Mowing Grass!

Here is a soldier stationed in Iraq , stationed in a big sand box. He asked
his wife to send him dirt ( U.S. soil), fertilizer, and some grass seed so that he can have the sweet aroma, and feel the grass grow beneath his feet When the men of the squadron have a mission that they are going on, they take turns walking through the grass and the American soil.

To the left you see part of a skeleton of a ring that was bought over 27 years ago.I had to cut it off the owner. It was a size five. She needed a size 6-3/4. The ring was so very thin and worn. Once I had it off her finger to resize it, I looked at the prongs that were holding the stone in place.
Well, at least I tried to look at them. Only two of the prongs were holding the stone in place. The other four were non existent when it came to metal on the stone for security purposes.



This is the first "repair" that I did all on my own that consisted of more than soldering and cleaning.
I ordered a new ring shank in a size 6, and a 6 prong head as she had before. Soldered them, and then used part of her old ring, the thickest part on the old ring to size the ring up 3/4 of a size. So basically I married the old ring to the new ring thanks to solder!

Setting the stone was pretty easy! I am so pleased with how nice it turned out!

My client will be in on Tuesday to pick it up!
May she have at least 27 more years of wearing it!

Business Card Preview and Marketing Idea

This is a preview of my business card!
I am so excited! I love this picture.
I am going to have it painted for display
in my shoppe.

Once it is painted, I will have it photographed. From the photographs,
I will have a vinyl sign 2'x5' made to hang in one of my front windows.
Using the same lettering and info that is on my business card.
On another vinyl sign I will have 4 or 5 printed 18"x24" so that I can
cut them out and have a few bags like what is below made out of them.



I am not sure how long this process will take, but... I am hoping to get it
started today!

Crocus in the Snow

I just finished this ring right before leaving the shoppe
today.


When my client came in with her stones, I got so excited.
The diamonds are super duper white.(I know that is not a
jeweler's terminology, but it is definately a layman's
terminolgy so bare with me).

The color of the tanzanite is such a deep rich purple
with a slight hint of blue to it. She wanted a tulip
head to hold the center stone. I had never used a one
before much less set tanzanite so I asked one of my
instructors to help me.

She came into the shoppe as I was doing the final polish
on it. She was so pleased.

Finally finished for Josh !

I started working on this pendant a year and a half ago.I was taking a lapidary class at Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology.We were given our choice of stones to cut and polish. There were a fewsmall pieces of a rock that had small fossilized snail looking designs in it.The stone is called Turritella. I cut the stone and polished it not sure whatI was going to do with it. The stone was extremely hard to polish but once I finished, I was very delighted with how it turned out.


When Josh came to visit last year, he was looking through my collection of
cut stones and really commented how awesome the the Turritella stone was.

My instructor helped to carve the wax for lost wax casting. I had never done
anything free handed like that. I was quite nervous because I wanted it to be
perfect for Josh. I wanted to make something for him that he would like and
hopefully wear. I didn't want it looking girly as my fellas call it. I wanted
it to have a mature look to it since he was in college and no longer in
high school. One thing that I have struggle with is the imperfections in the
metal work. My instructors have reassured me that imperfection is part of hand crafting a piece.


I think that we captured that nicely in this simple design. The stone was chased into the setting. What do you think?

Today I did my final emory, tripoli and polish on it. I crafted a black leather
cord to hang it on. I love the simplicity of this also.

I hope Josh likes it. I have not given him anything but life and pictures. This is the first true gift I have ever given him. I hope that he like. I don't think that if he didn't like it that he would ever tell me. I really don't think I would want to know.

It is the first piece of jewelry that I ever made that was not intended for school use.

My initial response to 911!

Oh Daddy!!!

Hold our hearts...comfort our spirits. Remind us that this did not
take you by surprise. Do not allow our fear to control us in this
situation. Cause your spirit to rise in us so that we may speak love
and comfort to those who do not know you in spite of our own emotions.
I pray Lord that this will be used as a wake up call for our nation.
One that will cause us to search our hearts and cause us to fall on
our face before you seeking your forgiveness and healing in our land.

Cause your children to rise to the occasion in this horrible attack
on our nation. I pray that your spirit will arise in each one of us
and a boldness come upon us to reach out and touch a hurting dying
world.

Lord, I pray comfort for each and every family that is directly
effected by this horrific attack. I pray that they seek you in their
times of anxiety and fear.

Lord, protect each and every person who is putting his/her life on
the line to rescue the hurt.

I pray Lord that any other planned attacks will be aborted.

Keep President Bush safe, give him the wisdom of Solomon and the
courage of David. Thank you Lord that he is a Godly man and we can
depend on him to seek you on behalf of our nation during this time.

You are the King of Kings...
You are the Lord God Almighty!
In you I seek my refuge.

In the name of Jesus I pray.
amen

Chainsaw Granny!

I would like y'all to meet my grandmother. Her name is Mary Aneda. She goes by Anita. She is a true hero of mine. She turned 85 last week. Granny told me a few years back that middle age starts at 75, old age is at 115!
Needless to say, you can see the spunk in her words alone.

Granny doesn't drive anywhere much other than in her little town. In 1983, when she traded in her 1968 Dodge Dart, it had close to 11,000 miles. She bought a Dodge Neon in 2005. When I was visiting with her last July when this picture was taken, it had 3200 miles on the odometer.... back to why you needed to know that. My Aunt Donna normally brings Granny to town. It is about a 5 hour drive,Granny normally stays for 2 weeks when she does come. Someone from our family normally takes her home. Anyway,
they had just arrived and Myra and I started to unload the Granny's suit cases from the trunk. We discovered she had brought a chainsaw. We both looked at each other with great dismay and questions running through our minds. We knew better than to vocally ask why there was a chain saw. We just kept our mouth shut and did what we were suppose to.

The next morning after breakfast, we were cleaning in the kitchen, and all of a sudden the buzz of a chainsaw was heard outside in the back yard. We immediately ran to the windows and doors to see what was going on... and there she was..... my wonderful 72 year old grandmother had climbed a tree and was trimming limbs off of it for my mother! Why couldn't she ask a younger sprout of a son in law to do this??
There were two of them within hollering distance! She said she came with a purpose, that that was part of it! Did I mention she is a very determined and independent woman??

Since that day, we lovingly call her Chainsaw Granny!

Finished!

After three days of working 2-4 hours I have my work area in order.
This is my workbench area. The pic does not show how perfectly clean they are!
I promise they are!



This is my storage area and free work space. You can see my small kiln in this pic.
My larger one is sitting on top of the refrigerator until I am ready to put it into use.


This is my metalworking bench for drawing, rolling and hammering metal!


This is my easy reach storage area. I have all the things that I need to set up a bench for work right there with in reach to my left, since I am left handed.



The wet area. I bought a new faucet that I could stretch to fill up the steamer with.
It is so nice to not have to keep filling up water jugs for that.


This is the polishing area. I love the old polisher. It is an antique, but was just recently rebuilt. I hope it goes for a long long time!


Now tomorrow...oh my is my bead area! Anyone want to come help?? I think my honey is going to hide as I clean and organize that area.

I Need The Help of a Professional!

The Lord has been so good to me, bringing everything I need, or at least I think I need for my jewelry business. I have been storing it in the back room of our shoppe as I have bought it. Now comes the time to put it in place and hope to make sense of it.



I am so overwhelmed by God's generosity. I feel like my store house is full and anything else is going to cause it to overflow. I have got to make some sense of it.
I have got to have it in full operation mode no later than this time next week. I need HELP!



In posting this I am making a challenge to myself to get it all organized, so that I can work efficiently

Finally! & Thank You!

I graduated on Thursday from Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology

with a certificate in Jewelry Technology.

I mainly want to say thank you to my family for being such

a wonderful support to me during the past few years.

I could not have done it without you!

Here is a pic of the whole kit and kaboodle of us at graduation.

Left to right

Haleligh, Jordan, Kara, Me, Chelsea, Wes and Micah.