Gotta love labradorite

Here's today's labradorite ring. It's a gorgeous stone, set in a simple, fine silver bezel on a hammered half-round sterling band. Very comfy and nice to wear.

That's it for today...

OK, a little time....

I had one day at home (today) and managed to squeeze in some time in my studio. Started a ring with a lovely round labradorite - a current favorite stone of mine - and made this little pair of garnet and sterling earrings. January's birthstone while it's still January.

This is one of my more classic designs and seems to be very popular in my shop. They do look very pretty on...

Off to walk dogs, buy food and think about something to feed the hordes of teens. Happy Sunday!

No jewelry time

This having to make a living thing really bites! I've been slaving in a downtown office building, putting in many hours of editing and then racing home to try and squeeze in some jewelry time. Yesterday, saw an enormous hawk fly past the window, behind my colleague's head as I was speaking with her. Couldn't believe the sheer size of it! In the middle of the city, right near the Legislature, for that matter. I guess he has his pick of tasty squirrels and pigeons. Poor, unsuspecting things....

Only one more week of editing and then back to what I really love! Happy weekend to you!

Forever multi-tasking...

Yet another grey, pre-springlike day in To. The dogs certainly don't care, and I'm happy to be indoors. Wish I had time to stay in my studio and create....But other work intercedes, so off I go shortly to do that. Got home last night from current editing job and started playing around with copper, rolling mill and various patinas. Ended up with these earrings, which I quite like in person. Didn't transmit so well in the photos for some reason. They have a nice greeny patina, but it looks kind of globby in the pix. Not sure why...

Anyway, something to work on...

When I got home last night, a DVD that I'd ordered had arrived. It's from Whaley Studios and it's on making a squared roller printed ring (http://whaleystudios.ning.com/video/how-to-make-a-rollerprinted). I like watching him in action - he explains the steps and what he's doing pretty well. Can't wait to give it a try his way, starting with pouring an ingot. He has some beautiful, almost wiry-looking paper he uses in the rolling mill to great effect.

Have a great day!

Sunday night wrap-up

Hope you've had a great weekend! It's been super-busy here and I managed to squeeze in some jewelry time - yay! The results? two rings. First, a gorgeous rectangle of labradorite, which I set in a simple silver bezel setting -

Then a much smaller round rose quartz in sterling setting. Both of them a minimalist and modern look and I used fine silver bezels I made myself, as opposed to store-bought fine silver bezel wire, which I'm finding just too thin. I made these by annealing and rolling out, numerous times, a fine silver bar. Once it was about 1mm thick, I sliced a length off of it and formed my bezels. Definitely nice to work with something more substantial, though it of course doesn't rub over the stone quite as easily....Can't have everything, though, and I think it's worth it.

Here's the rose quartz:

Also sold a few rings this weekend - my sterling leaf-imprinted ring and a lovely round fossil coral.

A gorgeous, wintery treasury...

I may be short of jewelry time in the past few days, but my pieces carry on for me. This gorgeous, wintery treasure includes my earrings, made with cool-colored, very pretty stones and oxidized, hand-formed sterling earwires:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjI0NzE0NnwxODYyMTM3NDA2/where-the-forest-meets-the-sea

Thanks so much to Katinytis from Lithuania! http://www.etsy.com/people/katinytis
Have a look at her gorgeous and original felt accessories!

Rain, rain, go away

OK, we're drowning here in Toronto. Every time I ventured out today, I immediately got drenched right through. Wet down is kind of yucky. At least it's pretty balmy and the dogs couldn't care less.

No jewelry today, but lots of writing work to do....I'm churning out these articles. Have 10 little babies to get done and start on another editing job tomorrow. Should be interesting! It's amazing how much more productive I am when I have no choice, when I'm down to the wire. Apparently, something I come by naturally, says my mother.

I may not be able to get much jewelry done in the next few days, but I can still daydream about it, can't I? Meanwhile, hope people are staying dry somewhere!

Earrings for Valentine's....and spring!

Here are a few pairs of earrings, one inspired by Valentine's Day, which fast approaches; the other, by the possibility of a springtime in the distant future. Every time the sun comes out, which it did briefly today in Toronto, it reminds me that it won't be this cold forever and that everything will once again spring to life....

The little 5mm stones on the hearts are garnets, which also happen to be the birthstone for January babies. The beads in the flower earrings are a brilliant red, bicone crystal. The hand-formed sterling earwires are hammered and tumbled for added strength.

I took these photos with my new macro lens on my rather old Canon Rebel. I'm just loving it, but need to play around a bit to figure out the possibilities. So much fun, so little time....

The finished product

Here's the necklace, complete with painstakingly created bead!

So much fun to make - and I'm quite happy with the results....Can't wait to try again, though, with the proper hammer, remembering to planish, etc. Made some little earrings today, which are tumbling now. Total change of pace - perfect for those of us with miniature attention spans! Will post the earrings once they're finished tumbling, I take photos, and finish that process.

Meanwhile, it's absolutely freezing outside - and in my studio. We finally have a few inches of snow and Otis, our big dog, lay down in Lake Ontario this morning. Just to cool off. He's a strange guy....Definitely doesn't feel the cold!

The fold formed bead

Here is the final result of all that hammering and annealing:

I bent it and stretched it out to the sides to form this bead, of sorts. I can see what I'd do differently next time: I forgot to planish it - hammer out the cross pein hammer marks with my nice smooth planishing hammer. That would have cleaned up all the texture you can see. But, who knows, maybe that was intentional! I'd also use a wider hammer right from the start, so I think it would go a lot faster. I ordered one yesterday from www.contenti.com, whose prices I find quite good and delivery remarkably fast, especially considering it's coming cross-border from the US. Anyway, this was definitely an interesting experiment. On to the next...

Fold forming - the sequel...

OK, my fold forming project progresses. It was going so slowly with my thin cross pein hammer, that I finally switch to my little ball pein, which got things moving faster. Here's a photo of the piece just before I started opening it up:

And here is what it now looks like:

It's unfinished and unpolished, but you can see the new shape once I opened up the middle, just by starting to open up the folded piece of silver. Very cool and kind of mind-boggling....Can't wait to learn more about this.

Some shiny new pieces

Well, OK. They're not exactly shiny, but they could be, as they're sterling silver...The first is a sterling nugget I made from recycling some tiny sterling scraps in my studio. Always fun - melted them, then shaped it into this orb. It hangs from an oxidized, delicate sterling satellite chain, which contrasts nicely with the roughed-up nugget, I think....

The next is a fine silver imprint of a geranium leaf, made in PMC fine silver clay, then fired to become fine silver. I've hung it from a sterling ball chain and oxidized both it and the pendant:

Discount code for blog followers

Good morning! Just wanted to remind you of the coupon code you can use in my Etsy shop for 15% off anything: BLOG15

Just enter it as you're checking out through PayPal and it will be applied.

A very rainy day here - perfect for being productive in my studio....Stay tuned!

Fold forming continues....

Haven't had much time to work on this today (or yesterday), as I have other work to do....STILL, am thinking I need to get hold of a different hammer with a wider, but still horizontal, surface. This is taking much too long, I think. Here it is, after about 3 or 4 more rounds of hammering and annealing.

It's definitely curving, but it's been painfully slow....Still has a long way to go. So this may mean a trip to my trusty tool supplier tomorrow. If I can squeeze that in between other writing work I have and a class tomorrow night. Not to mention life, kids and dogs! Will keep you posted on this...

Experiments in fold forming

Today, I'm experimenting for my first time with a technique called "fold forming". For my first foray into this very cool method of moving metal by strategic hammering and annealing (heating it to soften it again), I'm doing a project for a "Rueger fold bead" posted by Rio Grande (http://www.riogrande.com/Content/Foldforming-VID-psd?pos=3). I started with a 1" x 3" strip of 26 gauge sterling and folded it in half length-wise. I hammered it flat with my rawhide hammer, then annealed it to dull red point. I then cut an arc shape into the unfolded long side. Next, I used my Fretz cross pein hammer and carefully started hammering the folded side, halfway of its width in, along the length of the folded piece. This will start the piece curling in on itself, as the folded side of the metal is hammered and stretched. Very cool what happens (if it works as planned!).

I've done this process now about twice at this point, and here's what it looks like so far:

You can probably see in the photos that I'm having a bit of trouble keeping my hammering on one half of the piece only. I'm thinking I would do better with a wider cross pein, too. The one I'm using is only about 2 or 3mm, so it's making pretty sharp-looking hammer marks. We'll see if I can get them out later....

I should end up with a three-dimensional silver bead, which looks nothing like the photos above. Stay tuned!

Prehnite ring on its way to Sweden...

Just sold one of my favorite rings - a beautiful square prehnite in sterling - to a buyer in Sweden. That's one thing that's so amazing about online shops and sales - we can be located anywhere, but we're really just a click or two away. Hard to figure sometimes! Here's the ring:

 I'll miss it, but will have to recreate it....

More sunshine!!!

This is Day 2 of sun in Toronto. Kind of shocking, given the winter so far this year! Taking the dogs out for a run now, then hope to get some time in the studio...if not exactly tidying the studio.

I have so many lovely stones - some of which daughter Zoe gave me for Christmas (so cute!!!) - to use. Dreaming about what I'll make with them; many are teardrop shaped, so could be fun. Might do some combo brooch-necklaces.

I'm very excited to start my new silversmithing course next week - it's level II, whatever that means, and the main thing is I'll learn some techniques I haven't yet tried. Even when it's stuff I've done, I always pick up some good tips and tricks. Very inspiring!

Also have some gorgeous, big jasper and labradorite cabochons I'm dying to use, so we'll see what happens today...

More sparkles

The sun it out!!! Very historic, given the past few very grey weeks in Toronto. So, I took a few shots of my gold druzy ring in the sun, to give an idea of its sparkles. Don't generally like bright sunlight and harsh shadows for photos, but this does the job for the sparkle factor....

These druzies are really something - quite spectacular really. I have a gorgeous royal blue one, about the same size as the one above, to be made into a piece soon.

Heading to the beach to let the dogs have a run in the sun - and probably a nice winter swim. They never seem to get cold. Last time we went, they had icicles hanging from their fur when we came home....

How about sparkly?

Here's another new ring - gorgeous golden druzy in sterling

 I just love these stones and have had trouble finding nice, round ones like this. This one actually came from a supplier in Norway: Fabbydabbystones (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Fabbydabbystones). Very pleased with it and will be going back to him for sure!!! So shimmery and mesmerizing to gaze into....ahhhhh.....

Feeling romantic???

If so, here are a few new pieces to inspire you...

 

I know, I know....no AFTER shots of my tidied-up studio yet....There are only so many hours in the day and many things to do (read: I'd rather be doing). It's a very grey day here, but quite a bit warmer than the last few days. Grey is good for photos, though. No harsh shadows and still plenty of light. I shun the flash! Thanks to le animale for pointing out that my white backgrounds don't do much for my jewelry....seeing as how the silver kind of seems to blend in half the time. I'll take all the advice I can get!

The state of my studio...

I have to say that, after the holiday rush, my studio is in a sorry state....I'm thinking posting a few pix will kick my butt to do something about it. So, consider these the "Before" shots....

Yesterday in Toronto, it was -30 C., the coldest it's been this winter.
My studio/office has six lovely windows, which in weather like that mean a very frigid space. So I piled on turtleneck, sweater, poncho and scarf and got to it. My hands were less agile than usual and it's kind of dangerous being swaddled in so much hanging clothing while soldering and using tools, however....must stay warm! Today, it's going up to -1C, so should be balmy in here! Studio "After" shots to come....

Organic sterling cog ring & coupon

I call this my organic cog ring - created using the lost-wax casting process, it's solid sterling and kind of whimsical...

As promised, here is a coupon code for my blog followers to use in my shop for 15% off anything: BLOG15
Just enter it as you check out where you're asked for coupon codes. You can see my shop in the righthand column, here, or go to: lechiennoirjewelry.etsy.com. Hope you enjoy!

Moonstones in sterling

Just finished posting these earrings in my Etsy shop:

I love this minimalist style. Very modern and wearable. I'd put them on and never take them off....

On to the next thing...

I guess another New Year's res. is to begin to understand the blogosphere a little better and all the social media outlets I don't quite get. I've finally figured out Pinterest - I think - and am loving it. Can see how it could become totally addictive....Sorry, no more time to make a living. Must pin....Ditto with this, and all the others I have yet to discover.
As for jewelry projects, I'm finishing up some moonstone and sterling earrings I started a few days ago. Will post them later today. Trying to get the bezel at the right height. We'll see....

Just had a lovely walk in the park with the dogs, who looked like creatures from the black lagoon by the time we got home. They had a ball, including several wallows in semi-frozen mud, and actually were covered in icicles when we got home and herded them into the shower. Brrrr!

Ring in progress - finished!

Here's my first ring of 2012:

I'm loving the stone...very milky and translucent. Quite a cocktail/statement ring, but I'd be tempted to wear it everyday because it's so comfy. It was lots of fun to make!

Twitter correction!!!

My case in point - just gave the wrong twitter name in last post. It's actually: twitter.com/carlastraessle

Also, I'm loving this collection of vintage jewelry:  katcherrfancy.etsy.com

Check it out!

New Year's jewelry resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's off to a good start for you. While I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, I thought maybe it's time to start. So, for 2012, as far as jewelry-making goes, I resolve to:

• try to focus on just a few projects at a time. Hubby just quoted me as saying "I'm in the middle of 12 things right now" - I guess that kind of says it all...
• keep trying new techniques until I get them right
• take a course when time/finances allow
• keep working on my close-up photography
• try to keep my studio somewhat organized, although I suspect chaos breeds creativity for me
• learn as much as possible about blogging, facebook, twitter, etc. I know I can do it! Or, I should be able to do it! Ha - we'll see...

On that note, here's the link to my shop: lechiennoirjewelry.etsy.com

My FB page: facebook.com/lechiennoirjewelry

And, my twitter feed: twitter.com/lechiennoirjewelry