HollowayDesigns

Extra Extra....Holloway Designs is Moving!!!!!

2011-11-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Thats right, as of this monday Holloway Designs will be moving its home base to Lindens Jewelry, http://www.lindensjewelry.com/ And is opening a new "Concierge" jewelry service for select clients!! These are exciting times for Holloway Designs, you should join the fun!

Less than one week....

2011-10-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

In less than one week the news on this page will be epic....
It will change lives.

BIG NEWS!!!!

2011-10-21T14:26:00.001-07:00

Coming soon!!!!!

2011 C.A.R.A.T. Awards

2011-08-06T13:13:00.001-07:00

This year I was asked to host the Arkansas Jewelers Association C.A.R.A.T. Awards. It was a true honor to host. Below are all the entries, none of these are pieces that I made but all came to life here in the great state of Arkansas!!! I will post the winners next week!

click on the Picture to see all 19 entries!

C.A.R.A.T. Award Entries

Britt_2.0

2011-07-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Wedding ring 2.0

2011-06-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

So, for all the followers that aren't in the know, about 2 years ago my wife put on her wedding ring too soon after giving birth to our second kid and in order to save her finger the ring was sacrificed..... This is her new ring. Its not quite ready yet but its Platinum and 18KY Gold with white and yellow Diamonds. I have lots of pictures of the process and I will make a video of the making of 2.0 until then, enjoy.

Deer Antler Necklace

2011-03-19T21:16:00.001-07:00

Sometime ago I decided to start over, so to speak.

While "starting over" I spent some time thinking about what could I use to make jewelry from that was not used in typical jewelry of today, but was used in the past. I came up with Deer Antlers. As luck would have it, I had some in the basement. I took this one to work and made a necklace with it, 14KY gold, and some tsavorite (green garnet), enjoy.

Hope you all have a great day..

NEW BABY!!! NEW STORE!!!

2011-01-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

So it has been sometime since my last post, and lots of new stuff. First, my third child was born at 7lb 10oz little girl. She looks like mom!And the store that I work out of has a all new look!!! The new Swifts was designed by yours truely. So if your store needs a face lift..... I do that too.
I hope to post more than I do, but until the next time...

2010-04-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

If your a Jeweler or in the trade I hope to see you at the Smart Show!!!

Photo Shoot

2010-02-15T19:38:00.001-08:00

Here is a teaser picture from our latest photo shoot. More to come later.....

And the Winner is......

2010-02-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago I asked what you all thought about two pictures of blue flowers. Should I make this or that? Well, as my luck would go, it was a tie vote. So much for majority rule. I picked this one. It will be a pair of earrings and don't know when they will be done, but I will let you know when they are. Hope your all well. I should have some more pictures soon I just don't have them on this pc.

Its Football Time!!

2009-09-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

Its Time for some Football! GO HOGS!!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

2009-08-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, I hope you're all well. I just got back from the 70th Arkansas Jewelers Association convention and have a little news. I was awarded the Craftsman of the year Award for the second time in 3 years for my "Star Scape" necklace, (pictured). Also I was asked to be, and it accepted, a seat on the Board of Directors of the AjA (Arkansas Jewelers Association).

Also My pool looks great as the paint, tile, and concrete are done and on Monday or Tuesday it will be totally done. After 3+ months of repair it is almost ready to swim in. I will post pics as soon as It is ready. I hope you all had a great weekend as well.

David

My little Man

2009-07-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

If we could only get him to put on a shirt. Then he would be cute

Star light....Star Bright!

2009-07-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Just a little necklace for your enjoyment: Platinum, and Diamonds of many colors.

David

A Ring For My Sis.

2009-07-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

What should I make?

2009-07-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

I need some help. I want to make a flower earring set and don't know what flower I like better
sooooo. All you in the Blogisphere get to help me pick 1 or 2?

leave comments for your votes.

David

Why I do what I do, rants of a mad man.

2009-07-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I had the opportunity to go to a art show at a museum that framed the way that I looked at jewelry, forever. Having trained with a very talented Master Metalsmith who, like most in the jewelry field had become more concerned with the dollar than the art form. I had become jaded and was not sure what path to take. Should I take the road that would take me along the more traveled path, like so many before, or do I take the road that was "Crazy" in the words of one of my pears. To take the road that said that it was ok to make a great design more than once, or maybe not the same but really really close, and if by chance a piece was lost then by all means lets make the customer one that matches the first as close as we can. The only problem with this road is, its the road that takes you to Walmart style Jewelry. Not that Walmart Jewelry doesn't have its place. Just like the comics have their place in the Sunday paper. FINE ART is not found in the Comics on Sunday morning.

Its found in Galleries and Museums.

Fine art is not reproduced by its maker. It is copied by people who want to make money on the designs of the "Crazy". I must take the road that is not so traveled. This is to understand that everything you do is not for general use but for the select few. The thing that makes this point so clear is the piece of ART in the pictures below, it was made around 1900. It is still one of the greatest things that has never been made. You can't look at it and not think Wow. But sadly, that's not the end of the story. Today the company that made this great piece of art is more known for the color of their boxes and its "dog chain" silver jewelry than art like that below. Not that they don't have some very very nice things but when you think of them do you think of Fine Art, or do you think Fine Jewelry Store? I will not ever go down this road. The road that would take something as great as this flower and turn it into a box color in the eye of the public is a tragedy of the highest order. Just try and think of Da Vinci not as a great artist but as the tan paper that you wrap the canvas in. You most likely can't even think of him that way. The very name is one and the same with Fine Art. This is what my goal is, that 200 years after I'm gone David Holloway will be remembered as an Artist not as a Jewelry Store. If that means that like most, my art is only seen for what it is after I'm gone then, as strange as it sounds, I'm ok with that. Below is the Art that changed my life. If you ever get the chance to go see it live do so. "Bedazzled 5000 years of art" is a great sight to see. The website of Bedazzled is linked below, and to make myself clear, I AM NOT saying that Tiffany & Co. is somehow evil, or less than. Just that their ideals are not to be know for their Art but to be know as a Fine Jewelry store.

Tiffany & Co. Iris Corsage Ornament, ca. 1900

http://thewalters.org/exhibits/bedazzled/index.html

David

The Pool

2009-07-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here is where the pool is at right now. They originally told us it would take two weeks (it's been a week and 3 days). We're thinking it might be a little longer...

Hello nice lady in Japan.

2009-07-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the help in finding out just how dumb I am. (hahaha) One would think that I could call a phone number that is right in front of me. Thanks for your help.

David

Hello,

2009-07-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hello, long time on post. Life is very busy and full of fun. My pool is finally getting fixed from last years ice storm. With the Ins. co. not wanting to pay, then the pool guys being booked because of all the work, (from the ice storm) its finally under way. The broken decking has been jack-hammered out and now just needs to be carried away. Then new concrete new tile and coping and paint, then we swim!!!. I will post pics tomorrow when there is light to see.

David

Go Vote......

2009-06-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hello, I have just sent in a piece for a design contest put on by "National Jeweler" Go to
http://njn.nielsencontests.com/bin/Rate to vote for one of the pieces or enter yourself. Have a great day.

David

Trails New Do!

2009-05-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Trail before. Trail After. Is he a little Rocker or what!

Cufflinks

2009-05-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

Here are the Cuff links that I was working on. 12.5mm Pearls with 14KW and 14KY Gold and green ceramic enamel (6 layers)

I will have some better pics of the finished pieces soon. Have a great Day!

David

Time

2009-05-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

Help! I am in need of about 4 more hours a day. Let me know if you know where i can get them.

David

Out for a walk with my girl.

Fun things!

2009-04-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm psyched, I just ordered the metal for some cuff links that are going to be.......very cool. I can't wait to finish and show them to you. But you will have to wait. It will be about a month before there done. They have 14K White, 14K Yellow, Pearls and a little something I'm holding back. I'll take some pictures and if your nice I might give you a little taste along the way. Have a Great Day.

David

Platinum, Light Natural Pink Diamonds with a light pink Pearl (the pic color is off...sorry)

PS Has anyone tried to make the Brain Teaser with the Biz card?

True Beauty

2009-04-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

This is the sunset at my house the day before Easter.

Trail is doing great, I hope to get back to posting at least 2-3 times a week. Work is good
Hope your all well

David

More Pictures

2009-04-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

Check out our family blog for more pictures of Trail.

More Pics of Trail

2009-03-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Brooklynn meeting her little brother for the first time.

They just don't get any better looking.

David

Trail is Here!!!!

2009-03-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm a Dad for the Second time. Trail arrived at 8:06am ct. He was 8lb 10oz and 20 & 3/4 inch long. He looks just like me but with his Moms nose.

David

New Faces

2009-03-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day that I will be out numbed in my own home. The Girls will no longer out number the boys in the Holloway home. My son Trail will be here at 8am Friday. I will post pics of him by 10am. Hope your all doing great. I am on Cloud 9.

David

Was lost......Now is Found!

2009-03-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

I made this pendant a little while ago, and it was lost. Today the customer called and said that she had found it. This pendant is very sentimental in that the ring that runs around the dish is her first wedding ring. The stone is the first diamond that her husband gave her. The pendant is made so that the ring can be taken out and still worn. I have misplaced the front view pic but the pendant is coming in tomorrow and I will take that pic again and post it then.

Hope you have a great day.(mine was)

David

Trip to the Ball Game

2009-03-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

I took my little Princess to the ballgame today. We had a blast. See loves her pink glove.

Have a great day

Rockn' on

2009-03-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hello, it has been a crazy year up to this point. I'm sill working with the ins co. about my pool, it was messed up in the ice storm. My second kid is going to be here at anytime and work is.... well just humming along. I Just finished this ring, and thought you would like to see it.

14K yellow and white black pearl.

Ice Ice Baby!

2009-02-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hello, longtime no blog. I hope your all well. It has been a little icy here. Here is some of the fun for your viewing pleasure.

Hard life soft Metal

David

NYC

2009-01-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hello from the city. I hope that all of you are well. We had about 3" of snow on Sunday night. and the city was much less harsh for a few hours.

And as all my friends know, I Love Chocolate! So I stopped in and talked to "THE KING" of M land. :-) My moves are no where near his but then again I'm not Blue.

Ouch

2009-01-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hello sorry about the long delay, the Christmas rush was well a rush and on the 30th I had surgery on my right shoulder so I've be a little drugged up so to speak. Hope your all well. My PC is still on the fritz so no pics just yet but I hope to have my shoulder and PC up and running soon. In other news I'm off to NYC for the JA show in a week or so. I'll be there for 4days so it may be a week or two until my next post. Hope you all had a great New Year.

David

Ring

2008-12-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

My PC is still on the fritz, and with Christmas in full go mode I didn't have time to take "how its made" pics of this ring but I thought you might like to see it anyway. Its 18K Rose and Shakudo, I must also say that on this ring I cheated and had a pre-made forging rod made, not my usual, then patterned and made the ring myself but cost and time are not to be ignored.

David

2008-12-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hello, I made this out of a business card sized .8mm thick Silver plate after seeing it done in card form by Charles Lewton-Brain. (www.ganoksin.com/brain/gallery.htm) There is No welding or soldering No casting or tricks just bent metal. See if you can make this shape out of a Business card with some scissors. But no cheating Aka: tape glue etc... Have fun.

David

A Little Tip.

2008-12-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Today is tip day. Working on a Trillion Aqua ring and wanted to show the best way "other than a laser or tack welder" to hold the crown in place so that it doesn't move. If I had a laser I would use it, but since I don't, this is how its done. First take a small piece of wire 20g or so and weld it to the bottom of the ring and then to the "wide side" of the crown then move the crown into place. The wire will hold the crown and you can weld away. With proper heat control you should be able to use hard solder. Hope this helps you the next time you have a weird shaped crown or bezel.

David

New Tool!!!!

2008-12-11T16:53:00.000-08:00

YE HUa! I Love new tools. I just got the new GRS GraverMach and it ROCKS. It will take some practice but there is nothing like playing with a new "toy". I'm still at work and will be here for a while but such is the life of a metalsmith at Christmas. I hope to have a new How Its Done Video by early next week (if my PC is well). Have a great day.

David

Pic of my new toy.(ripped off the GRS webpage)

How its Done 2

2008-12-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello, sorry for the delay, as you know my PC got sick and it still is not well. So no movie this time, just pics and words.

"How its done" for a simple Tahitian Pearl and 14K yellow pendant.
This time I started with a simple computer generated design using DG3.
The Wax before anything is done.

I wasn't planing to blog this so there are no pictures of the cut lines in the wax before the shaping started but you'll have to give me some slack as I made this 4 years ago. You can see some of the lines and the ruff shape of the pendant coming together.

I have the carved the split into the pendant and you can see the remains of the lines,

You can see that the outside shape of the pendant is done but the inside is still not done.

View from the top of the pendant,

Inside has been ruffly cut out and its time for the final shaping of the pendant,

The shaping of the pendant is done the seat for the pearl has not been cut but you can see the shape that the pendant it will be when finished.

View of the Pendant from the side.

The view of the pendant from the "back". His pendant will have no back it is made so that it can be worn with either side facing forward.Pendant is ready to cast.

In the metal, Nothing has been done but breaking it out of the investment.

Note the seat for the pearl at the bottom of the inside of the pendant.

Here I have cut off the wax tree and its time to clean the casting.

The wax tree dobs have been filed off and the pendant is sanded to fine to take out any waves in the metal. Also at the bottom you can barely see the small hole that the peg for the pearl will soldered into.

Back view of the pendant here you can see the hole for the peg very well centered in the seat. I like to weld all pegs in after casting they are stronger than cast pegs.

Side view,

The pendant is done but the pearl is not attached note the stipple finish on the "back", and the peg for the pearl.

Here you can see the bail at the top.

Finished Pendant.

Back View.

Front.

This is a very simple wax with a very nice ending. Hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I have.

Have a great day.

David

Vista Death!

2008-12-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Hello, I was planing to do a new How its done video today but my pc died. So I will post it tomorrow. Today was good. Have a good night see you all Sunday.

David

Work Work

2008-12-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Hello from work. I'm not sure if I will leave work before Friday ends so I wanted to take a sec and say hello. I will be posting a wax creation that I made in '04 in the next blog but my video maker is on my laptop not this desktop. So I will just say hello and I hope that you all out there are having great days. If you have any questions about anything you see on this blog or about me, leave a comment or email me at david@davidhollowaydesigns.com . I will get back to you as soon as I can. The pic below is what my next "how its done post" will be on. Have a great night.

David

Old Friends and a New Face

2008-12-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day. It started out with a ring I had made in '07 coming in for cleaning. The ring is my favorite ring to date. It is a Lemon Citrine set in 14k yellow with Diamonds and it is very artsy with a touch of flash.... to put it mildly. Also one of my best friends had a new son today. Noah has much to look forward to and and a great family to show him the way. Today was mostly filled with phone calls and tying up the last of the loose ends before Christmas. The pictures are of the ring that came to see me today, hope you like it, I do.

Play day

2008-12-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hello, today is my last day off before Christmas. So I worked on putting a roof over my back deck and made a sideshow of the ring that I was telling you about yesterday. I hope you like the video. It doesn't have descriptions of what I'm doing but does show the progression of the ring. Have a Great day!

David

Long Day

2008-12-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hello world, today was a long day 12 hours of playing with metal. Don't get me wrong though, I loved every minute of it. This time of year is one of the most fun times. I get to make new things at a pace that is much faster than the rest of the year. I just finished one of the sweetest engagement rings that I have ever made. Usually I'm not a big fan of engagement rings from a style point because they all are so similar with the center stone and blah blah blah... But this one was nice. I took over 90 pics of it while I was making it so the next post will be a long one. I'll put the pics up on Wednesday. I hope that you have a great day.

David

Flower Pendant: 12diamonds, pink tour,

14K white & peach gold '07

How it is made.

2008-12-02T16:15:00.001-08:00

The Idea with approximate wire sizes.
The stone, a dark Green Tourmaline and the metal.

The ingot of metal after it is alloyed to 14K Yellow and stone.

The metal after it is rolled into a ruffly square bar before it is cut and drawn to make round wire.

I then took the metal and rolled part to a 4mm wide by 2.5mm thick bar stock and drew down the wire to 2.5mm round and 1.5mm round. Also in this picture I have already bent and weld the 2.5mm round wire into the start of the crown(what holds the stone).

Here I have started to welding the cross bars onto the crown, this helps support the crown and looks good from the side view of the pendant. Also the bail for the pendant has been shaped and rest to the left of the crown.

At this point all cross bars have been welded in along with the front of the bail.

It is now time to mark where the diamonds will go in the bail.

A different view of the placement of the diamonds.

Setting the diamonds in the bail. The red stuff is a type of sealing wax used to support the arch of the bail as I set the stones. The stones are flush set. I will show how this is done in a later post.

Another view of the stones after they are set but not finished out.

What the bail looks like after cleanup and polish.

Pre-fitting of the center stone to see what needs to be cut away or moved to make room for the stone

A look back at what we started with and what it looks like now.

You will notice that this view is not the same as what is drawn. The design changed from diamonds in each prong and none in the bail to no diamonds in the prongs and six in the bail. Set in a soft arch pattern to follow the shape of the pendant better.

Back in the red shellac(sealing wax), to set the center stone this style of setting is prong setting.

Starting to set the stone notice the lines in each prong. This is so that I only have to move a small piece of metal, this makes moving the metal over the stone easier.

The finished pendant. This is a forged or fabricated pendant, with no pre-made parts or pieces.

In this view you can see the back of the bail that opens so that you can put this on any chain.

I hope you enjoyed looking the making of this pendant as much as I did making it. This was made in 06. Have a great day.

David

2008-11-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

2008-11-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

2008-11-29T11:22:00.000-08:00