Jewelry Shop Talk

This is a lovely video created by my friend Sylvia Kantor.

Thanks Sylvia!

DanacaDesign! from Sylvia Kantor on Vimeo.

We are celebrating our 8th year anniversary by featuring students and teachers in our annual holiday show. Pick up a pair of earrings made by your favorite teacher or a soon to be discovered jewelry student. If you are looking for a totally unique piece of jewelry for yourself or someone you love or are just curious about what’s going on in our little studio on University Way, come on by.  The show runs through the end of December, 2011

What does a jewelry student want for Christmas? Tools and information of course! All hammers and books in the studio store are 10% off, through the end of the month. If you are not sure what the jewelry student (or jewelry lover) on your list needs, gift certificates are an excellent option! These are available in the studio or by phone.

Registration for winter classes is open. Visit www.danacadesign.com for a full list of classes. Give us a call or stop by to get signed up.

Hope to see you soon!

As an avid recycler, re-user and re-purposer, I was thrilled when I got to take Bill Dawson’s class Repurposing Precious Metals and Jewelry last year. Not only did we learn how to take things apart – think single earrings, old pieces, mistakes – but also we got to play with molten metal! What could be more satisfying than to watch your bits of scrap silver (or gold!) become red hot liquid? How about, swiftly, but carefully pouring that red-hot liquid into a mold to form an ingot? It truly is exciting. What, say you, do you do with an ingot? If you’re like me, you become rather attached to simply the shape and form of your little gold ingot and you hang on to it. But with your silver ingot you learn how to roll it, anneal it, roll it, anneal it (repeat) until you have sheet metal you can use for more projects. What a blast. I give this class two thumbs up. It’s fun and you will learn a lot. Bill Dawson is a wealth of knowledge. Plus, he will undoubtedly ask a trivia question and give out a prize. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your scraps or even some silver coins. To learn more about this class offered November 12 and 13 click here.

A recent road trip to Central Oregon has renewed my appreciation of cabs—cabochons, that is. A fascinating place to find those smooth, polished stones so many of us enjoy in jewelry is at the All Rockhounds Powwow Club of America Gem and Mineral Show in Madras, OR. This is the place to witness rockhound heaven. Row after row of tables of rough and polished rock, not to mention carvings, crystals, faceted gemstones, jewelry, and rock equipment, offer plenty of browsing under hot, sunny skies at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. A field trip to dig for your own treasures drives home the humbling fact that cabs are ultimately of the earth. They are not only a result of a certain kind of passion and a lot of physical labor but a product of complex geologic forces and time. Names like Montana agate, stinking water agate, polka dot agate, graveyard point plume agate, Deschutes, owyhee jasper, biggs jasper, and morrisonite generally refer to the origin of the rock. From rough rock to sliced slab to cut and finished polished stone, each little cab captures some aspect of the almost unfathomable geologic processes that result in intricate, colorful, often stunning patterns. A mini miracle you can wear. Now, if I can just learn to cut and polish a few cabs from my new collection of rock slabs…

Check out new cabs from Central Oregon selected for sale at Danaca Design.

Quite a bit with a just a minimal studio set up. This class will cover contemporary uses of wire for jewelry. We will go beyond wire wrapping and beaded jewelry, and learn to form, forge and solder wire. We will get inspiration from jewelers using only wire to create exciting and contemporary jewelry. We will cover making findings, and the basics you would need to set up a studio at home. This class is perfect for someone who has never worked with metal before, or for someone who has created beaded jewelry, but wants to go to the next step.

By just working with wire, we will avoid the frustrations that students often face in a beginning metal fabrication class, as well as the cost involved in buying silver sheet. Students will be provided with a few feet of 20g and 18g sterling silver, brass and copper wire. Additional materials can be purchased in the studio store.

Weekend workshop: July 30 and 31

Saturday 10:30-5:30 and Sunday 10:30-3:30

Class Fee: $225 | Basic materials included; details

Has the price of sterling silver got you down? Perhaps it’s time to consider bronze as an alternative. Bronze precious metal clay (PMC) is an affordable option. Working with it can be fun and satisfying. Roll it, sculpt it, pinch it, cut it, press it, mold it – bronze PMC can be worked any way you like. Fire it in the kiln and the result is pure bronze.

Precious metal clay has only been around since about 1990 and originated in Japan. It consists of microscopic particles of metal mixed with an organic binder. Once it has been shaped and fired (usually in a kiln), the binder burns away and the result is a pure metal. Just like clay, a shrinkage factor must be considered in the design process. PMC is available in silver, gold, platinum, copper, bronze, and steel.

May 11 and 18 you’ll have a chance to experiment with PMC bronze in the Bronze PMC Bracelet class taught by Suz O’Dell. This two-part class focuses on making beautiful patterned links that will result in a completed bracelet or two.

What could be more fun than making jewelry all day long?

Making jewelry all day long for five days in a row!

Yes, you can. Plan your next vacation (or “staycation,” as the case may be) for June 20-24, 2011 (M-F) at Danaca Design and you will learn new skills, hone old ones, and make new friends. What could be better?

The Intermediate Jewelry Making: Total Immersion class allows you to live and breathe metalsmithing, to gain confidence and move your skills to a new level. Plus, you are sure to come away with a completed piece (or pieces) you can be proud of. Instructor Dana Cassara cultivates a learning atmosphere that invites creativity, curiosity, and even a bit of risk taking (with design, that is).  Give me a week of jewelry making over a spa vacation any day!

Visit www.danacadesign.com to learn more.

Visit our Facebook page to see more photos from last year’s intermediate immersion class.

After you finish the first firing, you realize the possibilities are endless. Vibrant and shiny, layered and rich, enameling opens the door to incorporating color and texture into jewelry. Sift fine powdered glass, or apply wet pack (the powder with just a tiny bit of water) on to a treated (aka sticky) surface and the process has just begun. The talented enamelist, Linnie Kendrick, who recently taught Kiln Fire Enameling Basics at Danaca Design, knows how excited students get. She has to reign in her students to keep them from “going crazy” during the first part of the class. Once the basics – working cleanly, surface preparation, kiln safety, sequencing – are understood the fun really takes off. Students experiment with layering color, stenciling designs (using anything from lace to traditional stencils), and sgraffito.* Sgraffito unleashes the delight of removing enamel before subsequent firing in the kiln to reveal underlying layers of color. Think scratch board but with metal and enamel. This one day class leaves students eager for more. Perhaps a two-day class? Enameling night, anyone?

*Sgraffito and sgraffiti come from the Italian word sgraffiare (“to scratch”), ultimately from the Greek γράφειν (gráphein) “to write”.  -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgraffito

Some truly fantastic shapes can be created with fold forming – hammering and annealing sheet metal into three-dimensional pieces. This metalsmithing technique hails from way back in the 1980s. Yes, that’s right; fold forming is only a couple of decades old. 

“Fold-forming is a technique of metalworking whereby metal is folded, repeatedly forged and annealed, and unfolded; at which stage it generally has a dramatic new three-dimensional form.” – wikipedia. 

 Think origami but with metal instead of paper. In fact, one artist, Wendy Edsall-Kerwin, has her students work out ideas using pieces of cardstock in her fold forming class.  Charles Lewton-Brain is credited with developing fold forming. The technique is considered one of a few major innovations in metalworking in thousands of years (except for the Industrial Revolution). 

Expand your repertoire and learn this technique in the upcoming class, Fantastic Fold Forming, taught by Bill Dawson February 26, 2011! 

Resources:
Fold Forming by Charles Lewton-Brain, Brynmorgen Press 2008.

http://www.brainpress.com/Foldforming.html

The Ganoskin Project http://www.ganoksin.com/

Curious about what other art jewelers are creating across the globe? Are you looking for upcoming workshops or searching for the best galleries to pursue on an international trip? The Klimt:02 Community is an online resource of international art jewelry that includes links to exhibitions, jewelers, schools, galleries, museums, workshops, and more….

I found this site to be especially helpful when doing personal research (they have an extensive list of art jewelers with images of their work) and when looking for the best art jewelry galleries to visit when traveling abroad.  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you peruse at:

http://www.klimt02.net/

here is some eye candy to get you interested:

Enjoy!