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DESCRIPTION=Vickie Hallmark jewelry design: a chronicle of my studio endeavors. All content and images copyright 2014 by Vickie Hallmark;
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vickie hallmark jewelry design vickie hallmark skip to main skip to sidebar pages blog home website tuesday june 17 2014 blog location changed please update your feeds you might have noticed a dearth of blog postings lately along with jewelry making and filling orders this spring i ve been working slowly on my website as well as of today my blog is moving from blogger over to wordpress so that it can live directly on my own website instead of relying on a redirect 2014 vickie hallmark argentium sterling silver and amethyst if you re a regular or even occasional reader please update your feeds while visiting vickie hallmark jewelry blog this has been more work than expected but i hope to make things easier in the future and have more time to show you what s on the bench at 10 02 am saturday may 03 2014 the birds and the bees perhaps it was inevitable a bee joined the tiny birds and flora headed for the kiln fine silver components headed to the kiln at 8 21 am thursday may 01 2014 experimenting with art prints it s been ages since i worked in my bird journal which is still available in my etsy shop i thought i d revisit offering prints for the wall sing 2010 vickie hallmark watercolor acrylic ink collage on paper so today i uploaded the back cover one of my favorite pages to a print on demand site to make an art print available for only 22 matted and framed versions are also available as well as smaller greeting cards you can read about my process for making the journal here see the full set of images on my website at 9 41 am labels bird journal tuesday april 15 2014 7 leaf cuff in progress the most popular item on my display during both wholesale shows earlier this year was the 7 leaf cuff shown below i thought it might be interesting to show how this bracelet is made 7 leaf cuff vickie hallmark the right and left curving leaf master models were made by hand in sterling silver metal clay with my signature leaf vine texture after firing in the kiln in two different stages as high as 1500ºf the pieces are reduced to sterling silver after polishing to provide the best surface they are soldered to metal attachment rods called sprues and then molded with heat curing rubber the rubber molds are cut open along the edges to remove the masters and then wax is injected into the molds repeatedly 7 leaf cuff components these wax copies are attached to a center wax sprue to form a tree of waxes which is then molded itself in silica based investment like hard plaster after burning out the wax in a hot kiln argentium silver is melted in a crucible at the center of a centrifugal casting machine the mold is place at the end of a long arm spring wound to spin freely when the metal is melted the crucible is pushed up against the opening to the mold and the spring is released to force the metal into the void in the mold after cooling removing the investment cutting the pieces apart and minor polishing the pieces are ready to assemble as shown above 7 leaf cuff fused flat each leaf is dipped into flux carefully positioned with its neighbors in a long line and then each joint is fused together without any solder the bracelet is ready to form around a mandrel and heat harden a specialty feature of argentium to maximize its strength before it is polished and patinated to bring out the texture at 3 08 pm labels bracelet thursday april 10 2014 studio organization the order board as i increase my production for galleries i m working on new systems in the studio to keep me organized this is mostly a trial and error process i tried compiling all the orders for a certain time period into a single list at first handwritten and then input to a word document with photos to make it visual that at least gave me a total count when i was making a particular item i tried printing it out and checking off items as i completed them it was functional but i decided that i craved some more tangible measure of progress order board first day one of the home design blogs the i read young house love had a recent post on a magnetic dry erase board for organizing their home projects and blog posts i realized that a version of their board might work nicely for my purposes i decided to forgo their fancy customized board and just pick up something that would work this combination of black magnetic chalk board with white dry erase magnet strips is the result order board second day my jewelry products names are written in permanent black marker and then i use neon dry erase markers to indicate the number needed and stone color if applicable leaf studs in pink garnet or green peridot for example for now i m moving items from the right side of the board in process or yet to be started to the left side as i complete them the change above is from one day to the next in my progress on shipments for delivery before mother s day i don t move the tags until the piece is bagged and ready to ship so one day s progress on the board may just mean that a bunch of multi day projects completed at once even so it sure feels good to walk over and move the tags it s a bit like getting that gold star on a paper back in grade school now i m thinking a few more boards for other projects might be in order shipments purchases at 10 19 am labels studio monday march 10 2014 gold and blackened silver jewelry as i play more and more with black oxidized silver i ve found myself craving gold for years i ve collected images of jewelry from artists that i admire which features the pop of bright gold with black it s one of my favorite color combos so i finally dove in i ordered a single ounce of fine gold casting grain to combine with some unused 14k gold rings from the jewelry box to combine for 22k casting from this investment i have a collection of birds flowers and leaves to try out in some new jewelry goldfinch earrings 2014 vickie hallmark argentium sterling silver 22k gold here are the first few things i tried first a simple pair of earrings with birds in the treetops obviously goldfinches i ve learned that i need to redo my models and molds as these gold birds are much thicker and more expensive than they need to be goldleaf earrings 2014 vickie hallmark 22k and 18k gold and i also made a pair of plain gold leaf studs where i added 18k gold posts and nuts my first time to solder gold which went smoothly at 10 11 am labels earrings gold friday march 07 2014 vickie hallmark jewelry online shop test run i m finally giving priority to getting the online shop up and running rather than continuing to handle purchase inquiries one by one the test shop is open although not linked seamlessly yet and not perfectly matched in appearance so far only the affordable flock collection from my jewelry line appears there i ll be adding more just as soon as i can i have it set up so that clicking on any individual image takes you to the shop page for that item please drop in to see the new shop and let me know what you think at 11 53 am labels shop older posts home subscribe to posts atom contact form name email message my website newsletter signup studio news vickie hallmark promote your page too visit crafthaus subscribe to posts atom posts all comments atom all comments vickie hallmark artist scientist and gardener i fabricate contemporary jewelry inspired by the flora and fauna outside my studio windows view my complete profile jewelry gallery electroforming tutorial glass gallery quilt gallery journal gallery follow this blog favorite blogs metal kate mckinnon see you soon 3 years ago tonya davidson ventilation info hacks for metalsmiths 6 years ago wanaree tanner new stacking crown ring video and metal clay rings comprehensive sizing guide 6 years ago all things metal clay new resource how to outline your course 6 years ago hadar jacobson compatibility of hadar s metal clays 7 years ago gail lannum bead and button 2018 8 years ago lora hart diy sales 9 years ago cristina leonard thankful 9 years ago angela b crispin formation certifiante art clay 2 olga f 10 years ago janet alexander annealling silver or copper sheet 10 years ago celie fago triangular pendant story 10 years ago catherine davies paetz artcraft time again 10 years ago jennifer kahn not really bloggin but i am instagrammin 10 years ago catherine witherell what inspires me and possibly an explanation or two about why the march 2015 topic of the blog o sphere think tank 11 years ago lorena angulo getting ready for acc baltimore 11 years ago aja vaz the big move 12 years ago lorrene davis 12 years ago sue mcnenly more rings enough already 17 years ago favorite blogs glass favorite blogs fiber favorite blogs inspiration search this blog categories argentium metal clay 15 beads 141 bells 1 bird 12 bird a week 20 bird hournal 1 bird journal 45 birdhouse 9 birds 101 blog carnival 5 blog website 11 books 3 bracelet 4 bronze clay 34 brooch 2 brooches 4 cactus 6 class 10 components 3 conference 4 copper clay 2 custom jewelry 1 designing jewelry 15 drawings 38 earrings 35 electroforming 49 enamel 46 exhibitions 18 fauna 10 faux bone 4 fiber 1 flora 8 four a month 3 galleries 6 garden 4 glass 78 gold 1 inspiration 54 jewelry 17 jewelry school 12 journal 7 kiln 1 kitchen 15 labels 1 leaf collection 1 leaves 1 marketing 2 master muses 15 metal clay 83 motivation 2 painting 2 paintings 24 patina 1 photographs 16 planets 3 pods 8 publications 36 quilts 22 resin 4 ring a week 11 rings 11 routine 1 shop 1 show reviews 3 silver clay 56 sketches 1 sterling clay 23 stock tank pond 1 stones 2 studio 14 tibial plateau fracture 10 tools 1 trade shows 1 travel 18 treeto 1 treetop 4 trends 1 tricks tips 1 tutorial 1 vessels 15 wholesale 2 workshop 26 blog archive blog archive june 1 may 2 april 2 march 2 february 2 january 1 december 2 november 2 october 2 september 2 august 2 july 6 june 12 may 12 april 3 march 2 february 5 january 2 december 4 november 4 october 5 september 4 august 5 july 16 june 8 may 13 april 10 march 10 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