Art Jewelry magazine Editors' Blog : jewelry-making

New free fine-silver earrings project from Art Jewelry magazine, featuring water casting!

Addie Kidd — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

We just released Art Jewelry magazine's newest free downloadable project – in it you can learn how to make a pair of really fun mismatched Serendipity Earrings (click here to download the project). In the tutorial I walk you through all the steps necessary to solder and assemble the oxidized fine silver earrings you see at right.

I created these earrings to showcase one of my favorite (low-stress, non-fiddly, imprecise) jewelry-making techniques – water casting. I'm telling you, this technique is fool-proof! Even if you've never done a casting of any kind before, I guarantee you that you will make one-of-a-kind, artistic, and organic-looking components with water casting.

The result are instantaneous, which satisfies my instant-gratification streak. AND, if for some reason you don't like the components that you've made, you can remelt them and try again. You can't beat that!

[I added a teeny-tiny 2mm 24k solid gold accent ball to each earring. Little splashes of gold like that are a fantastic and inexpensive way to add color and panache to a jewelry piece. No seriously, this gold's not expensive: you can buy a pair of these little gold balls at Metal Clay Findings for less than 17 bucks!]

To see just how little time it takes to make a water casting, check out this video. (You need to be registered to view it, but registration is FREE!) Follow along as I pour molten fine silver into a bucket of water, and then immediately check out the results.

To learn all the particulars about water casting, read my article "Goof-Proof Water Casting" in the May 2009 issue.

And if you're mixing your own alloys to use with that water casting, you should check out our alloy calculator here. Just plug in the metal alloy you'd like to make and the calculator will instantly figure out the exact ingredient ratios for you. (Maybe it's just me, but here's a big whoo hoo for less math!)

Speaking of calculators, we also have a gold karat calculator for you too. Just plug in whatever karat of gold that you already have and the calculator will tell you what you need to add to your gold to change it to another karat (either higher or lower). How nifty is that??

If you give water casting a try, please post a comment and tell me how you like it.
I'd be surprised if it's not one of your new favorites.

Take care,

~Addie~

P.S. Click here to download our free desktop wallpaper for the month of March – a necklace by John Wik featuring a chain mail bezel around a guitar pick. How cool is that??

Jewelry studio safety — safety glasses

Katie Streeter — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:09:00 GMT

I think that October should be "Jewelry-Studio Safety Month." While jewelers are going into overdrive to bulk up their stock for the holidays, they need to keep studio safety in mind. Wearing nonflammable clothing and safety glasses, working in a well-ventilated area, and using tools as directed by the manufacturer are essential for a safe jewelry-making environment.

A recent post on the Art Jewelry forum served as a good reminder of why it's so important to wear safety glasses while working with metal. The post, which you can read here, was from a forum member who recently needed an MRI done. MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, uses a strong magnetic field to scan the body. Any metal, including tiny particles caught in the eye, can move due to the magnetic field during MRI scans, causing injury to the eye. Wearing eye protection while working with metal will prevent metal dust and particles from getting in your eyes, keeping them healthy and clear longer — think of it as job security. Read more about MRI and eye safety at RadiologyInfo.

For more safety tips to take to your studio, check out our safety basics. A safe and happy holiday season begins in the jewelry studio!

—Katie

Find out what tools you need for working with metals, metal clay, bronze clay, enamel, wire, chain mail, stone setting, engraving, finishing, polymer clay, and more

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:16:00 GMT

Tools, tools, tools! Do you wonder what tools you should get if you're going to take up metalsmithing? How about metal clay, or polymer clay? Or, maybe you want to know what tools you should have on hand no matter what medium you're working in. Well, here's your answer: In the November 2008 issue of Art Jewelry, we published an eight-page bonus poster that tells you what tools you'll need to have in order to work in a given medium or for a given task.

We were so excited about the poster that we put the info up online too! (If, for some inexplicable reason you haven't picked up your issue yet, you can find a PDF of "The Right Tool" here.) Of course, the print version has its advantages: it's a pullout, so you can proudly display its glossy pages on your studio wall. And, it's one continuous sheet of paper, so you won't need as many thumb tacks to get it up there, and you won't have to spend time with your level making sure all eight pages are aligned. Of course, the biggest advantage to having the print version means that you have the rest of the issue surrounding it.

We hope the poster helps you as a shopping list, a quick reference (what do parallel pliers look like again?), and as a vision of beauty that only a tool junkie could love.

Enjoy!

—Kristin

P.S. Subscribers, if eight pages of info isn't enough for you, you might want to check out our archive of Product Reviews.

Video gives sneak peek inside Ford Forlano studios and how they make polymer clay art jewelry

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:26:00 GMT

If you like polymer clay jewelry, chances are you've seen work by Ford Forlano; that is Steve Ford and David Forlano, with Maryanne Petrus-Gilbert doing metalwork. We first featured Ford Forlano's work in "A Rarefied Medium," an article by Ronna Weltman (September 2006) about A-list polymer clay jewelry. If you've never seen their work, prepare for a treat. For me, Ford Forlano pieces never disappoint. The texture, the shape, the color — the pieces are always exciting and elegant. When I'm feeling creative, I tend to work better on my own. So it was really interesting to learn more about the team's collaboration in this video.

It shares not only great images of their studios and finished pieces, but also a bit about their history and how they continue to work together. Check it out!

—Kristin

Watch an artistic video showing a collectible Louis Vuitton charm being made, from lost wax casting to stone setting to the final polishing

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:56:00 GMT

I've read about how to do casting, I've seen video demonstrations of how to do casting, but I'd never seen a beautiful montage of the process until I came across this video that Christophe Graillot did for Louis Vuitton to showcase how they craft their jewelry. (If you're really averse to advertising, avoid the last minute or so.)

Let me know what you think!

—Kristin

Video interview with Robert Dancik: jeweler, sculptor, and originator of Faux Bone

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:54:00 GMT

At the 2008 Bead&Button Show in June, Senior Editor/Online Linda Augsburg was able to catch a few minutes with Robert Dancik to talk to him about how he got started making jewelry, where he's taking the craft, and how he uses Faux Bone. To watch the video, click here. If you're interested in learning how you can incorporate Faux Bone into your work, check out Robert's article, "Chart Your Own Mixed-Media Odyssey," page 28, in the September 2008 issue of Art Jewelry. The article will teach you how to make this bangle:

If this project inspires you to make a piece of jewelry, we'd love to see what you've come up with! Just post it in the Show Us Your Work thread in the Art Jewelry forum.

Pop-Out Jewelry by Melissa Borrell Design: prefab jewelry that gets the wearer involved

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:57:00 GMT

I generally avoid buying anything that needs to be assembled — not because I doubt my ability to assemble things, but because I associate "needs assembly" with "made cheaply in a faraway land." Of course, that's not always the case. But since I already have a propensity for antique/vintage/timeless/handcrafted things, I rarely buy big box.

But, I think, mass-produced items can have a soul, too. I'm intrigued by well-designed, well-made items that are successful on a large scale because they were so well thought out that a large number of people find them both useful and beautiful. In that way, there seems to be a connection between designer and consumer that we don't generally associate with mass production.

Melissa Borrell's Pop Out Jewelry is an example of a designer consciously trying to connect with the consumer. As her Web site describes, "the shapes come still attached to the metal from which they are cut. Just pop the shape out and hang it on the enclosed chain or ear hooks to make it into a piece of wearable art." So, while a piece arrives looking mass produced, it requires a personal touch from the wearer in order to be useful. It's an interesting way to try to share in the creation of an art object. But is it that different from buying and having to assemble, say, a coffee table? Does it all rest on the designer's intention?

Do you intend for your work to connect with the people who wear it? How do you achieve that connection?

—Kristin

Vote for your favorite entries to The Ugly Necklace Contest

Katie Streeter — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:35:00 GMT

I've never intentionally tried making ugly jewelry, and I'm not really sure I'm up for the challenge. But I look forward to seeing the necklaces entered in the annual The Ugly Necklace Contest. The entries don't inspire me to create anything ugly, but I admire the creativity and effort that go into each necklace. Take a look at this year's entries, and vote for your favorite.

If you think that you have the skills necessary to create an ugly necklace, check out the official rules. The entry deadline for the 2009 contest is March 15, 2009.

––Katie

Can you make a living by making objects of beauty? An exhibit of Wiener Werkstätte jewelry at Neue Galerie inspires questions.

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

From now until June 30, 2008, you can visit Neue Galerie in New York to see an exhibit of jewelry from the Weiner Werkstätte (Vienna workshops), a movement that developed at the same time and with a similar ideology as the English Arts and Crafts movement. I found out about the exhibit from an article by Ken Johnson that appeared in the New York Times.

Johnson's review, "Rage Against the Machine with Artisans and Beauty," piqued my interest, because the more I read, the more I recognized similarities between those artisans from a few generations ago and our beloved Art Jewelry readers. Johnson points out that the jewelry's value for these artisans came "not from the raw materials but from its aesthetic, the purview of artists and designers, and its craftsmanship, handled by the workshop’s expert artisans." In every issue of Art Jewelry, we publish pieces that fit this description — it's one of our defining characteristics.

But in his review, Johnson goes on to talk about how the Wiener Werkstätte was an "ultimately untenable business model" that failed partly because it didn't have a "political vision." Instead, he says, "Its only purpose was to make beautiful things without compromising artistic quality, an expensive ambition." He hopefully suggests at the end of his review that perhaps such a movement could survive in, say, the 21st century with "rich and enlightened patrons."

The article raised a lot of questions for me:

How do you, as an artist, find the line between accessible art and quality materials and craftsmanship? Or do you even feel the need to make your art accessible in the first place?
Is it necessary to have a political vision behind your work in order for it to sell? Or can you simply make objects of beauty that are marketable on that merit alone?
Do the "political" pieces sell better than the "beautiful" pieces, or do 21st-century buyers actually fork over more money for objects of beauty rather than for pieces with political vision? Are you finding "rich and enlightened patrons"?
How does the mass-production of jewelry continue to affect you as a craftsperson?
How do modern concerns about social responsibility (where do we get our metals and our stones, what chemicals are we using, do we have sustainable working practices, etc.) compare to the concerns that the early-19th-century artisans had?

Of course, the list could go on. But I'm really eager to hear what you have to say about this. To share your thoughts, leave a comment in the comment box below.

—Kristin

Wedding ring makeover part 2: the new design may be a band with bead-set champagne melee diamonds

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:19:00 GMT

If you've read my last blog post, you know that I'm in the process of revamping my wedding band to commemorate my and my husband's five-year wedding anniversary (read good excuse to change the design of a ring that neither of us loves). I'll be keeping the vintage engagement ring intact, but I'll have the band's infinity-symbol design changed because it's a bit jarring next to the delicate filigree.

Seconds after Associate Editor Addie Kidd told me that a good jeweler would incorporate my existing band's metal into a new band, she and I were brainstorming the new design. I attempted to sketch the design my husband had given to the jewelers five years ago (he mimicked some of the filigree pattern), but I wasn't remembering it right. Addie said, "You could add stones," and my first thought was, "No, that would be gaudy." She said, "They could be little. You could do a band with melee diamonds — they could be about 1 mm." And before I could reject the idea for looking too much like a mother's ring, I thought, "I could do champagne diamonds! And they would match the color of my metal (which isn't modern white gold, but an antique, yellower alloy). And I could do 13 of them!" (I would have 13 diamonds because that was my favorite number before I met my husband, it also happened to be his favorite number, serendipitously we started dating on the 13th, and we got married on the 13th.)

Addie pointed out that if I did 1 mm bead-set champagne diamonds, the stones wouldn't draw attention away from the engagement ring; they would merely provide sparkle. Also, 13 stones would line up nicely, one centered on the engagement ring's diamond and six on each side. She suggested that I have the melee diamonds bead-set to mimic the vintage look. She found a good example of what she envisioned here in a piece by Etienne Perret. Of course, my band would look a bit different from Perret's. I'd like to keep the filigree and etching on the side of the band to mimic the engagement ring, and the band will need to curve to fit the contour of my ring. If at all possible, I'm hoping that the band will be a bit thinner than it is right now, too.

So, that's the concept for the new design. I am, however, open to further suggestions. If you want to throw any ideas into the mix, just comment below. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

—Kristin

New weekly poll on the Art Jewelry home page. Check it out!

Katie Streeter — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:43:00 GMT

Most people enjoy sharing their opinions, and now we have a weekly poll on the Art Jewelry home page so that you can do just that. Each week you'll find a new question on various subjects. We might ask what your favorite jewelry-making tool is, where you find inspiration for making artwork, or even what your favorite season is. The editors will be coming up with different questions to ask, but if you have a great idea for a poll question (it doesn't have to be jewelry related), let us know! Add some comments to this blog post or send your suggestions to editor@artjewelrymag.com.

And don't forget to answer this week's question!

––Katie