Sterling Silver and Blue Paua Shell Earrings

Robin's latest Design available at her Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83002974/sterling-silver-and-blue-paua-shell

Labradorite and Sterling Silver Pendant

We have been busy with all the craziness of summertime.  Took a short vacation and visited central Oregon and spent one day at the Glass Buttes.  The obsidian there is out of this world and a little overwelming of how much variety and quantity is there.  Once we got back, we have been busy replacing windows on our house so been difficult to squeeze in some studio time.  Robin had a great day and created a beautiful labradorite and sterling silver pendant, link to her shop below the picture.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79135502/labradorite-and-sterling-silver-pendant

Jim

Sterling Silver Turquoise and Garnet Pendant

Robin's most recent addition to her etsy shop, an amazing sterling silver pendant with turquoise and garnet.



http://www.etsy.com/listing/77868683/sterling-silver-turquoise-and-garnet

This is a one of a kind sterling silver, turquoise, and garnet free form pendant. Each stone is set in a fine silver bezel. The turquoise stone is dramatic by itself, paired with the garnet it is very striking. To further bring out the colors I patinaed the inside of the piece while the outside frame is highly polished bright silver. The whole piece is finished off with an 18" sterling silver box chain. I showed a picture of the back of the piece so that you could see the bail was designed to accomidate many different types of chains.

The pendent itself is about 2" long and is about 1 1/4" wide and the widest point.       

Jim

Sterling Silver and Lapis Earrings, Pendant, and Ring Set

I sketched the design a few months back for a jewelry set using Lapis and Sterling Silver.  I found some time and was able to complete the set as a gift for my wife.  Here is the finished set with the design sketch as a backdrop.

Sterling Silver and Lapis
Earrings about 2.125 x .625"
Pendant about 2.125 x .75"
Ring size 10-1/8
Design sketch used as backdrop

Jim

Red Creek Jasper Etsy Treasury

I created a treasury for "Red Creek Jasper" on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTExMDU3NTF8MzUxNjgwMTEx/the-wonderful-variety-of-red-creek

Jim S.

Sterling Silver Larimar earrings

I found some cute little Larimar stones on etsy, but they were cut as a square. I was a little aprehensive about purchasing these because I had never set a square cabachon. After looking at them for several days I decided to go for it. 

After a little trial and error, here are some of the things that I found helpful when setting a square cabachon. The first was to put the seam in one of the corners. This helps to have a cleaner line, and is just a whole lot easier to set. The second thing I discovered is that you need to file down the bezel at each corner of the stone. To do this I dry fitted the stone and then marked each corner with a sharpie line. Then filed to the marked lines. I would recommend doing a second dry fit before a final setting.

Finished Earrings

These earrings are available in my etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75848365/sterling-silver-and-larimar-earrings

Thanks for visiting..........Robin

New Earring Designs

I have created five new earrings.  I tried the 3 dots with a tail using rivets instead of soldering on the three dots for a new variation on my design.

J110515, Copper, Sterling Silver

J110510, Copper, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver

J110512, Copper, Sterling Siver, Fine Silver, Garnet

J110513, Copper, Brass, Sterling Silver

J110514, Sterling Silver, Copper

Jim

Flower Pendant

Robin finished a delightful flower pendant of sterling silver with a amathyst stone. 

Robin also designed and hand made some sterling silver earrings with bezel set lapis and a copper swirled line soldered on the side.  The contrast and play of complimentary colors make the blue really stand out.

She is currently working on a red jasper piece and a larimar piece.

I was able to finish several earrings and have a couple very close to completion.  I am excited about a organic shaped piece of formed copper with forged brass intertwined.

Jim

Success and Failure

Robin had a good day finishing three pieces.  Her two earrings turned out really cute, and she plans on making another pair of the tear drops for herself.  The puzzle piece pendant is for April's Autism awareness, as our youngest son is autistic.  Look for the pieces soon on Etsy, in her shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/DelightfulbyDesign

I sanded the ring I am working on and have it ready for polish.  My tiger eye pendant I can not get the stone to set tight and still wiggles just a little.  I have tried for hours to get it tight, but it just won't go.  I needed to make the bezel tighter and now must make the painful choice and cut the bezel off and rework the piece.  If I would have taken this approach hours ago it would be done, but you hope that with just a little more work you can fix it.  I learned that sometimes a little step back in the beginning is far less painful than a leap back later on. 

Jim

Sunday Studio Time

We were both able to get in some studio time on Sunday.  Robin finished several pairs of earrings except earrwires in her limited time as our son kept her hopping most of the day.  I worked on a couple of rings.  A simple sterling silver with moss agate ring when pretty smoothly and is ready for final sanding and polish, then I will bezel set the stone.  The other is a birthday present for Robin and it is still has a ways to go.  I spent most of the time working on a tiger eye pendant.  I had a sketch I was working from and the chain did not sit correctly with the pendant so I worked through several options and made swivel caps with rings for the chain to connect to.  The stone is still a little loose, so have to keep working the bezel to see if I can get it tight.  Sterling silver bezel is so much harder to work with compaired to fine silver.

Jim