Holiday Market!!

Stop By the SoWa Holiday Market in Boston December 12th and 13th. I'll be there both days will all sorts of jewelry, including new pieces only available at the show. http://www.sowaholidaymarket.com

Wood you marry me?

Ok that was bad... but the rings are super cool! A custom set in palladium for some good friends who are getting married this weekend. Celebrate by buying stuff from their Etsy shop, NewDuds. The inlay is Vermont walnut, with a hefty furniture wax on it, and a Vermont Red Jasper stone mined from just down the road where I live, and not far from where he grew up.

Love is on the inside - 14kt/SS Band

Here's the first of a new style of pieces I'm doing with Rose Gold and Silver, I'm really excited about this one. Quoted from the Etsy listing;

"This is part of a new series of rings based on my own wedding band. A .5mm polished 14kt Rose Gold sleeve lines the inside of this brushed finish, slightly domed, Silver ring.

The Silver on the outside has a clean and modern look that will take on its own unique finish as it wears over time, while the inside remains true to the day it was first made, perfect for a meaningful engraving (contact me for engraving quotes, usually $25-35).

Each ring is handmade to order and takes about 3-4 weeks, please let me know the ring size when you order.

The ring pictured is 8mm wide by about 2mm thick, a very comfortable size. It can also be made in widths of 6mm, 5mm, 4mm, matching sets can be made as well."

Custom Projects

I have a bunch of Custom Projects in the works, the set below is a variation of my Igloo Stacking Set with a moonstone and custom cut White Quartz. There are few wedding bands I'm working on that I hope to have images of by the end of the weekend. Enjoy the pictures for now!

Clean again.

After a few long days of some serious cleaning it's time to get back to work. Truth be told, my shop space is very very small, less than 100 square feet. On top of that there is no ventilation, or was no ventilation. I set up a very nice air filtration system with a HEPA filter, I can already tell the difference in air quality, as I don't have to wear a mask just to be in there... the air can get thick with chemicals, fumes and dust really fast.

It's easy to overlook creating a healthy work environment when you're working by yourself or in a very small business, but it is critical. Here (Gnoksin) is a great in depth article that really concerns the safety of anyone working with precious metals. It's a long read, but very informative.

Here are a few pictures from SoWa, cause I know everyone loves pictures!

Spring cleaning... a little late.

4 months of a whirlwind mess have consumed my shop and office, I'm ashamed to even post pictures. Today is going to be a long long cleaning day, maybe I'll post pictures once it's all clean.

It's going faster thanks to Pandora's Bon Iver channel.

Where in the world is Jesse Danger?

Yikes, it's been about three months since I've put anything on here. A lot has gone down in three months though. I've done numerous shows at Boston's SoWa Open Market, which has been a fantastic experience in general. I'll be back down again in October on the 11th and 25th and in December for the SoWa Holiday Market. Vermont shows and experiences haven't been anywhere near as grand, perhaps my expectations for said events were too high.

Etsy has been fantastic as well, and a great big thanks to everyone who has supported me by purchasing my creations, or blogging about my work or just simply taking the time to look!

With all this hard work I've opted to step away from my day job. Something I've been trying to do for far too long, but finally the opportunity has presented itself. This is truly what I long to do, and just the start to many things to come. This means for now;

-new work
-faster shipping
-faster emails
-more craft/art shows
-more updates/blog entries
and all sorts of possibilities

Thanks and more to come!

New Camera

I'm already in love with my new camera, what a difference it's going to make! Head over to my Flickr page to see even more, http://www.flickr.com/photos/27777961@N04/

What Designers

Click on the image to check out the Summer Design guide by WhatDesigners.com featuring my 18kt Wing Ring, and vote for me here (please) as well!

Buds

Lots of little buds! I spent the last few days getting a whole bunch ready, about 100 of them, destined to become rings or earrings. I'll keep posting progress shots this week as I get ready for the show on Sunday.

SoWa update

I'll be at SOWA in Boston this summer, make sure to stop by and say hi if you are in the area on these days.

June 7
June 21
July 19
August 2
August 16
August 30

I'm excited to be part of these shows and have been building and planning like crazy for them.

Stackables!

Stackables with stones and multi-metal buds. All these are up on my Etsy page now.

Lemongrass Sale

To make way for new pieces I've decide to have a sale on my Lemongrass series, check it out here, http://tinyurl.com/q8rpek

New Website!

Check out the start to JesseDanger.com. I'm working on new images over the next month so it will be a little flashier come June.

Modern Jewelry Designs

Check out this great new blog.

http://modernjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/

They ran a feature on my work a few days ago. They've also featured a few other Estymetal members.

Queen City Craft

I'm very excited to be part of this Craft Show, Please come and check it out if you are in the area.

The Shape of Rings to come

...and earrings too. All of these will be in my shop this week, but here's a preview for now. the Metals are silver, copper, 18kt yellow gold and Mokume.

More Progress!

I'm working a few new series of pieces. As you can see in the images they are coming along nicely. I'll keep updating as they get finished, but they should be up on the Etsy page this month, about a dozen new pieces in this batch, and the next is about a dozen more!




Bench Explosion!!! Actually in this picture it doesn't look too bad.

Progress

Just a few photos around shop of new pieces in various stages of completion.  This first is welding an 18ky disc to a sheet of argentium.  The solder is on the outer ridges, I heat the piece from the middle and it all flows under the disc, forming a solid bond.

Once a disc is soldered to the sheet I cut off the excess and file it smooth around the edges.  Below is a Mokume disc being filed.

A collection of discs, gold, copper, mokume, and argentium.  

Using a dapping block and wooden dapping tools to form the domes.

All finished!!  Ready to become earrings and rings.

Making a Dragonfly Wing Ring

My wing rings have been quite popular, so I'm putting up a little tutorial on how I make them! I'm also including links to the tools I use, available at Ottofrei.com, where I get most of my supplies.

I start with a wing casting, which I can use to make either a ring, a pendant or earrings out of. These are made of recycled Argentium Silver, from an original model. The first step is to clean up the sprues and the casting finish.

Once the wing is cleaned up, I anneal it with the torch. Heating it until it's a medium brightish red, this annealing process softens the metal so it is malleable.

As soon as the whole piece is annealed, I drop it in the pickle pot. I use a mild Citric Acid, it's safer and cleaner then traditional jewelers pickle, this cleans off the oxidation from heating it.

Once the wing is annealed I can bend it by hand around my ring mandrel. This first bend is only a part of the way, typically I will need to anneal the piece two or three times to get it fully rounded to the appropriate size. Finishing the shaping with a rubber mallet, as to not mar the finish.

It's quite tricky to get it to bend without all the little wire twisting together. It took a few duds when I first started making them to get the feel down.

Here are a pair of rings fully rounded. The next step is to bake them in the oven, this process hardens the Argentium Silver so that it is very rigid. The baking process I use is 495 Degrees for 1 hour 45 minutes, for the strongest heat treatment I anneal it one last time before it goes into the oven. To read more on Argentium Silver head over to this site, argentiumsilver.com.

After baking the ring, the last step is the final finish, first done using basic sandpaper to get a nice flat finish. I do this by hand, old fashioned, but it does the trick.

I then use a Flex Shaft and bristle wheels to smooth the final finish and give it nice even brushed look. The rings form their own patina/finish over time, depending on how hard you wear them.

Check out the Wing Ring listing on Etsy for the final images!! Thanks for reading!

Light

I've set my shop up with daylight energy saving bulbs, since there are no windows.  Lately I find the lighting too clinical though,  but I found a bag of old tea candles, and my bench just does not feel the same without three of them lit.  I'm overly particular with my shop environment I guess, it's only temporary until we move again in another year, but it's my work space none the less!

Sidetracked

So my brother is in town for a little while, and the three of us went out ghost hunting. This was brought on by watching a Ghost Hunters marathon on cable while visiting family last week. The haunted spot we chose was an old covered bridge, where a women hanged herself years and years ago, called Emily's Bridge... She's been known to scream and damage cars apparently. While we're not sure if we saw anything convincing, I did end up with creepy pictures.


I did manage to get my shop all cleaned today, it severely needed it. Tomorrow I place a very large order for all the metal and stones for my new creations, I can't wait!

GreenEarthJourney

There's a nice writeup/interview about my work on GreenEarthJourney, along with a lot of other great information as well!