Promote Yourself!

You are invitee to join the top with jewelry sites: http://www.alljewelrysites.com

The top have a friendly interface and it offers free web promotion for your site.
You can find:
-title and description;
- screenshot of your website
-statistics about the number of your visitors(unique/pageviews);
-comments about your site;
-the ranking is by sites unique visitors in a week;
-first 5 sites are scrolling in the right side of the site on all site pages;
-7 sites are selected random and showed on the header slideshow of the site;
-statistics with the visitors you got from our top;
After you join the top take the voting code and put in your site
to be accepted to the site.
They will be expecting you at http://www.alljewelrysites.com to subscribe your
site.

A great place for self representing jewelry artists and designers - go here:

DIY about Making Enamel Beads

Make Your Own Enamel Beads

This is a good vido about making Enamel Beads, this also can be done to make colorful head pins, I've seen some and they quite pretty.

Creative Metal Arts Guild Show

Free Admission

Check out the 2010 CMAG Jewelry and Metal Arts Show and Sale Participating Members

2010 Show Dates: APRIL 30, MAY 1 & 2

At The

Oregon Convention Center

In Beautiful Portland, Oregon

"Green" Etching for Jewelry without Acid

There is a fabulous tutorial at http://www.making-jewelry-now.com/acid-etching-metal-jewelry-part-1.html by Virginia Vivier (Esprit Mystique Jewelry) using acid. The tutorial has great tips and techniques.  This article is about using saltwater and a battery. If you dig a little you can find ‘how to’ information free of charge and that is what I did, or you can buy it from a popular magazine.
What you need:


Patience (this process takes longer than acid)
Safety Glasses and Rubber Gloves (strong salt solutions can burn)
D battery and a D battery holder
Alligator clips and heavy ga. copper wire
Copper to be etched and scrap copper
Kosher or canning and pickling salt
Glass container deep enough to hang your art piece
Resist

Resists Available: PNP blue paper (good info on this at: http://www.makersgallery.com/goss/pnp.html ) , nail polish (if you’re desperate), enamel paint, etc.

Hook up a D battery in the battery holder, attach alligator clips to the lead wires on your battery holder and then to the two pieces of copper wire to suspend the art piece and the scrap piece in a saltwater bath. Current draws copper from the piece being etched to the scrap copper. You can use the same kinds of resists you would use for acid etching. Red alligator clips on your jewelry/art piece. Put resist on the back of your art piece or etch a design on the back too.

Make a saturated salt solution by dissolving salt, (lot-o salt)


Clean your art piece and clean it again, alcohol works well.

Draw or transfer your design with whatever resist you want. The scrap copper needs to be cleaned off with a scruby pad to remove any residue, then it's ready.

Fill glass (I don’t like plastic) container with the salt solution, attach your two pieces of copper to copper wires and hang them from the sides of the container so they are submerged in the solution. Attach the positive alligator clip to the art piece etched and the negative clip to the scrap copper. You will see little bubbles rising from the scrap copper, and the water will become cloudy.

It takes an hour or more to get a nice deep etch (patience).

Disposal of used salt water, well I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to pour into the sink, there is copper in it. Maybe consider calling waste management services and double check with your area requirements.

Love those little Altoids Tins? Etching Altoids Tins: go to http://steampunkworkshop.com/altoid-etch.shtml

The fun of this is you can transfer virtually any image or pattern to copper, nickel, or brass.

Want more info? Search the web there is a lot of free information. Take some time and learn something new!!  I welcome any comments and additions to this method of etching.

Free Tut on some Colorful Ear Art with Threads

Free Tutorials

Chain maille: You have some choices; I've posted free tutorials on the right side bar. You can buy tutorials at JewelryLessons.com, bless them for trying to make a buck with copywritten designs they sell, or you can go to the chain maille organization and get TONS of instructions on all kinds of patterns, techniques and so on all for free.

The newbies jewelry designers/artist coming on board everyday should really do some research on "how to's" for free before you jump into buying tutorials that actually have been copied from magazines and other free tuorials posted all over the web.

Wire wrapping: for the most part you can find easy to follow instructions all over the place if you are new to the craze. More advanced wire wrappers can look at something and duplicate it. Good Luck and above all learn something new everyday.

Nothing Goes to Waste not even Pine Needles!

What do you do when you decide to be a poor country folk artist?

With little money (if any) you must be creative. Use your resources.
This artist did just that.
What do you find in the mountains of Idaho ?.........PINE TREES.
You're thinking something made out of wood......Right?
Not even close.
These bears are made from Pine Needles!!!!
A couple of hundred thousand of them in one large bear.
The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed and hand woven.
Over 8 months in making the life size bear!

How to wire wrap a briolette

If you want to have a really nice look to the wire wrapped briolette thread tiny beads on either side of the briolette. Why because the wire, usually very thin has a tendency to get out of shape. In other words it is ugly. Then after you connect the two wires by wrapping, put another tiny bead on the wire before you make your top loop. The reason is that the bottom wrap and the top wrap show way too much wire showing. The tiny bead will take the eye away from all of those wraps.



Briolettes can be tricky, start out using copper wire before you dive in to wrapping something to sell. Practice, practice, practice to make it near to perfect. And please, don't use the excuse "its hand made" for sloppy work.

This technique is duly noted in many "high-end" jewelry designer pieces. Kick it up a notch, go the extra mile and make your jewelry something better. Can't figure out why your jewelry isn't selling?

This video is good for learning the technique. The finished product is unacceptable for excellent craftsmanship.

Excellent Video for Wire Weaving

This tutorial shows you how to use Cindy's Braider: Wire Weaving Kit. This innovative kit contains everything you need, except the wire itself, to make wire woven rings, bracelets and more!

Pricing Jewelry

An excellent article I agree with about Pricing Jewelry. Check it out.

I see far too many home based jewelry creators pricing their jewelry way to low, however on the other hand I have observed jewelry poorly crafted, and cheapish way over priced.

"People associate quality with price."
Dr. David Weiman, marketing director of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine for more than 20 years, shares strategies and techniques for boosting your sales of handcrafted artisan jewelry!

Making the Rosette Component for Jewelry Design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3AIOmKPiS8

Full Persian Chain Maille Tutorial

Not all videos are created equal, this is a good one. My Live and Learn Series.



Chain maille weaves can be difficult to start. This tutorial shows an easy way for the full Persian using two wire ties. The text version with still photographs is here " http://www.beadinggem.com

New Hampshire Rhyolite

Every now and then you run into a stone that is just so beautiful and scenic it doesn't seem real. But, it is real Rhyolite Jasper is one of those stones you can find that doesn't cost an arm and two legs that is just plain awesome.



This is what makes jewelry making fun for me, finding stones like this that you really don't want to sell. But then for the right price. . . . .

Sometimes there are problems

Sometimes there are problems with the hues that the camera picks or doesn't pick up the true color. There are times when I try every type of light and angle I can think of and this is one of those times. I just can't get the color right.



Oh, poor me, lol.

May the Sun Be With You

This is the coolest sunshine jasper I've ever run across. Love it and it looks great all wrapped up and dripping in gold (14/20).

Snowflakes in August

More work to do, the store hosing some of my work is moving uptown to Washington Square. That makes for a great opportunity to update my pictures and index everything like I should have done a some time ago.



So today, I've spent most of the day taking pictures, cleaning and making a few adjustments. It's a perfect day in Portland!

Woo-hoo

I'm exited to announce that Bead Trends is publishing one of my turquoise pieces in the December issue. (I rally am exicted)

The publisher requested that the piece be removed so I complied.

This has been an awesome week for me. I've had more good things happen than I could have imagined. I am very excited also how well the Home Based Jeweler's Showcase blog has been received. We are getting super traffic. If you haven't joined there is no time like the present. See the site for details.

Val Verde Turquoise Deservingly in Gold

I just can't get enough turquoise!

Rhyolite from New Hampshire

Mustard quartzite wrapped in Silver