Totally random picture of a wood carving that I thought was cool. Love the thoughtful look on his face. I need some of that peace today! Life has spun out a bit the last few weeks. No idea when I'm going to edit and post the 140 pictures I downloaded today! Where did March go??!!

Cold Connections

Several non-jewelry making friends have asked why I went all the way to Santa Fe to take a jewelry class. (My 3 year old calls it "jewelry school"!) So I thought it would be good to explain a little about what I was doing in New Mexico. Bead Fest Santa Fe was the draw for my trip. Bead Fest is run by Interweave Press, one of the biggest and best names in art and craft publicaions. They have several of these events throughout the year accross the country. Here's a link: http://www.beadfest.com/beadfest/ These events are a great opportunity to take classes that aren't typically offered in your local area. It's also a great opportunity to buy raw materials and meet others who share your passion for making stuff!!

My main love is wire work and for a long time I've been wanting to know more about cold connections. What the heck is a cold connection? It's basically joining metal together without heat - solder or fusing. We're talking rivets and tiny screws. It's a great, somewhat industrial look, that I'm crazy for. It's also one of those skills where learning directly from someone with a lot of experience can save you a ton of time and money in the long run. I was fortunate enough to get into a class with Connie Fox, one of the superstars of wirework and jewelry teaching. So exciting!! Connie does beautiful work that is featured in many jewelry publications. She also teaches all over the country and has instructional DVDs. Here's a link to her site: http://www.conniefox.com/

I wasn't dissapointed. The class gave me all the basic cold connection skills that I was looking for. Connie has a very relaxed teaching style that made everyone feel at ease. (I couldn't resist asking her for a few teaching tips.) She demonstrated how to make plain rivets, tube rivets, cotterpins and the very cool tiny screws and nuts. We also learned some flex shaft tricks as well as wire guage and drill bit selection skills. Everyone seemed to throughly enjoy trying out our new skills. In fact, Connie had to push us out at lunch time - no one wanted to quit working. Now I'm back home with some cool new tools and lots of ideas bouncing around my brain. If you can make it to one of these shows I'd really encourage it. It will inspire you to try new techiniques and help you to grow as a jewelry maker.

Witte Wear

Yesterday we were driving back from Winter Park, CO and stopped in a funky little ice cream shop in Empire, CO. Who would have guessed that I'd walk out with adorable hand made hats for my daughters? After doing a little research, I've tracked down the designer's website: http://www.wittewear.com/ and her Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=lf#!/pages/Snohomish-WA/Witte-Wear/83895163460?ref=mf  Her work just beautiful and very well-made. Check it out!

Santa Fe 2010

santa fe scenery 024, originally uploaded by mjmchaag.

Check out my Santa Fe photos on Flickr.http://www.flickr.com/photos/26697027@N06/sets/72157623549731191/

Ring Vise

This odd looking tool is called a ring vise. I used it in Connie Fox's cold connection class in Santa Fe this weekend and had to get one to bring home. By far the easiest and best thing I've ever used to hold a piece of metal while you drill a hole through it. I'll try to post some pictures of it in use but trust me - it's the sh**. Many, many cool things to blog about from my brief trip to the SouthWest. The classes, the scenery, new friends, old friends - - much fun was had for sure!! I'm going out of town again on Wednesday for a couple of days, but I'll try to get some more goodies up before then!

How to Make Your Own Balled Silver Earwires

I often make my own earwires for my jewelry. My favorite style right now are balled silver earwires. It takes a little practice to shape the wire, but they are really pretty simple to do.

1. Start out with two 2 1/2" pieces of 20 gauge 1/2 hard sterling wire, cleaned and straightend.

2. Using pliers, hold one of the wires down into the flame of your torch. Hold the wire at the hottest point, which is right in front of the blue inner flame, until the metal rolls up into a ball.

3. Immediately plunge into water to cool.

4. The wire will be gray where you heated it. If desired, use a pro polish pad or steel wool to clean

and shine it.

5. Turn one end up into a simple loop with the tip of your round nose pliers.

6. Turn wire the opposite direction to create a larger bend. Here I'm using bailing pliers but the back of large round nose pliers or any other mandral will work too.

7. Make a slight bend at the end of the wire using chain nose pliers.

Finished earwires!!!

www.mjanedesigns.com

Nuf said...

www.mjanedesigns.com