Ice Ice Baby!

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

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

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

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

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.

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!!!!

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)