One of my All-Time favorite pieces!

 

Last month I had a new client couple come in to the shoppe.  They are still fairly new to the area. They had been sent to me by a personal reference. I don't believe they told me who sent them, but God bless whoever did! They brought in a piece of jewelry for repair, plus a few vintage pieces that are very nice. There also was a few pieces that they were ready to do something different with.

After a few visits, I got to know this sweet lady a little better. I found out that she is musically gifted and loves to sing. I could see the passion of this great love in her eyes.  They began to glaze over with lofty thoughts, as I believe mine do when I talk about jewelry.  She had asked me during one of her earlier visits if I had any musical pendants in the shoppe. I had a couple ordered, but none in stock at that time.

When she came in to pick up her piece  I had repaired, I pulled this sterling silver treble cleft that I had just gotten in. It was pretty, but not what

her heart truly wanted. We visited a little more then I suggested that I build her what she wanted

with a couple of the pieces she was ready to

let go of. I would use the sterling silver piece as a guide to work by. It was not to be identical, but similar. She also wanted to use one of her diamonds in the bottom part of the pendant.

She had two different colored gold pieces to work with so I suggested making the piece two-toned. That would make the piece more versatile, being able to be worn with other pieces of either color of gold.

The first thing I did after cleaning each of the pieces thoroughly was to take them apart. Then I had to find the parts that would work into what I needed it to do size wise.  After annealing the metal pieces, I bent them in the shape that I needed them to be. (Here I go again, showing parts that do not look beautiful, but I do want to share the process.)  I had thought that the round jump ring would work to hold the head for the diamond. Once I attached it,

I did not like it, so off it came immediately! I decided to bur an indention in the thicker part of the white gold to attach the head to. I like that look much better. It seems so much more protected and secure.

The bottom curve of the treble cleft, was the most challenging part. Getting everything to fit and line up was abit more detailed than it looks. Really! I had to file and indention into the white gold where the yellow gold was to lay on top of.  Once I had the indention filed, I soldered one end of the swirl to the center part of the treble cleft. Once it was clean, I used my flat end pliers to secure the yellow gold into the crevice of the white gold. Then I corrected the curve in the swirl. There very well may be proper names for the different parts of the treble cleft. I do not know.  Please excuse my ignorance if there is.

Here you see where I have attached the head for the diamond and the left part of the swirl. I finished off with the top part of the treble cleft marrying the two metals together into one piece.

I was so, excited to see the result of the marriage, that once I cleaned it in acid, I had had to finish the piece off immediately. I could not wait until the next day! I did a pre-polish on the piece before setting the diamond. Then I put a high polish on the whole piece. It turned out absolutely delightful!

I love the piece, yet the best part of it is that her     
honey was pleased with. it and commented so
kindly on it when he picked it up. I am not sure
how much of a surprise it was,  when he gave it to
her. She called me shortly after he picked it up,
She was thrilled with the results. It made my heart smile to have my craft so appreciated. This couple is good for anyone's ego.

This last picture does not do the pendant justice. The play between the two metals is like beautiful music. It flows perfectly together  making a beautiful melody of metal.

 Yes indeed I do love this piece, but what appreciate the most in all of this, is the new friendship the Lord has brought into my life.

Look what I have aquired!

I am so excited!
I am not sure what all I am going to do with them, but I am sure I will have fun doing it!

On the left are hand carved shell cameos.  They shell is carved away from the focal
leaving a raised focal. On the right are intaglios. They are carved out of stone leaving
the focal to be below the surface of the stone. So in essence, it is the reverse of a cameo.

I have personally fallen in love with the cameo of the little girl and the sheep. I keep thinking
it would be such a lovely ring and a constant reminder of my Shepherd.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my new find!

The Very First Piece of Jewelry I Ever Made

I found this picture yesterday. It is me when I was in the 6th grade. I had forgotten about this piece of jewelry. It was my mom's cross and pearls I repurposed them without permission. I think I remember thinking, They are just sitting in that old jewelry box of hers never getting any attention...so I helped myself to her goodies to make my self a goody. Hindsight says how thoughtless I was of my mom. Sorry mom, I would not do that now for anything. It also says that even at the young age of 11 my heart was to create jewelry.

Sadly I did lose it, I don't remember what I did with it, but I do remember wearing it for almost all of 6th grade, every day.

Honestly there had been quite a few clover necklaces and telephone wire rings before this necklace, but this is proof of my early exploits in jewelry design and assembly.

Anyone else make telephone wire rings?

Sweet memories...ahhhhhhh.

Recieve a 30% off Discount from Hampton House Jewelry!

All you have to do is become a follower on my(this) blog. If you already are a follower, then you automatically get the discount on fashion jewelry!

The next two weeks is going to be full of changes for Hampton House Jewelry!

Yes, I am a little fearful of what is coming, but I do believe with all my heart it is time!

You will be able to purchase online VERY VERY soon!

There will be  additional opportunities for discount through out the holidays!

Stay in touch, I will be posting new items very soon.

God Bless!

Angela

This is the small print stuff: Offer expires December 1, 2010.

I love my job!

 I have previously blogged about this ring. I have known the owner since she was about 5 years old.

She brought it into me to see if I could repair it.

This pieces needed a little more than repairing.
It needed to be restored.  The word restore makes my heart race with great delight and my eyes glaze over with the anticipation of a great challenge.

I had included this ring in a previous blog, so check it out to find the back story on it. :o)

I have spent several work hours with this ring. In addition to the repair and restoration, she wanted it sized to fit her also.

I hope that she will enjoy it for many more years to
come!

God Bless you Kayleen and your marriage!

I hope you love it! It is a beautiful ring!

I love love love my job!

My Donations!

 Each year the Sulphur Springs Symphony League has an auction in the fall of the year. It is an event that I have looked forward to for at least the last 14 years. Our little town is blessed to have them as part of who we are. They are such a large part of our Fourth of July Celebration each year on our town square. They are a partially hidden support for our students who play the stringed instruments in our local schools. I say partially, because they do not stand up and shout out what they do to benefit the students. They are like WD-40 on a squeaky door. It causes things to run so much more smoothly without even being noticed. As a parent whose children have benefited from the Symphony League, my heart is grateful. I hope to always participate in donating something special for their cause. This year I wanted to hand craft a couple of pieces that played back on the symphony theme.

For the first piece I went into one of my secret hiding places and pulled out one of my favorite things that we made in Metal Arts class at school. A piece of Mokume-Gane. Mokume translates from Japanese as "wood eye" referring to burl wood grain and gane means "metal".  Looking at the pick you can see where the name comes from.

 It took over six weeks to make this metal. We started out with 13 pieces of surgically cleaned metal. By stacking them and heating them to an extremely high heat for long hours we were able to begin the process of making this Japanese metal form, Once it reached it's inital forming temperature, we pulled it out of the kiln and used sledge hammers to pound it as flat as possible. Then we reannealed it and pounded it again. We repeated this process again and again and again. Needless to say, this was  s-l-o-w tedious work. The metal was finally 1/3 of the oringal stacked thickness. We drilled holes and graved trenches into the metal to make the pattern. Once the patterns were cut into the metal, we continued to flatten the metal by use of the rolling mill. After two passes through the mill, we had to anneal it once again. It went through the rolling mill at least 250 times that I know of.  


I do not have a lot of this metal, but I wanted to make something that would be useful and different. Sooooo I made a guitar pick with it. The odd angels on the pictures are caused by the texture I put on the finished pick so that it would not be slippery. This piece of metal is formed from sterling silver, fine silver and copper. 

The second piece is made of sterling silver. I got the idea to make this from seeing a few pieces that are similar to this. I call it "The Heart of Music". I don't really know how original that is, but I felt it needed a title.

I hand crafted the two pieces by bending sterling silver square wire. I wanted it to have a sturdy structure, that would hold the design. 

I always hesitate to post the ugly pictures. You know the ones that are not of the finished product. I hope it doesn't scare anyone off from my shoppe.  This picture was taken right after I dunked them in the boric acid for soldering purposes.

 I soldered them together and added the baille.  I used my chasing hammer to put a "hammered" finish on the pendant. It is just enough to make you want to look at it a little closer and to reflect on it a little longer.

 I had the chain in my shoppe. I chose it as it was simple and would not take away from the statement the pendant was to make.

Though these two pieces are fairly simple, I did put my heart into them and hope that whoever wins them in the auction will treasure them.

Kudos to Sulphur Springs Symphony League! Keep up the great work you are doing in our town. You make a difference for us all!

Hand Crafated 14K Baby Ring

A grandfather requested this ring be hand crafted for his highly anticipated grandaughter.

I do not know names, but I do know the importance of grandbabies and the joy they bring when they arrive. I am so delighted to be in on this little suprise.

 

This is an almost step by step look at how it was made. 

1) Measure out the metal. The ring was to be a size 3. 

 2) I wanted to put a texture on it that would last without showing great wear in the future. The completed ring fit my pinky finger. Hopefully she will be able to wear this her whole life and smile at the memories that will come with it over the years.

3) Once the hammering is done, the metal is a bit out of shape.

 Thank God for Parallel Pliers. They straighten the metal so nicely.

4)The hammering stretches the metal slightly, so it has to be remeasured.

5) Once I cut the metal to approximately the right size, I began to bend the metal into a semi round state.

Remember, I did say semi-round.




6) You manipulate the metal to meet perfectly for soldering puposes.

 














7) You coat the ring with boric acid to protect the metal from the fire. You also add flux to where you want the solder to flow to.

8) Once the ring is clean, you shape the ring in to a round shape. You do this by placing the ring on a  mandrel and and hitting it  with a leather mallet on all sides.

Nice and round!

9) Emery both sides of the ring to get any major scratches off that were made during the fabrication process.

10) Once it is shaped properly, and the first metal clean up is done, you hammer the ring where the solder joint is. The will normally strech the ring to the right size.

11) Tripoli will normally remove the remaining scratches on the ring.
 
12) Rouge makes the metal come alive! It dances with the light and shimmers only as true gold can.

Finished! Now it is ready to be shipped to the

Houston area immediately!

Congratulations on your wonderful gift of a precious grandchild!

Thank you for allowing me to make this to be treasured keepsake, that she will have her whole life. What an honor, you have given me.