lately

Lately I have been completely wearing myself out, I have been trying to get ready for a jewelry photo shoot, I even had my best friend come down from DC to model for me but the weather just wouldn't hold out so we cancelled the shoot.  Kind of sad but kind of relieved to have more time to work on my pieces, plus I haven't gotten much sleep with all of the work I have been doing lately so I wasn't looking too hot myself.  Even with the cancelled shoot it was a good weekend and I got some much needed QT with the bestie.

So much to do, so little time, so worn out. 

Here is what I was up to last week...

Early in the week I sent off a custom birthday ring I did for a friend of mine.

I wanted to etch the monogram into the ring but I have been having trouble with my etching solution so I opted for the safe route of tediously cutting out the monogram and soldering it to the surface of the ring.  In hind sight I would have only done one initial for such a small ring.

 I really like the side view, a little interest to an over all small and simple ring.

I also was scrambling to get a whole bunch of projects done...

 The 6 stone ring, after I soldered it together unaligned, and then I finally got it right...

A ring I have been working on whenever I have a little extra time here or there.  You can see here in these fuzzy pictures that the ring actually looks a little pink, well that is because I accidentally contaminated my pickle (the chemical I use to get all of the crusty stuff off after I solder- like the crusty you can see on the 6 stone ring above) with steel and that basically makes the pickle an electroplating bath and it plated my silver ring with copper- do'h!  Not a good day.

The next step in the process, you can see now that the holes are drilled in the ring that this is hollow construction.  Hollow contruction helps me save money on materials and create a bigger ring that is more wearable.  And you can still see some of that darn copper plating!

Now fitting for the tubing that I am going to set my CZs in.

 Tubing soldered in, finally!

Stones set!

And now I just have the final polishing to do- which I haven't gotten around to yet.  While I was at the Expo in NYC I got a really cool stone called a Drusy and I am in the process of making a ring that I can put that stone in, here is the work in progress...

This picture will make more sense once you see the finished product.  Maybe Wednesday.

Another busy week but I am going to make sure I plan to make a little time for myself, I hope you will do the same.