Some Interesting and Useful Articles from Metalsmithing Basics to How to Stop Worrying What Others Think

Here’s a great article by Kate Richbourg: Metalsmithing Basics: Tips and Tools for Cutting and Sawing Metal Like a Pro

And an article on pricing by Carolyn Edlund: The Price is Right

Here’s an in-depth tutorial on the basket weave earrings that are part of the PMC accreditation course.  “Silver Metal Clay Weaving Tutorial - Make Woven Fine Silver Jewelry from Metal Clay Paper or Sheet” by MSchindel

These were mine:

Now this one is a little off the above path, but being around jewelry makers all the time I certainly see my fair share of people worrying what others think of them (guilty as charged!).  So here’s a little reminder article.  I say reminder because if you’re like me… you’ve HEARD all this before.  You KNOW this stuff.  But putting it into practice is hard to remember.

The article is 4 Steps To Stop Worrying About What Other People Think Of You by Dr. Kelly Neff.

So that’s it for today… just some (hopefully helpful links).

Oh, wait… I will show you something I made for one of the EtsyMetal challenges.  The challenge theme was “jumprings” so I soldered some bronze jumprings into a bubble pendant (meaning you use this to blow bubbles with soapy water).  The tiny message in resin reads “Kid at heart”.

And then I also made this pair of earrings (while I was soldering anyway).  Those are tiny vintage rhinestones in resin.

Classes I've been Teaching and Attending

Most of December, January, February and March were and will be taken up with getting ready to teach, teaching, or being taught. 

In December, I held my first official jewelry making class.  We did the trio of spiral earrings.

It being my first class and all, I forgot to take photos of the ladies’ finished pieces, but let me tell you they looked exactly like the photos above.  These women rocked!  Little to no previous jewelry making experience and they did some pretty involved techniques.

Here you can see one of them fusing ball-end headpins.

And here we’re all hard at work making our spirals.

A few days later I was off to Hadar’s where I picked up more skills in the metal clay techniques I’ll be teaching.

Also received my certificate of accreditation after the year long course learning Hadar’s clays and techniques.

I’m now listed on Hadar’s website as one of her accredited teachers.

In January, I returned to Hadar’s for more learning.

In February, I taught my first etching class. 

The students were amazing!  So creative and easy to work with.  I was astounded at what they produced.  I didn’t photograph any of the pieces they made from the computer printout images, but it looked like the stuff shown on the class flyer.

Where I thought they really excelled was in the more imaginative pieces where they drew their own designs and/or incorporated stamps and stencils onto bracelet cuffs.  These designs were etched in under five minutes.

 

Then it was back to Berkeley for another couple of days of metal clay.

So I’ve added a link on my website for upcoming (and past) classes.  I’ve got two classes I need to go to in March, so I may not plan any more classes to give until April, but hopefully we’ll keep rolling through the summer with more classes.

And for anyone who doesn’t live in the area, two of those spiral earrings are made in my eclass with CraftArtEdu.  Click here to see the class.