new bee wax...

Okay. I have finally given into the fact that my last bee looked like an angry hornet. Actually, it reminded me of the space ship of the Brown Hornet on the Fat Albert Show... remember that? Anyway, I needed to make a less angry looking bee. So, I came up with the cute little guy...



He will be 18K Yellow gold on a sterling silver chain. The chain will slip through the head... in the general area where his antennae would be.

Off to the caster in the morning and photos of it next week... promise.

seeing doubles...

I received an inquiry about turning that one grasshopper pendant into a pair of grasshopper cufflinks. Of Course! That's the joy of custom jewelry!

So today I finally got the time to sit down and carve the mirror image of my original little guy. And if I do say so myself, they are pretty damn close.


But there is going to be a little twist to these cufflinks. We are fabricating them to be both cufflinks and 2 single pendants. How, you may ask? Well, you'll have to wait it I have them finished to find out (but I have a great idea!)

More to come.

Complete Final Swirly Pendant

UPS finally found my package with the metal for the neck wire... so the swirly pendant is now 100% finished. And may I say, it is an amazing piece.


The pictures just do not do it justice (because of the high polished rounded surfaces.)

But the reason it is so amazing is because it has some many different aspects to it. It has the client's grandmother's diamonds (sill set in the gold), my clients diamonds from a pair of earrings... and all set into an insane platinum swirl.

This is a show stopper.

Now I just need to find time that my client and I can actually get together so I can hand it off to her!!!

Final Swirly Pendant

The swirl pendant is complete! Well... almost.... but I'll explain that later.

This pendant took so many steps it was absolutely insane. I know it looks simple, but it took quite some time to get it to this point! We started with a sheet of silver and cut it out, then we made a mold, then we adjusted the wax, made another mold, then we cast it (3 times) till we got it right. From there we cleaned up the casting, polished the swirl, set the small diamonds, polished it again... then we had to send it out to have the diamonds set in bezel balls laser welded in place. Then we put a final polish on the final piece.



But the part that is not completed is the neck wire that this will be hanging from. Unfortunately, UPS is currently missing that package with the material to make it. Hopefully it will be here soon!

the inner workings...

Well, every day is different here in shiny-land. It all depends on the work coming in, the work going out, the time of year, which moons are aligned, if there are any visiting wiener dogs... or a Sal with a day off, etc. So, I am horrible about just sitting at the bench for 8 hours a day.

Take today for example... I need to go take some pieces to a client on the South Shore, so I'm going to crash at my folks for the evening and curl up with my boys (I miss the wiener dogs!) Which takes me out of the shop for a 1/2 day to a full day. But I will try to get some work done at their house... which means sketching.

The general consensus is we should go for some what of an anatomically correct bee, but the one I made looks like a hornet ;) So I'm going to work on some sketches for other bees. And Sal is really keen on the idea of a little acorn pendant, so I'll play around with the idea.

But I'll have a few finished photos in a couple of days to share.

killer bee?

I'm working on a little project. I thought I should come up with a little series of pendants that could be made from 18K but still be affordable.

My first is a grasshopper. It will be in 18K Green gold on a sterling chain. The chain will slip through the pointed knees of this little guy. I took a little liberty on the anatomy (the placement of the knees) and still need to add in a front leg and possibly and antenna.


Next is a lady bug... it will be cast in 18K Red gold on a sterling chain. The chain will slip underneath the wings, so the head will be the bottom part.



And finally, the honey bee. It will be cast in 18K Yellow gold on a sterling silver chain. The chain will slip through his wings. BUT I'm not too sure about this one. I went for the slightly more anatomical correct honey bee (he's in his hanging out on a flower position) but would a slightly fatter, more cartoon like, bee sell better?


I just don't know what to do about the bee... any input?