• is making ghetto S’mores and enjoying her leopard print eye makeup. #
• is watching Love in the Time of Cholera….interesting movie! #

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• @daniellebeaty will have 315 followers in 30 days according to TwitterCounter: http://tinyurl.com/dglsu9 #

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Christmas is long over.  The wrapping paper has been recycled, the tree has long since met it’s fate at the wood chipper and your decorations are securely stored for the next yuletide season.

Perhaps you’ve exchanged all the ugly sweaters for store credit, you’ve yet to figure out that new kitchen utensil and you’ve poured through all your new jewelry books.

Did anyone happen to get one of those wildly popular digital photo frames?  You know, the one that allows you to add a bunch of digital images to it and it circulates through them automatically for your viewing pleasure?  Well, good!  Let’s make it work for you at your next trunk show/art fair/retail venue…

Even if you didn’t receive this as one of your many thoughtful gifts, you can get a fairly decent one for as little as $55…however, depending upon size, resolutions, etc, they can climb quite high on the scale.  But you don’t need the best one on the market for this trick; it’s merely going to save you some talking that many people find hard to do about themselves, as well as give your customers an interactive look into your jewelry business.

Take digital images of you in the process of your craft, brief explanations of what makes your work unique staggered in between, pictures of some of your more memorable pieces or collector’s items.  This is your chance to make your very own commercial showcasing your talents, materials and experience.  Make it shine!

Posted under Inspired

Here’s hoping you all had a warm and wonderful Holiday, filled with good eats, Macy’s Day Parade, friends and family.

Please excuse my absence as of late.  I’ve had a few family emergencies and I’m attending a funeral for a close friend this weekend.  Starting Monday however, we will be back in our seat and posting daily once again.

Best wishes to you all and have a great weekend…

~D.

Posted under Administrative

While I know some of us are content using just hard solder for all of our soldering jobs, I know there’s still those select few of you who choose to follow the rules and use a variety of solders for your various soldering stages in the production end of your work.  And I confess, I actually do have a bit of easy solder sitting around on the bench somewhere, just in case I decide I might need it one day.  I think I’ve actually even used it! 

When you employ three different types of solder on your bench, chances are that, at some point, they’re going to get mixed up.  Snippets fly this way and that, trays of pallions spill and get thrown together in mass chaos.  Not fun, and once you’re unsure which is what, it renders perfectly good solder almost useless.

Tip of the Day? Color code your solder!

Make good use of those Sharpies yet again: grab a blue, a black and a red permanent marker.  Color your Hard solder red. Red is significantly the hottest color, indicating the hottest temp needed for proper flow. Color your Medium solder black and your Easy solder blue or green, indicating the lowest temp for flow.

Be sure to color your solder both front and back.  The ink will burn off neatly long before you reach flow temps and you’ll never again wonder which solder pallion is which.  

~D.

Posted under Tip of the Day!

Ferric Chloride is a traditional etchant for anyone etching circuit-boards, and sometimes by default, copper for jewelry components.  Who doesn’t love to etch?  It’s an easy way to impart many designs into your metal with relatively little hand work.  Far less time consuming than engraving and much less expensive than traditional metal stamps (if you don’t make your own stamps with recycled steel).  However, the acids and chemicals involved in etching can sometimes seem complex and dangerous to the novice jewelry maker and even to some of the more advanced metalsmiths who are just branching into the etching world.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a relatively simple formula to make a starter etchant that was cheap, reusable and stronger with each use, and easily formulated with 3 simple ingredients, 2 of which are available in your local hardware store?  Well, guess what?!  It’s totally possible and it’s called:

Copper Chloride in Aqueous Hydrochloric Acid Solution!

Say that three times as fast….  It sounds much worse than it is.  (As always, care should be taken when working with these items.  They may sound dangerous, but it’s always better to work safe and know the parameters of your chemicals.) The main two ingredients required from your hardware store are as follows:

• Hydrochloric Acid (AKA: Muriatic Acid or Pool Acid) 31.45% or 10M
• Hydrogen Peroxide 3% Solution (Same that you buy in the drugstore for mouthwash/first aid) **Please note that it is NOT safe to use the 6% solutions found in beauty supply shops. Anything stronger than 3% can produce potentially lethal fumes when mixed with the acid and inhaled. 

The third ingredient is the copper, which you should already have on hand and you’ll also need a non-metallic container (glass beaker or stepped pyrex for measuring purposes) to put your etchant in as well as two standardized measuring containers. While you’re out at the store, you may want to pick up some acetone, which is a wonderful resist remover.  Also, please be sure to wear proper safety equipment, use adequate ventilation and exercise caution at all times when working with any chemical compounds.

You will need to use a 2:1 Ratio for the starter etchant (2 Hydrogen peroxide to 1 Hydrochloric Acid) And, as always, for safety reasons, be sure to add Acid to Water. Please be careful to do this in a well ventilated area: The Muriatic Acid has strong fumes and the resulting starter etchant produces a bit of chlorine gas.  This will become more minimal over time.  The other hazard worth mentioning is to keep this away from stainless steel-it will eat the coating right off it upon contact, even by the dropperful. Keep water running at all times when near your sink.

So, now you have your first etchant.  This first batch will etch super-fast. The etchant will turn a lovely shade of green over time, which is good news. Upon adding your first piece of copper, the etched copper will turn into Cupric Chloride. This is the chemical that recycles as the etchant.  It can be used indefinitely by topping off the acid or the O2 levels.  Over time, you only need to maintain these two things.

Things to remember:

• When all the peroxide is used up, the etchant will turn brownish.  You can reinvent this by either adding more O2 with a bit of Peroxide (be sparing; a little goes a long way and remember that Peroxide is 97% water) or you can get an aquarium bubbler and recirculate via bubbling and swirling.  (Sounds fun, I know.)
• HCI (Hydrochloric Acid) is being consumed in the starter etchant, so you must add more over time. Toss in a capful every 3-4 etching batches.
• You want to make a fairly good size starter batch, but also be careful to not make too much. If you have a 750ML container, start with less than 500ML in total volume of combined materials. 
• If and when your volume becomes too high, evaporate it down by putting it in a shallow dish.  This will concentrate the copper which then translates into a stronger etchant.

HAZMAT WARNINGS:

The Environmental benefit of etching with copper versus ferric chloride is not having to dispose of your copper every few etch batches. Over time, as you end up with too much etchant, please observe your proper LOCAL HAZARDOUS WASTE GUIDELINES.  Copper salts are poisonous to fish, even in diluted concentrations. Always use proper ventilation to avoid breathing any fumes, wear gloves and safety goggles and anytime you’re working with acids, it’s best to have baking soda on hand to neutralize any spills immediately.

Legal Disclaimer:

*You assume all risks in working with these chemicals.  These instructions are for the benefit of those who understand and take on any responsibilities associated with working with hazardous chemicals.  We do not assume any liability for your results and we do not recommend that you try this with small children present. Please take the time to properly research all safety guidelines associated with these chemical compounds.

~D.

Posted under Inspired

Here’s hoping you all put down your pliers/tools/sheetmetals for the day and spent it enjoying the company of giddy children dressed in their Halloween finery…

Have a Happy Halloween!

Posted under Administrative

Packaging at it’s Finest!

Packaging.  It’s something anyone who makes jewelry uses.  We need it for our customers, we use it for shipping, we offer it at our showcase and trunk venues.  It’s part of our branding. Yet, many people now refuse excess packaging due to environmental concerns. Do you blame them?  Deforestation is a nasty side effect of our excess usage of paper products.  It’s no wonder people are no longer interested in taking a box with their newly bought jewelry or accepting our bags.  This can hurt your business in the long run; we depend on people seeing those carefully chosen color schemes in our packaging, our logos and stickers on the sides of the bags.  When you see someone walking with a brightly colored package, don’t you wonder where it came from?  I certainly do, and this is vital to bringing you traffic at many a craft show.

In hopes of alleviating the stress to both you and your customers, we’ve come up with a packaging company whose products are 100% Eco-Friendly. They offer more packaging options than I can ever wrap my brain around, including bio-friendly doggy wastebags, shipping boxes, and more. The best part? You can shop and search their site by category: Color, Industry, Season, etc. Pull up the jewelry category and you’ll find almost all of the tagging, packing, packaging, branding and sticking options we use in our field. This includes dumbell tags, sterling/gold stickers, hang tags, security loops, custom hotstamped satin ribbons and much, much, MUCH more!

Buy eco-friendly packaging, educate your customers on your dedication to “being green” and continue to spread the word about your business.  Visit dunwoody booth packaging here.

Enjoy!

~D.

Posted under Spied!

First, a Lesson in Firescale:

What is Firescale?

Firescale is sometimes referred to as “firestain.”  It is a purplish blotchy stain that can appear on silver alloys that contain copper.  It appears when the silver/copper alloy is heated in the presence of oxygen.  While some artisans may deliberately cause firescale, it is usually a blight that one wants to avoid and, when that fails, treat.

Most sterling silver contains 75 parts per 1000 of copper.  When the alloy is heated during annealing or as a result of soldering, the exposed copper is transformed into cuprous oxide (Cu20), which is purplish in color.  Attempts to prevent the problem center on heating strategies that are carried out in an oxygen free environment.  As for soldering-induced firestain, this can be prevented by applying a protective coating on the silver to prevent oxygen contact. 

So what do you do if you get Firescale and it’s unwanted?

It can be removed by mechanical means, which means polishing it off.  This isn’t particularly fun and can be rather time consuming, but it works, particularly if your starting metal has the initial thickness to allow aggressive polishing. Or, you can try our tip of the day!

Water of Ayr Stones

A Water of Ayr stone is a grey, somewhat soft stone that contains a blend of small discreet particles.  It is also sometimes called a Tom O’Shanter stone and was mined in Scotland before 1885 by a small company. It was used by professional jewelers as a gentle abrasion on sterling silver for cleaning before final polishing as well as removing firescale.  When used, it is best to moisten it and rub gently over the firescale. The argument is that this very same thing can be achieved with many of the wet/dry sandpapers on the market, and it doesn’t particularly work any better than starting with a 400 grit and following it by a 600, but the bonus of using these stones is that it can be shaped to get in those hard to reach areas that we as designers love aesthetically, but woe as finishers. Many of the older jewelry technique books reference this material, but it’s painfully absent from many of the newer classes and metalsmithing tool lists.

As far as I’ve been able to find, there aren’t any American suppliers of this product, but I have found some based in the UK.  It isn’t terribly expensive and does a wonderful job given the opportunity.

Enjoy!

~D.

Posted under Tip of the Day!

 

 

In Review:

The Jeweler’s Directory of Decorative Finishes

Jinks McGrath

Do you ever look at a designer’s work and see beautiful patinations, colors, & finishes and wonder how they achieve them?  Then this is the book for you!  As the back cover reads, “An indispensable reference for jewelers, designers, students and anyone working with base and precious metals…”

Jinks McGrath is well known for her visually appealing books as well as her wide knowledge base and ease of presentation in her writing style.  She doesn’t disappoint in this 128 page book of information regarding all types of finishes and patinas that are popular among jewelry artists. 

The book is set up with the main body of the directory encompassing 15 different types of techniques that can be used to produce a variety of decorative surfaces.  Each technique is broken down into 3 sections: tools & materials needed as well as the demonstration of the method, samples of jewelry pieces utilizing the technique and last but not least, the eye candy; a gallery of items by various artists also working within that technique.  

The author goes on to say in her introduction that it is not wise to expect exacting perfection when attempting many of the processes involved in obtaining the vast majority of finishes shown.  The beauty of patination especially is the unknown; temperatures, weather conditions, elevations, heat and many other factors can decide your results in advance of your skill and determination.  This is not to say that you haven’t achieved what the author is teaching; safe to say you may have discovered something new. Patience is a virtue with many of the techniques discussed & McGrath is quick to offer a variety of methods to try, hoping to lead you down the path to creative enjoyment and not that of frustration.  Last but certainly not least, safety information is always provided and valuable to boot.  For instance, I had no idea that when etching, it was best to use a combination of water and etchant solution and that is was vitally important to add water to the acid, not the opposite. Good to know!  For those of us who somehow managed to skip chemistry class, we’d hate to blow up our studios by not following the proper working rules of chemical reactions.

Wondering what the directory covers?  Here’s the list, chapter by chapter:

•  Stamps & Hammering
• Rolling-mill texturing (good way to finally use that H.F. rolling mill!)
• Fusing
• Polished, Matte & Satin finishes
• Etching
• Patination & Oxidation
• Casting
• Press forming
• Reticulation
• Gold & Silver foil
• Granulation
• Enameling
• Engraving
• Inlay
• Chasing & Repousse

Posted under Reviews