One step closer...

One step closer. I put the window in the head of the ring (so it will let some light into the stone) and off to the caster it went! And when I get it back all I have to do is clean it up and set the stone (easier said than done!) But I think it will be a very cool looking engagement ring. And I love it when clients says things like... 'this looks amazingly excellent!' Now that's a good response :)

Final Tea leaf Earrings...

These are the final earrings. I have to say... I think they actually look like leaves! I know my pain in the ass client says he likes them (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) but he's not convincing me.

NEW model of the engagement ring...

okay... this is the second attempt at that engagement ring (you remember... the last one gave me a nasty blood blister so i had to kill it... hahahaha! okay, so it really didn't happen that way, but we will pretend it did.)

the orange line is about where the metal will fold over the stone. and the orange square is where i may be cutting a window out. i'm waiting to hear from the client if he wants the window or not.

but it's slowly coming along!

2nd pair of 24k earrings

i'm making a 2nd pair of 24k earrings. these are modeled after tea leaves. they are not quite finished, but i thought i'd show you how they are coming out so far.

oh the things i make!

soooo... i am making a pair of black onyx earrings for a little old lady client. about the size of a nickel. and do you know what they will look like... come on, i will give you one guess...

NIPPLES!

yes... i'm making a pair of ear nipples. oh... just shoot me! the things i will do for money :)

killed it!

uck! been working like a dog on the engagement ring... and it died :( it's sooo ugly that i can't even post a picture of it!!! basically, when i was all done building the model i put the stone in there... and the culet (sharp point at the bottom) was right at the bottom of the head of the ring!!! UCK!!!

so i thought, seeing it was a model, i would solder a liner in it to add more metal under the head... and you know something... i thought to myself 'i should just stop, make a new one, and make a mold of this one, you know, just to have it.' BUT NO! why didn't i listen to myself. well... it's a mess now :( i found out you can't really put a liner in something that has a ton of solder joints to begin with.

soooo... i've started it over again. soon you will see a final product.

but the lesson of the day... YOU SHOULD REALLY JUST LISTEN TO THAT LITTLE VOICE!!! KNOW WHEN TO STOP!!!

ouch!

so... i'm working on an engagement ring. in the process, i managed to get a giant lovely blood blister!!! but you can see the ring in progress (along with my blood blister!)

finished 24K earrings

Well, here they are. They are VERY organic.

I ran into a few difficulties working with it, if you want to know what they were, just ask.

24K Leaf Earrings...

So... this is a posting to show how I'm making earrings for my friend Sal for his mother's birthday gift. The earrings are made out of 24K gold, which is not usually used for jewelry (it's too soft). But he wanted them in 24K, so I'm doing it. And it's proving to be a fun experiment. Soooooo... here are the steps.



This is the loose 24K grain that I purchased.


I had to melt down the grain to make the sheet to cut the basic shapes from.


This shows basics of dapping out the shape (not finished yet)...


And here is another rough leaf...


There will be lots more to come with these earrings... I still have a few things to figure out. But if anybody has any questions on how I'm doing something, just ask!!!

finished wave...

This is the finished wave pendant. One is in 14KY and the other in Sterling Silver. (They look a little different from the green wax a few posts ago!) I'm driving down to the shop tomorrow to them off (there are 7 in total). Keep you posted on what they say :)

a possible engagement ring...

This is a possible design for an engagement ring. The shaded areas are the metal, the white areas are neg space (cutouts)... the top would have one center stone with multiple small stones set around it (to create the idea of a larger stone... very traditional antique.)

Sun Goddess Pendant

I'm working on a Sun Goddess Pendant. At first I thought we were going to have an art nouveau figure around a center sun, but the client wanted a simple sun with flame like rays. One picture shows the orig sketch that the client decided on and the other is a rough wax that I started carving.

The piece will be made of out yellow gold with random set warm toned stones on the center and the rays. OOOOO... very warm and summer-like!!!

I'm just waiting on a final go-ahead to finish this puppy!!! I can't wait to post it to show you all what the final piece looks like!

a couple new sketches...

Well... I have a couple of engagment ring jobs going on. This one is for a nice, simple, clean lined contemporary ring. He liked lots of angles and lots of lines... I tend to agree :) There is nothing like a nice contemporary piece!!!

In the sketches, the ring has a red stone in there (we aren't sure of what type of stone will be in there, diamond, ruby, sapphire... we're still working out the budget.)

Wave Pendant...

Doesn't it always figure! I slave for days and weeks and months on different pieces of jewelry... and what gets noticed... this wave pendant that I made for a buddy. Nothing insanely special, sterling silver, textured (wavy) outside and a smooth wave shape on the inside (see attached picture). Well, she was down the Cape and low and behold the owner of a totally old school jewelry shop and the owner LOVED it! LOVED LOVED LOVED it! Soooo, he placed an order for some. And if they sell the way he thinks they will, he wants to talk about matching earrings, maybe a bracelet... who knows.

But it is still nice to get noticed. So the pictures show the waxes I carved for the pendants (the heavier one is in silver and the thinner is for gold). To get these done as quickly as possible (to get them to she shop by next week, so they will have a few weeks of summer in the shop on the Cape) I carved the waxes and sent them off to a casting house in Jersey to make a RTV mold of each of them (RTV means Room Temperature Vulcanized, which means it's a rubber mold that cures in room temp, unlike regular rubber molds that you would have to basically bake) and then they will shoot the waxes I need (5 silver and 2 to start with) and cast them then send them right back to me. I should have them by Tuesday or Wednesday, give 'em a polish, and I can bring them to the shop by Friday. Lovely!