Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist March 2015

AS A RULE I don’t like those weirdly colored, often iridescent, titanium-coated gems, especially the drusy ones. Those perfect, sparkling little crystals are so magnificent on their own, I think the additions are overkill. That’s kind of funny because, as a rule, I love overkill: give me brilliant colors and iridescent gems any day. And, as a rule, I’m fine with gem treatments as long as the seller follows the full disclosure rule. That’s an important one. But as a rule, I hate to follow rules and chafe against too much consistency. Happily for me, here is the perfect occasion to ignore those pesky mandates: a titanium-coated, black drusy quartz. I just love a good, rich black — women do, you know (as a rule)! There’s just one hitch to…

DESIGN CHALLENGES NEXT TIME: 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 Radiant Brilliant citrine, cut by Leon Agee, page 38. DEADLINES: MARCH 31, 2015 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: KRosenbusch@interweave.com; or Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist, 88 Glocker Way, #299, Pottstown, PA 19465. Include your name, city, and state, and indicate “Your…

WANT TO CONTRIBUTE? Share your expertise with other readers in a project, demo, or article and you’ll be invited to show an example of your work here. Contributors’ guidelines can be requested by emailing MWhite@Interweave.com, subject line: LJJA Guidelines.…

Who would have thought a word meaning “caused by a small, infectious agent that replicates inside other organisms” would become the holy grail of online marketing? Even as the threat of Ebola spreads panic, saying something you posted “went viral” is cause for celebration. Anyone who has experimented with online marketing knows the majority of what you post, no matter how carefully targeted and prepared, will vaporize the minute you put it out. Having posted 11,600 tweets and attracted 60,000 Twitter followers, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s chief digital officer, Sree Sreenivasan (aka @sree), once said, “The dirty secret of social media is that almost everyone will miss almost everything you do on social media.” Having something go viral is your only hope, Sreenivasan will tell you, so you should…

The hammer doesn't have to be a hammer Forming Tools of Wood LIKE MANY MODERN THINGS, contemporary metal forming is often incredibly complex, and it takes specialized tools, advanced techniques and focused thinking to create it. However, simple, classic, historic or ethnic jewelry forms — like bosses, conchos, and other domed objects — can have the power to fascinate even the most sophisticated modern metalsmith. I’d like to believe it’s because creating them is astonishingly simple, and in today’s hectic world, simple has the potential to feel like a 6-month vacation on a desert island. Trust me — any cyber-connected, uber-scheduled, ultra-equipped modern maker should slow down and try simple every now and then. It’s hard to believe a wood block, a piece of metal, the dance of torch fire…

IF AN ATTENTION-GRABBING center stone is what you’re after, this may just be the gem you need. After two years of intensive research and development, Midnight Black Titanium Drusy is being introduced to the market by New Jersey gem cutter Greg Genovese in partnership with Belapedra Jewelry Company in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The chemical vapor deposition coating formula is proprietary, but one of the primary ingredients is titanium, hence the name. The resulting black coating is guaranteed not to chip, flake of , or fade, says Genovese. So you can enjoy these stones for many years to come. A druse is a coating of small crystals on a mineral’s surface; with ideal clarity and size, they sparkle in the light like snow in sunshine. When covered by a…