Ammonite Pendant set with Pearl, Sterling Silver Jewelry - On Sale

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Ammonite Pendant set with Pearl, Sterling Silver Jewelry - On Sale

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On Sale, Sterling Silver Pearl Ring. Buy Now!
A Pile of Silver
Above is a cell phone photo of my workbench. Lots of work in progress work displayed here. I have been a busy bee. This pile here probably represents about 40 more hours of work yet to be done to shaped this recent casting into finished jewelry.
New Years Goals
It has been a while since I posted. Simply put, I got a bit overwhelmed with the holiday season, a major art show, and trying to keep up with the internet. Something had to give for a while, and the internet was the clear choice. I needed to test how well things were working from my internet efforts without putting in any more time as it was anyways. Staying on top of adding new content is difficult. But I do think it is important.
I am about half way to accomplishing my monthly revenue goals on a consistent basis. That being said, I believe the best way to accomplish my financial goal is to establish a retail presence, selling wholesale to vendors on the more touristy side of the island.
Am I Made With Love?
This morning I was thinking about how do I promote the buy local, buy handmade concept I believe most folks are aware of the buy local campaign that has been going on for years now, though they might need a little reminder at times.
It is really hard to compete against the big mega corporations, and even harder on the web. They own it. They did a good job to get there, but the little guy is lost in all the noise.
The image is from the web, the creators name above @chathyitychalk I think. The above words captures exactly what my handmade means to me. Excellent presentation, and timely given my morning musings.

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Casting...
What you are seeing here is a sprue with future jewelry designs still attached. This is what things look like right after a cast. The black is from the molten silver oxidizing at the surface right during casting. It is very easily removed by soaking the pieces in a light acid bath, called a pickle, for about 5 minutes. The pickle turns the above completly white. Designs are then detached from the casting center sprue. All traces of the sprue attachments and any possible mold parting lines are mechanically removed from the designs. And then comes the work to turn the design into shiny metal. I mostly use mass finishing techniques, and at times hand polishing to make the work shiny.
For those of you that follow my work closely you might have noticed one new design on the tree above. Casting can fail often, as much as 20% failure per flask is not that uncommon, though this gets better with experience. To insure that my new future masters are successful, I distribute them to as many different flask as possible in a casting session. That way one flask might fail, and I might loose a master, but I would still have a chance that others flask will still have successful casts.
There is another technique I use above that some of you casters might have noticed. I sometimes cast my rings as flat items, and form them on a mandrel after the fact. Depending on the design this can save a lot of time, especially if the ring needs to be sized often. Most of the time I cast preformed rings, and as part of the design process build in locations on my designs that can be sawed for sizing without ruining the ring textures. Every once in a while the casting flat technique makes lots of sense to employe.
Sterling Silver Bangle, Hand Finials
Sterling Silver Bangle with Hand Finials, Handmade Materials: Sterling Silver. In jewelry make parlance the ends of a bangle are called finials. This Bangle design is best worn on the wrist, between the wrist bone and the hand. This Silver Bangle piece, and would make a great gift for yourself, family, friends or loved ones. This Sterling Silver Bangle with Hand Finial is made to order. Please message me with wrist circumference. This design is best worn on the wrist, between the wrist bone and the hand. The best way to measure your wrist is to wrap a strip of paper around your wrists, mark where the paper first starts to overlap and measure. It does not have to be exact. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the piece or how to measure. Casting is not an exact science, piece often cast with natural imperfections that add character to the work and are highly desirable in handmade silver cast. The natural imperfections add a sense of antiquity to the work.
Will I be found?
I have been at trying to create an internet presence for a bit over 30 days now. It is a daunting exercise to say the least.
After 30 days, Google has finally found my site and I believe characterized it with keywords correctly. I submitted my site to Google on day one. They did do a partial indexing from day one, but the keywords were all wonky; very wonky. So I started to dig into my site, and do some research. The wonky key words gave me a clue about how to set things right. So about a week ago, I did some tweaking of wording on my pages, and titles, and lo and behold, things look great now.
From what I can tell google still has not picked up everything, even still so more links and indexing are to be expected.
Jewelry marketing on the internet is a very crowded field. I would like to believe that having my site now represented by the most valid keywords should greatly improve my chance of being seen on organic searches. Stay tuned I will let you know.
Living on a Volcano
My silversmith studio is located in Volcano, Hawaii. Hawaii lava flows have been getting lots of attention lately. My friends and family have been asking questions about my safety of late, thanks for the concern. All is well where I live. Just a bit of background, I came to Hawaii on a job offer (geophysics/ software ) by the USGS (United States Geologic Survey). I no longer work for them. The views express here are my own views and do not necessarily represent the views of the USGS.
Puu o o, is the source vent for the current lava flow, The video above was taken a year ago when the lava was heading in a southern direction towards the sea. Not the like the current lava flow which is heading East from the vent.
Puu o o is about 10 miles south of my studio, and down hill. The current lava flow is about 30 miles away, and down hill.
So guess what is moving between me and the power station that provides power to where I live? You guessed it, hot molten lava. I lost power yesterday for a brief time. I hope this does not become a real problem. I guess this is just one of those things you can expect to have happen when you live on a active Volcano in the middle of the Pacific. :)
One of my friends brought up a concern about explosive volcanic events. We do not have explosive lava here. Explosive lava is reserved primarily for continental margins. The last time we had explosive lava was over 300 years ago. And that was attributed to the main vent being sealed for 100's of years and long term contact with the ground water. The Puu o o vent has been open for over 30 years straight now. The longest known continuous lava flow in history. The main vent reopened in 2008. And it was not explosive either. But it put on quite the show.
Lava moves pretty slow as you can see in the video. There is not much risk here of being covered by lava. That being said, this is mother nature. and the lava goddess, Pele has a mind of her own. We are probably more at risk due to earthquakes (continuous) and tsunamis on the island than lava. It has to be a pretty big wave for it to hit me at 4000 ft elevation.
And just to scare the rest of you, there is some thought that we can have a slide/slump of the land mass, a rather large chunk, on the south side of the island. This has happened in recent geologic time on various Hawaii Islands. If the south side goes, in theory, it could lead to a 1000 ft high tsunamis. This will probably not happen at all, and if it does statistically, not in our lifetimes. So rest easy.
Loving it Shiny!
Lost wax casting is all about creating a negative space that poured molten silver can flow into. The process of casting is pretty straight forward and incredibly fun to do. Copies of designs are made from liquid wax injected into a molds. Then the cool, hardened wax copies are attached to a wax sprue (blue in photo above). The purpose of the sprue is help channel and feed the poured molten silver into the copies. This is called a sprue tree. The wax sprue tree is place into a metal flask cylinder, and a liquid, plaster like material known as investment is poured into the flask over the tree and allowed to harden.
When the flask is dry, the wax is melted out. What remains is the flask, the hardened investment and the negative space created after the wax from the copies and sprue have been removed. Then the molten silver is poured quickly into the flask, filling the negatives spaces and cooled.
There are ways to experiment with this type of casting, in other metals on a low budget using similar techniques to that described here. To get to quality, jewelry grade casting the equipment costs can add up pretty darn quickly.
I noticed that a lot of the search traffic I am getting on my website is from the younger folk. So this week I am going to concentrate on posting my more affordable proven designs that appeal them. Lots of heart designs this week are heading your way. Are you ready for Christmas shopping? Happy Holidays!

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Inspiration, Not Perspiration...
Sometimes I get writers block. I guess you could call it Jewelry Design Block. So inspiration to get off my arse and create something new, hangs up. I do not seem to have any trouble with ideas, I just seem to have difficulty with getting going.
I often thought this was about me as an artist worrying about how a piece will be accepted by my audience. So my ego gets in the way I suppose. I try to stop that type of internal dialog when I can. I think it is my duty to deliver my explorations into my art, and then move on. I have to learn that art is not about perfection.
This design causes me some angst, because this piece was a move sideways for me. It is not complex. This sterling silver design is basic geometry, but it is appealing, right? It does not have a pearl which I like to use in most of my designs. (I do have a matching pendant with a pearl set in this design). It is inspired by, (and that Is good enough reason, I suppose, to have turned my inspiration into art) a plant that grows where I live that is called a Tree Fern. This fern grows about 15 feet tall. It is pretty amazing. The Hawaiian word for this fern is interpreted as "The Mother of the Forest". The Tree Fern acts like a nursery for many of the native plants. Lots of little plants take root and sprout attached to this plant. Then fall off when the sprouts get bigger. This fern is native to Hawaii where I live, and grows only at Cloud/Rain Forest elevations.
So I put this design out there. I can stop sweating it now, it is done. Thanks for visiting me and my internal dialog. :)
Just testing something here. My website address is http://dotcomsilver.com
Sterling Silver Earrings, Fern Design, Handmade Silver Earrings
Sterling Silver Earrings, Fern Design, Handmade Silver Earrings This Sterling Silver Earring Design comes from a fern that is native to Hawaii where I live, and grows only at Cloud/Rain Forest elevations. This fern grows about 15 feet tall. It is pretty amazing. It is also known as the mother of the forest as well, because The Tree Fern acts like a nursery for many of the native plants. Lots of little plants take root and sprout attached to this plant. Then fall off when the sprouts get bigger. These handmade silver earrings are on french loops and have symmetrical left and right sides. These are very affordable and would make a great gift for folks in your life that appreciated handmade Jewelry. Or even you! Treat yourself to a bit of Hawaii. Casting is not an exact science, piece often cast with natural imperfections that add character to the work and are highly desirable in handmade silver cast.
An internet Marketing Report Card
I Am Impressed...
I love marketing, I always have. It should be a standard part of most any business. Here are some interesting numbers if you are interested in this type of thing.
I have been trying to create an internet presence for about 30 days or so now. On one of the marketing websites I am using I just broke 10,000 impressions. The cost was about $35.00 This works out to be a cost of about $3.50 per 1000 impressions.
Somewhere In my long distant past, I was doing a whole lot of magazine advertising and a lot of mailings. I had over 1 million people in my database of customers that had bought from me at the company's peak, eight years into the venture. My cost back then for a page of advertising was about $5000 per page. The magazine had about 650,000 subscribers. So my cost per 1000 impressions was about $7.70 per 1000 impressions.
As you can see the internet seems less expensive but, these numbers are not exactly comparing apples and oranges. The magazine audited claim was that their pass through viewers was about 1,000,000 readers (reading at the newsstand not buying, or giving to a friend count as impressions). So maybe the magazines cost per 1000 impressions was closer to $5.00
One of my social sites is closing in on 10,000 impressions as well. It cost zero dollars per 1000 impressions. It is not really very targeted to customers like the above marketing venues.
I believe that paid and organic marketing is important and will continue exploring these opportunities.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Sterling Silver Pearl Ring
Artistically Elegant Sterling Silver Pearl Ring set on Half Round. Titled: Pearl Ring. Great Gift Idea! Pearl is the birthstone for June. Parents this would be a perfect sweet sixteen present for your daughter. For you men out there, your sweethearts would love this as a promise ring, mothers day gift, or anniversary gift Freshwater pearls set in a solid sterling silver ring. Each crafted piece will be a little bit different. The overall finish is polished to a high gloss. I do, via custom orders on this design offer Akoya pearls, and cast in gold. If you are interested, please convo me. Please keep in mind that It often does take extra time to do custom orders. Please specify ring size when ordering. I will contact the buyer for rings size if not specified. The pricing above is for ring sizes up to size 9. Please convo me on price for larger sizes.
Sterling Silver Bangle, Bird Finals
Sterling Silver Bangle with Bird Finals, Handmade Lost Wax Casting. In jewelry make parlance the ends of a bangle are called finals. Great Gift Idea! I never copy other folks work. I have way too many ideas of my own. This is the exception. I saw these finals on a piece in a museum labeled 2,000 year old Babylonian. I figured if the original artist does not like me copying his work, he can come tell me so. :) I have left lots of stress and tool marks in the work. I thought it made the piece look lots older. This design would make a great gift for yourself, family, friends or loved ones. This piece is made to order. Please message me with wrist circumference. This design is best worn on the wrist, between the wrist bone and the hand. The best way to measure your wrist is to wrap a strip of paper around your wrists, mark where the paper first starts to overlap and measure. It does not have to be exact. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the piece or how to measure. Casting is not an exact science, piece often cast with natural imperfections that add character to the work and are highly desirable in handmade silver cast. The natural imperfections add a sense of antiquity to the work.