This project started out early last summer, as a way to celebrate a significant anniversary.  Like many women, the original wedding ring still holds emotional significance, so it was important to include her diamond into the ring as the centerpiece.  My design criteria: very wide band, modern design lines, add some glitter - but not too much, and have the option of more than one color of metal.  Late November I hit on the right idea, and the ring really started to take shape.  The first photo shows the ring in the wax stage with a few design doodles.  We took the center section of the upper right sketch, the acanthus floral pattern in the left sketch, and combined with a straight band.  I wanted to incorporate some open space because of the width of the ring, and as my client hoped to have a subtle floral design worked into the ring, using a historic floral pattern really brings it together.  The second photo shows the pattern better.  To make the pattern precise, the first acanthus was carved free-hand, and a mold was then made to replicate it four times.  We opted to taper the band but not alter the acanthus pattern, so the curve goes into the band - which provides a natural end to the diamonds that will be set on the edges.  The acanthus section will also have diamonds set into the yellow gold, using a traditional bright-setting method.  The last photo is of the largest size of ideal-cut diamond melee that we are using - if you look at the calipers, you can see these are just 1.5mm in diameter.  We will also be setting 1.25mm and 1.0mm throughout the ring.  Today, the ring begins its transformation from wax into gold, through the traditional lost-wax casting method.  Unlike the viking helmet project, this will be cast using centrifical force and a torch to melt the gold.  Because the ring will be both white and yellow gold, there are two molds and two casting sequences.

This project is a sterling silver pendant for a man, using the client's diamonds.  We started out by drawing the pendant to scale, approximately 2 inches long.  To date, Tom has the sword roughed out (fabricated out of sterling sheet) and the helmet is carved in wax.  The helmet is now sprued to a "tree" to be cast tomorrow with other pieces.  This is a Christmas gift so we are on track to finish by the end of this week. This photo sequence: the sketch with preliminary wax/sword, the wax tree with helmet and snowflakes (those are just for fun, and also a few ring samples), Jodi is mixing the plaster investment, removing air bubbles from investment in the vacuum (the mix is boiling), pouring debubbled investment into flasks, then the flasks go back into the vacuum to remove more bubbles, and the prepped flasks are setting up.  Ready for tomorrow morning... and a long ride in a hot kiln, before pouring the molten silver into the molds.  Stay tuned!

This design started two months ago as a request to combine several rings into one new wedding ring.  The bride liked wide wedding bands, and wanted something low to the finger.  With a long, narrow finger, she is a great candidate for such a dramatic ring!  She also strongly preferred yellow gold, so it was important that the ring had enough metal surface visible.  We did the center diamond and four princess cut diamonds' bezels in white gold for strength.  One photo shows the original design group that we presented, and the others show the finished ring, which we finished today (11/25/09).  Approximate dimensions: 14mm wide at the center, tapering to 6.5mm at the base.

SInce Jessie has returned to her schooling at Central Washington University, we have decided to go forward with blogging about our design experiences.  We hope that you will enjoy reading about our projects as they emerge from the bench.

    These are some pictures of pieces that I have made in the past year.  I am really proud of them!

     Here is a picture of me at my work bench here at Johnson's.  I am going to miss it!!

      Here are a couple pictures of the bracelets I made for Johnson Jewelers.  I hope you like them!

     I am sad to announce that my internship here at Johnson's is coming to an end.  I have really enjoyed my experience here and have learned so much.  I am very grateful to everyone here, especially Amy who gave me this wonderful opportunity!  I never really thought that running a business would be this much work, I knew that there were a lot of things that had to be done, but actually seeing how it is done had been very insightful.  I have learned that running your own business is stressful.  There are so many things that need attention and in a small business with few employees it just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done.  I have also observed that the best way to handle this stress is to not let it overwhelm you, you have to be able to laugh things off.  And Mary's afternoon snacks don't hurt either.  That is another thing I am going to miss about here, Mary's baking.  At least once a week she makes something absolutely wonderful and brings it down for everyone to try.  I have had a great time observing Jodi and Tom.  It is so interesting for me to watch them work on their projects and see what they are doing.  Tom has supplied me with so many little tricks, it will be great to apply them in my own work.  With Jodi it has been fun because we studied many of the same things and it has been really interesting seeing how she makes the transition from art jewelry to jewelry to be sold in a retail establishment.  Amy has really included me in all the aspects of the business, from observing her with customers, to telling me how she checks the jewelry through the microscope and what she looks for, to sitting with her when representatives who come to show their jewelry products.  It has really been amazing to watch all of this.  I have really enjoyed learning about the different jewelry lines they carry.  But it has been even more interesting to see the custom designs that they have came up with and being able to see the final product.  

        I have really started to finalize my ideas about what I am going to make for my simple project for the store.  It is a lot different to come up with ideas when you are planning to sell the jewelery for profit than when you  are creating it for an art show.  As I have stated before, my experience with jewelry before this was entirely as it relates to the art world.  When making jewelry for art shows I am always thought of the idea first and the figured out how much it was going to cost to purchase all the materials needed.  How much I would charge for the piece of jewelry would depend how much time I spent making the piece plus the cost of materials.  That part isnt any different than it is here on fine jewelry, what is different about the jewelry that I am making for them is that we set a selling price before making the jewerly. This means that I had to be really thinking about the cost of the supplies for the jewelry when I was designing.  The first round of designs I did would have cost too much for the supplies and production to stay in the price range that we had set.  I finally decided on making some bracelets out of jumprings and then adding some decoritve beads to them.  All the bracelets will be different and each will have different colored beads attached to them.  This is a simple idea that will allow me the time to finish them by the time my internship is over.  I also had to price check all the supplies I was going to need for this project.  I do this differently then Amy or Jodi.  I use the Rio Grande website to find all the items I need, add them to my order list, and then normally I would place my order from there.  This works well for me because I like to see everything that I am ordering before I actually place the order.  Amy and Jodi do it differently though.  They like to go through the catalog and make a list of all the order numbers and discribtions of the produces they need.  Then they call Rio Grande and place their order that way.  I think that phoning the order in makes more sense for them to do than for me because it gives them more of a personal relationship with the Rio Grande company.  

He LOVES Trains!!  He can tell you the name of every train that goes passed the store, it is pretty impressive.