Author: Jewel Envy

Spring is here again!

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Hello Sunday Readers,
 
After
work on Thursday at the stop light of Bloor and Dufferin I saw a group
of boys playing soccer, they were wearing shorts and T-shirts. It was 6
pm; only one thing came to my mind; Spring is here at last! Even if the day was gloomy and cold there was something inside every
one of us that felt different, the incredible feeling of blue skies,
sunny days, picnics in the park, kids on the streets.
If this country were warm all year around, we will be in heaven!
Spring
is the most important season of all,  the people smile again,
the music is loud, the ice cream’s stores are open, the kids run in the
parks, the lights are bright. Life is back again with
all its force!
Welcome to outdoors, to fun, family and friends, to relive again after months trying hard to keep going.
I hope Spring means even more to you all.

 

 

Jewel Envy and its team wish you a beautiful Spring!
Come to visit us at Jewel Envy, we can make your Spring even brighter!
 
Have a nice Sunday
 
Helena

Spring, the perfect earring season

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Spring is the prefect time of year to bust out those large pair of earrings you have been dying to wear without having to contend with a scarf – we’re almost there. In preparation you can check out some earrings available here at Jewel Envy or get in touch with us to start a custom pair. There’s a link to each goldsmith’s website or instagram – if their style strikes your fancy be sure to check out the link under each picture to see MORE! of their work – Alexis

MORE!

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Spring jewellery cleaning

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It may have just snowed last night, but the longer daylight hours and sense that spring is around the corner has kicked my need to spring clean into gear. I started making lists of things that I can get done before I start my work day, things to do after work, and then things to tackle on a day off. Cleaning jewellery is on my before work task list and my go to for tackling jewellery cleaning is a jewellery cloth. If you are in need of a product to help get some cleaning done yourself, pictured below is a few items that we carry.

In addition to the clothes and liquid cleaners we offer cleaning and polishing services and often let our customers know the best way to care for pieces of jewellery when they’re picking up something that has been repaired, redesigned or custom made by us in the studio. If you have a jewellery cleaning question please drop in to ask us some questions! – Alexis 



My go to cloth for easy at home cleaning with a quick rub. Great for daily touch ups before putting a piece of jewellery on.






For heavier duty cleaning this cloth is embedded with buffing compound (the red section) to clean heavily tarnished pieces. This is an occasional deep clean and buff that adds back some shine to pieces.






Liquid cleaners are really great for items such as chain which can be a bit tedious to clean using a cloth.












After everything is clean these strips are a great addition to a jewellery box or even a plastic baggy to put away jewellery next to. This will help to prevent tarnish so you don’t have to clean pieces as often.

Piercings and Fine Jewellery

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This topic is a serendipitous one for me, as previous experience as a piercer at a tattoo parlor and my current work as a goldsmith bring together an answer for something that many people may wonder about.

What is a piercing?

In basic terms, a piercing is a small hole made to fit a ring, stud or another kind of jewellery in a part of the body other than the ear lobes. The most important point is that piercings are essentially open wounds, and like any other type of wound, should be handled safely and carefully to avoid infections and other type of problems.


So, is it safe to use fine jewellery on a body piercing?

It’s difficult to answer this question, it all depends on the metals. For example, copper is present in most silver alloys, and it may cause adverse reactions on the body; it also tarnishes and it oxidizes releasing some harmful chemicals in very small quantities, still something you don’t want on an open wound.

Other metal present on fine metal alloys that may cause reactions is Nickel, mostly present in gold alloys, Nickel causes adverse reaction to many people even in small quantities, irritation and can even change the color of the skin around the piece.

Other factors that might influence are the part of the body the piercing is, moisture will make worse any allergic reaction and infection, places like nose, mouth and genitals, also they are highly prone to infections.

In conclusion, for my experience in both fields, my recommendation will be not to use any fine jewellery piercings, look for surgical grade and hypoallergenic metals and leave gold and silver for rings and necklaces, out of reach from any open wound.

I’m leaving some interesting articles detailing more the information:

https://www.liveabout.com/best-body-jewelry-for-your-new-body-piercings-2042483
https://blog.rings-things.com/2013/06/03/surgical-steel-and-hypoallergenic-metals/
https://www.beautips.info/nose-piercings-important-things-to-know/

I hope you find this little tip informative and keep posted for more information,

Mauricio.

 

Spring is almost here and brings gemstones and more with it!

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We are more than prepared to say goodbye to the winter and welcome a warmer season full of plants and animals, but that’s not all for us here at the studio; Spring is bringing us new Goldsmiths, new awesome gemstone events (more on that will be addressed on the monthly email) and new classes.

New jewelers will be joining our family soon, and  we cant wait to have their work available on the store for you.

There are also plenty of events to come, but those will be unveiled when the time is right, so I will not ruin the surprise. 
Last but not least, our gemstone setting course is running and personally has me excited, after months and months of planning, sketching, writing and thinking, the course has a starting date and will be running, if you ever wanted to learn about gem setting, this is your opportunity. The course will require previous experience with jewellery, but good news, you can take fabrication courses here at the studio and be ready to take the course. go to https://jewelenvy.ca or give us a call at the studio to learn more about the courses.

That is it for now,

Mauricio

Lapidary equipment

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Holy bananas batman, we have been bringing in some exciting equipment to add to our repertoire at Jewel Envy. I couldn’t hold back my excitement for our latest addition:


Lapidary equipment!!!

  
We can now play around with gem cutting. Instead of jumping back into completing work I had on my docket I decided to scrounge up some amethysts and smokey quartz crystals to play around with.

All the amethysts are sitting upright on the flat surface I created and I am holding the smokey quartz crystal to show the grinded flat surface along with a hole I drilled into the crystal.

I love the of natural crystals and cannot wait to play around with a few more in my stash to make adjustments so I can more easily set them into jewellery pieces. The reason I am so excited to have this equipment to grind and polish gems into unique shapes that will make any custom piece of jewellery that I create even more unique! – Alexis

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From the ends of the Earth….to Toronto!

People everywhere simply swoon at the sight of a gorgeous gemstone. It would be difficult to deny the beauty and seeming magic involved as the Earth works tirelessly to continuously create these sparkly gems that awe. From the earth, moon, ocean and beyond – these specimens come in all shapes, colours, sizes and rarity. Some we use to adorn ourselves in jewellery, and some we simply marvel at!

In fact, you can see for yourself! Our very own Royal Ontario Museum ‘Earth’s Treasures’ Gallery currently showcases exceptional gems from all over the world – including a 900 karat diamond from Namibia and a wide collection of lunar and martian meteorites, just to name a couple. 🙂

If you are in the mood to see what has us Goldsmiths at Jewel Envy always excited and to see what Mother Nature is REALLY made of, make your way to the gallery and be sure to snap and share some pics with hashtag #jewelenvy #ROM- we want to see what WOW’d you!

900 karat diamond
Giant amethyst 
 

Link: https://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/galleries/natural-history/teck-suite-galleries-earths-treasures

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Warm Regards, Jess

Jewel Envy my favorite piece of “equipment”

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Hello Sunday Readers,
There are many things in our daily life at
work, that make it extraordinary! These things are extraordinary, because we get
from them all we need to keep going, going with our lives, be proud of that we
do, enjoy what we have done and what we could accomplish!
These things at work are very different for
every one of us, but not less important! I can start with the facade of the big
blue house where it’s the studio, it’s a gorgeous house in the Polish neighborhood,
at Roncesvilles, with big windows, light is so important to me, I came from a country that
shines, and its light goes with me wherever I go, it’s at work! It’s at the
studio, I feel so fortunate every time I open the door, it’s the start of new day, another good and challenge day full of light!
 

Jewel Envy, The Blue House

My bench is big,  its location is the best, no one is behind
me, I have 360 degrees view of the floor and the incredible people on it. My
locker is one of the most important tools I have, it’s full of almost everything
that makes my work an adventure every day, I know every piece by heart, it can
be a heavy mandrel or a tiny drill, they all together make my work possible and
unique.

 

The Studio at Jewel Envy

We have so many tools like the rolling mill
machine, the casting machine, the ultrasound and many more that we share every
day. We have an incredible room call The Crystal Palace, in there we get together with our costumers to discuss new designs! 
The Crystal Palace

It’s difficult to talk about all we have at the studio, the whole thing is the secret of what I love
to do and it’s  makes my work life so amazing!
You can join us at Jewel Envy from Tuesday
to Sunday to have a look at this incredible place, the unique jewelry pieces
and the goldsmiths that can make all yours dreams come true!
Have a nice Sunday!
Helena

Introducing Robin!

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Hi! 
I’m Robin, of House of Cassady. I’m the newest resident goldsmith to
join the studio, and am so excited to have joined such a creative, vibrant and
friendly environment.  I have newly
returned to Toronto (my home town!), after spending 18 years in the United
Kingdom, which is where I did most of my training in goldsmithing. 

I have been making jewellery for about 15
years, and have made a number of commissions for people (some of which are
pictured below).

A
client’s piece of raw amber, that they wanted to have made into a pendant, so I
made a sterling silver crocheted cage for it.

 

Sterling
silver riveted cufflinks with a scratch finish and oxidised recess

Sterling
silver and 9ct rose gold with opal triplets and round faceted sapphires made
for a client on the Isle of Harris in the outer Hebrides of Scotland-inspired
by the beaches and seaweed when I visited about two years ago.

 I spent a number of years exploring
different techniques and getting to know the kind of style I most enjoy, with
most of my inspiration coming from the world around me in nature, and
science.  I love more organic shapes,
texture and colour, and try to mix these elements up in my different pieces.

If you pop into the store sometime soon,
you’ll be able to see my inaugural collection, inspired by immune cells (which
I used to work on).  The original ideas
for some of these pieces (pictured below) came from an initiative to blend
science and art, a collaboration between the Edinburgh University and the
Edinburgh College of Art (where I was living and working at the time in
Scotland). 
 

Sterling silver asymmetric earrings in an
oxidised finish with 
needle felted insert.

Delicate
sterling silver roller printed hollow domes, in varying finishes on delicate
silver bead effect chains

 Sadly, the initiative never
quite got off the ground. However, the germ of an idea was born, and has
culminated in a whole range of shapes that I use as base components.  The components underlie the unique, sterling
silver contemporary pieces I have been making, incorporating gemstones, and
needle felt.

Hand Cut Gemstones

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Lately, and coincidentally, I’ve had a lot of consultations about crooked settings, and I will dare to say in 90% of the cases, the setting is completely fine, and the “crookedness” comes from an uneven gemstone so I decided to write a bit about this not so big issue.

Gemstones can be cut in a variety of ways, with machines or by hand without or with the assistance of a machine, the later being the most common, this helps the lapidary (the gemstone cutter) have a lot of control on the cut, facets, color, and general shape. The human machine is incredible, but total precision is impossible, specially without the assistance of machinery. most gemstones are soft enough to be cut by hand, and will have slight imperfections on the cut (the crookedness most of my clients complain about).

In most cases, I advice to keep the stone as it is, nature is imperfect, and in gemstones, that imperfection just shows how special that gemstone was that someone took the time to work on it with their hands just for you. but if the sentimental route doesn’t work, you can always unset the stone and send it to a lapidary to be cut again, just keep in mind it will cost you.

 If you’re curious, this video will show you basics and examples of hand cutting gemstones. (Credit for the video goes to the Lawson Gems channel on YouTube)

This video is will show you step by step how gemstones are cut if you’re interested on the whole process with a machine. (Credit for the video goes to the Vintage Time channel on YouTube)

I hope this will help some of you, but you are always welcome to come to the studio and seek the assistance of an expert.

Wonderful Saturday for all!

Mauricio.

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