Sneak Peek

Coming soon.....Solid 10k gold rings to my Etsy shop! The gold rings will be available in both the Love Me Knot and the Fine and Fused (smooth and hammered) styles. I'm excited to have the opportunity to be able to offer another precious metal to my customers. I'll be sure to keep you posted once they're available for purchase! Stay tuned....

It's Been A Few Days....

Since my last post. Jeez, I almost sound like I'm in a confessional LOL!

Things have been crazy with the Valentine's rush, I've even received sales on Artfire and ShopHandmade. Very cool if you ask me! The Love Me Knot ring is my biggest seller right now.

I've encountered a few major snafu's though. This last weekend I had 9 rings to make, get packaged and ready to be shipped out on Monday. Well my torch had been acting a bit funny, leaking as if the trigger was stuck in the "on" position. Then the flame was all wacky, it'd be bushy one second, huge, small and everything in between other than the flame that I needed it to be. I ended up destroying a lot of rings because it'd get a major flame on as the silver started to flow and just melt the crap out of everything....uuuugggghhhh! Then I kept having hot flashes, which for those of you who have experienced them know that you go from calm to raging in nothing flat! Ruining perfectly good rings during a hot flash did not make for a pretty site. All in all what should've taken me 5 minutes took nearly 6 hours, but I got it done!

Now I've got a new torch, it's Benzomatic propane torch...I believe it's a plumbers torch, I had a friend of mine who's an electrician pick it up for me. It was a bit scary to work with at first especially compared to my Ronson mini torch, but it works pretty darned good! I used it for the first time today, made a couple of fine silver bangle bracelets and filled some more ring orders.

I've now made myself both a round and an oval bangle bracelet and I have to say that I really like the ovals much better. I'm not sure if it's because of the fit or what...but I think I'll be making myself some more of these :) I'll take pics of them tomorrow or the day after to share!

Fusing - Take Two

Okay so today was much more successful than yesterday. I'm still having troubles with fusing larger sized rings not gauge but actual size. I've posted some pictures here to show you the results.

I've got my rings laid out on my ceramic tile ready to be fused.

The results after fusing 4 different sized rings, the larger ring on the far left did not fuse.

After hammering them for texture, I put them in my tumbler and here's the result:

I just made a few more so when I'm done here I will actually hammer them flat to be used in necklaces and earrings. I really am pleased at how they turned out and I can't wait to see what fun things I can create using this technique!

Fusing

Nope..no pictures yet, but I did try my hand at fusing tonight with 16g fine silver. I wanted to make a couple of stackable rings for myself before I went for drinks with the girls. So one ring turned out ok and the other ring didn't fuse at all :(

I know, I can't expect perfection on my first try! BUT, if you know me...you'll know that I most definitely do! I don't believe that it sets me up for failure, I see it as more of a challenge to achieve my expectations!

So I'm going to read the book again tonight to see if I missed something...I thought I had followed the steps. I made sure the cut was clean, though I don't own Tronex cutters (I think that's the brand the author uses), I did file to achieve the flush ends. I also wonder if it's my ceramic tile that I'm using. I don't have a fire brick as it calls for in the book, and I can't seem to find one anywhere. I bought the ceramic tile from Craft Warehouse for soldering and thought that it would work for this as well, but I wonder if it's drawing the heat away from the silver as I'm trying to fuse??? Food for thought anyways. Debora, what are you firing your silver on? If you'd rather email me you can reach me at shi_girl30@hotmail.com or convo me on Etsy :)

So wish me luck tomorrow as I'm going to dedicate the majority of my day to fusing. I will take pictures for you this time, they'll either be of finished rings, or some horribly gone wrong projects!! I've got my fingers crossed that it's not the latter.

Stackable Rings

I was messing around today and purely by accident made some new rings. I've named them Rustic Lil Dollops. They're made fusing 18g sterling silver wire, slightly hammering them for texture, then I do a little something extra to create a brushed satin finish. These rings are so cute and dainty with that little bit of rustic charm found in the slight imperfections.

Each ring is made to order in any size ranging from 1 to 16. Currently they are being sold individually, in a pair and in a set of three. I will probably list them in larger sets in the near future. I'm going to make myself a set of 4 or 5 tonight to see how they wear...can't wait!

Soldering

I didn't post anything yesterday so I wanted to add something today. I took tomorrow off and I'm going to be trying my hand at soldering some sterling silver rings. I have my fingers crossed that everything will go well. I've been watching soldering videos on Youtube like crazy, and of course I've read all of my books, and have even looked up all I can on the internet to read. Overdoing it??...nah ;) I'm just nervous and I don't really care to waste too much silver. I'm sure that my first few rings will be mine to keep because they won't be the prettiest, but what girl turns down jewelry??

Well that's all I have for now, I'm off for coffee night with the girls! Woohoo :)

I'll post pics of my creations tomorrow!