My New Studio

Well hello everyone!!  I am super excited to share this with all of you.  I have waited so long to have my own jewelry studio and now I have it.  Granted it is out in my garage but I am so in love with it.  Lots of time from several family members to put it all together and so appreciated. This is me sitting at my old workbench which consisted of a 6 foot folding table with a block of wood and ceramic pizza stone on it.  Propane torch which my loving husband referred to as a toy.

This was towards the back of the garage by the door that enters into the house

Behind me is a bookshelf with all my beading magazines and some bead boxes.  To my left is an old Manicure desk I used for years as my workbench.  I love how it has extra electrical outlets. to my right is the rest of the garage....

I got up one Saturday morning and decided this was the day to redo the work area.  This is the before pictures....

you can see the little bench in the
background and the table I used to use

Decided to move the work area towards the front of the
garage since there is more ventilation up there.

My Husband Gary who is so amazing by the way :)  and one of my sons Tim Who is also amazing :) built me wonderful workbench.  It is 6'X4' which will be perfect for teaching small classes as well.  With the leftover 2'x4' piece of plywood they covered the top of my old Manicure bench.  That is now my beading/shipping station.

Above is the smaller bench with the new top.  I have also nailed a plywood board to the wall and hung all my beading drawers up there.  The bead boxes I have stacked on top of them.  I place a shelf at the top where I have plastic displays sitting to add jewelry on if I have a client come over.

You can see my new workbench in the foreground  I LOVE IT!!  on the end I have my soldering station with my new torch.  No more "toy" for this gal :)  For our anniversary last September Gary bought me my new acetylene torch.  I love him so much!!!  On the wall beside my beading supplies I have hung a peg board where I have extra tools and beading wire along with extra copper wire.  I have several little pull out drawer on top of the desk and workbench I use to hold all my silver, gold filled, copper brass wire and sheet. the mess to the left of my work area are shelves I have totes full of misc stuff for shows and other extras.  To the far right of my long bench where you see a few empty tubs we will be placing a smaller bench there for my polisher.

Here is more of a close up view from a different angle. I still have to mount my dremel drill press, place my Photography section, all my lights, and a permanent place for the rock tumbler but all in all I think I am off to a good start.  I am ready to sit in there and start creating and I have no excuses anymore. A recent purchase was a lapidary grinder polisher to make my own cabochons   That is a whole other story and an adventure for Gary and our daughter-in-law.

I hope you have enjoyed the transformation of my jewelry studio.  I know I enjoyed creating it and it will be forever changing.  Please leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Thanks,

Tina

Wedding Jewelry

It was such an honor to be asked to create the jewelry to be worn in a wedding this month.  Jamie is a friend of the family and a very beautiful person.  She is getting married this weekend to her prince charming. A few months ago my husband Gary and I went to the Gem Faire and we found the most beautiful pearls I just had to have.  Gary actually found them and told I had to have them.  They are Freshwater Pearls that the centers have been carved and then Swarovski crystals are hand set into each pearl.  My first thought was these will make incredible wedding jewelry.  So when Jamie requested I make her wedding jewerly I told her I knew exactly what I was going to do.  Here are a couple of pictures of her jewelry.  I will take a picture or two with her wearing them with her wedding dress and update this post.

Close up of earrings the center of Necklace matches.

for some odd reason the blog keeps flipping this on its side :(

August Birthstone is Peridot

 

With August being here I thought I would talk about the August Birthstone which is Peridot.

Peridot is a beautiful pea green stone that sometimes gets confused with my May birthstone of Emerald.

Peridot is a very old gem stone that was even found to be in ancient Egyptian and roman jewelry. They called Peridot the “Gem of the sun” Cleopatra was known to wear emerald jewelry and now it is said that many of those emeralds were in fact peridot.

Peridot stones from Egyptian era came from a mine on a small volcanic island in the Red Sea. This mine has been exhausted for some time now. In 1994, an exciting new deposit of peridot was discovered in Pakistan, and these stones are among the finest ever seen. The new mine is located 15,000 feet above sea level in the Nanga Parbat region in the far west of the Himalayan Mountains in the Pakistani part of Kashmir. Beautiful large crystals of peridot were found, some that cut magnificent large gemstones. One stone was more than 300 carats! You can also find Peridot mined in Arizona, Mexico, Oregon, Norway, Russia and Sri Lanka.

Peridot is a relatively soft stone, rating a 6.5 to 7 on the hardness scale, making it a little softer than amethyst or emerald. Peridot should be spared rugged wearing if mounted in rings. The stone is also highly sensitive to rapid temperature changes.

How to clean your Peridot jewelry: Do not us an ultrasonic cleaner for your Peridot jewelry. Mix warm (barely above room temp) water with mild liquid dishwashing soap in a small dish place your jewelry and let it set for a few minutes. You can use a soft tooth brush to get those hard to reach spots but be very gentle. Rinse them thoroughly in clean warm (barely above room temp) water than dry it off with a soft cloth. Then stand back and look at them shine.

To keep your peridot jewelry looking beautiful for years to come you will need to protect them. Do not wear them every day especially while doing household chores. Wrap them in tissue or a soft cloth when kept in your jewelry box so that they do not get scratched from other jewelry.

Throughout August I will be posting Peridot and Peridot colored jewelry I create. Please enjoy.

Advertising my Jewelry

So I am working on trying to spread the word on Links and Loops. I have signed up for one week of advertising through Atrist of Etsy to see how it goes. Here is the link to the page that I am on: http://www.artistsofetsy.com/Jewelry.php I am putting a litle focus on the Halloween earrings I have in my shop at this time. Would love to hear your feed back.