Turquoise Granulation Ring-Finished

I forgot to post a picture of my ring completed. I chose to patina it with Liver of Sulfur. It was just to shiny for me :)
I love this ring I made for me even more now!

New Pendants

Wow.
I look at these and still am amazed that it was me who made them!
My class ends this Tuesday and I'll have to wait almost 6 weeks before I can get back at it! I am so inspired now. It feels so good to feel that way. Tuesday we show off the projects we've made in class. I finished these up at home so they'd look good.
The half circle is a Montana Agate and the other one is Malachite and Azurite with granulation of fine silver balls.

One Year Anniversary!!!

Tomorrow, Nov. 26th will be one year since I decided to start really selling the crafts I make. It's been a year of learning and surprise and growth not only in my business, but within myself.  Learning all that I've learned in such a short time in my jewelry class has been so fulfilling!

So in my shop there is a Sale going on for 20% off your order! Use coupon code 1YEARANN to claim your 20%.  Let your friends know to Shop Small Business for Christmas this year. Shop Local too if you can!

Mothers On The Mountain Etsy Shop

My Honey's New Wooden Boxes

My Husband is a carpenter and a talented artist with wood too. He gathers up the throwaway wood from job-sites and turns them into beautiful boxes and other creations.
Here's his latest boxes.

First Bezel - Turquoise and Silver Ring

Here is my finished ring and I'm very pleased :)
I learned so much making this ring! I'm really looking forward to the next class.

Amazing Engraving Video

A fellow student shared this video with the class.  This man's work is amazing!  My daughter and I were mesmerized!

Here's  part two of this amazing process of carving metal.

My First Bezel Setting with Granulation

I got really excited in my jewelry class when the next assignment was learning how to bezel set a stone!!  At this time, the Stone Setting class hours didn't work with my schedule ( and it's the one I really want to take too! ) so I figured I'd have to be patient till I am able to take it.  So happy me when the teacher told us we'll learn bezel setting!

She told us for the first one, pick a stone that is as round as possible (putting away that complex stone for later...) to make it easy the first time.  So of course, I pick a sweet little greenish turquoise (my favorite stone).  The bezel is fine silver and the back plate is my mom's sterling silver.  It ended up that I soldered it just right and the stone fit afterwards too! Phew! I didn't shape the bottom plate first because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet.

 I can't tell you the feeling of joy at learning this process. I have been waiting YEARS to learn this!

 See? No gaps! Yeah!

The sweet little stone I picked.  The dental floss is so I can get it out easily.

After this process, I shaped the plate. Making sure I got is as round and even all around too.
There is so much patience that goes into jewelry fabrication!

The week before my teacher did a demo on granulation and fusing. I really like little balls of silver on rings and jewelry so I thought I'd try it out. The teacher was all for it, so I got some fine silver and measured a lot of little pieces, cut them and laid them on a solder brick and took a fine torch to them and giggle when they got hot and pulled together with a little "boing" into little metal balls. 

My teacher told me to put a strip of solder around the bezel and melt it.  I know there are other ways, but for right now, this was what she wanted me to do.  After that, I fluxed (Flux is your friend!) and laid the balls all around the edge and crossed my fingers that it would all work out!  Smart me took a picture of how it was supposed to look in the end!

As it turned out only 10 stuck! So next time in class I got more creative and more flux and tiny bits of solder in crevices and I got all of them to stay! Phew! Afterwards, my teacher (with a big grin) told me they sell ball wire so you don't have to do it individually!! But hey, it's all about the learning process right?

Can you feel how happy I am!! The stone is just in there right now for looks as I work on the ring shank next. I soldered it to it and now have to fix the shape a bit. Then I'll set the stone in for good!!  

I am really looking forward to the next few years when I have more experience in this field and really get to make all the ideas that have been floating around my head all these years. 

What a Nice Saturday!

There was a craft show a block away from home today, so I convinced my 13 yr old son to walk over with me to check it out. It was a beautiful day (still is as I write) and really wonderful creations were all about us. Then I saw the loose beads!
I can't fight the urge, I have to "just go look", secretly hoping for that "find". At least a few beads to go home with. Just looking at beads, ideas start to flow.
I ended up with a "find" for a good deal!

Ideas are flowing...oops wait, what am I going to make for dinner?.......but the rocks.....I'll give myself 15 minutes with my new beads, then figure out dinner :)
What a nice Saturday.

Ring Update

So now I'm working on setting the stone in the silver ring I cast. This is my learning-so-much ring, and patience too :)
It'll be great!
My Casting class ended on Friday. It was a great experience to go through. It's not my passion but I learned so much and met a group of really cool talented people.

My Honey's Wooden Hair Creations

My honey (Father on the mountain) sees the beauty in wood that others would see as kindling. I love his eye.  I convinced him to make up wooden barrettes out of his scrap pieces and here's the latest batch he's done.  You can view the others at My Etsy Shop.

Thanks to my darling daughter and her beautiful hair to model them!

New Leather Pouch

I just finished up this little pouch and listed it on my Etsy shop, where you can see more pictures of it too. It's made from deerskin and I set the stone all by hand.  I usually pick a stone that feels right and this one won for this pouch. I only use an awl and a pair of scissors.  It feels good to make these again. I usually know who they are going to, but now I'm branching out and making them for my shop. You can see others I've made over the years on my website.

This is my daughter modeling it for me :)

Other Items I Make...PIE!

I'm also a pie maker. So get used to me posting my pies maybe often...pies are such a work of art too.
Here's a peach pie I made for a friends' birthday. Yum!

Just recently to add to the income as a SAHM, I've started making pies for a local restaurant out where I live. So far no one's complained about the taste!

Latest Jewelry Pieces In My Shop

Here's some of the latest pieces I made for my shop.  Beautiful Fall colors seem to be in the air for sure!

You can view these in my shop, where there's more pictures of them either by clicking the Etsy box to your right or going to my Etsy Shop.

My Honey's Beautiful Boxes

Recently I finally convinced my husband ot make some wooden items for my shop. I've been watching him tool around in his shop and knew I wanted to share his work with everyone too!
Here's a few of the boxes he just made up. He's a carpenter who can't stand to see great wood go to waste! He'll gather up the throw aways and make them into beautiful boxes, letter openers, barrettes and more.

Casting Class Update. It's a Ring!!

Last I wrote about my casting class  it was me carving a blue wax turtle.  Well, he got put aside awhile I decided to try my hand at carving out a ring.  Here's some pictures of that process.

First you start out with a block of hard blue wax and you score some lines in it to determine how you want your ring to look.
Then you saw, file and carve and shape to get a rough looking ring.

Here's the ring (top view where you can see the abstract shape) in it's investment canister. I wish it were a money investment! Ha!  It's where we pour a goop that looks like plaster of paris inside this canister. It's called investment and it hardens up so you can stick it in a kiln to melt out the wax, which then leaves a mold of the ring I carved.

After it's been in the kiln, then I cast the metal in it using a wild  gadget and hot melted metal and a big torch!  I have a video of it which I will post later. Still trying to find the time to edit that one!

Here's the canister after it's had the melted sterling silver pushed into it using centrifugal force. It was a wild ride I tell ya!  But it did it!  The dark spot you see inside the white is the metal. It's oxidized but just wait, it'll shine soon! It's hot and that's why I've got it in a bucket of water to cool down and remove the investment.

Here it is!! It's a ring! The base is where I put wax on the bottom of the ring to create a funnel for the melted metal to flow into. You can still see some of the investment on the ring which I scrubbed off.

See? I told you it was a ring. A sterling silver ring to be exact. Some of the metal I used was from my mom's college jewelry class days. Very special.
I've cut off the bottom which is referred to as a button and will then start the process to make it look more normal and ring like.

Here it is so far.  Still have a ways to go with sanding and resizing.

Here's the top view where I'll learn how to set the turquoise stone I was telling you about.
Yes, it's thick...it gives me some wiggle room to work with too.

It's a cool class. But it's almost over and I've learned a lot!

I'll post a picture of it all finished soon hopefully.

Thanks for stopping by to see my progress!

Feather Progress

This is the first project we were assigned in class. It's about positive and negative space.  I decided to do a feather type design for a pendant.  I am using red brass metal for this one and am liking the way it is turning out.

The sketch for the feather

Just got done sawing it and starting to file it.

Here is it on it's way to be done.  I beveled the inside design to give it a bit of depth. I've only sanded up to 400 so just wait till it really has it's shine on!  The stem will end up being curled over in some way so that a chain can go through it.
My teacher wants me to make a mold of it in my casting class to cast it in silver too.  Hmmmmmm.....

So far so good!!

Marriage Of Metals

This assignment in class is a pretty cool one. It's taking two types of metal and making it look like one. Sounds easy right? Stick with a simple design and it won't make you go too crazy!
First you choose your metals. I chose sterling silver and copper.  You rivet them together so they won't move as you saw out your design.  Then you glue your design onto the metal and you're ready to saw!

I have the silver on top of the copper ready to saw.

You want to use a very thin blade called a 8/O (pronounced eight-aught), that requires absolutely NO talking to anyone or any interruptions or else you break a lot of blades.  I learned this from watching the other students in class, so when I went to saw I hid away in the garage, plugged in some music and concentrated.  I ended up only breaking one blade!!! Phew!
This fine blade makes it so when you solder (connect) the two pieces together there is barely any gaps.

Here I've already sawed through the bottom inside of the heart design and I'm starting to saw through the top of the inside heart design. You can barely see it, that's how fine the blade is.















After I cut out my design using one blade (I broke the first one at school while looking up at something that distracted me! See?)  I was so excited I had to show the family what I'd done. My son thought it was the coolest ever! Thanks :)

 Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle..

Then I put them together to show them how they will kind of look in the end. Minus the soldering and filing yet to do!

This is almost how they will look when finished, except they should look like they blend together.  Hopefully I'll be soldering them together this Thursday!  Stay tuned for the finished items soon!!

Prototype Turtle..

Friday in casting class I got down to business with carving in wax. I decided on a turtle with some symbols on its back. Easy right?
A bit tricky at first, but I'm starting to understand it. I'm more of a clay person. The taking away of negative space is a new one to me. Next week
we get to use soft wax, but in the meantime, this is fun learning new techniques!

Make a Mess Here.

Ah! I've got a piece of space to create in the garage now! I don't have to worry about the metal shavings on the carpet in the house.
I got busy working on a feather for a class project on negative and positive spaces. The metal I'm using is Red Brass. I finished cutting it out (with my Mom's jewelers saw) and next up is lots of filing!
Next I made some more jump rings out of copper wire. I'm going to make some more Byzantine chains for bracelets.
It was a good afternoon :)

First Week of School and Me!

So I got the first week of my jewelry classes under my belt.  The first one is the same class I took last semester,  the Jewelry/Metal class.  You learn all the tricks and trade of it all,  soldering, sawing, filing, and more!  The next class is a Casting class and that one is all day! Wow!  After getting a huge amount of information on it last Friday, my head has been reeling taking it all in.  Still, I'm really excited about learning new ways to create jewelry.
The one class I'd love to take is the stone setting one. That one doesn't work well with getting the kids after school so somehow I'll have to take that one in the summer time.
I was all ready to come home and create over the long holiday weekend and ended up with a cold that put me in bed!  All these ideas flowing in my head will have to wait.  Today I feel better and thought I'd let you know how it all went anyways.
Soon, I'll have pictures to show you of work in progress!! Till now it'll have to be a picture that makes me smile :)

I have a thing for cheetahs...they were my mom's favorites. They always make me smile!

Where Was You At? By War

Here's bit of music that I love.  This one reminds me of driving down the Big Sur coast with my honey when we were first dating!

Wait? These aren't Tomatoes!

I found the spot where the chickens have been laying! Hanging out under the cherry tomatoes so they can nibble on treats while they lay :)
At least they didn't peck the big one this time!

Hi!  Wow..I'm branching out and doing a public blog!
For those of you who were in college with me many moons ago, you'll recall me arguing with my computer teacher how these stupid computers aren't going to take over the world!  Hahaha!
I spent all those years up until the last 3 staying away from them the best I could. Then I got curious and then I opened up my Etsy shop....sucked in...down the spiral!  Because if you want to have your online business work, then you have to be on the computer!  So here I am!
Blogging away :)
I start my second semester of jewelry/metal classes next Tuesday and am looking forward to it!  This time I'm repeating the class I took last semester which is the jewelry/metal class and I also squeezed in a casting class.  So I'll be in class 3 days a week. Friday all day! That doesn't make the house work any easier! Or the crafting time...I am sure it will all come together though. I just am excited to be learning new ways to create jewelry.
I'd say I mainly make jewelry first. Then I'd say the crochet comes into play. I really didn't do that until I was pregnant with my 2nd child.  All those years of my mom teaching me and my resisting paid off! I have a quite a few different crafts I do, but jewelry is the main focus right now.

Sunflowers in my garden :)

So have a look at my website (link is down below) or my Etsy shop. You'll also see things on my Facebook business page.  So feel free to browse around and let me know what you think.