blue aluminum

aluminum training blades

2011-12-12T15:27:00.000+09:00

In October I started making aluminum training knives and swords for people I practice martial arts with. The martial art we do is called kali, and that often involves training with knives and swords. The weapons are 1/4" thick aluminum, I wrap the handles with paracord. I have anodized some of the knives. I can't fit anything larger in my anodizing tank, but I am thinking about setting up an anodizing tank using those long tubs used for wallpapering.

I still need to find a good place to photograph them. They are too big for my light tent.

Setting up my anodizing equipment again

2011-10-22T09:09:00.001+09:00

Yesterday I finally set up my anodizing equipment. My friend sent me this article about using pickle (sodium bisulfate) for the anodizing bath:
http://www.observationsblog.com/4/post/2011/10/anodizing-and-dying-aluminum-without-battery-acid.html

I was already planning to set up my anodizing stuff when I got the article and thought I would try it so I wouldn't need to find sulfuric acid. But I didn't have enough pickle left so I just went ahead and got battery acid at an auto parts store instead.

The author of the article talks about how much safer pickle is than sulfuric acid. Personally I have always hated pickle since I first started doing jewelry work in my apartment while I was at GIA. I didn't have a crock pot to heat the pickle, so I put some in the microwave to heat it. I guess some got in the microwave, and later when I heated some food it had sort of a pickle taste to it and it made me kind of sick.

Maybe I'll try pickle next time I have to set up anodizing equipment.

September update

2011-09-17T21:08:00.000+09:00

Lately I've been working more on some tools. I made some more carving knives, and some handles that I have not put blades in yet.

I had pics of this one in my last post:

Here is a random process photo, below. I don't know much about wood working so I just put the wood on the lathe and treat it like metal. It's working ok so far.

The handle below is ebony and ivory. I still need to properly photograph most of these handles. After I get all my handles and blades made then I will decide which blades to put in which handles.

I also ordered some more wood and started on some saw handles. The top one is leopard wood, the bottom one is ebony.

I made two graver handles so far. They are finished except for the ferrule, which I will make out of silver.

It's still unfinished in this pic. The little thing sticking out on the left side is just something I left on it to help hold it in the lathe.

Cocobolo on the left, ebony on the right.

I got a commission from my neighbor recently to make a belt like the scale neckpiece I finished in 2009. It's going to be much thinner and shorter than the neckpiece so it won't take nearly as long.

To keep the cost down she gave me some silver things to melt down to use for the belt. She gave me these two sterling goblets, but I think rather than meting them down, I will keep at least the big one and use some of my own silver instead.

She also gave me six of these hand engraved napkin holders.

I'm happy to get the work, but not all that happy about doing more scales.

hidden wood stash

2011-08-03T00:44:00.000+09:00

I was cleaning my room tonight and found a small box full of wood, all cut and milled and ready to be made into lockpicks. I thought I was missing some wood, but really I thought it was only a few pieces, not 19 cut pieces and one piece that has not been prepared. Among the wood was 4 pieces of boxwood, a thick piece of ebony, one piece of dalmatian ebony, tulipwood, snakewood, and one piece of sandal wood.

Also found a lot of small tools, carving wax, and several other non-tool things I had been wondering about.

new tools and new wood

2011-08-01T14:37:00.000+09:00

Recently I have been making some small wood carving knives. The blades are made of either drill rod or old burs.

In the photo below, the top knife I made over a year ago. The blade is really good, I think it's probably my favorite, but the handle is not that nice looking. I am going to make a new handle for it later. The one below it is snakewood, I made it recently. The ferrules on both of them are sterling. The handle at the bottom with no blade is ebony with ivory at both ends. I really like that one, I just haven't decided which blade to put in it yet.

I would like to make a handle completely out of ivory, but it's a little expensive for me right now, and I might get in trouble with customs if they find me trying to bring it into Korea.

I received some new wood today. Some I got to make lockpicks, and some I got to make more tool handles. I got more ebony, snakewood, and boxwood. I am not sure what I was thinking when I ordered the boxwood in that size. I could have ordered cheaper thinner pieces, since I'm going to end up cutting most of it away.

I also got some lignum vitae (two light brown pieces on the right), which I used once before in a hammer handle, and two woods I have never used before, pyinma and buckeye burl. The longest piece is the pyinma, I sanded and oiled the right half of it so I could get an idea how it will look when it's finished. The buckeye burl is the black and white piece below it.

I ordered it all from Griffin Exotic Wood. I have ordered from them several times now and have always been happy with them. I ordered from another company a couple times that wasn't very good. They didn't have their wood graded. They just had "ebony", they don't say anything about the quality, if it's black, or brownish or has brown streaks in it. I don't want ebony with brown in it. If I wanted brown I would buy some other kind of wood. Griffin has most of their wood priced and sold according to a grade they give it. Since I am just buying these little pieces I usually buy the best quality. There may be other companies better than them but I don't order wood very often so I just stick with one I like.

Below are all the picks I am working on right now. The types of wood are, from the top down:
ebony
holly
zircote
micarta + wood handle scales x2 (I can't remember what type at the moment)
ebony
cocobolo x2
boxwood
snakewood
boxwood

The two picks at the top I probably won't finish. They both require a lot of detailed carving, and I don't even like them that much, so I think there's better things I could spend my time on right now.

In the low quality photo below are a pair of picks I am keeping for myself. I just finished the ebony one last night. It was almost finished before I went to Korea last year, but I never epoxied it together for some reason. The white pick is holly, I need to find something to seal the wood so it doesn't get dirt worked into the grain of the wood from being handled.

I cannot remember if I mentioned it before, but some Chinese or Korean company is making plastic copies of this design.

my Etsy shop is open again

2011-07-20T07:37:00.004+09:00

Today I got my work back from the show Art by Attrition, so I decided to re open my Etsy shop and put some of those pieces back in. The shop had been closed since I went to Korea last year. I have two pieces in it now. I'll put a couple more in after I take some more photos. I will probably be closing the shop again once I go back to Korea.

a summer update

2011-07-20T07:10:00.004+09:00

I'm still in the US. I had a couple false starts, thinking I had a job but they ended up not working out. So I am still looking for a job in Korea.

In the meantime I have gotten back in the studio. Mostly I am working on lockpicks. I am also studying Korean quite a bit lately, usually a couple hours a day. And I try to exercise every day, but the past week I have not been doing much.

Despite all my talk about making a vessel for the Cheongju Craft Competition I never did it. I just didn't come up with any design I felt was worth using a $900 piece of silver on (a 12" x 12" 22 ga sheet of sterling from Rio Grande would cost $903.67 today). I don't get nervous about using expensive materials anymore (except for fragile stones), but I just didn't spend enough time working on designs and making prototypes and felt it would be a waste of the material.

suprise from Rio Grande

2011-06-28T07:45:00.004+09:00

I got this framed certificate from Rio Grande in the mail today. I wasn't expecting anything more about the 2011 Saul Bell Award since I was only a finalist.

trip to California

2011-06-01T19:45:00.009+09:00

I visited San Diego May 18 - 25. I lived in O ceanside (45 min. north of San Diego) from Nov. 1999 - Dec. 2004. I went out there to go to GIA, then worked there a few more years. I left to go to grad school at the U of Iowa, with the intention of returning to the San Diego area as soon as I finished. I finished grad school at the end of 2006, and have been putting off returning to California since then. Currently I am putting it off till I spend at least one more year in Korea, but who knows what will happen after Korea.

Anyway, I haven't been back since I left in 2004, and I have missed it and I really wanted to visit when I got back from Korea. Actually visiting California was one of the only things I was looking forward to doing this summer.

I didn't do much during my trip. I drove around a lot. I like to drive and I like driving in Southern California much more than in the Chicago area. Much nicer scenery. I spent about $200 on gas during the trip. I went to places I used to go to, ate at restaurants I used to eat at, and met a couple friends.

View from outside my old apartment building:

Oceanside:

One of the best things I did during my trip was run one of my old running routes near my apt in Oceanside. I am not in as good of shape as I was when I lived in CA, so all I could do was run a three mile route that used to be the minimum I would run. Southern California is a great place to run because of the weather, and my neighborhood was especially good. On the west side of I-5 the area was all flat, if I wanted to run hills, there were some really steep ones on the east side if I-5. I wish I could start running again, but I have never enjoyed it much anywhere but in California. This video is the 3 mile route I used to run a lot:

South Carlsbad:

Approaching Laguna Beach, I think:

Laguna Beach:

Someplace I remember in Laguna Beach:

While I was going to meet a friend I happened to find the Palos Verdes Art Center. I was in an exhibition there called Wearable Expressions in 2008:

The Getty Center in LA:

View of LA from the Getty Center:

Furaibo used to be one of my favorite restaurants. I was happy to go there again. It's on Sawtelle Blvd, a Japanese area in LA.

This is the corner of Sawtelle and Olympic Blvds. I always liked this neon aquatic scene.

Random San Diego picture (Mission Beach):

I went to the San Diego zoo. I had never been there before, I couldn't believe it cost $40 to get in!
Below: Cavendish's dik dik

I don't know what happened but three ducks, two males and one female flipped out on some female duck and attacked her. Eventually she was able to fly away.

Secretary bird

Los Angeles

So my trip was really good. Not much had changed since I had left. After my trip I was wanting to move back there even more. So I'll try to do that someday after I settle down a bit. I have trouble staying in the same place very long, even California. I don't know what I'll do after at least one more year in Korea. There's a couple other things I am considering.

The National Locksmith

2011-05-27T05:38:00.002+09:00

There are several photos of my lock picks in an article on making lock picks in the June issue of The National Locksmith. The author contacted me about using my photos about a month ago, I gave him permission and forgot all about it till today when I got an email from my friend whose father is a locksmith and saw my picks in the new issue. I saw the online version of the magazine. I'll try to get the printed magazine from my friend's dad when he is finished with it.

Upcoming show in Seattle

2011-05-09T14:35:00.004+09:00

My work will be in a show during the SNAG conference in Seattle this month. It's called "Art by Attrition" and it's at KOBO at Higo gallery. The theme of the show is artwork made by the subtractive process. The show will be May 26th - June 25th, 2011.

going to california

2011-05-07T14:24:00.003+09:00

I'll be visiting California May 18 - 25. I used to live in San Diego and I haven't been there in almost 6 1/2 years. I keep planning to move back there someday, but other things always come up that I want to do first.

If I am going to make a new piece for Cheongju I need to hurry, the deadline is June 8th, Korea time.

I'm home

2011-04-27T08:51:00.003+09:00

I got back to the US on Saturday (4/23).

I unpacked enough of my studio to start working on some new lockpicks today. I was kind of burnt out with my work when I left for Korea last year, and I was hoping after a year off that I would go back to the studio feeling good and ready to work again. But I really don't feel that much different. It doesn't feel like it's been a year, and I don't mean that in a good way. I mean it like, I needed a break, and after 1 year I still don't feel like it was enough of a break. I'm planning to go back to Korea for another year this summer, so maybe I will feel better after that.

I'm not really happy to be back here. I wanted to come back to the US for a while, I just hate the Chicago suburbs and wish I could spend my time someplace else. I was ready to leave this area after being here for less than a day.

Anyway, while I am here I am going to make some lockpicks and a silver vessel for Cheongju. I can't believe the price of silver, $47/oz. I'm glad I have a lot of silver I bought when it was cheaper. I bought the 12" x 12" sheet of sterling I will use for my vessel when silver was around $10/oz.

an update

2011-03-09T14:00:00.002+09:00

It's been a long time since I posted last. So here's whats going on:

In January I took a three week trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Maybe I'll post some pictures of that later. I still haven't finished going through all my photos and picking out the good ones cause I am stressed and just haven't felt like it.

Travel always makes me feel like working in the studio. To bad this time I didn't have much of a studio to go home to. I didn't produce anything during my time in Korea. I am not sure if this long break is good for me or bad for me.

I was a finalist in the Saul Bell competition. I got the results for that last week: I didn't win anything.

I have been in Korea almost one year now. It went so fast. I will be going back to the US April 23rd. I plan to make a piece for this year's Cheongju craft competition while I am home. I also want to make some lock picks. I don't have another job yet, so I don't know how long I will be in the US. I'll be going back to Korea when ever my next job starts. I would like to have one month in the US, but I might be there for a longer or shorter time.

2010 review

2011-01-07T09:26:00.001+09:00

Not much happened with my work in 2010. 2010 was mostly about Korea. I thought I would be leaving in January or February, but I ended up leaving in mid-April. That gave me some time to get more work done in the studio, but I still couldn't finish everything. I was really rushing in the end and I think I just ended up working on too many different things instead of focusing on one thing at a time till it's finished. But I have always worked like that.

I got two of my brooches in the permanent collection of the Racine Art Museum around the beginning of January 2010. I was only in one exhibition last year, the CMAG members show, which was not a juried show, but I got honorable mention for one of my vases. I also found out I am a finalist in the 2011 Saul Bell competition and there were 2 books on anodizing published last fall that had photos of my work.

So while I had some stuff happen this year it's all just stuff that carried over from the previous year or involving work I made before 2010.

Korea has been good, but I didn't really do any work since I came here even though I have wax and wood carving tools. I have been working on some designs for a piece for the 2011 Cheongju Craft Competition, but I feel kind of stuck and don't know what to do for that design.

In the fall I had been told by my school that I could renew my contract to stay here a second year, and I was planning on doing that, but at the end of December they told me the school did not get funding for a foreign teacher next year. So now I am looking for a new job for this spring.

2010 was a pretty good year, just not really for anything involving my work.

I'm taking a trip

2011-01-06T13:38:00.003+09:00

Tuesday (1/11) I'm going to Thailand, I'll also go to Laos and Cambodia. The trip will be three weeks, I'll come back to Korea on January 31. Most people I have told about it in Korea think it's too bad that I am going alone. I don't know why. I think it will be great to have three weeks of solo travel. I have wanted to do this for a long time. I will be alone and not have any obligations to anyone. I will be able to do what I want, and go where I want. I don't even have any hotel reservations, so I don't need to be any place at any certain day.

2011 Cheongju Craft Competition info

2010-12-20T09:20:00.004+09:00

The information for the 2011 Cheongju International Craft Competition is now posted.

Entries from outside Korea are due June 8th. Entries from within Korea are due June 3rd.

I am planning on making a silver vessel. I've got a 12" x 12" sheet of 22 ga. sterling I will use. I just haven't made the design yet. I got it in Oct. 2008, when silver was around $9-10/oz. Silver is now around $30/oz. I'm glad I didn't wait to buy it. When I look at the price of metals (silver $30, gold $1375, pt $1700) I think I couldn't have picked a better time to take a break from making things.

I have 5 months to design and make my piece. That should be plenty of time, but things always seem to take much longer than expected, and since I don't have a design yet, I have less time because of work and no longer have a real studio I am sure things will take even longer than normal.

$675 worth of silver:

Saul Bell Finalist

2010-11-13T14:45:00.004+09:00

My scale necklace is a finalist in the 2011 Saul Bell Competition in the silver category. The piece is at my parents house in the US, so I'll have them send it in for the final judging by mid January. The winners will be announced at the beginning of June 2011.

2 books

2010-10-14T11:50:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I got the book Design & Make Coloured Aluminium Jewellery by Lindsey Mann. There's a photo of one of my aluminum pieces in it. I haven't had a chance to look at the book much yet. I also heard from my parents that they just received the book Anodized! Brillant Colors & Bold Designs for Aluminum Jewelry by Clare Stiles. I have 3 pieces in that book. My parents are going to send it to me this week.

no posts in 2 months

2010-10-04T09:05:00.003+09:00

I was just going to write something for my blog about Korea and realized I hadn't posted anything here in two months. There just isn't much to talk about, and I haven't felt much like writing in either blog. I haven't really done any work since maybe July or August, and all I did then was just mess around, I didn't really do much.

old lock picks

2010-08-02T00:10:00.002+09:00

I just realized I forgot to post photos of some lock picks I finished not long before I went to Korea.

The handle of this first one is sterling silver with 14k gold rivets. The patina is liver of sulfur. I sold it before it was even finished to someone in Minneapolis.

This one below was the last pick I finished before going to Korea. I wanted to make something different before I left. I had been constantly making lockpicks for almost 2 years, but I was always making the same designs.

The handle is anodized aluminum. I think you have to click on the photo and look at the larger image to see the texture on the handle. The texture is done with a file.

This pick I did not sell. I have sold almost every pick I have made. I wanted to keep this one for myself.

my new "studio"

2010-07-28T09:38:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I finally started doing some work. I started on the snakewood handle of a carving knife I am making for wood carving. I made the blade while I was still in the US. I also prepared two slices of a wax ring tube.

I need another table. Most of the space on my table is taken up by things unrelated to carving. Its really hard for me to work in this small space on a kitchen table, after working for years in my own well equipped studio.

My old studio, where I had more space than I could ever use:

fuses

2010-07-16T13:07:00.002+09:00

A little over a week ago I decided it was time to start working again. My micromotor is 110v, so I have to use it with my 220-110v transformer. Electronics, like digital cameras and computers usually can handle either 110 or 220v. Since that's all I really use, my transformer has been sitting there gathering dust since I got it.

I knew i needed to use my micromotor with the transformer, but I wasn't thinking and put an adapter on the plug and plugged it in to the 220v outlet. Luckily there are two easily replaceable fuses in it so I didn't destroy the micromotor. But since they are 125v fuses I figured they are probably not available in Korea, so I had my parents send me some from the US.

I got those yesterday, so now I am ready to work. I don't really know what to make. I might just start carving a wax, just anything, to get back into working.

plant book

2010-06-25T09:41:00.003+09:00

Last year I got an email from Lark Books asking for photos of my work for a book on artwork inspired by plants. Yesterday I got an update about it saying that the book is postponed. I don't really care if it's just postponed for a while, after I submit my work to something like that try not to think about it again till I get the book or some notification about it. So I don't care if it's delayed, but it sounds like it might be canceled. That would suck.

anodizing book

2010-05-23T01:39:00.000+09:00

I just found out from my parents (since a lot of my mail goes there) that I got three of my pieces in the anodizing book Lark Books is going to be publishing. I am told the book will be out this fall.

nothing going on

2010-05-18T01:35:00.000+09:00

I've been in Korea 4 weeks now. I still feel like I just got here. All my tools and things are in two drawers. I haven't tried to organize anything yet. I have a kitchen table I can work at which should be ok for carving. I haven't done any work since I got here. It's really easy for me to stop working in a situation like this where I am in a new environment and I have a lot stress and other things on my mind. I have been thinking a little about what I should make, so I think soon I will start working.

I'm in Korea now + a new blog

2010-04-25T02:00:00.008+09:00

I arrived in Korea Monday April 19th. I'll be here for a year, teaching English at a high school near Seoul.

My studio is all packed up. I brought some tools so I can do wax carving and wood carving here, but not much else.

I'm going to keep this blog for writing about my creative work and start a new blog about what I am doing in Korea:

http://jonmryan-korea.blogspot.com/

moving to korea

2010-04-13T02:35:00.002+09:00

I mentioned at the end of 2009 that I might be moving away to take a new job this year. Finally, after having some long delays I'm going to do it. I'm moving to South Korea to teach English for a year.

I have been planning on doing this since last August, but I procrastinated for a while. Then I was going to apply at a private English language school to try and start working by the end of 2009. In November I found out public schools were hiring for the spring semester and decided to wait and do that instead.

Assuming there aren't any more delays, I will be leaving Sunday, the 18th. I have a lot to do before then.

random things

2010-03-29T09:11:00.005+09:00

I have been busy and had a lot of things on my mind lately and haven't really been giving much thought to writing posts about what I am working on.

I got the CMAG Spring 2010 newsletter today. I found out it was my copper vessel that got honorable mention in the members exhibition. They have posted photos of the exhibition on Flickr.

Last Monday I made an announcement about a major change that will be happening soon, but by Tuesday I found out there would be a delay, so I took down that post. So if anyone read that and is wondering what happened, I will still be doing what I said, just a few weeks later.

CMAG Members Exhibition

2010-03-03T14:14:00.001+09:00

The CMAG Members Exhibition is up till March 14th at the Lill Street Art Center. I got an email last week about how the show was going. I didn't win one of the three best in show awards, but me and two other people had work chosen for "special merit." I don't know which piece of mine it was.

These are the pieces I am showing:

Vessel #6. 2008.

An untitled brooch from 2007.

Untitled aluminum and ebony brooch. 2010.
I just realized I forgot to finish posting the process photos for this piece. I'll post them later, I'm not in the mood to do that right now.
I had a lot of trouble photographing this piece and was planning to re-shoot it. Now that I look at the photo it doesn't look so bad, but other people who saw the photo first, and then saw the piece said the actual piece looks much better than in the photo. So I don't know what I should do about it cause I'm not sure I can photograph it better.

felt things

2010-02-25T13:48:00.001+09:00

Here are photos of the two brooches I entered in 500 Felt Objects. I figured I should put them on my blog cause they aren't likely to make it into the book.

Both of these are made from 1/4" thick industrial felt, anodized aluminum, and sterling.

I dyed the felt on this piece with fast blue anodizing dye. The aluminum is also fast blue. I did another version of this piece with a sort of brown/black piece of felt and orange aluminum, but I didn't like it and took it apart.

I dyed the felt on this piece black using Rit dye. The aluminum flowers are all slightly different shades of fast blue. I scraped the felt with a scribe to make it all fuzzy.

I didn't take many pictures while I was making these pieces because I was finishing them the day before the deadline for the book. One of the things I like about things like entering competitions and books and things is it give me a deadline for pieces I might otherwise drag out.

I really only took photos of the flowers I was carving for the black piece. I like how they turned out and I will probably make more of them for something else in the future.

I carved them primarily with burs, then used rubber wheels to smooth them. Carving the front went pretty quickly. The back side took much longer only because they were so difficult to hold on to. Next time I will have to come up with a better way to hold them than just trying to hold them in my fingers.

After anodizing, still attached to the wires used for anodizing:

Finished:

I like the look of the felt, but I don't really like working with it. It's too soft, and it doesn't have the feeling of durability that metal does. Metal will last a long long time. Materials like felt don't feel that way. Why would I want to spend much time making something that isn't going to last? But I'll probably make some more pieces involving felt and aluminum. I have some ideas, I just need to work out the details.

triangular earrings

2010-02-15T15:41:00.000+09:00

I finally finished those triangular earrings I was talking about in a post last month. I put them in my Etsy shop the other day along with my 1 yen bracelet.

I had finished these not long after I wrote about them last month, but some how one of them got scratched, so I had to remove the anodizing to re-anodize them. After I removed the anodizing I got distracted by something else and they sat on my bench till a few days ago when I re-anodized them. I redid both of them because it is difficult to match the color if they are not anodized at the same time.

I have a couple more pairs of earrings that are almost done that I will put on Etsy later this week.

miscellaneous

2010-02-14T09:47:00.008+09:00

There was an earthquake here in Illinois a few days ago. It shook the house for a few seconds. There were two earthquakes while I lived in California, and this felt the same, so the first thing I thought was that it was an earthquake, but then I thought no, there's no earthquakes in Illinois. Apparently this is the 3rd one since 1999. It's the first one I have been aware of.

Progress Tool has closed down. That sucks. But I rarely ordered from them and I only went there once or twice when I lived in California.

Thursday I dropped off three pieces at the Lill Street Art Center in Chicago for the CMAG members exhibition. The exhibition opens February 19th at Lill Street and is up till March 13th.

The exhibition is not juried and is open to all CMAG members so I am really curious about what the overall quality will be. I would really prefer it be a juried exhibition. I'm probably not going to go see it. I hate driving up that direction.

This year's CMAG swap meet is March 6th at The Art Center Highland Park. I haven't decided if I will participate or not. Last year I sold a lot of tools I don't use anymore, but I don't know if I have enough stuff to make it worthwhile this year.

1 yen bracelet

2010-02-08T00:39:00.001+09:00

It's been a while since I last posted. I have been working, I just haven't been in the mood to write about it.

Somehow I have managed to sprain 3 fingers and a thumb in my martial arts class. The fingers are not sprained bad and I usually don't even notice it, but my thumb hurts to grip things in a certain way. It's not preventing me from doing anything, it's just annoying.

I finished a bracelet last night. Its made of anodized Japanese 1 yen coins linked together with sterling silver. The coins are aluminum, so I am able to anodize them.

I had the idea for this in Nov 2008, but never got around to doing anything more than putting a few coins together. I was using green, but green is not the most consistent color, and when I anodized some more coins recently they didn't match the ones I did in 2008. So I decided to use red. I thought it would be more appropriate since they are Japanese coins and there is a red circle on the Japanese flag. Right now 1 yen is worth a little more than a penny, so making mistakes doesn't really cost anything.

The coins for the bracelet have holes drilled in them. But I also anodized a bunch of coins without any holes. I took those with me to Japan last year to try to get them into circulation. I put most of them in the donation boxes at shrines and temples.

new tool catalog

2010-01-17T08:57:00.007+09:00

I got the 2010 Rio Grande Tools and Equipment catalog in the mail today. Getting the new tools catalog and seeing what new stuff they have used to be a really exciting day for me. But now I have just about everything I need, and the new things in the catalog usually aren't anything I am interested in. There are still some things I want for my studio, but it's mostly random tools I would probably never use or expensive equipment that Rio doesn't sell.

unfinished pieces

2010-01-15T15:05:00.007+09:00

My aluminum and ebony brooch is pretty much done. I just need to screw the top part of the pin back to the aluminum. I wanted to photograph it with out the pin back cause I don't want to have to worry about the pin stem showing in the photos. I have photographed that piece twice and I am not happy with the results. I am having two problems. One problem is getting the dark brown ebony well lit with out over exposing the aluminum. It looks ok in some photos on the computer, but it always prints too dark. The other problem I am having is the green aluminum is washed out. It's not over exposed, its just coming out too light. I have tried turning up the color saturation in the camera, but that doesn't help. I can mess around with it in Photoshop and get it sort of the color it should be, but I don't want to do that. I'll post the rest of the process photos of that piece once I have a good photo of the finished piece.

I'm still trying to finish up my unfinished pieces, but I haven't been working very hard at it. I have several pieces I stopped working on because I wasn't sure how to continue with the design. Usually I stop working on the piece and think I'll figure out the right thing to do with the design later. Eventually it gets to the point where the piece has been sitting around so long it just needs to be finished. Even if the finished piece is not that good, I'd rather just have it done than leave it sitting around unfinished for a few more years. It also sometimes gets easier to finish the piece after its been sitting around for a long time because if a lot of time has been put into the piece I worry about making the wrong decision about the rest of the design and wasting all the time and effort I have put into it. But if the piece has been sitting untouched for like a year then I don't really remember all the time that went into it, so it's not as big of a deal to just make the design decisions and finish the thing. The pieces I am posting photos of today are not anything I spent a lot of time on, which makes it even stupider that they have been unfinished for so long.

The brooch in the photos below was something I made when I first got my Sherline mill in Sept. 2007. I think I was going to flush set some sapphires on it or something. I decided to just anodize it black and file the anodized layer off of the edges and the raised square on the front, and engrave the design on the back, which I had drawn on it back when ever it was that I was going to set stones in it.

The front:

All I need to do is make a pin back for it and it will be done. The pinback will cover the hole, and part of the top two engraved things.

The back:

Below are some earrings I never finished for some reason. I don't know when I started them or why I stopped working on them, but I am sick of them being unfinished.

I did some work on them last night and I guess they are mostly done. Maybe I will shape them a bit more.

The backs:

Racine Art Museum

2010-01-07T00:19:00.000+09:00

I got the good news I was waiting for about my brooches that I mentioned in my Dec. 27th post. The two pictured below were accepted into the permanent collection at the Racine Art Museum.

This is the first of my work to get into a museum's permanent collection. I am so happy about it. I guess my teapot is in some collection in Korea, but I really don't know where. I should probably find out about that.

making screws

2010-01-06T13:16:00.000+09:00

I could have had my ebony and aluminum brooch done a long time ago, but I didn't work at much of anything between Xmas and New Years. I worked on it a little last night, I'll probably finish it tonight.

I made the silver screws for it a few days ago. As far as I know there aren't any suppliers that sell sterling screws. Reactive Metals sells silver plated screws, but I want solid sterling screws. Anyway, I think it's better to make all the components of a piece myself.

I made up this process a few years ago. I don't know if there are better ways to do it, but this works for me.

Most of the screws I make or buy are 0-80. For 0-80 screws I make the head of the screw out of straight rod, I think I used something like 2.5mm diameter. I drill a 1.2mm hole in the center of the rod on my lathe.

I then tap the rod. A pin vise makes it easier to hold the rod. I use taps from McMaster-Carr. I have some from Reactive Metals Studio, but I don't like them as much as the ones from McMaster.

I tap the hole as deep as I can, about 1/2" I think.

After I am done tapping, I set my tube cutting jig to about 1.5mm and cut the rod into little 1.5mm pieces. After each piece I cut off I file the end of the rod flat and put a tiny chamfer on the corner so it looks nice before cutting off the next slice.

Next I make the threaded shank of the screw out of 1.6mm wire using a die.

It's good to straighten the wire before starting. I am kind of lazy and the wire was mostly straight. Straight enough that it would be ok once its cut in to 5 or 6mm pieces. If I was making a longer screw then I would take the time to properly straighten the wire by putting one end in a vise and pulling the other end before cutting the threads.

I hold the wire with a pin vise and thread an inch or inch and a half, then cut the threaded wire into pieces. Add about 1.5mm to what ever length you want the screws to be. After every time I cut a section of wire off I file the edge of the wire before cutting the next piece off. You will never get the screw to go in if there's a rough bur on the end from sawing it, and its easier to file the end when it's still attached to a longer piece of wire. After cutting off several pieces I thread the wire some more and cut off more sections.

Next the heads and shanks need to be screwed together.

Since I filed the end of the rod and threaded wire after each time I cut it, every piece has a nice end. If the screw is held vertical, with the head at the top, I put the screws together so the nice end of the head is the underside, and the nice end of the threaded rod is at the bottom, with the rougher ends of both pieces at the top so it will be easy to file them both flat.

Next I solder the pieces together. I embed the shank of the screw in a magnesia block so I don't have to worry about solder flowing down the shank, and put a piece of solder on the head of each screw.

I use my flexshaft like a lathe to clean up the screws. I have a little piece of threaded rod I put in my flex shaft to hold the screws while I work on them.

I file the top flat then sand the top and sides of the screw head. I then cut the slot in the screw with a jewelers saw and polish the head.

Finished screws:

2009

2009-12-28T12:15:00.003+09:00

2009 is almost over so I thought I would write a short review of my year.

Judging by my portfolio and resume it was a pretty unproductive year. I spent quite a bit of time on my scale necklace, and I spent some time on some things I have not yet finished, but most of my time this year was spent making things that didn't go in my portfolio.

I was only in two exhibitions this year. One of them was Cheongju, which is kind of a big one, so that makes me feel a little better. I only entered a few others, and got rejected from them. There were several exhibitions or competitions I didn't enter, Niche, Materials Hard and Soft, CraftForms, Mesa Contemporary Crafts.

I should be getting some good news about two of my brooches soon (I hope). I really want to say something about it now, but I feel it is bad luck to say anything before it is finalized.

2009 was a good year for travel for me, I went to Iceland and Sweden, then Korea and Japan less than a month later.

I never mentioned it on this blog, but I spoke with my former employer at Houman Jewelry Design in San Diego a few times throughout the year about going back to work for him. We spoke three or four times, but our timing was always off. It was either me calling him about a job, but he didn't need anyone, or him calling me about a job, but I couldn't go.

I love San Diego and want to go back there, but I may be moving somewhere else to take a new job early next year. Most people who know me know about it, but I don't want to announce it here till it is certain.

So between considering going back to my old job and applying for this other job, 2009 has felt like my final year in my current life. I hope it is because I am ready to move on.

more work on the ebony and aluminum brooch

2009-12-22T00:01:00.000+09:00

My goal is to finish all my unfinished pieces this winter, but I ended up starting something new last night. It's a lock pick. I make so many lock picks, but they are all the same couple designs. I'm sick of doing these same designs cause I could do so much more with custom lock picks, but most of my customers don't want to try anything new. So I started on one that's totally different from the other designs I have done. Lock picks don't normally take too long to make, but this one's going to be much more time consuming.

I also worked on the ebony and aluminum brooch. I haven't worked on it much since I wrote about it last cause I had other things to do. Last time I worked on it I finished shaping the aluminum part and put a texture on it with files.

Last night I made the sterling back plate for the ebony.

I also drilled the holes for the pins (or screws, I haven't decided yet) that will help hold the aluminum part. I will also use epoxy to hold the aluminum part. The pins will make it stronger and also hold it in place so I don't need to worry as much about the aluminum piece shifting before the epoxy dries.

The plate on the back will be attached with either pins or screws. Which ever I use I will also use some epoxy on them.

Since you cannot solder to aluminum, I have to use screws to attach the top part of the pin back. It was kind of difficult getting the little sterling plate to conform to the shape of the aluminum. The larger diamond shape drawn on the aluminum is a tracing of the sterling plate. After taking the photo below I burred away the area inside the smaller diamond. Burring away that lump made it easier to fit the silver to the curve of the aluminum.

After getting the sterling to fit a little better I drilled holes in it and the aluminum, then tapped the holes in the aluminum. Then I screwed the sterling piece to the aluminum and hammered the sterling directly on the aluminum until there were no gaps between the silver and the aluminum.

Next time I work on this piece I will finish making the pin back, make the screws to hold everything together and maybe anodize the aluminum. I still don't know what color to make it.

search

2009-12-12T10:18:00.004+09:00

I just added a search box to the right side of the page so I can search my blog. I added it more for myself than for my readers.

yesterday

2009-12-12T06:01:00.008+09:00

Yesterday I mostly worked on fixing the problem with one of my pieces that I mentioned at the end of my previous post. It's an issue that comes up with the aluminum occasionally. I don't really understand it and I don't want to talk about it.

After that I worked on the aluminum and ebony brooch. I continued shaping the aluminum part, drilled a hole in the ebony for the aluminum part, and shaped the ebony part some more.

I should have done something different early on in the process that would have made things much easier. Before I started carving the aluminum part I should have put it in the lathe and made the bottom of the thing cylindrical so it would be easy to just drill a hole in the ebony and put it in.

Since I just free handed it with my micromotor it's not round. Which means after I drilled the hole in the ebony, I had to use a wood carving bur (pictured below) to try to make the hole match the shape of the aluminum piece. Doing that sort of thing is never easy. And of course what I ended up with was there being a gap between the aluminum and ebony in some places. Now I am trying to figure out the best way to make it look good. I wonder if my explanation makes any sense?

Speaking of wood carving burs, I think these spiky ones are so cool. I also like that they come in different colors. But they can totally tear up your fingers worse than any thing else I have experienced.

Keeping with my decision to finish all my unfinished pieces this winter, I decided to ~~give up on~~ finish this spoon in the photo below. It's not finished to my standards at all, the casting is so bad I think it would be faster for me to just remake the piece rather than try to fix all the pits. But this piece isn't important enough to remake.

I am not sure if I wrote about this spoon at all before, I carved the wax around 2000 or 2001 during my 4 year wax carving spree, and cast it in three parts in 2007. I don't know what happened with the casting, but two of the parts are just terrible. I worked on it for a while and finally put it aside cause I didn't want to deal with it. So now I just want to call it done and not worry about it anymore. I have no plans to photograph it any better than the photo below.

something I am working on

2009-12-11T03:19:00.001+09:00

Here are some photos of a piece I was working on recently. It will be anodized aluminum and ebony. The design in my sketch book is dated January 2009. I am not sure when I started making it, but I didn't get very far before I stopped. I started working on it again last week. I'm trying to finish all my unfinished pieces this winter.

I like this design, so I'm not sure why I stopped working on it almost as soon as I started. The ebony part was mostly done, but all I had done on the aluminum part was roughly cut it out with my band saw. So last week I started shaping the piece. I like carving these kinds of things, but I am tired of the mess it makes.

After getting it mostly shaped with burs, I used files to get between the points and smooth out the areas I had burred. The pliers I am holding the piece with in the photo below are locking parallel pliers. I am a big fan of tools for holding the things I am working on.

The shape is mostly done. I still have to refine it.

The bottom part is ebony. I did most of the work on that piece when ever it was that I started this piece.

I'd like to just get this piece done, but I had a set back with a commission and have to spend some time redoing something on that. I hate having to redo things.

Cleaning silver

2009-12-10T14:15:00.001+09:00

I got my scale necklace back from Cheongju a few weeks ago. It had some tarnish on it, so I wanted to clean it before putting it away. It would take forever to try to clean it with silver polish, so I cleaned it with this very fast and easy method. I don't know what this method is called. I heard of it years ago, but never tried it. About a year ago I tried it for the first time cause I had a lot of my old silver jewelry to clean and it worked very well.

You need:
a pot
aluminum foil
baking soda
boiling water

This is how it goes:
Put aluminum foil in the bottom of the pot.
Put in the silver jewelry.
Put some baking soda in the pan with the jewelry. I don't know how much is recommended, but I covered the bottom of the pan.
Pour the boiling water into the pan with the jewelry and baking soda.
The tarnish disappears.

I looked around on the internet for this method and found another person saying to add the baking soda to water and bring it to a boil and dunk the silver in to clean it.

I have no idea how this works.

Only thing to be careful about is if your jewelry has stones. I would not recommend trying this with fragile stones like opal or turquoise. Diamonds, sapphires, and rubies should be ok.

I am not sure what this will do to a patina, for example silver that is black in the deeper parts of the design. I wouldn't recommend trying, unless you have a way to reapply the patina if you ruin it.

This only removes tarnish. If your jewelry is gunked up with dirt and hand lotion this won't necessarily clean that off.

There are silver dips that remove tarnish. They work well, but they stink. I think this probably works just as well as long as there aren't any fragile stones on the piece.

more dye

2009-12-08T15:06:00.003+09:00

Lately I have had some problems with my black anodizing dye. I hadn't been getting a real black, I was getting dark gray. With the last thing I tried to anodize black I made two attempts but couldn't get anything darker than a medium gray even after a 45 minute soak. So I ordered more black. The stupid black dye is like $30, while every other color is $10. Since I was already ordering I also decided to try a new color, brown. I just got the dyes in the mail today, so I haven't tried brown yet.

500 felt objects?

2009-12-05T11:20:00.002+09:00

I've been busy lately and I didn't have time to finish my green enameled bracelet for 500 Silver Jewelry Designs. Two of the pieces I entered were from 2004. Before I really looked at my portfolio for silver pieces I had been thinking I have done a lot of work in silver. Not really. I've done a lot of work that used some silver, but I have made very few things primarily out of silver since 2004.

Last night when I went to Lark Books' website to download the entry form for 500 Silver I saw they are doing a book 500 Felt Objects. I have some half finished pieces involving felt and anodized aluminum. I suppose I should finish them and enter, though I don't have much confidence they are going to be the kind of things they want for the book. But since there's no entry fee I'll enter anyway. Entries are due Feb. 13, 2010.

I'm on Etsy now

2009-11-26T07:06:00.002+09:00

I finally opened an Etsy shop...
JMRyan.etsy.com

I am still working on my shop, but I thought I should just announce it now rather than waiting till when ever I get around to finishing everything.

another Lark 500 book

2009-11-24T06:10:00.004+09:00

Lark is doing another book, 500 Silver Jewelry Designs. Entries must be postmarked by Dec. 4, 2009. Last week I was going to get my entry ready, but I decided to wait and try to get my green enameled bracelet finished in time to enter. It would have been finished by now, but I got really busy with other things.

I love postmark deadlines. They are so much better than having a deadline for when the entries are received. It's much easier when you are finishing something, and photographing it on the very last day. You don't need to worry about shipping the entry next day delivery. I actually don't do that sort of thing anymore. I'm too lazy. But a lot of people do. Instead I have several times gotten myself in the situation where I photographed a piece when it wasn't 100% finished, like some part not visible in the photo was not finished, so I could enter it in an exhibition or something. Then stopped working on it till I got the notification that the piece was accepted and ended up having to stay up all night finishing the piece so I could send it to the exhibition. I hate all nighters, but I procrastinate so much they happen more often than they need to.

Diamonds

2009-11-23T19:10:00.003+09:00

I just found out there's an exhibition about diamonds at The Field Museum in Chicago till March 28, 2010. Tickets are $29(!!!). I might go. I'd like to see it, but I hate going into the city, and its going to end up being a $50+ trip, so I don't know.

10 years

2009-11-13T22:21:00.007+09:00

It's been 10 years since I moved to Oceanside, CA to go to the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, CA. I can't believe it's been that long. This is significant to me because I feel that GIA was the start of my professional career. I had been working in metal since Aug. 1996, but it was more of a hobby before I went to GIA.

While I was there I took, in this order, the graduate jeweler (GJ) course, wax carving, graduate gemologist (GG), jewelry design, and a short advanced stone setting class.

GJ class, spring 2000:

In the GJ class and wax carving class everyone makes the same thing. So I didn't make any of my own designs during the GJ class. I was able to do some of my own waxes during the wax carving class because I finished many of the assigned pieces quickly.

Here's one of my own designs I carved in 2000 during my wax carving class:

I didn't cast it till a couple years later, but the wax was finished in 2000.

We did our own designs in the jewelry design class. Below are some watercolor renderings I did in that class in spring 2001:

carrot ring and green bracelet

2009-11-10T00:57:00.000+09:00

I started putting my enameled bracelet together yesterday. It's going ok now, but started out pretty badly. I have several more rows of pieces to put on it. I also have to fabricate the catch.

I also worked on my carrot ring. I'm removing the orange enamel. I decided to heat it and quench it to break off the enamel. I did that several times.

It's interesting that when you do that the enamel keeps cracking and chipping off for several minutes after it has cooled.

There's still some enamel on it, I guess I will have to grind the rest of it off.

weekend update

2009-11-08T10:11:00.004+09:00

I am back to working on my green enameled bracelet. I hope to finish it next week.

Yesterday I went to SOFA even though I hate going into the city. It was ok. I saw some really good work and some really bad work there.

Yesterday I also got an email from Lark Books inviting me to submit images for a book about plant inspired artwork. They say that it is "highly likely" that at least one of my images will be used for the book. I will believe it when I see it. From my experience the "sure things" always seem to be the things that don't work out.

preparing wood for handles

2009-11-01T07:39:00.007+09:00

The other day I prepared some wood for lock pick handles. Usually I buy the wood cut as "pen blanks." Pen blanks are small blocks of wood about 3/4" x 3/4" x 6" used for making pens. Of course you could buy a larger piece and cut it smaller, but pen blanks are cheap and convenient.

My only wood working experience was a job I had about 11 years ago sanding and staining Adirondack chairs. Since I don't know much about wood working I just treat the wood like metal and that's been working out ok for me.

I get 2 handles from each pen blank by cutting the wood down the middle with my band saw. After I cut the pen blanks down the middle I cut the sides parallel to each other with a fly cutter on my Sherline mill.

Next I use a slitting saw on the mill and cut the slot for the pick blade. The slitting saw is about the same thickness as the steel I use for the pick blades.

The wood is now ready for me to make into a handle.

update and new picks

2009-10-29T09:00:00.006+09:00

Lately this blog is looking more like some kind of random personal blog or travel blog than a blog about my metal work.

There's not a whole lot worth writing about lately. I haven't gotten in any exhibitions since Cheongju. I am not working on anything exciting. I have some unfinished pieces that I think will be good, but I haven't worked on them since before my trip. I'll go back to working on those after I finish up some other things.

Here are some lock picks I finished recently:

This one below is now my favorite handle style I have done in aluminum. But I think every time I do a new handle style it's my favorite till I make it a few times and get sick of it.

This one is sandalwood. This is another one of my current favorite handle styles. I like the one I did in snakewood better.

Ebony:

Korea/Japan part 3 - Tokyo

2009-10-22T04:49:00.001+09:00

On Oct. 10th I went to Tokyo. I met an old friend from GIA who I haven't seen in 7 or 8 years, she's Korean and is in Tokyo studying Japanese language. I also met a Japanese friend from elementary school who now lives in Tokyo. I hadn't seen him in over 20 years.

I hung out with my friend from GIA three days and went to some places with her, like Ameyayokocho and Asakusa. When I wasn't with my friends I mostly just took the train (Yamanote line) to different parts of the city and walked around.

Ameyayokocho:

Outside Sensouji Temple in Asakusa (below). Not exactly my favorite temple.

Harajuku:

Outside Shibuya Station:

Same place at night:

Shibuya:

I just realized there's crowds of people in all the photos I am posting. The whole city wasn't like that, but all the interesting places I saw were.

I have been to Japan 4 times before this trip, but this is the first time I have been to Tokyo. It was interesting, but it is not my favorite place in Japan. It's too big. But I liked Seoul because it was so huge. Go figure.

I felt somewhat dissatisfied with Tokyo. Visiting Tokyo was fine, but afterward I wanted to go someplace else in Japan. I didn't really feel like I had visited Japan. I'm sure I'll go back to Tokyo someday for some reason, but I think I would prefer to spend most of my time someplace other than Tokyo.

The flight back to Chicago was the best flight ever. I had three seats all to myself.

Korea/Japan part 2 - Seoul, Busan, Pyeongtaek

2009-10-20T08:30:00.016+09:00

On Thursday Oct. 1st, after the home stay in Cheongju was over I took a bus to Pyeongtaek where my friend lives. That weekend was Chuseok, (it's like Korean Thanksgiving), so my friend didn't work Friday. Since there's not a whole lot to do in Pyeongtaek, as soon as I got there we went to Seoul for the weekend.

We didn't eat here, but I liked the restaurant's sign in the photo below. I like how they did the character 鳥, it means bird or chicken, but one could probably tell what kind of food they serve even if one doesn't know any Chinese characters.

Bongwonsa Temple in Seoul:

Monday my friend had to go back to work, so I went to Busan. I liked Busan because of it's beaches. I spent most of my time there in Haeundae (below)

Korea/Japan part 1 - Cheongju

2009-10-20T06:21:00.012+09:00

The first week I was in Korea I did a home stay with a family of six in Cheongju. I went to the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, which was good, but not as much fun as two years ago because I wasn't getting any award this time. I knew before I went there that my necklace only got Honorable Mention, which is what every piece gets that makes it to the second round of judging but does not win an award.

Cheongju really promotes the Biennale. Coming into the city by bus I saw these flags on all the street lights along the road:

The Biennale was at the same site as two years ago, except this year the Competition was at the same location as the rest of the Biennale.

Since I didn't tell the curator I would be there I didn't get my special ID badge. Because I didn't have the special ID I wasn't supposed to take any photos inside the exhibitions. My host mother and I talked to one of the people there about the badge, but she couldn't get it for me. I think she said it would be ok for me to take a photo of my necklace, but I wasn't sure cause her English wasn't very good. It didn't matter cause I was going to take a pic of my necklace whether they liked it or not, so I just waited till no one was looking to take this pic:

We also went to the Cheongju National Museum and saw a Korean metals exhibition.

While there I got to play with some clay in a hands-on workshop with three of the host family's children. It was the first time I have worked with clay in about 10 years. But since the workshop is for kids, not adults, I was too big to use the kick wheel.

I'm home

2009-10-15T20:53:00.002+09:00

I got home from Japan Wednesday morning. The trip was good. Right now all of my photos are on my netbook, which doesn't have Photoshop, so I need to wait till I move my photos to my other computer so I can crop and resize them to post on this blog.

Korea and Japan trip

2009-09-18T12:52:00.003+09:00

I got my plane tickets to Korea last week. I'm leaving Sept. 23rd, and returning Oct. 14th.

The first week I will be doing the home stay in Cheongju. The next week I will be visiting my friend in Pyeongtaek, and I will also be going to Seoul for sightseeing.

The last 5 days of the trip I will be in Japan, in or around Tokyo. I have been to Japan several times, but this will be my first time in Tokyo. I'll be meeting a Japanese friend from grade school who I haven't seen in over 20 years. I will also meet a friend from GIA who I haven't seen in 8 or 9 years.

I still have some orders I need to finish before I go. They are causing me a little bit of stress.

birthday

2009-09-15T15:00:00.004+09:00

Today is my birthday. I'm not too happy about it. I never thought I would live to be this age, and I never wanted to. I have been feeling like this for the past 4 years.

initial pendants

2009-09-15T07:21:00.003+09:00

Right now I am finishing up a commission for 10 pendants. They are calligraphic letters, cut out of 1/4" aluminum. Sawing out the first letter or two was kind of a bitch cause the metal is so thick. But after I changed the saw blade size I was using and got some practice I started to enjoy it. I started out with a #8 saw blade, I thought I should use it cause the metal was so thick. #8 blades are good for cutting straight lines, but they are too fat to cut all the curves and corners of these letters. So I switched to the next smallest size saw blades I had, #2. The #2 worked much better, it was much more maneuverable and still cut through the metal fast enough.

Iceland and Sweden trip

2009-09-07T12:12:00.008+09:00

I got back from my trip to Reykjavik, Iceland and Stockholm, Sweden the other day. It was good, but I wish we had spent less time in Stockholm and gone to one more place.

My favorite thing in Iceland was going on Langjokull glacier. This photo is near the edge of the glacier:

Once we were farther on to the glacier everything was pretty much gray, so I don't really have any good photos of it, but it was a cool experience.

I also liked Gullfoss waterfall:

Drottningholm Palace was my favorite thing in Sweden:

Stockholm:

Class photo

2009-08-24T14:23:00.004+09:00

Here is a photo from the last day of class at the art center. One of my students emailed it to me the other day. This is most of the afternoon class, two people are missing.

Home stay in Korea

2009-08-20T21:21:00.001+09:00

I wrote the previous post and totally forgot I actually did have something to talk about. I am going to Korea during the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale to participate in a home stay Sept 25 - Oct 1. I don't know the details about who I will be staying with yet, I'm supposed to get that information soon. After that I will go stay with my friend who is teaching English in Pyeongtaek, about an hour south of Seoul.

an update

2009-08-20T12:40:00.000+09:00

Not much is going on lately, I am not working on anything exciting. But I don't like to go too long without making some kind of update on this blog.

The summer classes I was teaching ended last week. They were fun, but I decided not to teach this fall. I will talk about why I made that decision later.

Entries for the 2010 Niche Awards are due Aug. 31. I am not sure if I will enter this year. I was a finalist in the 2006 Niche Student Awards, but since then, that competition has just been a waste of money for me.

Next week I will go to Iceland and Sweden. I wonder if there are any good galleries or craft museums in Stockholm? I should probably try to find out before I go.

carrot ring pt. 2

2009-08-09T18:38:00.000+09:00

I enameled the rest of my carrot ring last week. I was pretty much finished when I decided I hated the color, the orange is too brown. So I am going to grind off that enamel and redo it with a very orange opaque enamel. I wanted to use transparent enamels, but I can't find a good transparent orange, and I don't think using transparent orange on that part of the ring is as important as using transparent green on the top where I have all the detailed carving. It's a pain in the ass to grind off all the enamel, but what's the point in making the ring if it's going to suck?

classes

2009-08-01T06:21:00.000+09:00

The classes I am teaching are going well. There are only 5 people in each class, and there's no one there that doesn't want to be there, unlike classes at a university. There are only 2 weeks left. I am kind of sad my classes will end soon, but I think it's better if I only teach occasionally, it will be more fun for me that way and I will put more effort into it.

This week and last week I brought in the chemicals, dyes and hardware needed to do anodizing. There are a couple people working on pieces in aluminum. Last week I did a demo on how to anodize, this week one person did a test piece, and next week at least one person will have a finished piece to anodize.

Below is my little temporary anodizing set up:

The afternoon class:

carrot ring

2009-07-28T14:58:00.004+09:00

I finished up the wax for this ring and cast it a few weeks ago. I carved it at least 5 years ago, but never got around to totally finishing it. I am half finished enameling it. I will make the rest of it transparent orange.

exhibitions and competitions

2009-07-27T08:43:00.002+09:00

Several days ago I submitted my entry for an exhibition called "To Be: (Determined) - An Exhibition of the First Five". The entry fee was $30. That's pretty average. Most entry fees are around $25 - $40. Since I have kept copies of almost all my exhibition and competition entries since 2005, when I started entering them on a regular basis, I decided to add them all up and see what I have spent entering these things... $915 on entry fees since 2005. Before 2005 I only entered a few things and I don't have copies of the entry forms anymore, but I would guess they totaled around $100.

Those entry fees have really added up. And those numbers don't even include shipping costs for the work if it's accepted. I wonder if they are worth it? What do I get out of these exhibitions and competitions? That is something I have been thinking about a lot this year, cause many of these exhibitions don't seem to be worth it. You get exposure for your work, and hopefully a catalog of the exhibition is published. Ego boost or ego crush, depending on if you are accepted or not. That is the other downside to entering, in addition to losing money, I feel pretty bad when I am rejected. But it is kind of addicting to enter them. I have a hard time not entering a show if my work fits the theme. Entering exhibitions and competitions is the closest I get to gambling.

updating my website

2009-07-19T06:55:00.000+09:00

I spent most of yesterday trying to redesign my website www.jonmryan.com. I didn't really make the site any different, I was just tired of how it looked. I remember now why I never really finished the site last time, I hate doing it. Right now it is mostly finished. I still want to add photos to the portfolio page, instead of just having a link to my portfolio photo set on Flickr, which I did on the previous version of my site out of laziness. There's also some little things on the new version of the site that are driving me nuts. It's trying to fix those little things that makes designing websites so frustrating for me.

Cheongju Finalist

2009-07-14T08:24:00.004+09:00

I just found out my necklace was one of 210 pieces selected as finalists in the Cheongju International Craft Competition. The next step is to send the actual piece to Korea for the next round of judging.

August travel

2009-07-11T16:21:00.000+09:00

I will be taking a short trip to Iceland and Sweden at the end of August with my parents. I am looking forward to it. I have never been to either of those countries before, or anywhere in Europe. I have only been to Japan and Korea. I like Japan a lot so it was difficult for me not to suggest going there again, but I figured I should see some other part of the world.

500 Plastic Jewelry Designs

2009-07-11T13:20:00.000+09:00

Thursday I received a copy of the new book 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs. I have one piece in the book. The work in the book is good, I wasn't sure what to expect.

I just realized recently that I must not have won anything in the Jewelry Arts Awards this year. When I won last year I found out in May. Since it's July and I haven't heard anything, I guess that means I didn't win.

More stupid tool designs

2009-07-04T11:43:00.004+09:00

Several weeks ago I got the soldering tripod from Rio Grande (item #502-085) so I could more easily torch fire my enameled things from below. The top of this tripod, which is going to be exposed to fire, is for some reason either powder coated or painted. The problem is this paint or whatever it is, doesn't hold up to the high heat it is going to be exposed to. When it is heated it makes a bad smelling smoke. This is just so stupid, the thing is being sold as a soldering tripod. I think this is even stupider than the chrome plated Peddinghaus goldsmith's hammer. Right now, as I type this, I am sitting in my studio breathing the (probably toxic) fumes this stupid thing has made, while a fan tries to blow the fumes out the window.

I thought it was stupid when I first got the tripod and saw that it was painted, but I got busy with trying to finish my necklace and forgot about it. Tonight is the first time I have burned it under normal use, and I haven't used it that much. I guess I will try to remove the paint it with a steel brush on my angle grinder. This is a good example of a tool being made by a company that is clueless as to how it will be used.

old photos

2009-07-04T08:29:00.004+09:00

I am probably going to be taking a trip next month, and since I take a lot of pictures while traveling I like to make sure my camera gear is all in order well ahead of time and make sure I don't need to buy anything new. So while I was looking for something for my camera, I decided to check all my old memory cards I don't use any more and make sure they were empty. Well one wasn't empty. I found 15 process photos of my teapot and another piece from Oct. 2006. The photos are nothing that great, but I love process photos, so I was happy to find them.

I'll write more about the trip after I have the plane tickets. Other than that, there is not much going on worth writing about. The classes I am teaching are going well I guess. At least as far as I can tell. I am comfortable doing the techniques I am teaching, but communicating to someone how to do them is sometimes kind of difficult.

last couple days

2009-06-23T12:18:00.004+09:00

I am so glad I am done with that necklace. I finished it Saturday night. These things always take so long. There's always stupid unexpected things that make it take longer, like I had all this tape residue stuck on the front of the piece from when I put masking tape on the front to protect the finish while I was working on the back. I have no idea why masking tape left residue, I thought it wasn't supposed to? Aside from having to deal with the tape residue I still spent several hours finishing it. I'm not even sure what I was doing that took so long. I remember my teapot was the same way, the final finish took hours. I should clarify, I don't mean I am going from rough filed to final finish, I am talking about I already pretty much have the finish on it, it just has some little scuffs and things from the other work I am doing on it and I just need to reapply the finish and make sure it looks good. Still that takes hours. With this necklace I scrubbed the front with a toothbrush with soap and pumice powder, then I sanded in one direction with a "fine" grit 3M sanding sponge. The back of the piece I finished Friday night, it's sand blasted and the balled ends of the wires are polished with a flex shaft and rubber wheel.

Below: Scrubbing the piece with pumice powder. Lighter fluid (top left) was what I was using to get the tape residue off. I started using the blue painter's tape (covering the gold scales on the ends) after I realized the normal masking tape was leaving residue.

Sunday I took some more photos and did some retouching to them. The back ground I shot on was this 32" x 43" sheet with a gradient on it. It's kind of a heavy plasticy paper, but the gradient is printed on it and it's really delicate. So even though I don't use it very often, and I try to take care of it, it still has a lot of scuffs and marks on it. Which means I always have to do a lot of work in Photoshop with the healing brush taking out all the scuffs. I don't want to buy a new one cause the thing wasn't cheap and it doesn't hold up to having things set directly on it.

Below: Photo set up for most of the non-model shots.

Today I am just taking it easy and cleaning up my studio. The place always gets so messed up when I have am trying to meet a deadline. Tomorrow I have to start on all the jobs I was putting off while I was finishing my necklace. I told a lot of people I could start on their work after the 22nd. Other than my commission work, I think the green enameled bracelet will be the next thing I will make.

Below: Some random photo from when I was almost finished.

finished at last

2009-06-22T13:55:00.003+09:00

1665 pieces, cast and hand finished.
Approximately 250 hours labor.

taking photos

2009-06-18T05:10:00.004+09:00

My friend and his wife came over today for the photos of the scale necklace. It went ok, I think I got some good photos. I wasn't sure how it would go since I have never photographed a piece on a model before. One problem seemed to be using a fast enough shutter speed since even slight movement with a slow shutter speed will cause blur. I ended up shooting most of the photos at 1600 ISO, and then reduced some of the noise with Nik Software Dfine in Photoshop.

This was another situation where I realize how much I love digital photography. I can shoot as many photos as I want and immediately see how they are turning out. Today I ended up having to reshoot some after looking at them on the computer. If I was using film I would have to pay to have the film developed and then wait at least an hour before finding out the pics were unusable. The seam in my backdrop is visible in some of the photos, but it's not a problem. I can take it out in Photoshop with the healing brush. With film there's nothing I would be able to do about it. One has to be a better photographer to take good photos with film.

None of this is new to me, I have been shooting digital since 2005. But I was just thinking of how much more work it would be if I was using film, and I am so glad I don't have to use film. Film does have advantages, I believe 35mm can be printed bigger than photos from my 12 megapixel camera, medium format and large format can definitely be printed bigger. But I have never had a need for large prints.

I'll post the photos once I have taken the other photos of the piece.

still working on the necklace

2009-06-16T15:47:00.004+09:00

I am taking a break from working on my necklace right now. I guess I am mostly done. Wednesday my friend's wife will come over to model the piece for some photos. I don't think the back of the piece will be finished for those photos, but that doesn't matter cause you won't be able to see it. By Friday I will finish up the back of the piece and take some more photos of it not being worn. I haven't been giving too much thought to finishing the back, it might be a more time consuming job that I am thinking. There's nothing I can do about that now, so I will worry about that when I get to it.
Time to go back to work.

more enameling

2009-06-10T04:22:00.004+09:00

I enameled my other little cup last week. I put on 3 or 4 coats of enamel.

This is what the enamel looks like before firing:

I used a Smith air/acetylene torch with a #3 tip. I think a #4 tip would have been better because it was taking some time to get all the enamel to melt, but I didn't have one at the time. I got one later in the week when I ordered some things from Rio.

Finished pieces:

These are some bracelet parts I started on last week while I was waiting to cast more scales for my necklace. This piece, along with everything else I have been working on, has been put on hold till I finish my necklace.

more enamel tests

2009-06-01T01:21:00.002+09:00

Friday I got a couple more enamels and some enamel adhesive. The adhesive is for getting the powdered enamel to stay on curved or vertical surfaces before it's fired.

I did some more enamel tests last night. The piece below is a little copper cup I keep my punches and repousse tools in. It started out as something quick I made in 2005 to practice raising. Later I gold leafed it to practice applying gold leaf. I never liked the gold leaf on it very much, so last night I decided to sand it off and practice enameling it.

It's torch fired. I built up 3 layers of enamel, firing it after each layer. I fired the last layer twice because I didn't think it was fused well enough. I am mostly satisfied with the way it turned out. I heated it from the inside, except at the very end I passed the torch over the outside directly on the enamel. That darkened the enamel slightly, making it look kind of dirty. I shouldn't have done that, but that's the purpose of doing a practice piece, now I know not to do that on light colored enamels.

This went pretty smoothly. My previous experience with enamels wasn't very good. I remember having trouble with the enamel cracking off. That was part of the reason I never did any enameled work. I was really interested in enameling in the early 2000's, but I didn't know anything about it, and I thought you needed to use a kiln, which I didn't have. By the time I got to try enameling in 2005 I was no longer interested in it. I did my required sample pieces for a class, which didn't go very well, and decided enameling was not something I wanted to do. I am interested in enameling now because I am getting a little sick of anodized aluminum, but I still want to use colors, and I like the textures.

I'll probably practice enameling more on another raised cup I keep small tools in later this week. Practice pieces are more fun when its something you will keep and use.

scale necklace update

2009-05-30T14:06:00.001+09:00

I'm still working on my scale necklace. I don't want to be working on it, but I am hoping to get it done in time to enter in the Cheongju competition. I have a couple other ideas for bracelets using a similar construction method, one of them is the enamel piece I am thinking about. I would much rather start on the bracelets, but I need to keep working on the necklace. Sometimes it's hard for me to stay focused on these things when I have so many other ideas. I think my attention span is shorter now than when I was younger.

Having a deadline for a competition or exhibition is good for motivating me to finish things I have been dragging out. When I enter a competition or juried exhibition I try not to think about the outcome, I just enter and try to forget about it till I hear the results. It's not too hard when I already have finished pieces to enter. But it is hard not to think about the outcome when I am working hard to try to meet a deadline. The hope that rushing to meet the deadline will pay off is what keeps me going when a deadline is coming up. But the more I think about getting into a show or competition, the harder it is when I am rejected. So sometimes when I am working hard on something like this scale necklace, I am wondering if I am just setting myself up for a big disappointment.

summer teaching

2009-05-30T02:14:00.001+09:00

I wanted to wait till it was confirmed that I would be teaching this summer before I posted any details. Since it was confirmed yesterday, here are the details:

My friend, Colin McDonald, teaches jewelry making classes at The Art Center Highland Park. Next week he is moving to Korea for a year to teach English, so I am going to finish teaching his classes this session, and teach some of the classes he was scheduled to teach this summer. I am going to be teaching all of his Thursday classes this summer:

10:00 - 12:30pm Metalsmithing and Jewelry: Intermediate/Advanced

1:30 - 4:00pm Precious Objects: Jewelry, Metal, Miniature Sculpture

4:15 - 6:15pm Beginning Jewelry

7:00 - 9:30pm Metal Jewelry: All Levels

These are 8 week classes, and will run from June 25 - August 13, 2009.

enameling

2009-05-27T06:40:00.005+09:00

I got some vitreous enamels last week for a certain piece I have had in the back of my mind for several years. I got the little sample kit from Rio Grande and a couple bigger jars. I have never done any enameled pieces, except for test pieces in grad school, which was a requirement for a class I was taking. Since I have never really done any enameling I also got the book The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration by Linda Darty. It seems to be a good book so far. I bought it on Amazon without having looked through it, I almost didn't get it because it has projects, but there's not much space devoted to them.

So far I am just doing test pieces. I like the rough granular texture from underfired enamel, what the enameling book calls sugar fired. That is my main interest in enameling. I am just as interested in the textures as I am the colors.

teaching

2009-05-23T21:41:00.004+09:00

One of my friends teaches jewelry making classes at an art center in the Chicago suburbs. He is going to be moving out of the area soon, so I will probably be taking over the classes he was scheduled to teach this summer. I will post the details soon.

snakewood pick

2009-05-19T14:08:00.000+09:00

I finished this lock pick a few days ago. The handle is snakewood, I really like it. I will definitely be using more snakewood in the future.

Peddinghaus goldsmith's hammer

2009-05-18T22:44:00.002+09:00

This is something I have wanted to write about for a while. I wanted to write about this hammer because I hate it. I like the size and weight, I modeled the hammers I made on this hammer, but it has one serious problem, and that is that it has a heavy chrome plating. There's a couple reasons why this is stupid, and I have yet to hear any reason why chrome plating is good.

I don't remember when I got this hammer, but I have had it several years at least. In the beginning it was fine, and I liked it. My friend also had the hammer, one day he told me that the chrome plating started chipping off his hammer. I thought that sucks, but my hammer was still ok so I didn't worry about it too much. A year or two later, the plating on the cross peen of my hammer started to chip off.

The problem with the stupid plating chipping off, other than looking like shit, is it is very thick plating, so it leaves a sharp edge which will mark the metal you are hammering. After this big piece of plating chipped off, the rest of the plating started chipping off. So I just went with it, and decided to try to chip off all the plating. It wasn't so easy, it chipped of easy enough around the corners, but the rest wouldn't come off.

Another problem with the head is the cross peen is too squared off and the edges are too sharp. Most people will want to make the cross peen more rounded. Having a hard chrome plating makes this more difficult and trying to round the edges will probably lead to the plating starting to chip off.

I can't think of any good reason for chrome plating the hammer. Rust prevention? That's stupid. It's a jeweler's hammer, not some tool that's going to be outside exposed to the elements. Did they want the head to look polished, but were too cheap to actually polish it?

No other Peddinghaus hammers I have seen are plated. Their other hammer heads are painted black except for the faces.

This is not the kind of thing I expect from a German tool manufacturer.

tripods

2009-05-18T09:28:00.004+09:00

A while ago I got a new tripod. I got Manfrotto 055XPROB legs and a Manfrotto 488RC0 ball head.

Up till now I had been using a cheap tripod from Walmart. Normally I don't cheap out with something like that and get the absolute cheapest one, but at the time I bought it (2003) I just wanted one to play around with. I had no intention of using it to photograph my work because I didn't know how to photograph my work.

I was getting tired of using a tripod that made me nervous cause it was so unstable. I had been thinking about getting a better tripod for years, but when ever I looked at them I was always overwhelmed by the selection of legs and heads. So finally I spent some time and figured out which looked best for me. If I would have known how much better a good brand name tripod was I would have gotten it years ago. There is such a difference between this one and my old one. This one is stable, it doesn't feel like it could easily be knocked over like my old one. And the head doesn't feel like it might drop my camera. It is also bigger, so I no longer have to do things like put my tripod on cinder blocks when I want to get my camera higher.

With the Manfrotto you can do fancy things like put the center column horizontal to photograph something directly from above. There is a hook near the center of the legs to hang a weight from to make it more stable.

People stealing my blog content - Pt 2

2009-05-18T08:48:00.004+09:00

Taking care of that problem turned out to be very easy. The site was at some kind of free domain name registration site. I emailed the registration site about it and the next time I checked, the offending site had been removed.

And yes, they did steal my post about them stealing my posts.

People stealing my blog content

2009-05-11T13:13:00.007+09:00

I am kind of pissed. I found some website stealing my blog posts to put on their site. The site is a blog, and there are other posts in addition to mine, probably stolen from other people's blogs. I assume the purpose is to get content for their site so they have some place to put ads. Hopefully people who arrive on that site will be able to see it for what it is.

I wonder if they will steal this post too?

http://jonmryan.blogspot.com/

scale necklace and procrastination

2009-05-08T16:15:00.008+09:00

My goal is to finish my scale necklace in time to enter in Cheongju next month. There's no reason I would not be able to finish in time, but the problem with these major pieces that get dragged out for years is they start to feel like they will never end. I started that piece in grad school in spring 2005. So while the piece is nearing completion, I am also feeling like after 4 years, is 5 more weeks really going to be all I need?

It's kind of embarrassing when a piece takes so long. Cause there usually isn't any good reason for something to take so long. I have identified 3 common reasons why my pieces end up taking way longer than they should. The scale necklace has been victim of reasons #1 and #3. My teapot was victim of reasons #1 and #2.

1. Other more important things come up that need to be finished (like work that I am actually being paid for). This happens with almost everything I am working on that does not have a deadline and I will not be paid for immediately after finishing (like work that I hope to sell in the future, rather than custom orders).

2. I have to make a decision about the design and don't know what to do. I never have pieces totally designed when I start on them. Some times I get too indecisive about certain things, and end up putting the piece down thinking I will decide later. Some times "later" is not for several months.

3. Work gets too boring/tedious. Like making these scales. Making waxes from the rubber molds, spruing trees to cast, casting, cleaning them all up. It's just so boring. The finished part of the necklace has over 100 hours of labor in it already. Boring boring monotonous labor. Or with my carved scale brooches, when I feel like I am not making any progress.

Sometimes when one of these reasons comes up and I stop working on a piece I will put it away and just forget about it.

When I sign and date a piece I usually just mark it with the year I finished it, not the years I took to finish or the year I started. I'm not sure what other people do, I usually don't bring up the topic of pieces taking years to finish due to procrastination when I talk to other jewelers or metalsmiths. I really have no idea how many other people do that sort of thing.

Pictured below are about 450 sterling scales for my necklace. They are almost ready to be attached to the necklace. I have about 50 more that I am still working on. After I attach those 500 I should be about finished except for the edges.

Finished chasing hammer

2009-05-05T16:05:00.003+09:00

I finally finished and photographed my chasing hammer. I decided to copy an idea from one of my Flickr friends, Scott, and make the wedge out of ivory. Because it looks cool and I have had a piece of ivory for several years I never knew what to do with. He has an old hammer with an ebony handle that he made an ivory wedge for. He said he put the ivory wedge in his hammer about 25 years ago and the head is still tight. But I didn't talk to him about it till I was finished with my hammer and it was too late to do my wedge the same way he did his. So I will just have to wait and see how mine holds up.

I am glad I have finally made myself a chasing hammer. This hammer is going to replace the cheap Pakistani chasing hammer I have been using. Everything I make is usually either sold, I try to sell, or is kept for exhibitions. Very few things I keep just for myself.

CMAG swap meet

2009-04-19T21:59:00.008+09:00

Yesterday I went to the Chicago Metal Arts Guild annual (starting this year) swap meet. It is for buying and selling metal related tools and supplies. I have a lot of duplicate tools and things I never use, so I brought that stuff to sell. I sold a lot of my smaller tools, but did not sell my centrifugal caster or old vacuum caster.

500 Plastic Jewelry Designs

2009-04-18T06:17:00.004+09:00

I found out today that one of my pieces was accepted for the book 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs.
The picture below is the piece that was accepted. I made 3 plastic brooches specifically to enter in the book, the one that was accepted was the only one I liked.

new tools

2009-04-13T23:16:00.000+09:00

I made another stake from a railroad spike. I didn't need the stake for anything in particular, I just wanted to make it. The new one is on the right.

I also made myself a chasing hammer this weekend. I have made chasing hammers before, but they were gifts. The handle is ebony, I roughed it out on the band saw then finished shaping it on the belt sander. This time I fit the handle to the head early on during the shaping of the handle rather than finishing the handle first. I think it is easier to do it this way because I don't need to worry as much about getting the head on straight or worry about breaking the handle when I hammer it into the head.

I thought I might be finished when I took the picture below, but I couldn't stand that light spot in the ebony so I sanded it out the next day. I will post a photo of the finished piece soon.

2009 Cheongju International Craft Competition

2009-04-13T13:25:00.000+09:00

The entry form for the Cheongju International Craft Competition is online. It may have been up for a while now, but this is the first time I have checked the site in a few months.

There's no entry fee and big prizes, plus they bring you to Korea if you win. And they pay the awards in cash. It's crazy.

Here are links to the competition information, and the main Cheongju Craft Biennale site. Entries are due June 22nd.

Me at Cheongju in 2007:

anodizing dyes

2009-04-02T18:50:00.002+09:00

I finished my anodizing sample pieces last night and I took a photo of all the colors I have. All of these dyes are from www.caswellplating.com and these are the names they use for the colors.

Most of the colors are accurate on my calibrated monitor, but a few of them don't look so good in this photo.

1- Red Bordeaux (below) - I like this one if the piece is dyed as dark as possible. But I rarely use it on my work.

2- Violet DS + Red Bor. (1:1) - I mixed this color, I don't like it.

3- Violet DS + Red Bor. (2:1) - I don't like this one either.

4- Violet DS (below) - It's ok, but I rarely use it.

5- Violet - This is one of the new ones I got a couple weeks ago. I haven't used it on any of my work yet. I am not sure if I will, it's kind of strong.

6- Black - It's black. What more can I say?

7- Copper - Another new one. This is the orange I have been looking for. I haven't used it yet.

8- Orange 3A - I never liked this one much.

9- Golden Orange - A new one. It's better than orange 3A, although I don't know if I will use it on my work.

10- Yellow 4A - Another new one. This one is very interesting. It's a very light yellow, I have not used it yet, but I am considering it for this brooch. I will definitely use it on something.

11- Gray NLN - A new one. It's kind of like black, but not as... black. I didn't know what to expect with this one, but I was hoping it would be something other than watered down black. I could get this color with a quick dip in the black dye. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I figured if they are selling a separate dye it must be something I couldn't get with black. If you leave the piece in the dye long enough it is almost black. Interestingly, this isn't the only gray they sell.

12- Orange 3A + Blue 4A (2:1) - Another one I mixed. I didn't have yellow to mix with blue, so I wanted to see what kind of green I would get with orange and blue. It's an ugly color, I've never used it.

13- Electric Blue (below) - I like this one. I bought this after I already had fast blue, but two are too similar to each other, I didn't need both of them.

14- Fast Blue (2 photos below) - I like this one a lot. I used this on my teapot.
Both of these rings are fast blue.

15- Blue 4A (2 photos below) - This is my favorite blue right now.

16- Green SCG - This one is new. I like it but I have not used it on anything yet.

17- Green AEN (below) - This one is kind of difficult to get a good color. When the color comes out right, like with this brooch, I love it. When it doesn't come out right it's nothing special.

18- Blue 4A + Orange 3A (1:1) - I mixed this at the same time I mixed #12. I don't like it.

wood handled picks

2009-04-02T11:21:00.004+09:00

I have been making some more wood handled lock picks lately, but most people are still asking for aluminum handles. I am a little sick of the aluminum handled ones, but I am not going to turn down the work. Wood is so fast and easy to work compared to metal. I got some new wood 2 weeks ago and have more wood coming this week.

This is one of my favorites. The wood is holly. I didn't have an order for this one, I just wanted to try working with the holly.

Lark anodizing book call for entries

2009-03-30T05:02:00.002+09:00

Lark Books has plans to publish a how-to book on anodizing aluminum and is accepting images of anodized aluminum jewelry for the gallery section of the book. Needless to say I will be entering this one. Entries are due May 25, 2009. Submission info can be found here.

dye and ebony

2009-03-26T01:31:00.000+09:00

It's been a week since I got the new dyes, but I haven't done more than one test piece of each of them. I want to test a couple of them again, but I think most of them are pretty good. I'll post photos sometime.

My carved ebony piece is coming out ok. I took this photo last week, the front still looks about the same, most of the work I have been doing lately has been on the back. The edges are kind of chipped , but that's not hard to fix. The problem I have been having is smoothing the wood. I'm trying some different things, but I'm not really sure what the best way is.