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??

Casting grains: the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing of the jewelry world.

Addie Kidd — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:07:00 GMT

So, yeah...I'll admit that headline was a bit of a stretch. But I'm excited about two things today - tomorrow's Thanksgiving, and the casting grain I just got in the mail. I had to figure out some way to reference both.

Aren't they pretty?? All tiny, sparkly, shiny, and new!
I ordered a pound of bronze (pictured at right) and a few ounces of fine silver. [If you weren't already familiar, casting grain is metal in raw form; its small size makes measuring and melting easier.]

Now, are you ready to hear about my klutz move of the day?
(Yes, I have one practically every day. I think it's in my genetic code or something.)

I wanted to melt my casting grains the second after they arrived on my desk. But I needed to get a photo or two first for the magazine. [Be on the lookout for my casting project and article in the May issue of Art Jewelry magazine!] So I reluctantly dropped the two little bags of casting grains off at our photo department.

Today, Jim Forbes, one of our staff photographers, called me down to get my opinion on the shots that he'd taken. They were beautiful, of course - much better than my little snap shot here. So I officially approved them, grabbed my casting grains, and headed back to my office.

On the way back, I decided to detour to the washroom. No problems so far, right? So I set my two little bags of casting grains on the sink counter.

Just to set the scene, the silver grains came in a tiny zip top bag, so they were safe. But the bronze grains were in this cloth bag shown here. [I think it looks like a miniature money bag that robbers in cartoons would steal from the bank. That makes me want to draw a big "$" on it!] Well, since the cloth bag only has a draw string it wasn't exactly secure.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Before I'd realized what I'd done, the bag full of bronze casting grains shifted on the edge of the sink counter. The next sound I heard was the multiple "PINGS!" of itty-bitty casting grains spilling out and bouncing on the tile floor.

Oops.

I scooped up the bag before too much damage was done, but there were still plenty of grains rolling around. So now I'm on my hands and knees on the washroom floor, crawling around under the sink and counter, trying to retrieve every little elusive grain.

How dignified.

Luckily, only one other co-worker walked in at that moment to witness me in all my klutzy glory. She only laughed a little bit, and she even helped me spot stray grains, which was nice. I think I got most of them, though I know one bounced down the drain.

So the moral of the story is to put all your casting grains (or any other tiny thing, like gemstones) into zip top bags. And close them.
And just for safe measure, keep them away from me.

Happy Turkey Day!

~Addie~

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

Casting grains: the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing of the jewelry world.