"climb"

I just had to finish this necklace by making the copper pendant with the date stamped into it, and bail both pendants to the chain.

the "L" pendent

So I was given this project 20 minutes before I had to leave and was in a panic to finish it. Punched out a copper disk, soldered on a large brass jump ring to the edge and stamped an L in the center. Last step was to oxidize and brush back. Voila !

the PEACE piece

On Saturday I had to replicate the silhouette of a hand shape out of silver and also create a little copper disk that had the word PEACE stamped into it. These will later be strung on a necklace with the blue lapis beads.

INCREASING a ring size...or two

Today I had to cut open a ring and stretch it apart a bit until it went from a size 9 to a size 11. Then I made a small piece of balled silver, hammered it out, filed it to size, and soldered it onto the ring band.

The blank oval on the ring is the one I fabricated and soldered in.

MY STUFF - for me!

I had the opportunity at Angie Star today to make myself a ring! I made the band out of white gold sheet, and also used some silver oxidized wire and a fresh water pearl. I like it a LOT !


The very first thing I designed for myself was a necklace made of a piece of old rosary and some silver chain. It was one of my Christmas gifts.


I also was able to create this piece of JEWELRY when in the shop. It's made from two New Zealand coins and one Australian coin and some random bits of scrap silver chain. I got the idea from Lindsey Cash, who has made some beautiful pieces out of old coins. I hammered the coins to give them some texture.
P.S. while I was hammering the coins, I hit my thumb as shown in a previous post.


The other coin piece I made is a large coin that I hammered as well and tied onto some lace.

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This string of beads are blue opals which are on a brown piece of silk cord. There is a knot in between each bead.


Here is some brass chain that I purchased at McGuckin's with a beautiful bead that my friend gave me. The clasp is an S wire and two jump rings.

Pendants For the Wives

Many husbands come into Angie Star Jewelry and custom order pendants for their wives with their children's names on them like this one I made.


This husband ordered this piece for his wife and had the names of their children on the disk. The heart hanging in the middle had MAMA stamped on the front and had an infinity symbol, made of silver soldered on the back.

The little star Special Order

A little star pendant that a girl custome ordered.

the Inuit Eagle Ring

SO this ring was very difficult for us to make. Lindsey had made the ring but the customer didn't like the eagle's head so Lindsey had to cut it apart and flatten it out. I then had to cut out a different eagle's head and part of the wings. Then I had to heat up the ring enough for the solder to flow and pick the original eagle head off which wasn't to easy. Then I soldered on the new head and stamped the text on the inside of the band. Next I re-form the band into a ring and solder it closed. Then had to file and sand it a bunch to clean it up. To finish the ring, I oxidized the piece and brushed it with the brass brush. I was told that the customer is happy with it.

Some More SQUARE Pendants

These are made of copper and brass and are hammered for texture and are slightly domed.

WATCH OUT----WARNING ! ! !

So while working at Angie Star this year I have learned that it REALLY is IMPORTANT to tie your hair back when on the torch. I managed to burn off half of my bangs while I was soldering a ring. It was kind of scary, flames were all of the sudden in my face and moving up through my hair. I made the entire shop smell. I wish I would have got a picture but I forgot my camera that day.

Then Lindsey, one of the designers, got her hair caught in the drill, but she stopped in time and was fine.


I also managed to smash my finger with a hammer and it started bleeding all over. It was because I was hammering on a very small coin and apparently my aim isn't that precise.

JEWELRY IS DANGEROUS ! ! !

RECYCLED Projects

SO I don't know what it is about the silver scrap drawer, but I love going through it and finding things that I can make into something.


The bands for these rings were already made and I just had to solder little designs onto the top of them.



I found both the band and the beaded top in the silver scrap drawer.



I found this silver pendant in the scrap drawer and just added the stones and jump ring.



This little bird was also in the scrap drawer!

Some not so roUNd pendants...and made of wire

HERE are some square pendant ideas that I made for the shop's initial line board!!!


Brass rectangles with stones.



Brass with silver chain and stone.



Three copper squares connected by jump rings with a stone.



Silver rectangle with stone.



Brass rectangle with chain and stone.

MORE PENDANTS

Angie had me create many different styles of pendants that people could special order! And they've been selling!

Some silly little pendants for the shop

I designed these pieces and it's been really cool to see people ordering them!

Dome Special Order

There was a special order for a piece that one of the Angie Star jewelers designed and I had to re-create it. It was made with a brass dome and a silver dome on top with a circle cut out of its center.

Project to sell in Angie Star Jewelry

I made two similar pieces that can be warn as either a necklace or bracelet. Each one is made of leather and a large silver jump ring that is textured and brushed back. I really like how they turned out.

Tripple Ring Special Order

A Special Order was put in for a ring consisting of three bands all connected to each other. Two of the bands were made of sliver and one of copper. I wasn't sure how to even make it, but it actually turned out!

Bailing: a great skill for every jeweler

Angie taught me how to bail with wire which can be used to create many different beautiful pieces. This technique is nice to know if you don't have access to a torch. This is a perfect and simple cold process that is very simple and elegant.

Doming, doming, and more doming

For the Initial Line I had to punch out many, many little disks and then stamp a letter on each of them, drill a hole for the jump rings, dome all of them, and solder on jump rings. They sell really quickly so I had to make a ton one day in the shop, two of every letter.

French Cord Knotting

When beginning at Angie Star in September the first projects that I began working on where repairs so I ended up doing a lot of French cord knotting. It is tedious, but the end result is worth it! I found out that this technique is not new and is used mainly on pearl necklaces, or necklaces with precious stones so that if the cord breaks none of the beads will be lost.

The Start of Art

I've always been one of those kids that would get into everything and would end up with crazy messes because I always wanted to make something. Whether it was by gluing together random stuff I found on the ground or by making sculptures out of mud I had to be creating something.

By high school I had a variety of art classes to choose from and I loved it. I tried out Commercial Art, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics and Jewelry. I ended up sticking with Jewelry and took a total of five jewelry classes including Advanced Placement where I entered my work in 3-D design. It's very funny to me that enjoy making jewelry when I don't really enjoy wearing it, I think it's because of the shiny factor. I really enjoyed found object and lost wax casting and constructing hollow forms.

I did pretty well and my teacher had me enter my work in quite a few art shows, high school shows to international shows. The largest show I was in was Rio Grande's Saul Bell Jewelry Design Competition where I entered my hollow form bracelet in the Emerging Artist's category.

I ended up placing third having the opportunity to attend the award ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was really fortunate to have the opportunity to meet jewelry magazine editor's and other jewelers, many of them professional jewelers. While I was there I was able to participate in a photo shoot for a Rio Grande ad that was going to be in the Jewelry Artist Magazine.

Now I'm a sophomore at CU Boulder and am trying to experiment with my style so I have been taking sculpture classes. I thought it would be interesting to go from working very small to very large, but while experimenting with this I began missing metalsmithing. I decided to try out jewelry again and am currently interning at Angie Star Jewelry off of Pearl Street and 18th street.