My 49 Jewelry Basics

x
Handmade Moldavite Earring & Ring Set in .925 Solid Sterling Silver.

My Top 49 Jewelry Basics:

This is a set of basic stuff you really need to know if you plan to make and sell jewelry at home. Take a closer look at the photo above, and note that it’s all made from wire and beads — no solder, no casting.

Solder-free jewelry is impossible, unless it’s cast, and both are things I’d rather not do, especially for money, so I developed my line of wire-made jewelry, including wire-linked necklaces and bracelets, and wire-wrapped meteorites and other gemstones.

Gemstones are not typically drilled large enough to allow wire to pass through them, so I have to find gemstone suppliers who are willing and able to drill my stones just a wee bit wider, enough to accommodate a .16 gauge copper, silver or 18k gold wire.

By the way, jewelry-grade wire is already polished, so all it needs is a gentle rub, unless you’ve butchered the metal beyond simple polishing.

Beads as Money — Beads were the first money. Until then, about 50,000 B.C., any exchange was strictly in livestock, food, skins, weapons — some sort of trade or barter. The hole in a bead made it easy to carry on a string or leather thong, so you didn’t have to bury it near your home under the third fencepost as usual. Certain rare beads had definite values, such as seashells in an inland community with no seaport or ocean access. Common early “money” beads were made of bone, shell, wood, and some larger seeds or seed-pods. In some parts of the world, beads are still money, and some beads can bring many thousands of dollars, and even millions of dollars, at public auctions. Continue reading

JAL Stone Age Jewelry Factoids

 

x
Polychromed lid from one of my coffins, c. 1300 B.C.

The IDEAL Gemstone size-range for JAL Stone Age Jewelry is 5mm up to 10mm. Lightweight stones or beads can be as large as 14mm, but it’s not recommended. Can smaller stones be used?

Smaller high-grade expensive Gemstones can be used by doubling the stones in the vertical plane, or adding them as dependents, drops or loops. Two small stones add up to more visual impact than one larger stone, even at the same carat-weight, not sure why.

The ONLY acceptable drill-hole sizes for JAL Stone Age Jewelry is what can fit on a .16 gauge or .20 gauge COPPER wire. Larger drill-holes don’t necessarily help, and very large drill-holes can make the bead or the bead arrangement unstable and wobbly.

When you work in copper, it’s your work the customer is buying. When you work in silver or gold, you get the same pay for your work, but you must also sell the precious metals, and the customer NEVER understands that they are getting back a cash rebate in the form of precious metals easily exchanged for cash at the current melt-value.

So you become a metal salesperson. Continue reading

Build TWO Modernist Copper Pendants for only $1.25 Each!!!

x
Pinky & Lucky Duck are avid collectors of Modernist jewelry, and make their own.

Here is a simple design for TWO Modernist Copper Pendants. Modernism began back in the early 1930s, springing from the avant-garde schools that followed the post-impressionists and the postwar schools of art both in American and Europe in the 1940s and into the 1950s. Continue reading

ZOOMSHOP — Jewelry Workshop Subjects

Here are SOME of the subjects I’ll be covering in the upcoming ZOOMSHOP Workshop:

  1. Beads as Money.
  2.  How beads are made.
  3. The Djenne Trade Route.
  4. Excavations & Tomb Raiders.
  5. Types of Beads.
  6. Common Bead Shapes & Colors.
  7. Stone Beads.
  8. Glass Beads.
  9. Metal Beads.
  10. Wooden Beads.
  11. Ceramic Beads.
  12. Drill Holes & Their Significance & Causes.
  13. Detective Workshopping Your Ancient Beads.
  14. A Short History of Beads.
  15. Detective Workshopping Your Found Bead Collection.
  16. How to Use a Loupe.
  17. Bead Identification & Labeling, Correct Procedures.
  18. What is the Gauge of This Unmarked Wire?
  19. What is Gauge anyway?
  20. Carats vs. Karats — Which is Which???
  21. How to Weigh Precious Metals.
  22. How to Weigh Precious Gems & Convert Weight to Carats.
  23. How to Use the “Tare” Button on a Scale.
  24. What is Patina and What is its Cause?
  25. What is Iridescence?
  26. Detecting Fakes.
  27. Correct Excavation Techniques & Strata Recording.
  28. What Ancient Beads are Okay to Wear???
  29. What Metal Should I Wear?
  30. Wearing Glasses — Keeping Something Between Eyes & Metal.
  31. Staying Ahead of Yourself.
  32. Patience With the Metal & Your Own Incompetence.
  33. Handling Ego Threat Caused by Ignominious Failure.
  34. Consistency is Everything.
  35. Relaxing the Face Mask While Silversmithing.
  36. Dancing Hands & Graceful Design Lines.
  37. Good Wishing While Working Makes Good Jewelry More Sacred.
  38. High Attention Pays Off.
  39. Working in Groups of Elements.
  40. Avoiding Multi-Tasking, the Invention of the Lazy Dog.
  41. Remaining Calm Regardless of Provocation While Silversmithing.
  42. Continual Eye Contact With Working Area of Metal or Gemstone.
  43. Correct Breathing Technique While Silversmithing.
  44. Collecting Metal Scraps for Later Use.
  45. Minimizing the Scrap down to Zero, Techniques for Using Scrap.
  46. Constant Cleanup Just Like Kitchen Maintenance.
  47. Right Action Hammering.
  48. Looping Correctly.
  49. Flourish Style Bending and Hand Manipulation of Wire.
  50. Finish Your Work, and That Includes the Parts we Can’t See!!!

That’s only part of the list of items I MUST COVER during the ZOOMSHOP workshop.

See You At The Top!!!

gorby