Going to Tucson

Here are two more rings I have made. You can't see the front of the ring in my hand...it is a pearl...but I wanted you to see the textured metal on the back of the ring. I really like it!! The ring on the stand is my glass bead cabochon set in silver.

I leave this week for my annual pilgrimage to the Tucson Gem Show. I have written about this before, but just in case, I will tell you again about how great a trip it is. I am buying stones, pearls and other "consumable" parts of my jewelry that I don't make myself.

There are a billion vendors at Tucson from all parts of the world. Half of China comes. Lots of people from India. It is very exciting. I shop for 8 hours a day, looking for the unusual, the extremely beautiful, and the great buy. This is why some of my work is so well priced....I am such a good shopper!!!

I learned a lesson in the 90's when I made my second trip to Tucson. I saw a strand of beautiful big round jasper beads; so big that they certainly weren't fashionable at the time, but the stone quality was absolutely amazing. They were a good price too, but I wasn't in the market for them . A few hours later, I saw the exact same strands in a different vendor's booth, for over three times the cost of the first!! They were so beautiful that the second vendor knew he could get a lot more money for them . I think I went back and bought them from the first vendor at that point!

Bad Blogger

I have not been blogging lately. I am existing at a slower pace than life during the show season ( which is most of life for me) and this slow pace feels lazy although I am still working. I have forgotten about things that I do constantly during most of the year, like production, and I am "getting" to do things I don't do most of the year, like polishing up my rusty silversmithing skills. I procrastinate doing the silver work, but once I get started, and accept the dreaded learning curve ( you know that curve, where you make a lot of crappy stuff until you get over the hump!) I really enjoy the work. So I am posting some pictures of the rings and things I have been doing. The photo to the right is a ring in progress that I was thinking about turning into a pendant on these pearls. It isn't done yet, but I think it will turn out to be a ring.

The "hump" ring, figuratively and literally, is the copper and silver ring. What a monstrosity!! But I am showing you all right now, but don't expect to see this ring, or it's relatives at a show this year. The photo of it will show up at the right of this post.

Working

I am making it to the studio everyday. I have spent hours putting things in their place, sweeping and cleaning. I am a few weeks behind in my production schedule. Christmas too more time than I thought it would, but then again, that was probably more fault with the schedule than with the holiday.
None the less, I am working, and I started the silver fabrication I have been talking about for 6 months. I knew I would procrastinate on this. There is a big learning curve with silver work, and it isn't pretty. At the cost of silver these days, it is not pretty and not cheap! So I fumbled around for a few days, burned up some silver and some time. I solved my problems, and I am happy to say that yesterday I make 2 1/2 rings!! They are pretty simple, but at least I am going on them and warming up the old skill sets.
Right now I am waiting on a kilnload to cool down, so I think I'll go out and see whats happening. I will post some pictures of rings when I get a nice grouping.