New Year and a Vacation

Wow, we're in March already, that was so fast. 

It seems like just yesterday I left for our casa in San Felipe.  On January 20 I headed South to go stay at our Casa while some work was being completed, an extension on the husband's garage, hopefully there will be room for a work bench for me...and after 6 weeks, hope I still remember how to make jewelry.

While in San Felipe, we decided to have an archway built onto the gate, I always wanted to do that.  I decided that I wanted some kind of a design.  I decided on a cactus and as I was drawing it, I decided that it should be the total length of the gate.  I was so pleased with the way it turned out, the young man who welded it did an excellent job.  This is a video/slide show of some of the work and my first Vimeo video.  I was just having fun with this...not too professional, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.


http://vimeo.com/88318095

DECEMBER SALE

Now is the time for sales as Christmas shopping is in full swing and we are having our sale thru the end of December and we will be adding more listings along the way. Use coupon code GIFTS20 at checkout for 20% off your order, and the coupon code is essential to get the discount.  I did check the Etsy forum and did find out that the codes are not case sensitive. Also, checking into having the discounts already applied to listing with certain apps.  Any Etsians do their sales this way? 

 

The handmade Christmas stocking I purchased for my first
grandchild's first Christmas from www.Giftsthatlast.etsy.com .

Almost Free E-Book

Downloaded my first E-Book, DOMING SILVER BEADS, all 96 pages.  I found this on Facebook at
Ganoskin.  This E-Book is offered free by the family of the late author, Nancy M.
Howland.  Ganoskin charges $5 for 'bandwidth costs in distributing and hosting the book'.  I thought that was a good deal.

... of course I was calculating ink, plus paper ... I had gone to B & N and Amazon, Amazon
had a used one for $50 plus $3.99 shipping.  The second printing of this book, by the way
was sold out long ago. 

To work to put my book together before the pages get messed up ... the folder I had
but I would not have know that had I not been cleaning up my studio for the past
couple of days and found after I had printed this too, fits much better than the 3 inch
binder I had laying around and was going to use.

My E-Book looks so pretty, I keep flipping thru the pages, and hey, I can add pages of notes or
pictures of work later if I want to.  I must admit though, that in my heart, just a tiny bit, I'd like the book. I
just decided to google it and low and behold, the free PDF is right there on top of page at psi-design.com.
It's okay, I paid only $5 for mine but thought I would pass this on ... as for the book,
$53 was the lowest price and more than $100 is what I found for the used book.

The Table of Contents is 3 1/2 pages long with lots of good
stuff listed, can't wait to sit down with my binder, er, my pretty
Red E-Book.  So do any of you regularly download E-Books?
How do you store yours or do you prefer the book?

Another Cuff Bracelet

I do like to work with copper, though, for me, it seems to be harder to work with than sterling silver.  I love its earthy, organic look and it is also less expensive, so, I often use it for first timer projects, before going into sterling, making notes of sizes, gauges, forming. I am not a teacher.  I'm know there are many ways to do this bracelet and likely easier ways too.  This is just to share my learning experience as I am always searching the web for how to s.  Any questions, suggestions or tips are always welcome.

Used one piece of 13 gauge wire approx. 13".  I wanted to be 6" when flat. Bent ends around a 7mm or 8mm mandrel. One solder
join in the middle of bracelet, formed with mallet around bracelet mandrel.

These are not the wires I ended up using.  Changed from 13 gauge to 15 gauge and these were two 3" pieces.                                                        

Bent here and solder together below.

Solder to bracelet. Cleaned up and prongs bent, trimmed and smoothed.

How to put on a Silver Cuff Bracelet ~~FYI: wanted to share this video I found. Good info to know if you are buying or selling jewelry.

Making an 18ct gold two-tone wedding ring sit with the engagement ring -...

Found this on the internet and wanted to share.  I've learned a lot of my jewelry making from videos as well as books.  I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I do.

 

 

Just Write

Ken Bainbridge is my husband's second cousin, I hope I got that right.  Ken keeps a meticulous journal of all his travels and takes wonderful pictures.  I've seen him in action,  a small spiral notepad in his top shirt pocket, constantly taking notes, mile markers, land marks, at what time of day, weather, etc.  Later, each evening, the notes are used for his journal entries.  What disciple, or more like, what love of writing. I was so glad to hear of his website so that his journals and pictures would not be lost in a drawer somewhere.  Here is his link for all to enjoy....http://kenspastimes.co.uk/