Gratifying Results (the Obstacles Are the Path).

That post I wrote last week on pushing myself and learning new tricks? I didn't have the pieces I made quite finished when I wrote it. But they are now...so I'd like to show them to you.   :)

The first piece, that gave me SO much grief, is this one:

Tales and Trails Ring

It's wide, nearly an inch wide, and thick gauge sterling. And I shaped and soldered those swirls...or THOUGHT I'd soldered them...but they kept. falling. off.

Now, I have struggled with soldering "not taking" before...primarily with joining two items side by side, which is why I made quite a few of these designs:

because all the pieces on the top get soldered side to side. So now I'm fairly proficient at that.  :)  Struggling with something? Try making fifty pieces that use the technique you're struggling with. That'll make you improve.  :) 

So. Usually soldering something on top of something else is not a problem. But...joining on a curved surface is *so* not the same as joining on a flat surface...I forgot one of the Basic Rules of Fabrication:

You Need A Good Join. Solder Will Not Flow to Fill A Gap.

(Actually, solder *will* flow to fill a gap...but a very small gap). In the case of this ring, I wasn't getting very good joins. Chalk it up to impatience, inexperience, just generally being clueless that day, but for some reason I thought that if I just had *part* of the swirls touching the ring base, the solder would take care of the rest. I'd sort of "tack" down the swirls and then go back and hit the parts that hadn't soldered.

FAIL.

What ultimately had to happen was that I went back and re-shaped the swirls (which took more time, but it would have been less time overall if I hadn't done it wrong to begin with) so that all parts of them laid flat on the curved surface. It wasn't easy. And now I can see why some handmade rings are made...well, let's say differently.  :)

The other piece I made, which also presented a challenge, was this ring:

Terrain Ring 

I've been wanting to make rings with the mosaic designs for a while, but soldering all those pieces onto a curved surface isn't easy either! But it's not all about easy in the studio; otherwise everyone would be doing it.  :)   I helped myself a little by Euro-square-ing the ring base before starting to solder the embellishments on top of it:

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This ring mandrel is squared, as the photo shows. Most ring mandrels are round, but sometimes, especially with a wider band, a squared ring shape will be more comfortable on the finger. Also, if you're making a ring with a heavy top or a big stone set on top, a square shape will help keep the top of the ring upright, rather than the shank sliding around the finger. 

So I squared the mosaic ring. Which at least gave me a partially flat surface to solder the silver pieces on to. Though they're not quite ALL on the square part...since I did three "stations" of mosaics, each station drifts off to the side a bit. But the overall ring is balanced.  :)

AND comfortable. Always important in jewelry design.   :)

Studio Set Up, Part II

In my last post I showed you what wasn't working in the studio, and what I did about it. This time I'll give you a look at what HAS been working for me, and maybe it will work for you, too.  :)

This is a simple wire bin that stores hanging file folders. I use it to store my metal. Each folder is labeled (except for the front two) and each gauge (I stock from 10 gauge down to 26 gauge) and type (round, square, half round, etc) gets its own folder. The wire itself is stored in a big ziploc baggie to prevent tarnishing and also I put the most recent price I paid on the bag, so I know immediately what the cost is when I'm pricing my work.

Sheet metal is in separate bags to prevent scratching, and sits in the front pink folder. Bezel wire, in individual baggies by size, sit in the folder behind the sheet metal. And there are two folders in the back that (separately) hold sandpaper grits and templates for cutting shapes in sheet.

The bin itself is on a small rolling stand so that I can roll it under the work table when it's not needed, and roll it out when it is. It's perfect and I never have to guess which wire is what or where it goes.  :)

My stump (salvaged from when the neighborhood church had a tree-cutting bonanza!) is about nineteen inches high and gets used constantly. I stripped the bark, let it dry out for what seemed like forever, and then nailed a strip of copper around it to hold my hammers. It's not the prettiest hammering job - the copper is all wonky, but I don't really care how it looks; it's utterly functional. I just care that my main hammers (I have fourteen, but nine are in major rotation and seven of them hang on the stump) are easily accessible.

My plastic storage bin that sits under the soldering station (you can see the red line of the tank / torch hose to the left of it). This is also on casters so that I can pull it out for my needs and then push it back out of the way when I'm soldering. It holds lots of useful things like gray wheels, sanding discs, my jig cutter, solder, all the rags I use for the studio, my respirator, etc.

My white board. Oversized. The first one I had was magnetic, which was nice, but it was too small. And this one was free, so I'm not complainin'.  :)  It hangs on the wall just to the right of my computer desk, where I can glance up at it easily. And it holds a TON of information. I use it as a visual reminder of what I'm running low on, so I know what to order, things that need to get done in the coming month / year, etc. I don't know what I'd do without it.

My see-it-all wall calendar. I buy a new one of these every year, and it's incredibly helpful when planning out show schedules, personal travel, etc. The post-its have the name of the show, how many days of the show, and the deadline for applying, and they're posted on the calendar on the appropriate weekend. I can't plan my travel and festivals without it - sometimes I have to apply six months in advance for art festivals, and then I forget what I've applied for, and I don't want to plan something that conflicts with the show...so this helps me stay organized.

This is an after photo, but it only had some minor changes. One of the best things I did when I set up the studio was spend on shelving. Nearly two full walls of it, and it's all full. But what I want you to focus on is the set of white binders on the lower right of the photo. They're right above the computer for very easy access, and they have names like, "processes", "tech", "design reference", "biz info", "metal info" and so on. And the last two on the right (that I reach for more than almost anything else), hold my cabochons. :)

These binders are invaluable. If I need to know how many feet of wire in an ounce of 18 gauge, I can look it up easily. If I need to reference an older design (with notes about what gauge of metal was used, how I made the design, etc), it's all there. If I haven't done a process in a while (mostly related to paperwork or data entry), I can refresh myself on it before hosing it all up.  :)

Hopefully some of this helps some of you design (or re-design) your own studios. It was a lot of work to get it back to a useful state, but so worth it. Now I smile (instead of cringing) when I walk into it every morning!

And the jewelry's coming...I promise...stay tuned.  :)

Turn it Over (or Around, or Upside Down)

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Is this glass half empty, or half full? In this case, it's fully empty. A shame. Why am I showing a photo of a Missoni for Target martini glass? Because it's more fun than your average water glass...


I follow a lot of blogs, mostly home decor and style-oriented ones, but a few business-y blogs are in the mix too. And one of my favorites is Seth Godin's Blog. Seth writes very "in brief" and he always has a refreshing perspective.

Living the life of a creative means you will regularly get lost in your own head, in your personal perspective. And it's not easy to stand back and really see what's causing you difficulties. So when I saw this post (excerpted), I knew it was one to remember:

"It might not be because you can't find the right answer.
It's almost certainly because you're asking the wrong question.
The more aggressively you redefine the problem, the more likely it is you're going to solve it."

There's more here (but not much more; as I said, he's quite a pithy writer). 

I love Godin's short excerpts; they're like getting a nibble to chew over and ponder for a while. And they make me rethink how I approach the regular, everyday problem-solving aspects of jewelry design. Excellent food for thought.  :)