Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist April 2016

WHAT DO YOU GET when you mix a perennial favorite with a hot trend and add a lot of splash? You get the perfect opportunity to sell the artisan jewelry you love to make. Flowers are trending big this year, and I do mean big: “Florals are amplified with big, bold intensity,” reporter Deborah Yonick tells us in Trends, page 18. “The tendency has been for large sizing, with more drama and detail,” adds Leatrice Eiseman for the Pantone Color Institute. If your signature style is full of colorful, over-the-top flowers, this is the year for you. If your designs are missing one or more of these elements, now’s the time to expand your horizons: and hurry, because Mother’s Day will be here soon! You could start in this issue with the perfectly…

NEXT TIME: Kirsten Denbow’s Torch Fired Enamel Floral Necklace, COVER. Riff on a design feature of this piece such as color, texture, form, value, line, space, repetition, balance, contrast, unity, or variety for your sketch. Sketch a setting for this Black Bay opal cabochon, page 32. DEADLINES: APRIL 30, 2016 Email digital scans at 300 DPI or send photocopies of no more than three sketches per challenge, indicating the design factor that is your starting point. Sketches will not be returned. WRITE TO US ANYTIME: What do you think about what you’ve seen and read in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist? SEND SKETCHES & LETTERS for possible print or online publication to: Karla. Rosenbusch@fwcommunity.com. Include your name, city, and state, and indicate “Your Turn” on the subject line. DESIGN CHALLENGES YOUR COVER RIFFS: Designs based on Roger Halas’s Mystical Moonstone Ring, December, 2015. YOUR…

JEFF FULKERSON’S Scaling New Heights Bracelet Sterling silver, black jade, fossil ivory, fossilized dinosaur bone, petrified wood, copper, Picasso marble “Wrap-Around Raindrop Ring” Page 26 AMERICAN PEARL COMPANY’S Oyster Dish Ring Lagniappe cultured pearl, gold Smokin’ Stones Page 38 PAULA CREVOSHAY’S Ganesh’s Gift to Kali Pink sapphires, diamonds, yellow sapphires, 18K gold Trends, Page 18 KIRSTEN DENBOW’S Daisy Chain Choker Enamel on copper, silver, 14k gold “Torch Fired Enamel Floral Necklace” Page 22 WANT TO BECOME AN LJJA CONTRIBUTOR? Contributors’ guidelines can be found at www.jewelrymakingdaily.com/submissions BETSY LEHNDORFF’S Pendant Tourmalinated quartz crystal, tourmaline “What’s Hot in Pearls?” Page 44 “Carving Pearls” Page 48 BUDDHA MAMA’S Ring 20K gold, enamel, emeralds, amethyst, diamonds Trends Page 18 SUTRA JEWELS’S Opal Floral Earrings Diamonds, sapphire, opal, 18K black gold Trends Page 18 NOËL YOVOVICH’S Sunset Watcher Pin Anodized titanium, Argentium silver “Splat Bracelet” Page 54…

WHAT DO YOU GET when you mix a perennial favorite with a hot trend and add a lot of splash? You get the perfect opportunity to sell the artisan jewelry you love to make. Flowers are trending big this year, and I do mean big: “Florals are amplified with big, bold intensity,” reporter Deborah Yonick tells us in Trends, page 18. “The tendency has been for large sizing, with more drama and detail,” adds Leatrice Eiseman for the Pantone Color Institute. If your signature style is full of colorful, over-the-top flowers, this is the year for you. If your designs are missing one or more of these elements, now’s the time to expand your horizons: and hurry, because Mother’s Day will be here soon! You could start in this issue…

As the youngest Millennials move on SnapChat, the latest social media craze, some may be wondering if Instagram will be left behind by the restless and quickly bored mobile generation. Not any time soon. For people with a visual brand — jewelry, for example —Instagram is the place to build a loyal and active customer base, fast. Some have all but abandoned the social media that was hot five years ago to focus here. For one thing, it’s easier to build a huge following than on Facebook or Twitter. Facebook keeps changing its algorithm, trying to force people for paid promotion. Twitter moves so fast, and many find its 140-character limit difficult to work with — especially if you need to include images. On Instagram, I’m watching people go from zero to 20,000…

When all you want is a happy ending Tools for Making Findings THAT’S WHAT DROVE ME to study metalwork: the search for better endings than the crappy ones I’d been working with. Many (many!) years ago, I was an enthusiastic assembler of fashion jewelry composed of beads, manufactured parts, and a variety of artistic flotsam and jetsam. After years of creating hundreds of bracelets, necklaces, and earrings using your typical, sold by the gross, not-so interesting spring rings, fold-over clasps, or kidney wires, I finally reached a breaking point. I couldn’t bear the predictable ending I got with yet another manufactured closure on my work, so I decided to take the evening course at my local art school specifically for the purpose of learning how to make my own clasps. I’ve never looked…