Silversmithing Adventures

Black Onyx and Silver Ring

As many of you may already know I've been taking classes in silversmithing for the past several weeks.  I just concluded my instruction and want to share everything I've done with my new skills!

First off, my instructor Nancie Roark is fantastic! She's a wonderful teacher, so positive and upbeat, and she also makes very unique pieces of jewelry.  Here is a picture of her studio in Franklin, TN.  She has so much space in her garage turned studio, as she frequently has students working with her there.  She also teaches at Vanderbilt.

In the many hours spent in this space I learned how to solder metal together, anneal metal to form into rings and cuffs, create a bezel setting, set a stone, saw shapes out of silver, and all of the tools and materials that are necessary for silversmithing.  

The first project we worked on was a long large chain necklace, I formed all of the circles out of wire, soldered them together, filed them, hammered them, and then Nancie polished them for me in her tumbler.  The necklace ended up being four feet long! The purpose of that being so I could get plenty of practice soldering.  It's not an everyday necklace, but it was the perfect accessory to my little black dress at my friend Madushi's bachelorette party!



Next we started on my ring, I learned how to make a custom bezel setting for a black onyx cabachon.  What I did was bend fine silver around the cabachon (stone without a hole that is flat on one side and rounded on the other), solder it to make a continuous oval, and then sweat solder the oval onto a piece of sterling silver.

Next, I had to saw out the oval shape to complete the bezel setting.  Then I formed the ring out of heavy gauge sterling silver by annealing it.  Annealing is the process of heating up metal to an almost melting point and then quenching it in water in order soften it up so you can bend it.  The metal for the ring was so thick I couldn't cut it with my wire cutters so I had to saw it and then file it down so that the bezel set flush against it. 

The last step was to tumble the ring (without the stone in it) to get it nice and shiny, and finally set the stone.  Here is the finished product:

The last project we worked on was a cuff.  There were far less steps in making the cuff than the ring or necklace.  First we just started with a sheet of heavy gauge sterling silver, sawed out a 1 1/2" by 5 1/2" rectangle with rounded edges.  Then I filed down the sides so they weren't sharp, hammered one side to give it texture, annealed it and formed it.  To finish it off, we tumbled it to give it a nice polish.

Because I enjoyed my classes so much, I've decided to set up my studio so I can do silversmithing at home.  It's much more condensed than Nancie's and I still have a few more tools to purchase before it's complete, but here's a picture of what I've got so far:

I've made a couple of earrings in my little silversmithing studio since I got it set up, and it's been quite enjoyable.  I'm especially happy with the way the Mermaid Necklace turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and reading a little about what's going on in my world.  If you would like to see additional pieces I've made please visit my etsy shop or become a facebook fan:

www.etsy.com/shop/jomariejewelry

www.facebook.com/jomariejewelry

Update

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile, I've been keeping busy and didn't stop to take time to update you all on how things are going. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on my project: 100 Earrings in 100 Days. I'm on Day 24 and it's been interesting and challenging. I'm so glad that I decided to pursue this challenge because I've created a lot of earrings that I absolutely love that might not have come about otherwise. Some of my favorites are:

The Love Knots

Turquoise Tears

and Rain Drops.

Besides creating new earrings I've also taken a couple of custom orders and have been filling regular orders as they come in. I was very happy to make my 100th sale the last day of February! I have also been working very hard on marketing, I spent quite a bit of time creating (and perfecting, you know me, always the perfectionist) a brochure, as well as a line sheet and gathering materials to be able to visit shops.

Here is a picture of my brochures:

I finally feel like I'm ready to go to some boutiques and get my jewelry line onto their shelves. Now I just have to get the shops to agree to see me! :) I've contacted a few stores but haven't gotten the green light yet. I understand that it has to be the right fit, our aesthetic has to be similar and they have to have a need for jewelry. It's just a matter of finding the right store. Logically I understand that, but subconsciously it's a different story. I've woken up for several bad dreams this past few weeks where shop owners were telling me that my jewelry sucked and I wasn't good enough. Isn't that ridiculous! Can you imagine if someone actually did that! Haha! It's just my inner demon talking, but I think I'm starting to overcome it. Today I had a meeting with a local magazine, and I was really nervous about it. To prepare, I had to talk myself up a lot, just like I used to do for job interviews. But you know what? It worked, I was still nervous but I felt really confident in my jewelry. I absolutely love the designs that I've created and I'm really proud of the progress I've made over the last couple of months. All of the positive feedback I've received from my family, friends, and followers on Facebook has been really helpful too! And I've learned that even though it's scary, you have to put yourself out there. It took five e-mails to land the interview with that magazine, but now they're going to feature me in their May issue! And the wonderful Nashville Fashion Blog has already done an article about my jewelry. Just because I haven't found a shop to sell my jewelry doesn't mean that I'm not going to, I just haven't asked the right shop yet.

To purchase my jewelry please visit my Etsy shop:

www.etsy.com/shop/jomariejewelry

or send me an e-mail:  jomarie.jewelry@gmail.com

Follow me on Facebook to be kept up to date on new designs, giveaways, and discounts: 

 www.facebook.com/jomariejewelry