Vintage Style Flower Engagement Ring

I love this ring. It is so whimsical and sweet! And I love the fact that it has a bit of a 'vintage' feel to it.

It is 14K Palladium White Gold with a 1/2 ct diamond that came from the grandmother's engagement ring. The side stones are different shades of orange sapphires. Everything is set nice and low because the client works with her hands (on her bike, in the garden and in the kitchen.)

But my favorite part is the fact that they feel that the grandmother would approve of the ring.

Bridal Expo

Yesterday was an exhibitioner at the Guilded Bride Boutique Expo. While it was a beautiful day, it was slightly too beautiful. Unfortunately it kept most of the potential clients from coming in... well, the sunshine and the Greek parade that shut down the surrounding streets. But I did have a couple bites... and if I get 1 custom job out of it, I'll be happy!

But it was great for connecting with other vendors and preparing for another show next weekend. It's the CT EcoChic Wedding and Home Show. It's this coming Saturday, May 2nd, from noon to 4 in Stamford. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by!

Happy Earth Day!

I thought this flower ring was the perfect piece to be working on today... Earth Day. Basically, this ring was fabricated out of 100% recycled metal and will hold a family diamond. This is the perfect example of a cool way to recycle precious materials.

The setting is 14K Palladium white gold holding a 1/2 ct family diamond in a modified bezel. There will be orange sapphires bead set on the 'leaves' of this flower shaped ring.

Honestly, this is the most whimsical ring I have ever made. These are just a couple quick photos... but it gives you an idea!

Baguette Band design

So much stuff to blog about, so little time! But here's a new wedding band design to tide you over! I will have 4.5 x 3 mm baguette diamonds set the long way... 5 in total.


The diamonds are .3 ct each, so will total approximately 1.5 cts. They will be set in platinum.

Wedding Band Season

We're entering the time of year I lovingly refer to as 'Wedding Band Season!' With spring, summer and early fall the wedding season in NE, we're in the throws of preparing for them!

Here is a quick shot of a set I finished today. The woman's band is 18K White gold and has 7 flush set sapphires of various sizes and tones of purple. The gent's band is palladium with a single purple sapphire flush set on the inside.


There will be plenty of wedding band photos to come!

Guilded Bride

If life wasn't insane enough, I decided to try my hand at a exhibiting at boutique bridal shows!

There will be three over the next 3 months... but the first is the Guilded Bride. It is going to be held at the Algonquin Club on Newbury Street on April 26, 2009.

If you would like to go, get a ticket ahead of time... only $5! And they will only be allowing the attendance to only 500 guests, so buy a ticket early. Click here to get a ticket.

Let me know if you'll be attending! Would love to see you all!

little birdie, part deux!

I made a sweet little Sterling Silver and Sapphire birdie necklace.

The birdie is cut out of silver sheet with a sapphire briolette hanging from their beak. Then on the back of the chain is a removable extra 3" with 7 briolette to hang down the back.

more to come...

Just a quick update.

I have a ton of stuff to post... but it's going to be a few more days. I need to do all of the annoying stuff like 2008 taxes, quarterly sales taxes, work... and getting my mri and xrays in order. I need knee surgery... wee!

But I will fill you in on everything... all in due time.

New Cards...

My new cards came in... and they are beautiful! All because of my cool-ass graphic designer Paul O'Hearn! I love working with him because I send him pretty things and basically say 'make it work' and he does!

When it came to designing the card, I wanted something simple, clean and easy to read.


But the back side I was looking for something snazzier. I have a photo of flocked wallpaper from Versailles that I love...



... And this is what Paul came up with!


The cards were printed by Greener Printer. They are printed on recycled paper with soy based inks... and even the printing presses are run off of alternative energy (off grid.) Pretty sweet, huh?!?!

Save the Date

Every year the North Bennet Street School hosts the Annual Evening of Traditional Craft... their major fundraising event of the year. The Save the Date for 2009 features my 14K Pearl Clasp.

I thought I would share!

Meltin' Metal

I talk about being green and recycling metal, but I don't show you the process. So I thought I would document the fun part... meltin' metal.

Honestly, I love melting metal. It is fun. Yes, if you don't know what you're doing, you really shouldn't be playing with large flames and molten metal... but I know what I'm doing (and take all of the proper precaution.)

We're starting with three 14K Yellow gold wedding bands...


The rings have been cleaned and stones removed and cut into small pieces...


We clean the metal to make sure no contaminates get mixed into the metal when melted. Also, any visible solder is cut out because it melts at a lower temperature and contains different alloys than plain 14k, which can both cause pitting in the final piece.



To begin the melting process we clean the ceramic kiln. To do this, we heat up the kiln and add a VERY small amount of powered borax. When the borax is heated, it creates a fine glass layer over the ceramic to keep the metal from being trapped in the porous ceramic. Any extra borax is heated and poured out of the kiln.


To melt the metal, you start with the largest pieces first. This is because they will take the longest to heat up. If you start will small pieces and add a large piece, it will freeze the metal and the overall process will take much longer.


And the above photo is just cool. Seriously, I love melting metal!


Okay, so you can see a small piece of told in the tweezers in my right hand. Each piece is added one by one. The metal in the kiln balls up when heated to a molten point and when that ball is seen with the surface 'dancing' it is the time to add more metal.


If you look carefully at the above photo, you see a 'ball' of metal glowing at the bottom of the kiln. That is the metal! This is the point when you stir the gold with a carbon (or quartz) rod to remove any contaminants from the ball. The contaminants will float to the surface and stick to the rod.


And finally this is me making new 'grain' from the molten metal. The metal is poured into water to form small pieces. Look carefully, you can see the glowing metal! The reason for this process is to mix all the golds together. Each jewelry manufacturer uses a different alloy (recipe) for their gold... this blends them all together.

Most of the time I will not be making grain, I usually make new stock (sheet, wire, etc.) But this gold will be mixed with new gold and used to cast a ring.

And finally... this is what the rings turned into...


There you go! Meltin' metal!

Final Flying Buttress Ring...

I know, I know... this is not a real 'flying buttress' but it works with similar principals... just somewhat reversed! So, I'm taking artistic license with this... this is my descriptive term and I'm sticking with it!

But whatever you want to call it... it's beautiful! If you don't remember the Flying Buttress Engagement Ring, here is a photo of it...


And here is the matching wedding band...




And the engagement ring and the wedding band together...



And finally, the bride and grooms weddings bands together. They both have a 1.5mm Ruby flush set inside the band with an engraved N and K in script on either side of the stone.

Organic Engagement Ring

I'm starting a new engagement ring.

A client came to me with a 3 stone ring that belonged to his grandmother. While he already proposed with that ring, they decided to create something that reflected themselves... and in comes Tracey to help!

We sat down and chatted and I got to know them a bit. While we talked, I wrote down words like:

-Feeling of movement
-Expressive
-Color (warm / orange)
-playful / whimsical
-organic

I came up with something that I felt reflected them well. We decided to use only the center diamond, and save the other two side diamonds to make gifts for siblings. The overall ring will be about as organic as they come... the diamond will be 'growing' out of the center of the band.

The ring will be made out of Palladium white gold, because while it is white gold it still has a warm color that will allow us to use orange sapphires traveling down the leaves on the band.

Sorry this isn't the best sketch... but it will give you an idea. But more photos to come soon!

mexican wiener dogs...

When we were in Mexico I kept seeing these little sombreros EVERYWHERE! And every time I saw these tiny sombreros, I would threaten Sal with buying them for the dogs. The reason I say threaten is because Sal is a minimalist and disdains clutter... so if we bought them it would be something else to collect dust. But every time we passed another tourist shop that had them, I would pick them up and give him the sad puppy eyes... you know, just to torture him.

Well, crazy enough, one of the other couples decided that it would be the most fun to buy them for me because it would drive Sal nuts! Yay! So I am now the proud owner of a pair of wiener dog sized sombreros! And what do you do with wiener dog sized sombreros... you put them on your wiener dogs!

So, without further delay, I give you...

Perros de salchicha Mejicanos con sombreros!

No more custom...

Sorry for the lack of updates. I was out of the country for a bit... and then came home with an inner ear infection with included vertigo. I couldn't handle looking at my computer, let alone working. So I am now playing catch up with EVERYTHING! Including my blog.

But tonight will be a quick talk about the use of the word 'custom.' Custom has to be one of the most over used terms in the jewelry industry. What I do is custom, meaning that I make it specifically for an individual client, with that clients input, by hand. Most larger jewelry companies that offer 'custom' but is actually 'pick your diamond, pick your setting.' That is not custom. That is not even semi-custom! But everybody offers 'custom' jewelry!

The reason I bring this up is because I'm working on my new business cards and I have been debating the term 'custom.' My cards have always said 'custom jewelry and fabrication' but do I want to continue using that word? So, for MONTHS I have been researching a replacement term.

I decided upon 'bespoke.' What is bespoke, you may ask. Well, bespoke is a term traditionally used when talking about custom made/tailored suits (mainly in the UK.) Today, the term is also used with jewelry.

Now, the problem with using bespoke is that most Americans do not know what that means. But I decided that is a good thing! Teach somebody something new! And when I hand off a card, the least it will do is start a conversation. So bespoke it is!

Now as a side note, a couture clothing designer I know shared this article with me. It was from a year ago in WWD about FAUX COUTURE. Take a peek... it feels my pain about FAUX CUSTOM.

little birdie...

I'm working on a little birdie pendant... a Swallow to be exact. It will be in sterling silver with a sapphire briolette hanging from it's beak.



I'm not sure if it's going to be cut out of sheet (with the details in negative space) or carved out of wax (slightly more 3D.) We will figure it out.

On a side note, it reminds me of the Vince Guaraldi Trio song Little Birdie written for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. That song makes me smile just thinking about it. Click here to listen!

props!

Hey my shiny bloggers! Good news to share... I got a little free press! Yay! skirt! boston included a Green Spot pendant under this section 'skirt! loves' for their February issue.

The featured my little 18K Ladybug Pendant with Black Diamonds.


If you aren't familiar with skirt!, it is a progressive woman's magazine. And may I add in, very cool and free! Pick one up, you can find them all over Boston!

Now, on a side note... I have to thank all of my shiny friends! I appreciate all of the support I received from my last post. I wasn't fishing for compliments... but I am so grateful for all of the emails that I received. You make me want to keep fabricating crazy pieces!

how do you respond?

Okay, here it comes! It's a Tracey Diatribe! Maybe it's because I have been snowed in or because I'm in the 'paperwork' stage of most of my business, but I feel like sharing!

Recently I was speaking with an acquaintance and I showed them the baby spoon I was working on. When they asked the price and when I responded they proclaimed 'that sounds like a rip off to me.' How do you come back from something like that? I was just stunned, babbled something and changed the subject. But really, I need to figure out how to respond in situations like this.

I decided to do a little math. Was this baby spoon a rip off? The cost of the sterling silver and the hand engraving (which I have done by a master engraver) comes to over half of what I was charging for the piece. BUT then I spend around 6-8 hours making the spoon (sawing, filing, dapping the bowl, sanding, tumbling, polishing and delivering it to the engraver), one full work day. By doing this math, I realized I make under 10 dollars an hour fabricating this piece. I'm sorry, I don't work in a 3rd world sweat shop. And just like everybody else, my time is worth money.

So, what does this make me realize... well, first off, I'm not charging enough for baby spoons. And second, I need to figure out how to defend my pricing.

I thought I should do what Sal would do, start off with research. A basic Google Shopping search for 'Sterling Baby Spoon' gives a few options of mass manufactured, plain, thin, machine engraved spoons ranging in price from $30 - $100. Okay, that is less than I charge, but mine is made by me specifically for the client... not by a machine. Then I added in the the word 'handmade' to see what that would result in, and there were only antique pieces for sale with the price closer to $225. So, where does that leave me? Upping my price.

Let's think about this. I not only spend the time fabricating the piece, but I spend my time with the client designing it (in person/answering emails/on the phone), writing up contracts, ordering materials and laying out the pattern ALL BEFORE I START MAKING THE PIECE! And none of that time gets figured into the final price.

Sal gets really upset with me because I am constantly working (even while we're watching movies or television, I'm on the computer), but not charging anything for that time. It's not that he feels I'm a bad business person, he just wishes I could be more like a lawyer, charging down to the 15 minute intervals. Wouldn't that be nice? I do have 4 years of college, 2 years of jewelry training (student loans up the wazoo), and then apprenticeships with a few different people (nearly unpaid.) That equals about 7-8 years to training total... so why can't I charge more for my craft?

I guess I don't have a final answer with this note. I just need to figure out how charge properly to survive and keep my clients. It's all about a happy balance.

But, as a side note, every once in a while I receive a little something extra from my clients. A hug, a note, a special thank you. And no matter how much I make, the unsolicited thank you is the most delightful part. But don't get me wrong, I still like getting paid so I can pay my bills, too.

Elephant Baby Spoon

Just thought I would share a sweet little sterling baby spoon that I finished. It's for Sal's older brother's baby (Milan.)

Sal got to choose the pattern... so he decided on dragonflies and an elephant because he had bought them a piece of artwork with a similar image. And to finish it off, the initials 'mDs' were hand engraved in script.

Super sweet.

Nouveau inspired engagement ring

I finished the Nouveau inspired Calla Lily Engagement ring. It came out beautifully. Unfortunately, the photographs didn't.

I know I have mentioned it before, but sometimes different pieces of jewelry do not photograph well. I have taken over 500 photos of this ring... and while they have gotten moderately better, they still do not show the beauty of this ring.

Basically, because of the multiple contoured surfaces of this ring, along with the extremely high polish, the camera is having problems reading the light and dark areas.

But I got a few decent photos... I just wish I could share when it truly looks like!





It is a 1.25 ct blue sapphire bezel set in a hand carved calla lily patterned platinum band.