New Beginnings...

So my goals for January were threefold:

1) Create at least 10 items that I could send out to cast, to be my first production line.

Above are the 10 items (I think). I sent them out to my 3rd try on casters- I hope I find this 3rd casting house has the best balance of cost, quality, and turn-around time. Of course, none of the above are oxidized for contrast or with stones set, so I'm not sure how much you at home will be able to tell how the final product will look, but I am hopeful. I can already tell that the ones with lots of plain sheet space do not come out as well as I like. The predicament I have is the darkening of the background so that it is even.

But when they come back from the caster, I have a plan! I am going to throw them in the tumbler with fine abrasive media to create an almost sand-blasted look, then I will oxidize them, hoping that it will be even and not streaky. Then I will buff the tops. Hope I am on to a good solution! I browsed the internet at pictures of others' granulated and oxidized works, and somehow I see more even-ness in the background black than I have been able to achieve. I am hoping this treatment will be the correct one in order to get that same result!!

I also sent in this piece- it is a ring shank. You know how much I love these twisted wire, braided-look shanks. So, I figured, why not make it my signature? That way, my 'line' of products will include ring shanks that are consistent, too. I hope they look good together! Plus, these take time to make so it'll be nice to have a bunch at the ready!

So, these are the new pieces I've made this month, and they will join the other 4 I made last year. I hope I have enough range in scale. These all will become earrings, and some will become pendants and rings as well. I even ordered some in brass so I could see how they looked in 'gold'. That may be a good option too. I did order a lot of calibrated stones. My other fear is I ordered too many and will offer too many choices! Maybe each piece will have a certain limit to options. We'll see- all will be decided when I get my pieces and stones in!

This is illustrative of my second goal:

2) Get the 6-8 pieces that are half-done on my bench DONE.

Originally I had this in an Irene Neuwirth-type design, but it just didn't 'sing' to me, so I re-thought it as you see above, and below. I think it looks kind of cosmic and far-out, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the final turns out. Now that my items are in the caster's hands, I am ready to move on to my second goal- this week! (although they are calling for snow here this week and so my kids may be off for a coupla days... sigh....

And what is my 3rd goal????

3) Work on some new, experimental pieces!!!

Okay, I actually have a few things in mind for new work, and experimental work consists of playing with my kistka, but you'll have to watch this space for more updates about that.....

Happy 2014!!

 Happy New Year All! I hope 2014 is a healthy, happy and prosperous year for us all! I just updated my website- hope you'll have time to check it out. I am in the midst of re-programming it so that it will be more 'readable' by search engines, but it's a slow process....

You can find it here:

http://www.DanaEvansStudio.com

I also managed to get a cache of medium/large Ethiopian opals cut before the kids were home for Winter Break- half of these I recently bought, and half I've had for a while. Prices for rough were down 1/3, and even cut stones have come down in price. Not sure why.... Due to my main supplier having sold out of his opal stock, I've had to rely on other suppliers and myself! I did manage to get a few nice faceted opals at the last International Gem & Jewelry Show, and these will do nicely for those customers who prefer cabochons. Some had a lot of sand in them, but I think once the bezels are on, they'll look great. It's always a struggle figuring out how much stone to cut off, and how much sand is acceptable to leave on, in order to give the stone more weight. Myself, I don't mind much sand, for it reminds me where it came from and that it's a natural object. 

Once the kids are in school next week, I have gobs of projects to finish up- look for more good stuff here soon!!

A Photographic Opportunity

This holiday season I had the opportunity to consign some pieces to photographer/portrait artist Leslie McIntosh in Virginia Beach. She wanted to try to market jewelry from a smattering of different artists and did several shows in her beautiful studio, with creative displays and marketing.

What's so interesting is how she photographed my pieces, above. It's always surprising to see one's work photographed by someone else. It takes you aback because of the way they 'see' your work, and the decisions they make to package it. But there are definite advantages to having a photographer market jewelry!! It's a beautiful photograph. The makeup dots above her eyebrows seems to reinforce the granulated technique of the jewelry.  It has a certain spirit, too, which I think aligns with the spirit of the pieces. As I always am taking extreme close-ups of my pieces, I do seem to want to look closer at each of the pieces, but I have to remind myself to take the image in as a whole.

What do you think??

ABI Profile

Check out this link for a profile of me by the Arts Business Institute:

http://www.artsbusinessinstitute.org/artists/artist-profile-dana-evans/

The Sacred & the Profane

In my world as a stone addict, there are 2 types of days: the sacred days, and the profane days.

The sacred days include: days shopping for gems.

The profane days: every other day.

However, this past weekend blurred those lines a bit. I went to the International Gem & Jewelry show at a newish location, the Gaylord Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. I was going directly to my opal vendor, S&S, because I've had customers wanting faceted opal rings and S&S has the best selection. Their faceted opals are the cleanest, clearest, and brightest I've found. So what did I find? They had recently sold their ENTIRE inventory of faceted opals to a 'guy who makes jewelry for TV'.

I. Was. Crushed.

Good for them; sucks for me. AND they won't have a selection of them in stock again for months, after Tucson in Jan/Feb. AND they are not guaranteed to be the same quality as their last stash.

To top things off, my second choice for faceted opals, Best in Gems, was not even PARTICIPATING in the National Harbor show.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

Left very unsatisfied. To top it off, I ventured into the small wholesale section looking for chain for my friend Karen, and bought it from a new vendor, only to find my tried-and-true vendor there for the first time, at better prices! OMG I broke my own rule of walking around first before I purchase!

Okay, okay, onward and upward...

Then yesterday, I took my daughters to the yearly local Gem & Mineral show at George Mason University in Fairfax VA. I did score and bought some rough opals at 1/3 the cost they were several years ago from the same vendor. That was good. Just have to cut them. So I'm hoping they'll be beautiful and my customers will 'settle' for the cabochons I cut over the faceted option.

2 years ago I bought 2 gorgeous Williamsite cabochons from a vendor there, and was hoping he'd be back with more, but he wasn't even there. Chances are his stock has completely sold, anyway.... :(  We'll see if I see him at a larger gem & mineral show in March. I'll definitely see my opal guy in March- fingers crossed he has some nice stones with him!

Oh the agony!

To top it off, I got some repeat castings back- I asked for 10 of model #1, and 6 of model #2. Wanna guess what I got?? You guessed it! 6 of the first one and 10 of the second one!

Maybe I'll make some great things this week, as well as some sales, to get my spirits back up.

Lesson learned: buy as much as you can when you see it or you may be sorry later!

New Ring Project- Lots of Opals!

This week I made a new ring using some opals. I can't resist the lure of opals- somebody stop me!!

I laid out my stones- I liked the idea of combining a long lean, irregular blue-tinted Australian opals with these orange-hued Ethiopian opals in a row.

This ring, done a few years ago, was similar, but used big granules instead of stones.

First I made the bezel for the large opal, and used commercial bezel cups for the smaller ones- they are time-savers.

I also wanted to encorporate some granulation, because my work has been using that technique lately, and also because there needed some decorative quality!

I fluxed and placed everything, then waited for it to dry, then heated until fused!

Next I cut/trimmed the excess sheet and soldered on a shank from commercial wire I recently got that was nice and thick. Thick shanks are ideal for big or heavy rings- all the surface contact with your skin avoids the rings spinning around on your finger, which heavy rings are often guilty of...

Dunked in an oxidizer to turn it black....

Then the high points polished and stones set. Cool!!

Next week: these for earrings! I may use the same technique of granulation in between stones. Check back...

Here's a listing of the ring in my shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/168546374/world-tour-of-opal-granulated-ring?ref=shop_home_active

Spinner Ring- Illustrated

I recently had posted about the 'trick' of making a spinner ring. This week I documented making one for a customer and thought I'd share. You can see the earlier post here:

http://stoneaddictblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/new-spinner-rings.html

First, I needed to make the inner band a size 8, so using my ring chart, and knowing I was using 22 ga. silver (which ran through the rolling mill, hence making it 23 gauge) I figured the length I needed, soldered it closed, and oxidized/buffed it to bring out the contrast of the texture. You can certainly use a thicker gauge! This is as thin as I would go, though. It's a nice lightweight band but is not flimsy or cheap. 

I actually got some of the channel wire I use to inlay the opal cabochons casted, because that is the most time-consuming part of making these spinner rings. So I use a casting and my round ring-shank pliers to start bending it into a circle.

I'd recommend making the outer ring quite tight to the inner ring. You still want it to be able to spin around, but it should be no more than 1/2 mm or so airspace between the 2 rings. This insures you don't have to flare the inner ring too much to achieve a lock-down on the outer ring. It could take some time to achieve this- be patient, do lots of measuring, and don't be afraid to take a smidgen more out and re-solder!

Test it to be sure it spins around smoothly...

Next I darken the interior of the channel because opals look best on a dark background. I use a fine black Sharpie!

Ready for opals!

I use the inner ring to hold the channel ring while I epoxy in the stones. I mix the epoxy and do half the circumference of the ring at a time. I use a toothpick to apply the epoxy- too much looks messy. Then I let it cure overnight.

Finally, I flare one end with my dapping punch, put on the outer ring, and flare the other end to match. Voila- all done!!

Want one? Here's a link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167820747/opal-spinner-ring?ref=shop_home_active