Slowly getting back into the swing of things...

It has been a busy two months around here!  My niece and her family have settled into our house and will be moved into their home at the end of June.  I am not a Mom (well, dog mom counts, right?), but it has been such a pleasure to have this little guy hanging around the house.

Gavin

Yesterday Gavin and his folks were out and about and I headed to the studio.  I was attempting to make a Spinner Bangle.  I say attempt, because the first two copper bangles split at the solder seam ON THE VERY LAST BANG OF THE HAMMER.  Frustration!  Well, when I was forming the bangle the third and last time, I remembered why it split!  I had used copper solder on the first two bangles.  Now, copper solder is great - it's a good color match to the copper and holds just as well as silver solder...unless I have to further shape the bangle and apply pressure with a hammer!  I learned this the hard way a few months ago, but I had not made a bangle in a few months and simply forgot.  Well, once I switch to tried-and-true hard silver solder, it worked!

Of course, other metalsmith's may not encounter this problem...but I do each and every time.  Same for spinner rings - I always use hard silver solder.

While the first spinner bangle was in the tumbler, I wanted to see if I could make anticlastic cuff. This is 18 gauge copper - it's thick. The edges looked fine "folded", but I wanted a cleaner look. So, I melted a bunch of scrap sterling silver into balls, and soldered them onto the ends of the cuff.

The hardest part was creating a perfect flat spot on the ends, where the balls are soldered.

I really like this cuff, as it is adjustable and can fit just about any wrist size.  It goes on similar to a bangle - over the hand - and then lightly squeeze it to conform to the wrist.

I recently acquired a beautiful strand of turquoise. I love this gemstone, and the blues and greens in these barrels are exquisite. I paired the turquoise with some tiny hand cut copper tabs. I textured the copper with my rolling mill, and added tube rivets.

It was a good day!

It is gorgeous outside today - I am going to attempt to get out there to enjoy a bit of the sunshine! My allergies, which I apparently now have at the ripe young age of 54 (go Allegra!), may say otherwise and force me back inside!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

xo

Patti

New Post at LMAJ and I am hosting a giveaway!

Written by Patti Vanderbloemen for Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti

Today, I share my experience with a new tool over at Love My Art Jewelry blog.  I am very excited about this new toy!  In fact, I want to share, so I made these new toggles and I am giving away one set of two to one winner:

Please follow this link right here to enter to win!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

xo
Patti

Written by Patti Vanderbloemen for Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti

Busy...but not in a Jewelry-Making kind of way...

Not much going on here of late.  Yes...my kiln was delivered, and it sits in the same spot as the day it arrived!  My niece, her husband, their adorable 9-month old baby boy, and their equally-adorable white golden retriever Griffin moved in with us this past weekend.  They sold their townhouse, and bought a new home, that will not be complete until the end of June.  The past few weekends have been spent packing/moving etc.  I feel I need a good long stretch of time to dedicate myself to all the idiosyncrasies involved with the kiln.  Until then, I dabbled just a bit in "the familiar".

I recently went nuts at an on-line trunk show where I purchased a BOAT LOAD of beads by artist Judith Billig.  I just could not help myself!  Every time she would post a new picture, I gasped!  This is what I bought...

One of the bead sets included earrings pairs made with a most unique spiral shape:

These are lampwork rounds.  First, I wanted to mimic that spiral somehow, so I grabbed a piece of wire and wrapped up the orange rounds.

I must have snapped 50 photos of these earrings - so hard to photograph, and these little buggers would not sit still ('cause their round)!  

Though I love the earrings, I realized the spiral effect is kinda lost.  So, I wrapped up the black ones with the spiral "on the side".

Again - impossible to photograph!  I would set them up on my gray board "just so"...turn on my camera, and those puppies just kept rolling!  And, the spiral is lost in the picture.  Sigh...

So, I grabbed a pendant and make a necklace.  Much easier to photograph!

That's about all I have done in the past couple of weeks.... I will hopefully speed up my production in the coming weeks!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Enjoy your weekend!

xo

Patti

IT HAS ARRIVED!

Written by Patti Vanderbloemen of My Addictions Handcrafted Jewelry

Last time I wrote a blog post, it was to vent my frustration in attempting to receive a kiln that I purchased in late March. Well, lots have changed since last week's post!

Last Tuesday, I received a telephone call from the President of Paragon Industries.  Apparently, the representative of the webstore where I purchased the kiln read my blog post (big shout out thank you to her)!!  She, in turn, reported my frustration to Paragon Industries.  Paragon took full blame for the mix-up/lack of communication, etc, and my kiln was shipped last Wednesday ... and here it is, fresh out of the box!

Paragon SC2 Pro Silver and Glass Kiln

After tons of research related to what would be the best kiln to purchase, I decided to add on the digital controller to easily set and hold firing programs for future use. The kiln also  only weighs 40 pounds - a plus to me.  

I am very blessed to have my studio in a large room in my basement - planned when we designed this house. Not only is it nice and cool down here (it is close to 90 degrees outside today and I won't even discuss the humidity), but the studio has a painted concrete floor which translates to easy cleanup.  Now, the kiln is perfectly safe to run on a regular household current, but I do have a dedicated circuit in my studio.  I did not want to rearrange my furniture - yet again - so I purchased  a heavy duty machine table on casters, so I can roll the kiln to the outlet when I need to turn it on - and tuck it out of the way when not in use.  This dedicated circuit is also located directly under an exhaust fan I had installed when the house was constructed.   

That's my little toaster oven beneath the kiln.  I like that the shelves are metal - just a little safety feature to ease my mind, as things can get hot down here in the dungeons of the basement with torches and such.

While not a chef by title, I feel I am an accomplished cook in the kitchen.  But that kitchen oven does not even get close to 2000 degrees, so I have some reading to do before I actually turn on the kiln!

I harbor absolutely no hard feelings towards the manufacturer or the webstore where I purchased the kiln.  In the end, good customer service did prevail, and it is a happy ending in my little Kiln Story.  

I hope to be blogging about my continued trials and errors with precious metal clay in the very near future - wish me luck (I need it!!!)

Thank you for stopping by today!!!

xo

Patti

http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com/2015/05/it-has-arrived.html

I am so frustrated...

I hate to keep re-hashing this subject, but my blog is going to have to serve as my place to vent today. After what I thought was due-diligence on my part, I placed an online order for a Paragon Kiln on March 27th.  This order included a few accessories.  When the accessories arrived a week later, it noted on the packing slip that the kiln would arrive within 12-15 days.  By the end of April, and still no kiln, I contacted the webstore.  This telephone contact began a thread of emails a mile long with "should be out next week"..."shipping on Tuesday"..."coming soon".  You get the drift.  Quite frankly, I was fed up.

Saturday morning, I sent an email to my contact at the webstore and flat out told them 1) cancel my order and refund my full purchase price (charged to my credit card on March 27th); 2) reminded them that they should not have charged my card until shipment was actually mailed - or at least the full price should not have been charged; 3) and, I included a diatribe of how their website shipping policies are beyond misleading.  I further advised them that in this faceless world of online shopping, customer COMMUNICATION - at the very least - should be paramount.

I received an email from her this morning telling me the kiln could be mailed today, or I could receive a refund.  I thought... "are you serious"?  I asked for the refund.

How is this company still in business?  Am I the only customer who fell through their cracks?  Is customer service a thing of the past?  I know that if I ran my tiny one-man shop this way, I would never have another sale.

So, I am going back to my list of vendors again in search of this elusive kiln.  In the meantime, I have been playing with some metals.

(SOLD)

I really need to start playing with beads again - my shop is becoming devoid of color, filled with copper and silver! :)

Thanks for stopping by today - hope you have a great week!

xo

Patti