Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist September - October 2017

NOTHING CURDLES MY CREATIVITY like feeling I need to come up with a good idea right here and now. For example, I’d been futzing with this lead way too long and boring myself silly trying. Then I got up for another cup of coffee, and as I put the cream back in the fridge, those first four words popped into my head. Prize-winning, not, but I’ll bet it made you look. One way to stifle yourself is with too much pressure: focusing too hard or too long, demanding immediate, constant, or total success. Another is to be too easy on yourself, thinking you’ll develop sensational designs and execute them to perfection without focus, discipline, hard work, high standards, or luck. None of those alone will guarantee success — nor will…

reader comments & sketches Jill MacKay’s Western Nouveau Leather and PMC Necklace with Turquoise Kieu Pham Gray’s Torch-Fired Enamel and Reticulated Sterling Silver Disk Michael Cheatham’s Silver Dust Granulation Appliqué Earrings Riffon the design of any of these pieces or any other pieces within this issue, using a design feature such as color, texture, form, value, line, space, repetition, balance, contrast, unity, or variety for your sketch. Please indicate which piece your entry is based on. Sketch a setting for this diamond crystal from Smokin’ Stones, page 50. DEADLINES: OCTOBER 31, 2017 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…

Re: Ask the Experts, May/June 2017 In Ask the Experts in the May/June issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist, the Benhams discuss platforms to use when soldering bezels onto back plates. When I was being taught to solder these, I was told to put my soldering pick under a corner or edge of the back plate and raise that corner up, while directing the flame underneath. I learned to preheat the piece while it was lying flat — just enough to fix the flux and secure the solder pallions in place. When the flame was then directed under the lifted corner, the whole piece quickly came to soldering temperature. I have been doing this for 25 years and have never melted a bezel this way (although I have melted my…

BETSY LEHNDORFF’S Inside Out Cuffs Galvanic sterling silver etched with cobweb patterns Colorado Diamonds: A Blast from the Past” Page 52 “Etched Silver and Colorado Diamond Necklace” Page 54 JILL MACKAY’S Fairy Necklace and Earrings Cast silver, gold-plated silver, crystal and glass beads, gemstones “Western Nouveau Leather and Metal Clay Necklace with Turquoise” Page 34 BILL FRETZ’S Hand-Raised Bottle Sterling silver with swirling fluting “Hammer Textures” Page 72 KIEU PHAM GRAY’S Sempiternity Star Necklace Drilled drusies, anticlastic frames, wire, chain “Torch-Fired Enamel and Reticulated Sterling Silver Disk” Page 66 KYLIE JONES’S Earrings Persian chain maille, captured green amethysts “Jade and Silver Chain Maille Necklace” Page 26 NOËL YOVOVICH’S Cross Country Pin/Pendant Sterling silver, anodized titanium “Swirl Link Wire Wrap Chain Bracelet” Page 20 MICHAEL CHEATHAM’S Robin’s Egg Kingman Bracelet Hammered…

Is your jewelry business listed on Yelp? If not, maybe it should be. You don’t have to have a store to post a listing, just a physical location. If you have a studio you let customers into by appointment, all the better. Like Google, Yelp is one of those goofy domain names attached to a Silicon Valley startup that morphed into an online phenomenon — and eventually a verb about searching online. Who hires a plumber or books a restaurant reservation without googling or yelping — or both? Whether you google “jeweler” or “roofer,” Yelp results come up high for local businesses. Like me, you’ve probably become conditioned to look for that familiar gold star rating. I discovered Yelp years ago on a trip to Hawaii after downloading the app…

WIRE WAS MY FIRST LOVE. It’s consistently true that many jewelry enthusiasts progress through beads and parts, maybe hop into leather or fabric for a bit, and then discover wire, where they either stay put or move on to sheet metal fabrication like I did. As a raw material, wire’s incredible history just can’t be undersold — jewelry masterworks dating from ancient times and up to this very moment can be viewed in museums and galleries worldwide. Wire is solid and sturdy, and you can fly free in creative wonderland using the plethora of shapes, colors, materials, and gauges out there, not to mention the hundreds of wire-centric tools on the market. Sure, I love to fabricate but I‘m a loyalist, and when I feel out-of-sorts I return to my…