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Beading or wire jewelry artists... are you out there ?
What do you make and do you sell your jewelry or make it for yourself or as gifts ?
Post a link if you have a site and would like to show off your work.
I do jewelry, but no costume stuff --I do fine jewelry design. I hand carve my own masters, do all the casting, finishing, and stone-setting myself. I use gold, silver, platinum, and all varieties of precious stones both faceted and cabochon.
You are what I aspire to be... I'm just on beads at this time... but maybe some day in the future ???
You can do it; I'm completely self-taught. Worked professionally for a long time at it too.
Just start picking up the tools here and there, and buy yourself a couple of books and away you go. It's easy to learn how, after that it's just a matter of training your hands to do it.
If you like beads, have you thought of making your own? Making your own glass beads is fun and easy, and the more advanced you get the more intricate and unique you can make your artwork. The cool thing is, since you already do beading work, you can think up your own bead designs.
I make clay beads with gold leaf but that is about all. I have thought about trying the glass beads but I know you need a torch, so that would be new for me. I have done stain glass so I have used a saudering (spelling?) iron ... but not a torch. I would like to try! It would be nice if I had someone to guide me into what I was doing. When I come across a class I will try it. I'm not afraid of it... just want some instructions first so I know what to get. You might be right, maybe a good book would work too.
I would love to see some of your work, could you post some ?
I prefer doing lapidary work. I cut and sell stones both faceted stones and cabochons. I do make fine jewelry (silver and gold mostly), but I do a lot more stone cutting.
I have cut some cabochons but I don't have any decent lapidary tools so I just buy machine cut cabs in various colored semi-precious materials. I kind of cheat a bit and use bezel cups to set them in sterling silver wire rings. I use Propane and Oxygen for my "Little Torch".
Mostly I cut out coins like the ones pictured below with a hand piercing saw. I've been coin cutting off and on for about 38 years or so. Those are an American silver half dollar and an American silver dollar.
There is now a new Sterling Silver Called Argentium and it doesn't tarnish quickly like regular Sterling silver. Rio Grande sells it and I think it is a bit harder to work with than the traditional sterling silver.
I'm using reading glasses these days. It is really tedious work and I have just about ruined my thumb holding the coins to the bench pin. I may design and build a foot pedal controlled air cylinder clamp to hold the coins in place while I saw them soon.
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