How I make jewelry, Part I

A conversation with a friend recently made me realize that most people really have no idea what it is I do.  We live in the world of Claire's, where mass-produced jewelry is popped together by machines and sold for cheap.  Creating jewelry from scratch is hard to conceive of.  So, through a series of posts on here over the next couple of months, I'm going to show you how I do it.

First, I can't create jewelry from SCRATCH scratch.  I don't know how to cut my own stones (lapidary), and I don't make my own metal sheet.  To do that, I would have to have the capability to melt down scrap silver and gold.  Lots of metalsmiths do that, but I don't have the room or inclination right now.

So that means I need to buy stones and metal.  First I'll tell you about metal -- 'cuz let's face it, stones are the fun part.  I'm making you wait for it!  But metal can be interesting, especially with today's market.  The prices for silver and gold are insane.  When I first started beading back in college 20 years ago, you could get sterling silver for $7 an ounce.  As of 10:47 a.m. today, silver was selling at $30 an ounce.  At one point last year, I had to pay $42 an ounce.  So buying metal can be a game.  Sometimes I have to buy it based on necessity, but I try hard to buy based on price.

I don't buy bezel forms or metal already cut into shapes.  I just buy sheets of metal and rolls of wire.  There are a number of places you can shop for these things, but I prefer a jewelry-supply company called Rio Grande.  They're one of the biggies in the industry for tools and materials.  You can decide what thickness of metal you want at certain quantities.  I get sheet metal and regular wire in sterling silver, which is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals.  They also sell bezel wire, which is fine silver -- 99% silver, meaning it's easier to bend.  A bezel is the metal that's wrapped around a stone and slightly bent over the stone to keep it in place, so more malleable metal is a must.  Those are the metal components I use to make the settings for my pieces ... more on that in another post.

Now the fun part: shopping for stones.  You used to have to know a dealer in New York or go to a gem show to get good stones.  I still like to see stones in person at a stone show.  However, buying stones off the Internet is the easiest, quickest way to shop.  There are a ton of online lapidaries, but I like to buy a lot of my stones from fellow shop owners on Etsy.  Hand-cut stones are gorgeous -- you can tell the lapidary has put thought into how to cut the stone for maximum drama.  Here's a good example of that, from one of the Esty shops I like, Lapidarious:

That's an ocean jasper.  The crystal formations on the left side are called druzy.  Barney, the guy who runs Lapidarious, had to find that druzy in the rough jasper and then plot how to best cut it to leave the druzy intact and yet also play up the drama of it.  This stone blows my mind.  It's expensive, of course, so unfortunately it's not getting to come live with me.

You have to know your stones to buy online.  It's easy to be taken by dishonest sellers who dye stones or show you a picture of turquoise but then send you pressed chalk.  Luckily, I'm a lifelong rock hound, plus generally suspicious.  I've had good luck so far as a result.  You have to treat the online lapidaries like any online business -- do your research and make sure they're legit.

I've been buying stones long enough now that I have working relationships with a few lapidaries I really like.  Sometimes I go shopping for a specific stone I need or want, but usually I just troll my favorite shops to see if they have any stones that catch my eye.  After I get the stone, I then design the piece of jewelry, letting the stone dictate my ideas and sketches.  When I come up with a sketch I like, then I bust out my metal and tools and get to work making it a reality.

Here are some purchases I made yesterday.  I think the round green amazonite pair, top right, is stunning.  The stones are small -- 12 mm across -- so they'll be perfect for some lightweight earrings.  At middle right, the inclusions at the top of the saber tooth-shaped variscite has given me an idea for a design, but I need to see it in person to see if it'll work.  And that skull carved out of picture jasper -- woo!  I already know what I'm going to do with it, because I've bought some of these skulls from Saxdsign in the past.  You'll see them up in my store in the fall.

So that's the very beginning of what I do.  I'm finishing up a couple of pieces of jewelry right now.  But I should be starting on a new necklace soon.  When I do, I'll take pictures as I work, so you can see the process.  At the very least, it's kinda interesting.  But I'm hoping it'll show the intricacies of what we metalsmiths do, giving you an appreciation for what goes into handmade jewelry.  Some people do make jewelry out of pre-formed metal and bezel cups and perfectly shaped stones, and there's nothing wrong with that.  I own $10 earrings from Target.  But I also own a lot of handmade jewelry made by some very talented men and women, and those pieces are the ones that are loved and will get handed down to my daughter.  I hope my jewelry will be thought of that way, too.