Hello everyone,

this is a very exciting week!

Holiday Party!

This year I am happy to be participating in the 23rd Contemporary Canadian Jewellery Exhibition again at Lafreniere and Pai Gallery in Ottawa. The gallery has been very supportive of my somewhat unconventional style of jewellery since I finished my program at NSCAD, and I am always excited to send them new work.
My friend Kate also helped me shoot some new photos, which are lovely! I am happy to have a photographer friend to help out. Here are the great results! Enjoy!

So in this afternoon, I started to make my own
sterling silver ingot wire. It’s a good practice and we don’t waste any metal, especially its cost has been growing higher and higher. Here are some essential equipment we need: ingot mold, oil, crucible, a pair of welding glasses and metal! Once you have all of  these, you are all set! Now, we are ready to cast. After the rod is cast, we can either roll it down through rolling mill or hammering. When it’s rolled, it will become like a square. What are we going to do? we want round not square!! It’s alright, don’t panic.
 We use draw plate to pull the wire, then it will become round eventually. We need to repeat the process for a few times in order to get our final result.

 

This is a recent custom order piece from a lovely girlfriend, Tina Lin. She has always been creating a piece of meaningful jewellery for her best sister, friend and herself. Finally, we have it worked out. I hope you will like it 🙂

  

 ChiaChien Tsai

This is my first week as a Jewel Envy jeweller–and my first blog! It has also been my first time entering a juried show. Bond which runs at Zilberschmuck from Nov. 29 to Dec. 24 had many of us in the studio exploring our own interpretation of what “bond” means to us. The results are as remarkable and varied as the artists. The pieces will be judged on Tues. Nov. 9–good luck to everyone! My own piece explores the bonds that make up the three most common molecules in the human body–water, lipids, and proteins–and the bond between this (what we are) and who we are. While I have been the lucky recipient of so much encouragement and wisdom from the other jewellers, this is the first time I have experienced it in the high energy, stressful situation of getting ready for a show. I cannot thank everyone enough–every gasp or groan seem to send someone running to help! Being in such a cooperative space is incalculably enriching and invaluable. Thank you so much.
Lianne

it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood.

Look everyone, check out our latest equipment addition – a log! That’s right I am using the blog to talk about a log.  In all seriousness though we would like to thank our neighbour at PLANT Architect for donating us such a fine specimen.  Now that all the bugs that made the log it’s home are dead and gone we will be using it as a hammering surface.  Logs are a great working surface for using dapping blocks (as pictured) or otherwise any tools that make a racket – because it will help to dampen out the noise we make while we are busy creating things.  This I am sure all our neighbours will appreciate.  It hasn’t yet found a permanent spot in the studio to call home but a few of us have already given it some loving taps with our tools.  If you didn’t notice my youtube link up at the top don’t ignore it, it’s worth the visit. – Alexis   

For what you ask? Well the holiday season starts a little early for the makers of fine gifts:o) Right now I am preparing to participate in the One of a Kind Show. This eleven day show takes place every year at Exhibition place. In order to prepare I take a full inventory of every piece I have in stock and every piece I would like to have for the show. After completing this years assessment I realized I would need to make 130 more pieces in order to be ready for the show. This may seem like overkill but having more work is better than not having enough!

It is going to be a busy month at the bench for me but I will love every minute of it!

Come visit me at the show in booth E11. I will be there for the entire show and look forward to meeting new customers and reconnecting with old ones.

One of a Kind Show

November 25th-December 5th

Gillian

  Working with different medium to create a piece of jewellery is always exciting. Resin is a great material to add colour, volume and transparency effect to your work. For my Blood Diamond Bullet piece, I added red and a little bit of black pigment to clear polyester resin to create flowing blood effect.

Rosalyn Woo, Blood Diamond Bullets, sterling silver, copper, polyester resin and synthetic stones

It was essential to make the surface of resin high polished to clearly see inside of the resin.
polishing plastic : This is a link where you can get polishing compounds for plastic. The surface of plastic should be sanded with fine sand paper before it gets polished, same as metal.

Here is another example of  jewellery using resin by Dawn Gulyas. It is great way to embed objects as well. If you are interested to learn how to make resin jewellery, we have upcoming resin classes at Jewel Envy.
Go to this link resin class

Dawn Gulyas(England), Brooch, resin and gold, 1998. (photo from ‘Resin Jewellery’ by Kathie Murphy)

Congratulations to Jenn and Steve!

The ring that Steve made for Jenn

The ring that Jenn made for Steve

A while back in March Steve and Jenn were a part of my Introductory to Casting class.  They were determined for their final project to make their own Wedding Bands.  After the first project I knew that they were both more than capable to take the leap and cast in gold.  They both carved the rings that the other would wear and they ended up with very unique and personal designs.  It was such a joy working with Jenn and Steve, they are both talented and creative and I was happy to be a part of the experience along with them.
Alexis