Off to a new home!

All finished and heading up the East Coast.

What is buzzing around my bench today!

 Today I am working on a pair of my queen bee earrings for an Etsy customer.  I created hand drawn templates that I glue to the sterling sheet. This keeps the details of each bee very similar to its partner.

I have done the initial sawing out and have drilled holes for the piercing.

  Here the saw blade is in place, ready to saw around the inside of the black outline.

Here they are ready for final filing and polishing.

Next step...  a run through the tumbler to harden the silver and then attaching the earwires and stinger!

Mixed Metal Flowers

New flowers are blooming over at Metal~luxe! 

I am working on some new designs and combinations for my favorite blooms.

The Evolution of a Design...

I had jury duty last week and spent the entire morning reading about stone setting and sketching some new designs.  I was the very last person chosen to go through the jury selection process and was never questioned.  Overall the day was a success!  I did my civic duty and spent my free time working on creative designs.

Here are few progress shots of one of the lariat necklace designs.

I will add some more as I finish it up.

This is the sketch drawn around the stones.

This is two of the dangles after the final solder.
These will get cleaned and polished before setting the stones.

This is just a shot of the original concept with the components to show how the idea comes to life.

Still lots of work to do...

When you want to play with fire!

Torches!

  They seem to be the subject of conversation among silversmiths, goldsmiths and metalworkers...

Some torches are great for small jobs,  and others do a fine job on larger projects.

When first starting out it is hard to know what you need...

Here is a short video on torches 

to help any of you who are getting ready to dive into the world of soldering jewelry!

Play safe!