The Tooth Fairy

Every once in a while I get a REALLY good story to go along with a piece of jewelry. Well, all of my custom jewelry has a story... but sometimes I get a REALLY REALLY good story.

I recently received a package through a friend that said 'Confidential! Tracey Only!' on it. As I started to open the padded envelope, what falls out you may ask? A TOOTH! As I peeked in it was full of baby teeth. My friend's father happened to come across all of his daughter's baby teeth and thought it would be funny to turn them into a piece of jewelry.

Well, after some research into 'tooth jewelry' and found a whole new category of Mourning Jewelry (or what I refer to as Victorian Death Jewelry.) Mourning Jewelry was typically made from the hair of a dead loved one, woven into intricate patterns and set along with onyx and other black stones under glass. BUT in some rare cases, Mourning Jewelry included teeth, which I find much more disturbing than the hair jewelry. And with that, I knew I wasn't going to make a necklace full of teeth.

I suggested a place to store the teeth... a sterling silver box. And with that, my friend's father agreed. And said that way she can decide what to do with her DNA... keep it in the box or throw out the teeth and use the box for something else.

So with that... I give you the box!





And apparently, he gave her the package from 'The Tooth Fairy.'

Kitty Ring

If you know me, you know I'm a dog person. But I must admit I had a blast making this 14K Red Gold Kitty Ring.

It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for one of my client's to give his favorite girl, but when I handed it over last week he just couldn't wait... it was burning a hole in his pocket. He nearly made it 10 minutes after walking in his door till he gave it to her.





Now, I must say, even tho I'm a dog person... this is a pretty cool cat.

Calla Lily Engagement Ring

This one was a process. As I have said before, sometimes it is more difficult to build an organic piece. This was one of those pieces.

While it was highly therapeutic to make a sculptural piece... it was difficult to keep it properly balanced. To create something that has the organic appearance of 'wrapping' around the finger multiple times but to keep it structurally sound was tough. But I think the final product came out beautifully.

The final piece is palladium with a green pear shaped tourmaline.

***LAST CHANCE FOR CHRISTMAS ORDERS***

Just one last shameless plug for my Green Spot Etsy page! This is your last chance to place an order in time for Christmas!

Have you checked out my Etsy shop? It's chalk-full of adorable buggies and flowers. All made especially for you by me... with love! What else could you ask for? OH... how about the fact that it is all eco friendly! OR the fact that the pieces start at $40! Here are just a few of the offerings...







Come on! Why buy a mass manufactured piece of jewelry for the one you love?

Insure your jewelry!

Okay... I had to take a little break from the blog for a bit because I had to clear my head before I could write about this. I think I am finally at that point.

I came home Thanksgiving night to a burglar in my apartment. I opened the door and noticed the lights on. That seemed strange seeing I am a stickler for turning off lights. So I stood in the doorway and shut off the hall light. That was when I saw the upstairs lights on and heard a rustling sound. For a very brief moment, I thought there was a squirrel in my apartment... but then I realized squirrels can't turn on lights. So I shouted up and then started screaming bloody murder.

When the police arrived, we saw how they got in. And slowly I started noticing what they took. Prescriptions, jewelry, bank information, etc. Sadly enough, I realize more and more things that are missing everyday.

Where am I going with this? Well, it seems that our insurance wasn't in order. We had renters insurance... that part was done. But the next part, and most important, wasn't. Our insurance required us to provide an itemized list of everything we wanted covered (this detail was buried in the paperwork.)

This is a total miscommunication between me and Sal. I never wear jewelry and always say I don't have any... he took this as me saying 'I have no jewelry.' The truth is, I had lots of jewelry. Pieces I had made in my jewelry training, some I had made just because, some that belonged to family members, some gifts... and none of it was on the list. So we will get a lump sum from the insurance (a fraction of the loss.)

It was an expensive lesson. But my mistakes are your gains. Take a lesson from me to take stock of the precious things in your home. Whether it is electronics, jewelry, music/movie collection... just take a day and inventory everything. Even photograph special items as proof. And remember... even the small things add up quickly.

Now... if you are a past client of mine, and you need a receipt for one of your pieces, drop me a note and I will send you a copy.

Overall, I just keep reminding myself that I didn't get hurt and things can be replaced. And I hold out hope that they catch this person that decided it was a good idea to go shopping in my home.

A new life to an Antique Engagement Ring

Usually when people bring family/estate jewelry to me, it's so we can pull it apart, melt it down and make something new. But this was one of those rare occasions that I got to actually give new life to an old piece of jewelry.

This was my client's grandmother's rings. He came to me asking what we could do... thinking that we would pull the entire piece apart and start new. But then he told me he had wonderful memories of his grandmother wearing this ring all the time. With that I knew we should use it as a jumping off point and update it.

The original ring was 14K white with a prong set center 1/2 carat mine cut diamond surrounded by beadset single cut diamonds in a 'flower' type head. Also, it had a very simple, plain shank.





So, the first thing we decided to do was remove the prongs and replace it with a bezel. This would not only add a clean line to the top and weight to the center stone, but apparently his finace-to-be is rather klutzy ;) A bezel adds security to any stone.



Next we decided to replace the shank. We added a heavier shank to hold beadset single cut diamonds. He had another one of his grandmother's rings that included single cuts that we decided to use.



And finally, we decided to engrave the sides of the ring shank. He had mentioned that his fiance-to-be loves everything with seahorses. While he didn't want something to scream 'seahorse', he did like the idea of including one. We came up with an engraving including a seahorse transitioning into a scroll so it would look simply like a scroll pattern.

And here is the final piece!






How wonderful is it to have something old and new combined into one!

Etsy

A quick update...

The Green Spot Studio Store has moved to Etsy for the holidays! We are attempting to rebuild the website (version 3.0 coming up!) and decided to pull the store down for now.

So please come visit us at our Etsy page! We are featuring affordable pieces for the holidays, prices starting at $40! And if you are looking for Christmas gifts, make sure to place your orders by December 14th to give us enough fabrication time!

As always, I appreciate your peeking and reading and visiting my sites! And I really appreciate it when you pass name and site addresses along to friends and family! Thanks!!!

Grasshopper Cufflinks

Seriously, how damn cute are these? They are simple Sterling Silver... and adorable! That's really all I have to say about them! They are just damn cute!

Calla Lily Engagement Ring Wax

It's been a few rough weeks of life getting in the way of life. BUT I'm finally back in the shop!!!

To kick off my holiday season of long shop days, I started with a custom calla lily engagement ring. This is for a client in the UK (love the fact that international clients are finding me!) If you scroll back a few entries, you can see the sketches that we began with.

Right when I started carving this wax, I knew it was the perfect first project to get me back to the bench. It is more of an 'artistic' project, which I have not had the opportunity to work on lately. I feel it is a mini sculpture first and an engagement ring second (which is a good thing)... and I must say, I have loved carving this wax.

But I thought it would be fun to share my carving process so far. I started off with a wax ring and scratched in the general pattern and started carving away...





And after a few hours, this is what I have completed so far...



So far the client is happy with what he's seeing. Of course I am thrilled with that fact, but even more so with the fact that he told me to run with it and let my creative juices flow.

Updating a Family Heirloom

I was approached by a bride-to-be to make something special for her husband-to-be. He had a family ring that they wanted to turn into a pair of cufflinks but let it slide. So, she 'borrowed' it from him (and would change the subject whenever he would mention it or start to look for it) and handed it over to me.





It was his grandfather's ring. A hand carved Tiger's Eye set in a low carat Yellow Gold 1/2 bezel/wide prong ring. Basically, the groom-to-be doesn't wear Yellow Gold and also wouldn't wear a ring of that size.

We decided on cufflinks set in Sterling in a similar manner (to be reminiscent of the original.) Also, because the Tiger's Eye was hand cut, we went with a plain cabachon stone of the same material and exterior shape.




Not knowing how difficult it would be to find a nice Tiger's Eye in the same size/shape, I bought a slightly larger stone from Thailand and had it re-cut in Boston to match. I have photos of the final cut stone somewhere, but I cannot find them at the moment... if I come across them, I will update!

The final touch was completing the pieces with an antique finish, just to add a little age to the cufflinks.






And our final piece, which was presented on their wedding day, was a hit.

Been a few insane weeks (UPDATE)

So I have gotten one response to my sketches so far. That would be the flower/swirl engagement ring. I got the feedback that one of the designs was headed in the right direction, the wrap calla lily ring.

Now we're at the point of playing around with the sketch (to elaborate a bit more), figure out the metal and the stone. I'm tossing around ideas of white or champagne diamonds, tourmaline or tsavorite. Then the metal would be either white gold or possibly a red gold flower with a white gold stem? Who knows!

We'll see what direction we head!

Been a few insane weeks...

So sorry I have been slacking again. But I have had an insane run of life getting in the way of life. All culminating with me getting sick. Nothing bad, just a head cold, but sick enough to spend my day on the couch.

But maybe it's a blessing in disguise? Because by planting my tooshie on the couch I actually got lots of sketching done for clients. Sketching that I have been attempting to work on for nearly 3 weeks now.

I am working on designs for an anniversary band using birthstones and an original engagement ring diamond, a swirly hippy-like flower engagement ring, diamond wedding band to match an engagement ring I recently fabricated and a few other things. No sketches have been approved as of yet (just the beginning phase to see if we're heading in the right direction) but why not show the randomness that comes out of a sick day on the couch.






Some days, just like anybody, my job drives me insane. But other days, like today, I remember how random and creative it can be.

If I didn't have such interesting people coming to me with such different (and sometimes outrageous) ideas, I wouldn't be able to come up with many of these designs. Because sometimes I forget, I'm not only inspired by everything around me... but by my clients and what surrounds them.

What a difference a photograph makes!

Since I have been in business, only twice has my engagements not resulted in weddings. And both times I was assured it was not because of my rings (yes, I take EVERYTHING personally.)

So, even though I do not take returns for broken engagements, I always try my hardest to help out a client. I am putting this amazing platinum and natural color change sapphire in the Concord Museum for a retrospective show of the past 125 years of the North Bennet Street School. For details, click here.

While the jewelry is not for sale, my hopes are that somebody will see my contact information on the ring and maybe, just maybe, somebody will want to buy a beautiful estate ring.

But... the whole point of this blog post was to show (once again) how amazing the camera is that Sal bought for my birthday 2 years ago. Plus... it's good to know how to take a decent jewelry photograph.

Before...


After...




Before...



After...




And just one last photo to boot...




If you would happen to like any information on this piece, it is a contemporary platinum ring size 7.5 with a diamond cut round 2.15 untreated color change sapphire (blue in natural light and purple in man made light.) Drop me a note through the website if you are interested!