Artist Inspired: Keepsake Necklace Featuring N Valentine Studio

Nvalentine

Last week,  I received a real gem in the mail. Not a precious stone per se, but a handmade keepsake that means the world to me.

This is one of Nicole Valentine-Rimmer‘s (of NValentineStudio) keepsake lampwork beads: and inside contains two locks of hair – each from both my girls’  first hair cuts.

I was so amazed when I received it – I had sent her the locks of hair and was astounded at how she got it inside the bead – and so neatly displayed as well! So my task at hand was – what to design along with it? The bead on its own is a true focal and I didn’t want to attract too much attention away from it. In fact I put it on a sterling silver chain and declared: done! 🙂 But what could I do to make this more special to me, as I wear it on a regular basis?

So I started forming this idea for an asymmetrical style necklace which contained an engraved sterling silver heart pendant (as I am working toward developing a customized engraved line) and a sterling silver word bead. I didn’t want a lot to detract away from Nicole’s keepsake bead – and something asymmetrical to me would still allow the bead itself to be the focal point.

I will have to admit – this was not an easy necklace to photograph. The glass of the bead reflected the light and camera – and I buffed the pendant on my polishing lathe to a high shine so – finger prints – as much as I tried to remove them at set up, would be glaringly obvious, and looked like scratches in the photos. After some fiddling with lights and camera position, here’s what we have:

I engraved my girls’ names on the heart blank – and added a word bead: “inspire” – because I am dedicated to living an inspired life and my children certainly inspire me. I also wanted the word as a reminder to always inspire them.

The word bead is stamped on both sides so regardless of which way you wear it or if the bead flips around it will always say “inspire”. So I needed to engrave something on the back of the heart pendant. I decided to go with a mother and child symbol – a mother holding baby in arms.

When I engraved the symbol – I would have liked it to be one maybe two sizes larger to fill up the pendant more. So I had this idea to adhere Swarovski flatbacks in our birthstone colours to help fill up the space. The larger one on the left is mine: for April – diamond, the girls (September and March – Aquamarine & Sapphire ) on the left.

I’m not sure how I feel about the Swarovski flatbacks. They certainly look nice on the necklace as I wear it, but it is hard to remove finger print smudges around them. One good thing is that they bond really well to the metal. I put them through a bit of abuse this weekend to see if I could get them to fall off – suffice it to say unless I plan on soaking the pendant in acetone, they should stay put. 🙂

I’ve been wearing this necklace all day, and will probably wear it almost everyday! What makes it so special to me, is the keepsake bead.

Nicole has been making beads at her home studio in Victoria, British Columbia for almost 6 years; 2 years full time. Besides making lampwork beads she is  also a metalsmith &  does some viking knit and byzantine. She also teaches her craft, developing a class specifically for silversmithing for lampworkers.

She is inspired by the wilderness, her animals, and  color. “I love color the brighter the better right now.” On her inspiration for the keepsake beads, she says, “I’ve been wanting to offer something unique as a keepsake for a while. We lost a horse last year and I was trying to think of a way to have a memory of him. Hence the filled beads were inspired.”

Check out more of Nicole’s work  by visiting NValetintineStudio on Etsy and her blog.

It is my hope that we can collaborate on this piece together and it is my plan to offer it for sale on my website.  I want to be able to allow the customer to choose either just the bead or add my elements to it as well. Of course, you can also buy the bead direct from Nicole as well! Whatever you decide, it is sure to be cherished for years to come.

My New Comfy Work Chair

Chair

So the other day I was at Costco and broke down & bought myself a “proper” chair. I’m not sure exactly what a “proper” chair for jewelry work would be – before my house I was an apartment couch beader, so it’s all new to me.

All I know is, the chair I was sitting on previously – which was lovely by the way – handmade by the previous owner, sturdy and high backed, was still a dining room chair meant to enjoy meals with & not sit for long periods of time hunched over an engraver or beads.

So this was not too bad, $100 plus an instant $20 rebate. It is definitely comfy. My legs don’t fall asleep anymore, and if I lean back while thinking or doing certain kinds of work it is great. But there is still the problem of leaning over to do accuracy work. I still get pain at times in my middle back/between my shoulder blades. Hubby thinks I need a lower desk – I am using a flea market table due to its large size – but then wouldn’t I be hunching over more? Sure sitting on a yoga ball would probably be the best for my posture but terribly impractical – can you imagine – pliers in one hand and jeweler’s glue in the other – yeah, I see an accident waiting to happen. 🙂

So this will do. For now anyway. What is your work bench set up and how do you find it?

Jewelry Inspired: Custom Engraved Charm Necklace

Om

I have been talking for several months now about my newly acquired manual engravers – AKA pantograph engraver or engravograph as New Hermes likes to call them.

I thought it was about time I finally shared a completed piece of jewelry showcasing their engraving abilities. 🙂

I call this piece a charm necklace because of the size. It is dainty and meant for everyday wear. Above you see the Om symbol engraved onto a 18x11mm sterling silver blank. (Besides the Om, I also have a Celtic knot, mother/child (which you will see in an up-coming post),  heart, butterfly, flower, awareness ribbon, cross, as well as several logos of organizations. I can order more shapes and symbols upon request). Above it hangs a 4mm freshwater pearl – symbolizing wisdom, faith, focus & luck.

I then added a birthstone fairy in Swarovski crystal – the birthstone is emerald, for May.

Here’s a view of the back of the engraved charm – “Aurore” – the name of the recipient (this was a birthday gift for a dear friend – the entire piece is inspired by her).

A view of how the piece hangs when worn.

I loved this design, & decided to make one for myself! Here is the back of mine, showing my name engraved in a cursive font.

Just to get an idea of the size. It is small and ideal for everyday wear – I wear mine almost everyday!

So a little background – how does the pantograph engravers work? I’ll do a future blog post illustrating how they work exactly, but essentially they are large tracing machines. You have fonts and logos usually constructed out of the traditional brass, however recently I have also discovered a kind of hard resin that glides like butter in my machine, & it’s a fraction of the price of the brass sets (for example, a new brass font set with a fancy lettering can run you upwards of $800!) One end of the arm traces the font or logo plate while the other end has a diamond bit graver that engraves the image onto the metal. It works in ratios, so if you have it set to a 2:1 ratio – usually the largest size, the engraved image will be half the size of the template….and through approximately 12 different settings (including half sizes), gets smaller from there.

Unlike hand-stamped jewelry, engraving in this manner will give you a near-perfect image since it’s tracing a template. It does take a bit of practice and skill to not slip while tracing and get the even pressure (since this is manual afterall!) necessary. Also, blackening the image via oxidation as is the norm with hand stamping will give an engraved image a dull appearance – it is best to simply let it it remain in the colour of the metal. (I love hand stamping too and is another skill I hope to acquire down the road! It is a totally different look & feel!).

My mind is bursting with ideas…but before I get ahead of myself, the plan moving forward is to use this piece as the test object for mywebsite of custom jewelry. If all goes well with the programming I will add more pieces from there.

Until then, for more info on ordering this piece contact me directly: leilani@heavenlyflower.com

Cool Tool: Tube Wringer

Tubewringer

I can’t resist a new gadget, especially if it is an affordable one.

So with my Contenti order last week for polishing buffs, I found this little tool that I couldn’t help but add.

Meet the tube wringer. Technically, it is for industrial use to make seals and to squeeze every last bit of product out of well, tubes. Think toothpaste tube – on an industrial scale. 🙂

However, the tube wringer can be used to make an attractive crinkle pattern on metal sheet. Consider it a cheap little rolling mill. So for $22 I thought, why not give it a try.

I got out some copper sheet and the metal snips to cut a length of the metal.

I inserted the metal and the tool clamps shut easy enough. It was awkward at first getting the length to start travelling through the tool evenly. I think with practice, I will be able to get the proper feel for even pressure. But once I got it started, the rest was very easy – very little effort was needed. I am sure this would depend on the gauge of metal sheet or wire you are using.

The crinkled metal. So many ideas come to mind: what would it look like with a patina? Hammered? Riveted to flatter metal…Hmmmmm….

Tool & Supplies: Nu Gold Sheet

Nugold

I needed some fine polishing buffs, so I decided to order a product called “nu gold” along with them to try.

I bought sheet in two gauges, 24 and 26. Nu gold is 85%  copper & 15% zinc. It looks like gold sheet, only at a fraction of the price. I thought it would be a great way to practice working with metal sheet with the appearance of gold without buying the real deal. If I screw this up – who cares? No need to be gun shy working with this product!