My Studio - Come On In

This is where designing, sawing, piercing, stamping and filing takes place. Look at my adorable new swivel vise! The wood boxes store sterling silver sheet and precut ring shanks. My tumbler sit on top of the black metal shelving. The white plastic drawers beneath my bench hold sterling wire, copper sheet, design stamps and letter sets plus a whole bunch of other goodies.



Middle of my bench. Texturing, hammering, and drilling station.



Soldering station. This is where the magic happens folks!



This is my beading table, but when I'm working on metalsmithed pieces this area is where I do all the finishing work such as setting stones, and final hand polishing. This is also where I sketch my designs. I call this table my 'Inspiration Station' because I have pictures on the wall that inspire me. I also have a rock collection in a bowl, and I take out a different rock everyday and set it on the table for me to look at throughout the day. Those two cabinets are filled with cabochons and sterling silver findings. Various cabachons get pet several times a day.

Notice the little 'Dream' carving? I also have a framed picture with the word 'Believe' that my girlfriend Pat gave me for christmas. Those two words are what keep me moving forward. No matter whatever else is going on in my life...deep inside at my core I am always dreaming and believing in my dreams. I hope you're believing in your dreams too.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Creativity Re-Ignited

I've been feeling much better lately. Thyroid levels are at the high end of 'normal' which means I'm not shakey anymore and my heart rate has stablized. Feeling better allows me to be active and creative again.

I'm taking a second metalsmithing class on Tuesday evenings. The last class is on March 29th. My own studio is now fully equipped and up and running. I've been working on my class projects at home inbetween classes.

As you all can guess I've been buying cabochons to make metalsmithed pieces. Well, I received this gorgeous picasso jasper cab that reminds me of a Monet painting. To me it looks like a field of wild flowers. Notice the pretty mauves, greens, yellows and browns. So, it's being made into a ring with a floral patterned band, and I'm calling it 'Monet' Ignore the surrounding silver. I was just checking to see if the bezel would fit.



The bezel is now soldered together and then soldered onto the back plate, and the back plate has been cut away, and then filed flush to the bezel wire. It's now a perfectly smooth bezel cup ready to have the band soldered on and then it will go in the tumbler, then the stone will be set in the bezel, then I'll oxidize the whole piece in Liver of Sulphur...then the final stages will be lightly buffing off the LOS from the high spots which will leave a dark color in the recesses of the floral patterned ring band to help bring out the details.

I'm thinking of keeping this ring in honor of it being my first completely solo project made from start to finish in my own studio.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Class Eight (finale)

For the 8th and final class I made this pretty turquoise pendant for my daughter's 30th birthday. The bead dangles represent my grandchildren's birthday stones. I strung it on a simple sterling silver box chain. I'm happy with how it turned out, but I sure have a long way to go before my pieces look anywhere close to the way I imagine they'll look......eventually. LOL

I got my torch, but it's giving me grief. I've assembled it three different times and all three times it has leaked. Very scary! I'll have to try using teflon tape on the threads next time. I've been sick for the past few days so I haven't bothered to try it again. Dealing with explosive propane is a little unnerving so it's not something one should do when they're feeling foggy brained.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Class Seven

For the 7th class I made my Mom's charoite and amethyst pendant. I was rushed for time so the instructor Barrie was kind enough to solder the bail on for me so that I could give the piece to my Mom on her birthday the following Sunday. So many things are crooked on the pendant, but Mom seemed to love it anyway =)



I made her some matching purple calcite drops, and a sterling silver wire wrapped ring using one of the same little rough amethyst nuggets like the ones shown wire wrapped onto the pendant's chain. She was thrilled!

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Class Six

My second project was a Spinner Ring. Sparkly isn't it. Spinners should come with a warning! I'm addicted to spinning the inner rings! I actually completed this ring at home during the week before class. For the sixth class I began my Mom's Charoite & Amethyst pendant. I got as far as soldering both the large oval and the small round bezel settings onto the backing sheet for the two stones.

I'm a bit stumped as to how I will proceed. The oval shifted when the flux was heating. The flux is a thick gooey paste that tends go on in globs and then it bubbles up when heating and moves small pieces so this has happened to me twice now (on both projects). When I work solo in my studio I'm going to water down my flux more to try and gain control over this problem.

Anyhow, it is what it is. Now I have an oval bezel that isn't properly aligned with the round bezel sitting above it. I might try to make the piece look more organic by cutting notches and curves along the backing sheet in hopes that the oval might not appear so crooked.

I'll take a photo tomorrow and show you what I mean. I plan on working on it this week and then soldering the bail in class next Tuesday then moving onto my ammolite pendant.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Classes One & Two

For our first class we learned about tools and safety precautions. We also selected stones for our projects, and used our jeweller's saw to practice cutting in copper sheet.

During our second class we hammered and soldered our ring shanks for our first project. I was surprised by how quickly the whole process happened. Heat, quench, pickle, hammer, form, heat, flux, solder, quench, pickle, file and we were done. I was also very surprised by how short the flame was from the torch. Filing takes the longest amount of time, and that's only if you're as meticulous as I am. I think I can do this!

I selected a triangular piece of brown jasper for my first ring. I forget what type of jasper, but I'll ask again on Tuesday. The instructor's husband cut the stone. Here it is:



And here's what my ring band looks like before I add the bezel set stone. I will be adding a larger backing around the bezel with some sterling balls as decoration.



And as promised eariler here's a picture of my pretty ammolite. I will be making this into a pendant with decorative elements representing vines and buds. It's a fairly significant sized cabachon at 31mm X 14mm. I will be posting this picture again in another entry in a series I'm calling Stone Talk. I love stones so there will be a lot of talk about them. =)




Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - first class

I decided to edit this post because I'm not pleased with myself for sounding ungrateful or grumpy. My first impression was wrong. The instructor is very sweet, and very passionate about sharing her knowledge.

I'm really happy to finally be taking a silversmithing class taught by someone willing to show us students short-cuts and give us tips to help save us money. Feeling blessed about this opportunity is all that matters.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.