Flush Setting Tanzanites

Happy Holidays everyone!!

I'm having a marvelous time working with drill bits today. In all honesty, it is mighty challenging flush setting stones on an uneven surface like this hand-cast ring. For me, at least. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's, well, 462.

I'll finish up this ring in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I'm going to work on something a little more standard, a little more flat, even and thin. Now where the hell is my 12 gauge square wire!!

One is Silver and the Other's Gold

A couple of good updates. The last week or so I've been diving in and finishing up some lingering pieces before starting on some new work. Actually treating Parks & Olive as the side business it is turning into!

Finished the 18k gold band and I'm SO happy with it. Ended up adding a soft texture to the metal. It was just what the piece needed.

Unabashedly swiped the idea of styling a jewelry piece on a flower stem from my dear, artistic daughter. She had recently designed a similar shoot for The Dreslyn.

Been really pushing to get my photography better for the pieces. I had heard from several folks that natural light was the way to go for jewelry. But man, oh man, my lighting was all over the place!!! I was getting almost frustrated, then, as a last resort I dragged out my lights. My smallest little lightbox lights worked perfectly and really did the trick.

At last, I've got silver looking like silver, and gold looking like gold. Oh happy day!!

My First...

So, so happy to make my first little sale last week!! I love this necklace. I carved a curvy, sloping egg out of the hard blue wax, then had it cast in silver by my great casting guy in Arroyo Grande. I used three different drills to set the garnet, then burnished the hell out of it to move the silver over and lock the stone in place. Really pleased with how this turned out.

Lots more pieces being photographed this week! They should post shortly (next week) to my little Etsy site - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ParksAndOlive : )