We have been sharing a whole lot of different Chrysocolla varieties on my forum.

I especially like a Chrysocolla with Hematite, Tenorite, Silver, Copper, and even Gold.. I love a beautiful metallic finish that these offer.

Then when we start talking about a druzy Chrysocolla…….. Well, ya gotta love a neat druzy cab !

I don’t really want to post pictures of all the different Chrysocolla that has been shared on the forum here. Would rather each member who shared have the same opportunity for you to see them as they were posted by each member. Plus if your as excited about Chrysocolla as we all are, you may well like to join in the conversation and share some of your own pics as well !

One of the members did send me a slab of some with Gold in it.. Can’t hardly add a blog entry without at least one image ! Never knew Chrysocolla even had Gold in it..

Thanks for stopping by !

What makes the group gemstone cabochon sets a little more interesting, is the way they are cut from the original mineral slab. Somewhat similar to making a quality pair of earrings. Except instead of using back to back slabs for matching grains on each earring, these sets are cut from the same area off an area from the slab.. Done patiently, a nice contour of the grains will flow through the entire group of gemstones within the settings group.

Lot of fun to do.. They are among the most rewarding when finished.. Just something about them that I really enjoy.. I am thinking of giving a set a whirl myself.. I am still trying to get a little better at my soldering before I tackle one of my own sets!

Any way, just wanted to do a little blog entry. Below are a few examples.. Many more in store. To more easily find just these sets. Use the search box and key word “set”. Happy to do any kind of special requests for similar sets from a variety of interesting and unusual minerals.. Feel free to contact me with a request or questions.

Was finally fortunate enough to have a member from our local club come over and walk me through some basic silver soldering. She was a big help. Little things like working the torch properly, using the flux correctly, etc…

Any way, felt the urge to share the results of this Rainforest Jasper pendant. Still have a long ways to go before I can actually offer some up for sale, but getting there!

I think just like myself, a lot of brand new online lapidary related business owners find ourselves somewhat overwhelmed with the many different possibilities that just sorta seem to present themselves to us as we embark on SEO related techniques.

These practices are completely different in application and technique today than they were when I first gave thought to developing my online presence a little over a year ago.

Different in technique and application, but the basic practices are much the same. Not much sense in sharing in detail. Today my main primary online sites although different are similar in a lot of ways.

I have gone through a couple of different selling sites and have now settled into a great shopping cart. Gone through several blogging software packages and have now finally settled into one that is excellent.

Online jewelry design related business owners like myself who have at least these two basic and very important type of sites up and running properly have just by the nature and course of events that lead to accomplishing them, found ourselves also educated about a few other very important things along the way.

Without a doubt we were told the importance of participating in at least a couple of forums that discussed jewelry design related topics. We learned the importance of joining in discussions and starting topics of interest related to our jewelry related niches. The forums we choose can be a little different for each of us depending upon what exactly our jewelry design related niches are.

From the time I first started out right up until just recently, my jewelry design related niche solely consisted of the sale of gemstones to jewelry designers. Because of that I settled into a couple of fun forums that were a mix of jewelry making related topics.

Still today, this “practice” is still the same, although the technique has changed because I started a lapidary related forum of my own. Still…. the need to mingle with others who share my same interests is extremely important. One big bonus is that I am truly having a great deal of fun. Although I have not actually met any of our forum members in person, we have connected. Connected with many who I have come to feel share a friendship as well as our common interests.

Let there be no mistake though. No matter if I had created a forum of my own or not, the need to mingle and connect with others is a must. Making participation in a couple of forums a daily routine is beneficial because sales can and usually do result from participating.

We also without a doubt learned yet another important, almost daily practice that would become just as routine to us as forum participation. “Social networking”.

Not just any social networking, but a group of people that socialize within a community. Unlike a forum, these communities consist of many different categories of network groups. This was much harder for me to get an understanding of than was the straight forward and easy to understand forum process. When I would participate within the arena of a forum, it all made perfect sense. You post a topic that you want to share or learn from and or reply to someone elses post.

Social networking did not come so easy for myself, and that is really putting it quite mildly. With the exception of the very first community that was introduced to me. It is the Squidoo community. At least this Squidoo community did make sense. Although….. when a person becomes a member and creates a “lens” which is your home page within the community, the interaction with other “lensmasters” is different from that of truly socializing within a network of community members. It is really just a community of home pages, or lenses.

Squidoo was really the only community that I found and participated in where at least it made some sense. You could add your jewelry design related lens to other jewelry design related groups within the Squidoo community. The ideal result for myself was for an actual designer to see my gemstone supply lens and hopefully purchase from me after visiting my lens.

This was not really social networking. I was sure that social networking had to be somewhat similar to participating within a forum. No matter which social network I signed up with, they just make absolutely no sense at all. Networks like StumbleUpon, Delicious, and others just seemed completely unorganized. I could not see how social networking was suppose to improve upon my internet presence in any way.

Finally I gave up on the whole thing…..

Then recently while trying to come up with some ideas for my forum members to use for their own developing of an online presence, I posted several social networking communities and shared how important it is to participate within one or two. Yes, for myself too !

I could hardly preach such a thing without at least giving it another whirl myself. I tried to list social networks that in one way or another had something to do with lapidary, gemstones, jewelry, and or jewelry design. While going through and looking at each of the networks that I listed for members to consider, I found one called Ning. The Ning community consists of a wide range of social networks. They have several jewelry and jewelry design related networks within the community. There are several perfectly fine jewelry design networks to pick from.

It was not long before I had created a page about myself. Then I headed off to the main page for the network I joined. I picked the Jewelry Design Network. I don’t really want to go into lengthy details about the group. I just really wanted to share that the Ning community networks made sense to me right away. The Jewelry Design Network consists of a variety of different kinds of jewelry design related members.

I am really glad that I found a jewelry design related network that has other online lapidary businesses as well as a variety of other crafts people. In no time at all I found myself joining in and discussing lots of interesting topics.

Joining this network is turning out really a-ok. Turning out to be a lot of fun. Not to mention that I can report some sales directly related because of participation within a social network. A network that finally made sense to me.

Just felt like adding a blog entry with a few of my own trials, tribulations and success with trying to get started in social networks. There are many out there to pick from. What my have been awkward and or uncomfortable for me to participate in, may well suit someone else just fine. The bottom line, is that it really is something that everyone should really include in our arsenal of tools/sites towards developing and maintaining the best possible jewelry design related online presence that we possibly can.

Embossing stretches metal by hammering from the inside. When the metal is hammered into a cavity, it’s called blocking – an alternate embossing method. Freeform embossing can also be done with a sandbag.

Planishing smooths the metal against a stake by overlapping the hammer blows. This stretching technique also forms the metal to the shape of the underlying stake. With practice, a morrorlike surface can be achieved.

For all forging, the size of the hammer as well as the corresponding stake will be dictated by the size of the work.

RAISING HAMMERS

(Photo 1) Wideraising hammers can be used to raise sheet metal into a bowl against a wooden or metal stake. They are also useful in cylinder forms for raising metal into a concave shape. Subtle planishing of concave shapes is possible with the narrow, curved faces of this type of hammer. Here the wide raising hammer is used to form a tube into a concave shape on a concave stake.

(Photo2) The tighter curves on the faces of a narrow raising hammer allow the raising of small sylinders and concave shapes. The thinner head allows this kind of hammer to fit into tighter curves for both raising and planishing. It’s also useful for fuorging and texturing. Here, the narrow raising hammer is used to raise in (thicken the metal in) the neck of a small sterling bottle.

A short narrow raising hammer can subsititure for the narrow raising hammer when a smaler striking head and a lighter tough is desired. Likewise, a short, wide raising hammer has a profile which makes it a more subtle substiture when a lighter hammer is desired.

EMBOSSING HAMMERS

(Photo 3) Small embossing hammers are used to form small raised areas by hammering from the inside in preparation for chasing or general shaping. A very fine dimpled texture with infinite variations can be produced depending on the strength of the blow. The small end of the embossing hammer can be used to texture surfacees, both flat and curved.

(Photo 4) Larger embossing hammers are used to dome metal from the inside. Metal is stretched from the inside as it is supported on a sandbag or a depression carved in wood. Doming a piece of metal before raising makes ite easier to control because the shape becomes rigid. This type of hammer also leaves a very interesting dimpled texture on flat or slightly domed metal if the mannering is done on the outside of a form while supported against a stake. The embossing can be used to stretch a small bottle from the inside.

A more rounded narrow raising or embossing hammer can emboss narrow raising or embossing hammer can emboss narrow pod or oblong shapes, like a spiculum form. Smoother overlapping marks are easier on long thin shapes tthan with a round embossing hammer.

Embossing hammers with wider, longer profiles are ideal for blocking bowls and broader width strips into concave shapes. As with all embossing hammers, this type of hammer is intended to stretch the metal from the inside.

PLANISHING HAMMERS

(Photo 5) The planishing hammer is for smoothing metal and is typically the most used hammer. The round head is used if the metal being worked has hammer markds from a previous round of raising that need to be smoothed out. The flat head of the hammer will also refine the markds made by the round head for a nearly smooth finish. This hammer is also used to size rings and form bezels. It’s a good general forming hammer when used with mandrels and stakes. Here, the round head is used to shape a hollow donut form from a flat tube.

(Photo 6) Smoothing and squaring the corners of a band ring can be accomplished with the flat side of the planishing hammer.

(Photo 7) Asingle ended planishing hammer with inserts has a plastic head that can be removed with a hex key. The flat plasic head forms metal while leaving it smooth. The metal head is slightly domedto make it easier to strike flat or slightly dome metal. I designed this hammer primarily for the bench jeweler who sizes rings and only wnats one hammer. Here, the plastic head will move the metal with out leaving marks.

Double insert hammers have interchangeable plastic heads of carious shapes that work the metal without leaving marks. The wide range of head shapes duplicate metal planishing, embossing, and raising hammers, and are useful for forming metal without stretching it. The hammer head is heavy enough to move metal with assurance.

TEXTURING HAMMERS

(Photo 8 ) Sharp texturing / raisig hammers are primarily for rings or other metal surfaces where very detailed hammered textures are needed. This type of hammer can also be used to make extremely tight curves when raising portions of jewelry. Here, the sharp edge of the hammer is used to form the texture on a band ring. A shorter, smaller version can be used on wire or other very small surcases. A texture that simulates raw silk is produced with a planishing hammer that has been randomly ground on the heads. It’s similar to a texture that could be rolled onto flat metal in a rolling mill. This type of hammering makes it possible to produce the texture on dimensional shapes.

MALLETS

Plastic head mallets are used to flaten and shape metal without leaving marks.

All of the cabochons that this person makes are glass and they come from two main processes. The first process she usees for cabochons is lampwork (or torch work). These are made in a very similar process to the beads that I also create and sell. Flameworked cabochons allow for very unique colorations and designs with details that straight fused pieces cannot easily capture. Often, once a piece has been created in the flame and kiln annealed and she will sometimes slump it to a flatter profile, but not always! Some cabs encase in clear so they look like mini paperweights.

The second type of cabochons that she makes are straight fused cabs. These pieces start life as sheet glass and dichroic which she carefully layers directly into a cold kiln. The pieces are then super heated so the glass sheets become molten and reform into a new, patterned piece. This is the process she most often follow when using dichroic glass. Once fired the new pieces may be complete or may be cut up into smaller components and then firepolished for a nice finish. More……..