What Made Me Think I Could Become a Metalsmith?

When something grabs my interest and attention, I grab onto it with the passion of a terrier with a fresh new bone!  I had a friend who made very pretty wire wrapped jewelry, lots of baubles and shiny gems went into her every piece. I used to buy her work until one day she said, you can learn to do this yourself, let me teach you some basics. Well, that was the top of the whirlpool that drew me forever downward into the abyss. I had always made things, crafts were just something that were always in progress, but jewelry- who would have thought I could actually make that?

The lemon quartz and gold necklace above was the type of work I seemed to enjoy most. Lots of pretty stones and pearls and detail. Did I mdention I love stones and detail? What no one cold have explained to me as I was wrapping stones in wire was that every time I went somewhere to get more stones and wire and chain, I would see more stones and I would also see jewelry I loved that just couldn't be made with m limited wire wrapping skills.

Phase 2- I had to know how to set other stones, cabochons, faceted stones, rough odd shapes called to me. But where to learn? My same jewelry making friend suggested I look into Beadfest Philadelphia which always had classes and was not too unreasonably far from me. I found a class, not quite what I wanted, but it seemed like something a beginner could handle. Fusing silver wire taught by metal artist Anne Mitchell. The class was fun, wonderful and inspired me - look what I could do with wire when fire was involved!!!!

I made chains, and chain bracelets, chain dangle earrings, and links and more chains. Well, this wasn't what I was aiming for was it? I wanted to set stones! Around the same time, I decided I had way too much jewelry than I could ever wear so I started a shop on Etsy to try to sell some jewelry. My shop got stumbled on by the captain of the aspiring metalsmiths team and I joined up- knowing nothing but how to use a torch and fuse wire, I was prepared to look dumb and I was! I found some of the the most wonderful people on this team to help, lead, sympathize and teach me how to conquer all the pitfalls of learning to really hand fabricate jewelry and set stones.

So I fell in love with fire and hammers and pretty stones, I had to do something with that and I guess that's why I wanted to become a metalsmith and now, I feel like I'm about half way there. I can actually set most stones, make a decent ring, earrings and actually do some good custom work. I still have loads to learn, but I still have my team, I have found some good classes and I will continue plugging away since I firmly believe, you never stop learning when it comes to making artisan crafted jewelry.

I hope you will also take a peek and read about some of my wonderful teammates who have also got blogs on why they became a metalsmith and enjoy their stories also.

SilverBlueberry jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.se
SerpentsDance www.dancetothedoor.blogspot.com/
Marcus Berkner Jewelry berknerdesigns.blogspot.com/
Valerie @ LilyEmme Jewelry blog.lilyemmejewelry.com
Kalicat Jewelry Designs kalicatdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Kim Bell www.kimberlybelldesigns.blogspot.com
Beatriz Fortes www.beatrizfortes.blogspot.com

Adult Summer Camp - Common Ground on the Hill

I had no idea they had summer camp for adults! No clue that there were wonderful things that adults could sign up for for a week or even a full 2 weeks. You could be a "day camper" or you could make it "away camp" and stay in the dorms and be a full time camper taking as many classes as you can fit into the day!
Common Ground on the Hill  is just such a camp, right in my own back yard, which happens annually at McDaniel College. I know this isn't the only place that has these wonderful camps, I met loads of people who had been elsewhere or were going somewhere to do more summer camp!

The most wonderful thing about this camp is it is totally dedicated to art and artists of all kinds. From making native black clay into beautiful works of pottery art, making a gourd banjo, taking women's blues singing lessons and yes- metalwork classes! Click on the link above to see the myriad of classes available for all ages! Yes, there were 70 year old women taking beginning blacksmithing classes and there were high school students with scholarships taking piano for the first time. So much fun and so many wonderful new friends I met!

Of course I took a jewelry class! I have always wanted to take a class from Linda Van Hart of Tollhouse Studio. Linda is the director of the arts program for Common Ground and is also a full time professor of art at McDaniel, has a fabulous art studio and does shows all over the US. Her forte is chasing and repousse, but she is so gifted a teacher, she is able to teach all forms of metalwork to a class that includes rank beginners to those with experience and makes it fun, challenging and exciting for everyone.

This years class was Reticulation, along with demos for chasing and repousse, wire work and forging. Reticulation is the process of taking a piece of silver a bit different from sterling (sterling is .925, so only about 17% copper - reticulation silver is 20% copper), heating and coolong it many times, and rising the pure silver, then painting your design with a hot torch to make beautiful hills and valleys of swirled silver on the surface. No two pieces are ever alike.

This was my main project - a hydragea leaf from my garden, cut to shape then reticulated. Later I added the stem and created a neck wire to form the torque.

  The process of reticulation was 7 steps, usually mine take 10-12. She had us heat (no flux), air cool (I used to quench), pickle, scrub with a brass brush then scrub with pumice powder using the 3M sanding pads- fine grit. Do that 6 times- on the 7th time after pickle- no brass or pumice- just reticulate. Everyone in class got a perfect result first time- even total beginners that had never touched a torch. So the leaf shrug, and earrings were from reticulation silver- the cuff was from 18g sterling. I had to use a torch in each hand to keep it hot enough to reticulate, then she helped me holding one torch while I added my trash and treasure to fuse the sterling and gold. No solder anywhere.

After trying the process with reticulation silver, I wanted to see what effect and pattern I could get with sterling. Sterling is a bit less expensive (not much) and I have more of that- I had to order the reticulation silver for the class. I also wanted to try fusing sterling and gold to sterling- no soldering. The result is my Treasure Trash Cuff with bits and pieces of scrap sterling, some granulation balls I made with scrap in sterling and a few 14k gold balls also made from scrap.

With my left over scrap from my leaf, I was able to get 2 pair of earrings. The little circles were cut with a disk cutter, the aspen leaves were sawed from a traced aspen leaf from my neighbors tree!

I hope you enjoyed my little story about adult summer camp- and I really hope you will look into these wonderful programs for yourself or your kids to expand and grow their love of the arts!

My First Tutorial!! Make A Ring with Gold Fill Wire

Every month my Aspiring Metals Team does what they call, blog roll. I miss a lot because sometimes I just can't think of a darn thing to contribute that I think anyone will find interesting. Well this month, everyone is going to do a tutorial- how to do something- metal, photography for your shop, a technique that someone is good at. I volunteered to do one, then- Oh My, what to do? So, great buddies that they are- they suggested I do a How to Solder and work with gold filled wire. Gold fill is not something everyone likes or enjoys working with but it is pretty, looks like real gold and is a whole lot more affordable than the real McCoy! And no, gold fill does not flake off like gold plated, it does have a core of an alloyed material but there is so much gold pressure bonded, it really does look and act like gold.

How to Make a Ring with 14k Gold Fill Wire

First- start with good material from a reputable supplier. Make sure you are using 14/20 or 14k Gold fill, or at minimum 12/20. Nothing worse than heating something and finding out it's plated as the gold peels off.

Supplies you will need:
Cupronil, Battern's flux or Boric acid and denatured alcohol
Yellow GF solder- there are some better than others, my preference is the paste from Otto Frei or the sheet from Hoover & Strong.
Acid pickle- hot -and possibly super pickle (half pickle and half hydrogen peroxide)
Flex shaft or Dremel- for your wheels- If you don't own a rotary good wet/dry sand paper starting with 100 grit works just fine.
Silicone abrasive wheel- black (this one really cuts through metal so go easy with it)
abrasive wheels- 3M, 80 grit down through pumice
Ring files #2 and #4 cut, other files as needed
polishing compound- my preference is rouge then ZAM

1. Measure and cut your wire to size for your ring. For this ring I used 12 gauge 14/20 GF

2. Bend around mandrel and file ends so they are flush and tight- no light at all in the join area

3. Take your formed ring to your soldering area and coat well with flux on both sides- use a soldering pick or tweezers to flip the ring. If you touch the gold, coat it again. These flux materials protect from fire scale and also reduce the amount of copper alloy that will rise to the surface when GF is heated. The more copper you raise, the more work you have to do to clean and polish after soldering.

4. Heat your ring with a low flame all over to dry the flux, you should see a white coating covering the entire ring. If you have bare spots, more flux is needed. The one in the photo is just right- no shiny spots!

 5. For the example above I used Cupronil spray flux- Next I add paste solder and just put it on the seam inside the ring join because I want to pull it through. I heat the ring all over again just to warm it. With gold or gold fill, you only need to heat on either side of the join. Remember, the hotter you get GF the more copper you will raise and the more work you make for yourself for clean up- I am all about less work for cleaning up my own mess. So, heat on medium to hot flame, alternating back and forth on either side of the join so the metal  heats evenly. The solder paste will flow through the join and then stop heating immediately.

As you can see, I used a bit too much paste, but in my experience too much is a bit better than too little. If you use too little, sometimes you have to flip the piece over, add more solder and heat again. My preference, I'd rather file away excess solder than reheat and have my GF turn orange red from copper. As you can see, this ring is a bit pink, but the flux did it's job and I used just enough heat to flow the solder without getting the ring too hot. The solder is not the exact color of GF so you do have to file. I put this in a pickle bath- no need for super pickle since I was able to control the heat and didn't raise much copper.
 After pickle, I brass brush, then hit the files.
I used a #2 cut half round ring file for the inside, followed by a #4 cut half round file, then a black silicone wheel on my flex shaft to remove an scratches left by the file.

6. Now comes clean up. After filing away the solder, I start with a yellow 80 grit 3M wheel, then follow with white 120 grit, red 220 grit, the blue 400 grit

I keep a scrap piece of GF wire close by to compare color- this is after just the first sanding with the yellow wheel and almost all of the pink cast is gone.

The picture above is after 400 grit and you should see that the color match is almost perfect, the brassy yellow of the solder is gone and this ring is now ready for me to hammer and finish down through 1200, pumice and a final polish with rouge and ZAM.

There is never just one way to do anything with metal. This is just how I work with gold fill. I have used this method for rings, bangles and bezels and my results have been fairly consistent. This is just one way, I am sure there are others. Each person that works with metal has their own tips and tricks. I enjoy learning how everyone does things so I have options in my bag when the soldering Gods aren't with me or things just aren't going well in general.

I hope you will also enjoy some of the tutorials from my other teammates and learn a few of their tricks too!
I know I am looking forward to adding the list of blogs below as the other tutorials become ready for prime time. So please come back every few days and learn a trick or two!

Here are the rest of the participating bloggers each with something special they do and hope to share!
VCArtisanOriginals 
Sylvia Anderson 
Metals Addict
Lilian Ginebra
Esmeralda
Amy Estelle
Stacy
Mary Anne Karren
Shannon of Gifted Designs
Pennee- All Wired Up Jewelry Designs
Jessica @ Abella Blue
Elizabeth Brown - resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com

The Big Prong Ring

Have you ever seen something, anything crafty, that you wanted to do and just didn't quite know how. Then you search and search for directions, not knowing exactly how to word your search, you get tons of stuff you aren't even interested in. Then you land on something that sort of makes the grade! Woohoo- you have a starting place!

That's sort of the story of "The Big Prong Ring". I just love prong settings. I read all the tutorials and books, and in theory, I knew just what to do.  Problem was, every time I tried, I was working on something small and delicate and I would just totally melt things toward the end. I decided prongs just weren't going to be my forte. Then I saw a few rings, rather rustic looking, but with larger prongs, these looked very doable. Before I got around to trying the rustic route, I got my copy of the July 2011 Art Jewelry Magazine- WOW- Joanna Gollberg http://www.joannagollberg.com/, the queen of prong setting, had done a tutorial. I was in heaven. This woman has some of the most beautiful work I have ever seen. totally my taste. I couldn't wait to dive in and read the instructions.

Instructions were great, but I didn't want to be a copy cat, so I had to come up with my own version of her gorgeous ring http://www.artjewelrymag.com/Resources/Contact%20and%20Suppliers/2011/04/Art%20Jewelry%20July%202011.aspx  on the front cover.

I started by pulling out this huge emerald cut rutilated quartz with chlorite inclusions. It was perfect for a big prong ring, set up high on a sturdy band. I got out the biggest wire I could handle and created the frame, cut big heavy half round wire and soldered it in place.

So, now I had to think of something to solder the prongs to- what would make a great looking base, not take away from the great looking rutiles in my stone and not be so big and cumbersome that no one would ever consider wearing it?? I took a trip to my local supplier, Terra Firma in Baltimore, and he had some nice reticulation silver. That's the stuff that's 80% silver and 20% copper. The copper makes it very strong and you heat, cool and pickle the piece about 10 times in order to get fine silver to come to the surface and all the copper stuff to go away. It leaves an awesome pattern on the front and back of your little piece of silver. The best thing is no two pieces of silver ever look the same after reticulation- so this is one of a kind even if someone else made the exact same ring!

Soldering flat bottom prongs to  bumpy surfaced silver is not an easy task! There was one prong just a hair shorter than the rest- even though I measured- so I had to keep bending the silver base up until it touched the prong perfectly with no gap and re-solder that one prong. This took more than one attempt I am not embarrassed to say- this was a first for me, so I learned lots along the way!

Finally finished!! I know you can't see from this picture, so I'll add another, but the setting is elevated above the base. Getting these big prongs to close was nother challenge- OMG, I pushed and pushed and they wouldn't lay down. I finally used a bezel pusher as a punch and tapped down the tops. Who knew you had to be so strong to make jewelry?

Sorry for the little fuzzy on the side, I think my cat, who was very interested in photos, must have been looking to close when I set this on the counter! So now you can see the side with just enough space under to make it interesting.

What was really nice, I had leftover reticulated silver so I made this cute little pendant with leftovers. I feel so self satisfied when I use stuff I already have and don't have to start fresh! And, I got to do those cute little rustic prongs I want to try too!

Hope you enjoyed the little story of my journey into the deep dark secrets of prong setting. Thanks to Art Jewelry magazine and Joanna Gollberg for sharing her wonderful technique!!!

Design Your Own!!!

I know I am not good at blogging on any regular basis, but today I was inspired by the launch of my new website http://shop.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.com/ which allowed me the capability do do something I have always wanted to do... offer Custom Designed Pendants and Rings!

If any of you have ever shopped my Etsy store http://www.ppennee.etsy.com/, you know that I do a lot of made to order gemtone stack rings, fine silver hoop earrings for everday wear and charm necklaces with a variety of gemstones. I have always wanted to be able to just have one listing with a variety of choices to make it easy for a potential customer to just go in and select what they would like to design their own. Just picture a young woman who wants to give a gift of my Lotus Flower Tag Necklace with a gemstone that matches each of her bridemaids dresses.

She sends me a message asking about what color stones I have, I get back with a list and drag out the camera to take pics so she can see colors and shapes, then she gets back again with what she wants, I create a listing and get back to her and so on. I am sure you can see this isn't conducive to the typical shopper who sees what they want and orders it on the spot and expects to get it in short order!!! We are a nation of spontaneous people who love to see it, touch it and then decide on the spot if we want it. Many of my shoppers have looked around a lot, they know what they want and how much they are willing to spend. Unfortunately Etsy doesn't offer drop down boxes to just go ahead and select a gemstone in the color of our choice. I am happy to say my new website does just that very thing!.

Here is my first attempt at a custom Design Your Own Pendant listing on my website. If you want to go play and see how much fun it is to browse these cool drop down menus here is the link to go play : http://shop.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.com/Design-Your-Own-Pendant-Custom-Designer-Cabochons-56.htm  . I have set up two groups of gorgeous cabochon stones, numbered them, fixed a set price for the work, then I am able to increase or decrease the price for each stone if I happen to have gotten some on sale or if I paid a lot for a rare hard to find specimen stone. Lots of options for chain length, bezel type and the customer can always contact me for a price for extras like beaded wire trim, silver granulation, hand cut designs etc..  I have also done a similar listing for ustom Designed Cabochon Rings, unfortunately I have to retake the photos since I didn't think to number the stones and that still needs work!

Maybe its the pride in finally having a site that's all my own, or just the basic need to be able to do things my own way without "Big Brother" restrictions, I'm not sure, but what I am sure of, is I am a picky shopper and I believe todays on line shoppers are no different.  I miss the old days of personalized service I got at a department store. I used to take a few things into a dressing room and then some lovely sales person would go and hunt for a different size, color, matching scarf whatever I wanted! Now I get dressed at least twice to go on the hunt myself- this does not make me want to stay and buy something! I wanted to be able to be just a little bit better at customer service and I just had too many restrictions on Etsy to be able to offer the level I felt my customers were missing.

Yes, I'll still be on Etsy for a while- very few people have "discoverd" my website. But, I am hopeful that very soon I will have someone stumble in, like what they see and how they are treated and send a few friends my way. Wish me luck!