[Welcome] New Members for June 18, 2012

Orchid Circulation: 13,000 members!

Please welcome our newest members…

Alicia Owens
Chicago, Illinois. USA

http://www.cheekybirdjewelry.com

Designing jewelry since 1996; Metalsmithing for 5-6 years. Metalwork
and enamel.

Jennifer Nielsen
Jennifer Nielsen Hand-Crafted Jewelry
Portland, ME. USA

Hello! I’ve visited the forum many times over the years, but never
noticed I could actually sign up! So, I’ve been self employed with
my jewelry business for 16 years. I’ve been marketing a line of
jewelry that features native stones from beaches in my area,
combining them with diamonds and pearls in silver & gold. I do a lot
of custom work for people who have their own stones. I love Orchid
for appealing to my jewelry-geek nature. What an amazing resource.
Thanks everyone in the Ganoksin community! Cheers! Jen

Denny Hunter
thevisiblearts
Edinburgh, UK

I’m an artist currently exploring jewelry as a conduit for my work.
I have been experimenting with ‘copper etching’ and ‘resin casting’
and continue to search for the holy grail of blending both
disciplins together in a manner that would suit my narrative.

I would be very happy to recieve feedback relating to the practice
of merging copper techniques with resin work and would also be happy
to share my experiences so far.

Laura Ann Tisoncik
Prayer Beads and Sacred Jewelry by Webmuskie
Burlington, VT. USA

http://www.webmuskie.com

I’m a mystic turned beader, then metalsmith. I make, or am in the
process of making, articles from all of the world’s significant
religious and spiritual traditions, from the common beading of a
rosary, to that atheme in progress on my bench.

It all began a few years ago as a statement against religious
intolerance. But somewhere along the line it morphed into a love of
wire and sheet metal, the joy of hammering a featureless product of a
mill into something useful and beautiful, and the pleasure of the
hiss of the torch. I suppose it was inevitable. I’ve always been a
“tinkerer”. Little in my house hasn’t been made by me, or altered in
some significant way to suit me (inclusive of the computer I’m
writing this on).

I’m self-taught, which is to say I’ve got enormous gaps in my
knowledge, plenty of bad habits, and places where I’m so wrong I
don’t even know how very wrong I am. As such, I’m here more to
listen than to hear myself promote my (imagined) expertise.

Of late (meaning what you’ll find all over my bench today) I’ve been
working largely in copper, making copper crucifixes and centers for
Catholic rosaries, copper and stone Wiccan ritual items, copper
pendulums, and copper Shabbat candle sets.

My website is still a work in progress: I finally settled on the
shopping cart just this week. After I get a batch of copper
pendulums done and off to a metaphysical store in a few days, I’ll
sit down and begin the necessary tedium of getting the website in
order. I’ve been designing websites since 1995 and so I can’t justify
foisting my own website design onto anyone else.

Adeel Kalid
Marbella, Spain

A student learning about metallurgy.