Art News, of sorts. | Issue #10

So, generally I begin writing my newsletters and blog posts a week before I send them out. The idea is that I begin to fill out some ideas and become a bit more familiar with them and then kind of write stuff down. It’s actually pretty therapeutic because I feel like I’m talking to someone else out there that IS actually interested in some of the information I am sharing.

The reason I mention this is because as I began writing this post, I was looking out the window at the first snow on the ground. Yep. The day after Candy Coma Day, as I like to call Halloween, unless I happen to be celebrating Samhain and then I just call it Samhain. Yeah. So November first and I’m looking at snow on green grass. I suppose it isn’t too bad. It’s later than many years and the grass IS still green.

Maybe I’m just not ready for it.

Questions Answered

So this week, I’m going to talk a little bit about one of the things that not everybody knows about silver.  At least, one of things that silver “does” besides make great looking jewelry.

Today’s topic is:  Silver's Antibacterial Properties.  

I mean, did you know that Silver can help prevent the spread of bacteria?

Before I get into that, I want to make it very clear that I am not a doctor, not even a witch doctor, and the information provided is only for further investigation and should not serve as the basis for any of your own personal actions.  Basically, I’m saying, I am not legally responsible for any of your actions or what you choose to do with the information I share.

There.  Now that’s out of the way…

So, where was I?  Oh, right, silver’s antibacterial properties.

So one of the cool things about silver is that it releases silver ions, as well as silver nanoparticles.  Both the ions and the nanoparticles attach to and/or pass through bacteria cell walls and can cause the cells to break down.  As we lay people would say, it disrupts bacteria reproduction and/or kills the bacteria.

If you want the full-on medical information, check out this paper published in 2020, The Antibacterial Mechanism of Silver Nanoparticles and Its Application in Dentistry found over at the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Well, that’s cool!  

What else can silver do? 

Silver, pure silver, is the best conductor of electricity of all the known elements in the periodic table.  It is also the best metallic thermal conductor in the periodic table.  The only thermal conductor better than silver is carbon in diamond form.  Yep, diamonds are better thermal conductors, though you can probably guess why they aren’t widely used for that.  (Hint: I bet everyone wishes there was more of it in their wallet!)

If you’re asking why silver isn’t used more in electrical applications (it IS widely used in printed circuits) the answer is because it tarnishes very easily which can affect the electrical conductivity properties.  Plus, it’s much more expensive than copper, and other readily available electrical conductive metals like aluminum.

There are other cool things that silver is used for besides jewelry.  We’ll circle back to some other things silver “can do” in a future newsletter/blog post.

News of late

Well, I am winning small battles every day and am making progress moving my website to the new provider I keep talking about.  I’ll just come out and say it now.  I’m moving to Shopify.  The current website provider’s website setup is just too counter intuitive for me.  As someone who spent almost 20 years building websites with HTML, CSS, Javascript, and other various scripting languages, I really want my online store to be easy and mostly effortless.  I want to be able to add things without having to think too hard about it.  I also want the option of mucking around in code to make minor tweaks as I see fit.  Shopify appears to be able to do much of what I want.

Now, you might ask why I don’t just build my own website?  Well, as it is, I spend at least 50% of my time doing stuff for my business that has little to do with actually making jewelry that I can sell, so I really look for ways to claw back time to use making stuff.  When people buy my jewelry, the majority of the cost is the time it took for me to make it.  All that other time I spend doing “business stuff” doesn’t really get added into the price you pay, at least, not at this point in time.

Another bit of news that I’m feeling very optimistic about is that the group of people who went through the JumpStart program at Generator VT in Burlington, VT last spring started to meet again after a short hiatus.  It’s really great to have a group of fun, open minded, intelligent people who support each other to hang out occasionally and bounce ideas off of.  The idea is that we state goals for our next meeting as a way to hold each other accountable.  It’s really helpful and it causes me to set goals that are achievable.

In the Works

What am I working on right now?  

That’s a good question.  I’ve been feeling like I’m going through some sort of odd time warp.  I have this huge list of things (don’t we all?) that I never seem to have enough time to actually tackle.  Every now and then, I take a look at the list and erase or de-prioritize stuff.  I think I might want to start looking at everything I do get done and pat myself on the back at the end of each week because I know I do stuff in life.  I just don’t always give myself credit for it.

On my list this week:

• Carve and cast two new rune amulets.  (If this looks familiar, it could be.  It seems to be one of the things that gets pushed back)

• Taking more photos
• I really want to take more photos to share with everyone.  
• I would LOVE to take more photos of things in progress as I’m working on them.  This can be challenging though as it seems to interrupt my work flow dramatically and so usually what I do is take a picture at the end of a given stage instead.

• Slowly, people are coming forward with enthusiasm for my work and asking for new pieces to replace something I made 20+ years ago that has been lost to the march of time.  It’s exciting and encouraging and it fuels my passion to create new jewelry.
• What’s the item here?  Reach out more on social media to new and old friends alike.  

See you next time,

Justin