Photo by P S (ponk35) : pixabay.com/users/ponk35-20114390
Wow! I can’t believe how time flies!
I’ve been crazy busy in life. There never seems to be enough time to take care of things and make money to pay for it. I know that I’m not alone in this. Sometimes I think I should just start coaching other people and helping them figure out how to manage their life. It would certainly remove the need to make products from my life equation. Plus, I like it when I’m able to help people be more positive and upbeat about the life obstacles that crop up in ALL our lives.
Anyway, Autumn appears to be in full swing here in Vermont, and between the cider and the cider donuts, life is pretty good. There are lots of spots with some very brightly colored leaves this year and it really makes me smile.
Questions Answered
This week, I don’t have a specific question from anyone so I’m going to talk a little bit about Mokume-gane. Mocha frappuccino, what?! No, mokume-gane.
Mokume-gane is Japanese for “wood grained metal.”
It’s a fabulous metalworking technique (see this newsletter photo) which layers various “fine” metals together in order to create a pattern that resembles wood grain. It’s fun to play around with if you have the right equipment in your studio. Unfortunately, I do not and as it can take years to master, it isn’t something I will spend time making unless I do it as part of a professional workshop. All is not lost, however, as if I want to make something with it I can buy sheets of mokume-gane from studios that specialize in producing it and then use it to make jewelry. It IS expensive though. Some of the less expensive sheets run about $22 per square inch for sheet metal that is approximately 1 millimeter thick. That’s the cheap stuff. If you start to look at layers of gold and silver, or other metals such as palladium, you can quickly get into the $100s per square inch.
So, how is it made?
It begins by layering fine (aka precious) metals and then heating them in a forge until they fuse together. So not quite “metly” but hot enough that they fuse together. Then the metal is shaped, flattened, twisted, and folded while still hot or hot forged. Something that is a bit more akin to blacksmithing than many of the techniques I’m familiar with, which all involve cold forging. Cold forging involves hammering and shaping the metal at room temperature, then heating it to annealing stage and cooling it again so that the metal can continue to be worked. (Note: annealing is heating the metal so that the crystalline structure of the metal becomes more flexible as opposed to brittle.)
This whole process is done multiple times, over and over, to create a bar or rod of metal that can then be sliced off to reveal the pattern of all the layering and forging. These slices are then used, often rolled out or cold forged, to create beautiful pieces with a wood grain appearance. Everything from knife handles to earrings.
If you want more detail about mokume-gane, I highly recommend the Wikipedia entry on the matter as a good starting point.
It’s pretty amazing and at some point in the future, I’ll probably buy some to make a few very specific pieces of jewelry, or maybe incorporate the wood grain look of it into some of my other pieces.
News of late
So when I first started writing this newsletter, last week, we were having a wild wacky weather week (the first week of October) and it was blue skies and in the 80s! This second week now feels much more like fall. Cloudier, 50 degrees, and the house isn’t warming up during the day. I don’t have a problem with sweaters, but I also don’t need to be wearing a parka indoors. So as much as I hate to use the furnace if I don’t really have to, I turned it on this morning to heat up the house to a whopping 67.
Don’t worry, I’ll still require that sweater.
So two great pieces of news related to my Studio Lead Work at Generator in Burlington:
- I started helping someone make some earrings out of beer cans. Yep, you read that right, beer cans.
- I took a First Aid course through Generator VT yesterday instead of having the open studio so that I am better prepared should something disastrous happen in the jewelry studio there. So now I’m certified in first aid for two years
In the Works
So I actually feel pretty optimistic about things right now. Although there seems to be no end to the hectic nature of my life (or at least how I perceive it to be) I do have a few things happening right now.
I am repairing a sentimental necklace for a friend (I don’t usually take on repairs for jewelry I haven’t made – it can turn into a disaster.) I just ordered some replacement beads, hoping that they match. I use calipers to measure and all, but sometimes it can be hard to find an exact match of anything.
There is a bit of anticipation waiting for some silver oxidizer to arrive as the Liver of Sulfur I had on hand was degraded to the point of being unusable. I was going to have the pendant I was hired to make complete and in happy hands. Alas, I now must wait for an order to arrive. They didn’t seem to mind waiting a little longer, so that’s wonderful!
Finally, I met with a local business to see if they might be interested in engraving some of my designs, via machine, into sterling silver bracelet blanks and they seemed quite happy, even excited, about the prospect. I am feeling good about it and we’re going to work together on a few test pieces. The idea is that I have a few of my designs, still all made in Vermont (I’ll still have some hammering and finishing to do) and I should be able to offer a few of my designs for less than if I make the same designs by hand. (Which I still plan to do as well.)
So lots of getting out and about, making, thinking, planning, learning. Very exciting stuff!
See you next time!
Justin