like much, but it was time consuming. It should start looking more like a chair by the end of today! Off to class!

ME: My Idea of a Vacation

My goal was to be done with everything in the jewelry shop by today. Well, that didn't happen. I got nailed with 3+ days of migraines last week which just pushed everything back... but honestly, even without the sick days, I'm pretty sure there was no way in hell that I would have been done.

Oh well, everything will hate to take a little longer since this is a vacation week for me. I signed up for a one week intensive upholstery class at the Eliot School. Yup, only I would do manual labor for a vacation.

My project for the week, Grandpa Lino's chair.

It's looks like a recliner, but it's actually a rocker. And in mint green vinyl...


A god-awful ugly chair that is so damn comfortable, I just can't bear to part with it.

I decided to get a jump start on the chair and strip it before the class started. The inside of the fabric was stamped with the date of 1963, which answers a lot of questions as to why Lino would go with mint green vinyl.

As I stripped it, I had all kinds of goodies falling out of the chair...



It was full of pocket change, nails & screws (being a carpenter, I'm sure Lino's pockets were filled with things like that too), pieces to what I can only imagine was from the game Battleship, and a few other random things...



And after a couple hours, we have a naked chair...



I had to do a little gluing & tightening, but I think it's stable enough to start putting it back together again. More posts to come...