Count Down Fun! 9 . . . Production Prep Work

We both woke late this morning, and then loafed a bit before getting a late start.  It's a beautiful day out.  I'm doing some production prep work.  I'm making wax jump rings for our earrings!

In order to make and finish all of the work that we would like to have ready for the October Guild Fair we need to think about what we're doing, communicate and plan carefully.  We make a Good Team and we have a lot to do yet.

The keys to production work is to think ahead, do as many similar steps as quickly at once as you can, all while always maintaining the highest quality standards.  Basically, like so much of our work, it comes down to maintaining a very intense concentrated yet relaxed focus on what you are doing for an extended period of time.  It's, as Deb H. recently reminded me, a Zen Mind thing.

We prefer to cast the jump rings in place on our earrings rather than solder them on later.  Not only do we feel that they are stronger by being integral to the earring, but by now it's faster for me to do them this way than it is for us to make, or buy them, in metal and then solder and pickle them in place.

So lets make "some" wax jump rings!!!

20 gauge wax wire, a 1/16" styrene rod for a mandrel, and a fresh #11 scalpel blade.

Everything else is all hand and finger work.

I cut the wax wire into lengths.

Then wrap one length tightly into coils around the styrene mandrel.

Then I carefully slightly unwrap the coils by twisting them in the opposite direction so they are freed up form the plastic mandrel.

(If you don't do this they'll stick to the plastic mandrel.)

Then they are loosely re-tightened.

Then I used the scalpel to slice straight down into the coils; it is levered down rather than sliced with the tip.  The scalpel has to be perfectly vertical or the coils won't close properly.  If any stick together they can be loosen with a fingernail or a toothpick.

Then I slide one coil away from the others towards the end of the mandrel .

(Here's yet another use for long thumbnails when you're a jeweler!)

Using my thumbnails I gently push the ends of the coil together until they line up.

Then using my right thumb and forefinger I gently roll the ring and mandrel around to seal the ends of the ring together.

I slide the new 20 gauge wax jump ring off and line them up.

Repeat until you have made enough. 

In this case there are 90 wax jump rings on this sheet of molding rubber; enough for 45 pairs of earrings.

Back to work for me.  I want to get another two hundred finished before I stop to make dinner!

Because I'm working wax, which has to be completely clean and uncontaminated, I'm working in the office this afternoon while Pat is in the studio.  Our office and studio are next to each other and we frequently talk with each other about what we're doing.  I'm not sure what she's working on right now, but she just switched from using the buffer to her flex-shaft.  (And it sounds like I need take it apart, put new bushings in and give it a lube job sometime!)

It's our habit for one of us to call out, "I need to consult!"  Which has become our cue to stop and come take a look at what the other one is working on and share some ideas or advice.  It's Fun to work together.  That's why we started our business!

(Oh yeah ~ these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.  But oddly enough this is the exact spot I got to when I took a break to what we're working on today!)

Edited Monday to add link to the October Guild Fair!

Count Down Fun! 10 . . .

Ten Days and Counting until the October Guild Fair!

We shipped a packet of Labradorites to Deb H. this morning, so she can see if one of them is the Right Stone for her engagement ring!  Unfortunately, because Monday is Columbus Day, she won't get them until Tuesday.  It's a Zen Mind thang . . .

I've gotten out for meetings at the Folk Art Center, but we both had a touch of cabin fever this morning.  So we took a nice sunny wandering drive with the car windows down, just enjoying the fresh clean air and the incredible light.  It worked wonders for us!

So here are some photos of our latest work!



Lapis Lazuli

Sterling and 14K

$375 ~ Now Available

Starry Jasper & Garnet

Sterling & 14K Accent

$250 ~ Now Available

Chrysocolla

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Jasper

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Chrysocolla

Sterling & 14K Accents

$275 ~ Now Available

Labadorite

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Amber

$180 ~ Now Available

Jasper

$225 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Labradorite

Now Available ~ $175

Mara Mamba (Australian Tiger Eye)

Sterling with 14K Accents

$275 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

As you can see, we delivered a nice body of work to Allanstand, at the Folk Art Center.   As you can also see, I need to re-photograph some of them once I have a chance!  The new lights have helped though.

I almost forgot!  Here are a couple more . . .

Boulder Opal, Sapphire & Diamond
14K & Sterling

$750 ~ Now Available

Tiffany Stone

Sterling & 14K Accents

$225 ~ Now Available

We had a late lunch in the yard.  Pat spent a little time in the sunshine doing some design research.  I got to work getting the office back into shape and clearing the decks for action, got these photos cropped and posted.

Next I'm going to take a little time to update our badly out of date Guild members' web pages, while Pat gets some new earring design play time in the studio.  (This morning we decided that we were working today and taking tomorrow off.  After our drive and lunch we decided that we're working tomorrow and taking today off.  You can see what we both think is a good time on a day off!!!)

Ten Days and Counting . . .

Count Down Fun! 11 . . .

Photos Tomorrow.  No.  Really!!!

So, somehow, we have two weeks of photos, work, and life backlogged.  We haven't posted in how long?!?  Yet here we are and somehow the countdown has already started  .  .  .

We have eleven [ 11 ] working days before Load-In for the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands.  (I said that rather calmly, while I think somewhere deep inside myself I heard, "Eek!")  It's about to get, um, interesting.

It is also going to be very very rewarding.  The reality is that it's going to be physically harder than I would like.  (I'm already afraid that I'll meet "The Wall" again at some point . . . )  But it's going to be worth it!  When the October Guild Fair opens, the morning of Thursday the 21st, we'll be set up and ready.

We delivered a sizable body of work to Allanstand, at the Folk Art Center, today.  (I hope to post those photos tomorrow!)

What still amazes and astounds me is that, despite today's delivery, in the space of a couple of months we have designed, created and literally made real, what the art world might call, "a Major Body of Work".  Most of our larger Ridgelines pendants are finished, a few are still works in progress.  Four major commissioned pieces will be ready to be picked up at the Fair too.  Of course, quite a bit of the supporting production work is patiently waiting! 

It really is going to be Fun.  Being able to concentrate exclusively and so intensely on our work always is Fun!  But it's going to take some serious discipline to make up for all of the time that we have both been devoting to our other Guild responsibilities recently.

I'm looking forward to the point when, in the middle of the night, I look down at the office table and see a collection of finished work that we have made together.  That moment in time still astounds me.  It amazes me.

There's also a sculpture that I've been working on for a very long time.  I am sooo close to having the wax ready to cast in bronze . . .  It will be so personally satisfying to see and hold that piece once it's finished . . .

Oh, I almost forgot!  We'll be unveiling our new, limited edition, Seasonal Botanicals at the October Guild Fair!!!  (And Terry thinks I'm going to show her the photos I haven't taken yet?  HA!)