Feeling blue isn't all that bad

I recently purchased a wonderfull swiz blue topaz. It has a diameter 8 mm, weighs 1.95 ct and is a VVS stone (Very Very Small inclusions = so small you need a microscope to see them. In other words allmost perfect) from Brazil. I have been admiring it for a while and finally got around to give it a worthy setting.

I will do a tutorial on how I do a tapered bezel setting using a bezel block later, hence I won't go into details about that part. In any case I of cause created a tapered bezel to set this stone in -I just find this shape very elegant.

Then I did a fairly simple ringshank (no split and bent parts this time, just the uneven, almost biomorph or grown look that I love so much) and fitted those two parts together (lots of filing and adjusting here)

Now it's a ring – could be used as it is, once the stone is set, but noooo -I want way more details! Details are for instance tiny facet cut stones in tube settings. I had a bunch of white sapphires, chose 3 of slightly different sizes and created tube settings for them all.

And here we are – the ensemble is allmost perfect. Now I only need the curl (no Phantasteria-piece without a curl!) and the golden balls to create a warm contrast to the cool blue of the topaz.

Shaping the wire to create the curl is not especially easy or quick. I run it up in one end and then set out to curl it around the bezel and then into the other direction to make it fit snugly over the ring. Pliers, testing, pliers, testing, pliers -you get the drift. BUT once it's soldered in place, it's finally time to add all the dingly danglies that makes this piece come alive. I have to be carefull though, because they are many and tiny and fall off easily, so patience and a calm hand is needed. First I load one side, glueing it all together with lots of borax flux and plenty of solder in between. Here I'm ready to heat the borax into the glazy state that will enable me to move the ring without the details falling off again.

Which I did here – moved it that is. The other side is ready to be loaded

All the soldering is done and now it's cleanup time, which especially means smoothing out the inside of the ring. I like to otherwise keep a rather coarse look and only polish highlights.

Now onto the final stage of creation: Setting the stones. It's both my favourite part (this is when it truly comes together) but also the most dreaded. All jewellers have all broken stones while learning to set them, and it's still something I fear every time. But that doesn't change the fact that we are talking about metal, which needs a minimum of force to bend to my will. However, this time the disaster wasn't a broken stone when the setting punch slipped. No,  I cut my thumb on one of the (by then) razor sharp tube settings, waiting to recieve their sappires. OUCH! It hurt like hell and bled even more. But I was stubborn and WANTED it done, now! So I carried on and so the ring got temporarily decorated with a splah of red.

Once all was set (and I was properly bandaged) it was off to a little bit of LOS oxydization and some extra thorough cleaning. Two jumps into the ultrasonic cleaner and three vigolous brushings with a antiseptic soap later I was finally satisfied and buffed it up to this:

I imediately got a notion of a warm summerday at the seaside and so babtized it the Seaside Ring, to be bought (until it's gone) here.

Creating jewelry means being tool-inventive

Anyone who has worked for a while in a workshop will know, that you ever so often find yourself in a situation where you need something to help you finish a job and you don't have that wonder-tool around. Sometimes it's because you just don't own one, sometimes because it doesn't exist. In any case, the solution is to create one or find a substitute in order to proceed. I often giggle a bit by myself when I see how I go about it and am thinking ”good thing my customers don't get to see this – they'd never take me or my jewelry serious!”

But then again – we humans would have never evolved to whatever (more or less brilliant) stage we are at currently, if it hadn't been for our creative minds and so I'm okay with it. If it gets the job done, I'm peachy.

So, here are 3 of my latest twists to the toolbox, free for everyone to copy or laugh at ;-)

Roll it baby!

Recently I created a bracelet for the first time in many years and needed a mandrel to support it, while setting the stone. In the wonderful forum on Etsy that I attend with some fantastically skilled and very nice jewelry smiths, it was suggested to use an old baseball bat, if you didn't have a proper bracelet mandrel lying around. Well, I live in Denmark, and the national sport here is soccer and hence, old used baseball bats isn't something more or less everybody can get their hands on. And an air-filled leather ball just won’t cut it I'm afraid, so I had to get inventive and find something else, fast. So here we are. May I present the stone-rolling-pin-come-mandrel? Maybe not the most charming setup, but it worked. Ha!

Perched on a peg soldering

When creating rings like I do with a lot of tiny doo-dads resting on and around the focal stone (and other places), it's impossible to just stack it on and solder it. You have to have some kind of support, mimicking the way the finger eventually will carry the ring. Yes, you can buy lovely soldering pegs for just that purpose, but I just never got around to do that. Instead I ended up sawing and filing a piece of soldering mat so it would roughly fit the curve of the ring -and using another piece to wedge the ring tight so it doesn't move. Some day I'm gonna get a professional one, but this version works reasonably well and I am happy with the end result.

Soothing vanilla saw blades

KLING -another saw blade broke. Argh! Bile is rising and you feel like throwing the piece you are working on through the room and yell something obscene. Grumbling and with a deep soon-to-meet-Botox crease in your forehead you reach out for the batch of yet unbroken saw blades. And all of a sudden, the soothing scent of vanilla, bringing happy memories of ice cream on the beach and that lovely sunset to your mind hits your nostrils. How? Because I am keeping my saw blades in one of those test-tubes that you can buy real vanilla pods in. Once you have scraped out the seeds and used those for something delicious and have blended the left-over and now empty pods with sugar to create luxuriously rich vanilla sugar, you are left with a nice and still very fragrant test tube with lid. Botox has moved a tad further into the future, thanks to using it as a saw blade container :-)

Uniform individuals

We love jewelry and how it shows off our personal and very individual taste. Currently, we are facing a new generation, who are even more focused on individuality than before. According to Mazlows hierarchy of need, we need to have a lot of basics covered before we can venture into self-realization like we do now, here in the western world. I guess it says something about how spoiled we basically are, that so many of us have reached that top of the pyramid. We all shout “I am unique” just like Monty Pythons “Life of Brian”



So what has all that to do with jewelry? Well, of cause we could all only wear OOAK (one of a kind) jewelry, perhaps even custom made, just for us. But few do that in spite of the fact that it isn't as expensive as many might think - as the items in mine and other Etsyans shops shows. Most just buy whatever they find in the shops, and that jewelry is, for good reasons, mass-produced.

But wait… mass-produced and individuality doesn’t rhyme, right? Right. So the solution is obvious and quite few companies have delved into it: create something consisting of a basic piece of jewelry, that can be mixed and matched with new details or other pieces within the same series. The Danish company Pandora is the champion of this discipline and hence very copied. But also others like Spinning, who create stackable rings have seen the light. The principle with the rings is so simple and obvious, that many have copied the idea. So if you want a handmade version, artists like DonnaOdendesigns (rings), Shopelegante (bracelets) or Avinot  (earrings) have taken up the glove of that battle.

And so have I of cause. I have two versions. One small one  which I designed almost 10 years ago (before Pandora did the same thing –damn, should have gone big then) and a set of large, curly ones, that I love a lot. THESE ones I am the only one doing so far (I think at least…)

No matter what: I too like the versatility of being able to wear my favorite piece with whatever matches my outfit. So I stand up in the crowd and shout along “I’m an individual” ;-)

Don’t you just love rubies?

Red, passionate and with a very special sparkle to them. These stones, actually more rare than diamonds and a kind of sapphire are considered special by many –including me. So, when I got hold of this fantastic large (almost 8 mm in diameter) round cut ruby from Mozambique, I felt inclined to produce something special, and so I did (well, I think at least). Here’s the somewhat lengthy process, reminding quite a lot of the Silver flames ring.

I started out with the bezel. It was important to me, that the brim to be pushed over the stone was fine silver, to ensure a snug and secure fit. However, I also wanted to be sure that the tall setting I wanted was sturdy enough to withstand quite a lot of pressure, and so I created an outer layer of 0,4 mm fine silver and shaped into a cone using my bezel block.

Now I made a preliminary sketch of where I approximately wanted to go. I often change the design as I work and so it also happened here.

Once I was sure it would fit the ruby, I created a smaller cone of 0,5 mm sterling silver to be fit inside the outer one for the shoulder to carry the stone on. After a lot of fitting, filing and refitting, it was perfect and I soldered the two cones together:

After grinding the shoulders to a perfect sloped fit, I started working the ring shank. When I had hammered the 4 mm thread and started cutting it, I decided to split one of the ends into two and cut off bits and pieces along the shank to give it it's "grown" nature. Of cause that also meant quite a lot if filing...

Then a thorough annealing (the silver was VERY hard from the planishing)

I spread the two ends and filed them roundish before shaping the ring shank, using the bezel as a guide and trying it on again and again as I worked.

Here the basic shape is finished.

Now I wanted to give it life, let it look almost grown, by adding the tube settings and balls of silver and gold. This part is enormously fiddly and so I forgot to take pictures along the way, but here I have finished all the soldering and filing and have just set the large ruby (sorry about the blurry picture).

The end result after oxidizing with LOS and polishing was sumptuous and very special indeed.

I am really very happy to see how my designs start to become more and more distinct and bold while keeping the romantic flow of Art Nouveau.