Masking Mud for Anti-Solder Flow
Sometimes when you’re soldering your work, you’ll have a portion of your piece that you don’t want solder to flow. For example an already soldered bezel or link of chain. Enter Ronda Coryell’s Masking Mud! I purchased my first jar earlier in the year (from RioGrande), and have found it to be a life saver…
Invest in an Annealing Pan
OK I’m in love with my new annealing pan with pumice! I love the rush of new tools and supplies and riding the wave of the new inspiration they bring! And it’s also possible this momma has witnessed waaay too much Moana lately. I cannot stress how much this tool has upped my jewelry game!…
Silicone Polishers for Rotary Tool
I’m really enjoying these silicone polishers! I’ve had them for a little while, but I’m just getting into using them. This is a prong setting for a free form statement stone. In this pic, I’ve just sawn around the shape of the stone and prongs and now I’m sanding down/polishing the edges to make it…
Brass Bristle Brush Burnishing
When you’re working with sterling silver (92.5% silver) or fine silver (99.9% silver), including silver precious metal clay (pmc), you’ll need to burnish your silver in order to finish your piece. Whenever you heat your piece, it will turn colors. If heated in a kiln, it will turn white. After soldering, you’ll need to pickle…
A Helping Hand – 360 Bench Vise
I just ran across this marvelous bench vice option today, and I’m seriously considering ordering it for my bench. I have a hard time with my hands falling asleep or going numb. It can happen at any time, but mostly when I’m really trying to get some work done. Not the easiest thing to deal…
Save a Lung – Get a Fume Extractor
If you’re just starting out soldering, please pay attention to your own safety and keep it at the utmost importance. The world needs you and your special talents! So please keep your body safe. Soldering your jewelry – or anything really – can release toxins and/or fumes into the air that are not good for…
Guitar Pick Shape Template
One of the most popular designs in my shop is my guitar pick shaped fingerprint piece. It’s been a great gift for many gentlemen, as well as ladies, who are music lovers! The pull to music runs very deep in my family, so this piece- this shape brings up beautiful memories for me, which make…
Mini Vice Tool
What stops many new jewelers from becoming full-time jewelers is the cost of tools! Let’s face it, it can get expensive fast! BUT when you’re just beginning, it doesn’t have to be so expensive, if you’re willing to try to hunt up some good deals, and wait until your skills have developed to purchase the…
Ring Shank Template
Working in PMC and dying to create some substantial rings? This is little ditty is the fix you’ve been looking for! I have a few that I keep handy, but this one is a really nice template – a core tool. It’s super simple to use! 1. Simply roll out your clay, make it a…
How to Create an Arrow Ring – Preview
While I’m working on the newest tutorial for members, I wanted share a peek with you! You can watch a few of the steps that I use to create this Rustic Arrow Ring in Sterling Silver in the video below. I’m putting the finishing touches on the full tutorial, with full instructions and lists and…
The One Reason I Looked Back
I used to dream about one day creating my own unique jewelry line. I used to bead with plastic Walmart beads and dream about soldering “the real stuff”. But I didn’t know how. So I sat and I dreamt. I wanted to play with fire. I wanted to melt things. I wanted to create unique…
How to Create Dangle Earring Backs
With just a few inexpensive tools you can create your own artisan-style dangle earring backs with silver wire! Forget the store-bought look, your work can (and should be) unique to you! Try it with me… you’ll love how your new pieces look! Don’t forget, now is the time to join us in the Apprenticeship Program.…
Dark and Dingy
Things are changing again around here! Again. With little hands that reach absolutely everything I lay out, we had originally decided to build or buy a little hut outside that I could make my studio. In fact I had purchased a little trailer, that I used at a few fairs to sell my pieces out…
Too Paralyzed to Start
Have you been dreaming about creating your own jewelry, but you’re not sure where to start? Maybe even a little afraid to start? I understand the feeling! For years I really struggled trying to figure out exactly how to make what I wanted to make. And I was so afraid to start. And it paralyzed me! I…
New Apprenticeship Members Only Area
If you’ve been wondering what the deal is with this new Apprenticeship thing I’ve been talking about lately… I’ve put together a quick sneak peek of the members only area just for you! As of this moment, you can join and learn the basics of soldering silver, including a list of all of the tools…
Something New Comes… and why…
Ok, the question everyone’s already sick of hearing and answering… what was your New Year’s resolution this year?! Are you going to take better care of yourself, eat cleaner, train meaner? Lose something, gain something, learn something? Become a new person, become the old you? Be nicer, be stronger, be tougher, be softer? Me? I’m…
Stolen Pics to Business Relationships
In this video let’s chat about the importance of coming together as artists. I’ll go over some recent crazy things that have happened regarding my work. And how it is affecting how I work and what I recommend for you. Click play to watch and then let me know what you think and if this…
Dot Post Earrings
You can create a beautiful pair of post earrings with a little silver and a little soldering skill! Here’s a quick look at a little pair of dot post earrings I just finished: For the full tutorial, check out the Apprenticeship Program! One of the needed supplies for this tutorial is bead wire. Become and…
30 Seconds to Artisan Earrings
Here’s a quick 30 seconds to creating artisan earring backs. If you really want your jewelry to stand out, you should be creating your own earring backs. Call me crazy, call me weird, but I love the look of handcrafted earrings SO much more than factory made earrings. I love being able to choose the…
How to Become the Artist You Stalk
We all have them. Heroes, movers, shakers in our field of study (or love) that inspire us. Inspire us to create. To do. To become them! I have mine, I know you have yours. People, artists, geniuses that we look up to, like every post on their facebook page, instagram, follow all their Pinterest boards,…
Tumble Polish Your Silver
When you’d like to give your precious metal clay charms and pieces a beautiful shine, but you may not have a lot of time, use a tumbler! In this video I show you how I tumble polish my silver charms with steel shot, and with just a few quick swishes, you can already start to…
How to Scuff Matte Finish Silver PMC
Have you seen some cool jewelry with that scuffed matte finish, but you’re not quite sure how to do it? Check out my latest video here: You can find the polish pads I use here. If you want to know more about how to give that deep dark patina, see this video here. Blessings and…
Antiquing Sterling Silver Chains with Patina Gel
Love that oxidized silver look? You can do that to your own sterling and fine silver chains and jewelry components! See my latest tutorial in the video below… Tools + supplies used in this tutorial: Patina gel cool + warm water latex/rubber gloves plastic tongs baking soda glass bowls – for jewelry only, do not…
The Mobile Jeweler: My 2 Easy Tips
Just starting out making jewelry? Don’t have a dedicated “spot” in your home to label your studio only? You’re not alone! I started out with a “mobile” station, setting up and taking down where ever I could in the house. And now that I am able to have a whole room specifically for my studio…
Top 5 Jewelry Bench Tools
What are your favorite jewelry making tools?? Looking at my bench now I have many scattered about, but there really are 5 tools that I use all. the. time. 1. torch-butane While you can spend hundreds on some really awesome torch systems (like the smith little torch) created specifically for jewelers, just starting out, if…
How to Create a Rainbow Patina
Learn how to create a gorgeous rainbow patina on your metal clay piece! Check out this quick vid I shot today! Creating a rainbow patina is easy to do, and fun to experiment with! Give it a try and see how many color combos you can come up with on your PMC pieces! In this…
How to Get Solder Paste into Tight Spots – Quick Tip
Just getting started learning how to solder? That’s so wonderful! Congrats on taking the next big step in your jewelry creating life! In today’s vid, I show off a real simple little trick I use when I need to get my solder paste into a little tight spot. The solder paste that you see in…
How to Stamp Fired PMC with Jett Sett
You can use metal stamps to create designs and lettering on fired pmc pieces. BUT if you find yourself with a fired piece that you don’t want to mess up the front design of the piece, but still want to stamp something on the back of the piece, you will find this tool very helpful!…
Create a Ring from Sterling Silver Scrap
Have some scrap pieces of sterling silver sheet laying around, and you’re not quite sure what to do with it? You could melt it down into decorative silver balls and blobs, you could send it in to a metal seller in exchange for cash or store credit, OR you could do what I just did!…
Make Dangle Bar Earrings with Brass & Sterling Silver Wire – Tutorial
All you need for today’s tutorial is a couple inches of brass square wire and 4-6 inches of round sterling silver wire and you’re on your way to a fantastic set of earrings that can be multi-functional! Check out more… In today’s vid I mention a few tools… if you don’t have them yet, here…
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