Modern Heirloom® Fine Jewelry

As the holidays pass us by, I find myself looking forward to the new year and all it has to bring. 2012 has been an inspired year of creativity and personal artistic growth. The jewelry making world is such a fascinating community. In the past, we all existed in our various jewelry crafting bubbles too busy to venture out to connect with fellow jewelers. This often would leave me feeling disconnected from the jewelry community in which I work and slightly isolated by my craft. My favorite change over the course of this year has been the dynamic social networking has brought to the jewelry making table. It has been an amazing evolution to now connect daily with like creative minds and to show our creations to our collectors as well. The sharing of stories and techiniques bond us as we create our treasures . I have now managed to meet many of the greatest talents in each specialty within the jewelry and metalsmithing field from all over the world.It'sexciting to be a pa

I read an article in JCK which got me thinking...as I felt inspired to comment there I wanted to share my response with you all here as well.The article discussed how new technology is making it easier and easier to copy a design and reproduce it....here are a few of my thoughts on the challenge this presents us designers...;-) Of course, I agree that there is no replacing a good finish and technique but too often I am afraid the value of the earliest moments of conception can be dramatically overlooked. The price tag wins out with the majority of people and they don't even think of a knock off as "copyright" infringement ... This was proven to me recently at our custom jewelry shop ...I was speaking with a writer who had visited and I noticed the ring she was wearing as the design was recognizable. I asked if she got it from the jeweler I knew it from. She said she took their ad to a jeweler in Ny and had the design copied... Later in her visit, I was giving her demons

I recently read an article posted on JCK's site on 3d printing and copyright infringement ... I felt inspired to comment and wanted to share that comment here ... ;-)

A good friend and talented artist brought up a challenge tonight she and I obviously share... The challenge of worry. I can absolutely relate. Good or bad... I worry. I'm not sure why but it seems the older I have become , the more this has begun to be a constant part of my life. Bizarrely, It seems that the more successful we have become, the more I worry. This strange place I am in now (having my business shut down by the storm) has been an odd form of momentary relief. I think maybe because for once in a long time, I had no choice. I have been sent to a place of merely reacting . I didn't have the typical ability to think and choose this moment. It was out of my hands and in the beginning that totally FREAKED me out. When we were younger in our Oregon studio days, we just went with the flow. I never lost sleep over life and decisions. I seem to be more like that with this storm and our recovery from it at least during my strongest moments. I am appreciating little moments o

Exactly one month has past since the day I pulled out of town on an evacuation route to avoid the path of Hurricane Irene. Completely for the amusement of a "hurrication" as I had dubbed the trip to Asheboro , NC. I have grown up in the path of many a storm and have never untill now been touched by one truly.      The phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet. Near the end of it's life it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again.... Which is precisely what we plan to do. This month has been a surreal path. From an adventure to escape a storm I never thought would hurt, to the reality of our studio and gallery's momentary destruction a day later. I was reminded of the days we bagan in this little old farmhouse as I walked into our flooded gallery. Fourteen years of renovating and b

Latest Inspired Design Do you know what is so truly fascinating about our internet driven world? The fact that a person like myself can start my Sunday chatting with masterful artists around the world via video and watch them work. Our meeting ground.... Steve Lindsey's Engraving Forum . It is an excellent forum of the world's engraving talent and an excellent place for a budding engraver like myself to pick up tips and tricks from the world's best. I signed up for an observation opportunity observe the engraving of a side plate by  Roland Baptiste Engraveur. This is the Side plate I am observing Roland Baptiste engraving Literally,I get to look at Roland's graver block as he engraves. Observation and practise are after all two of the most important things when mastering engraving.      As I observed his work , I chatted with another engraver/jeweler in Belgium and an engraver in London. To  be able to connect with artists in my field all over the world is a

 For the past couple of days, we have paused the creating for a moment to enter into an amazing phase of reorganizing our studio. As I mentioned a few posts back , it is crazy how many bits and pieces that collect in a goldsmithing shop after thirteen years of making things there. Time for a deep clean. I didn't want this pause in creating to pause my blog writing so I will give you a tour of our newly organized studio and introduce you to some of our favorite tools. Enjoy the tour! This is our Studio assistant ,Jimmie Lee and he is siked on his newly organized desk ...Now he is ready for the challenges we will be throwing his way..... "One more thing"as I like to say.  Although I prefer Hand Engraving  occasionally the job and budget call for a Machine. That is when we turn to our Signature Engraver ... My Favorite Bench because my  grandfather sat at it for 50 years, he was a watchmaker and I love the feeling of this bench. This is our CAD