your enthusiasm is contagious! Keep it up! Go ahead and try enamel, casting and other techniques… don’t give up on fabrication… the suggestion to make a second fabricated pendant is a good one. It doesn’t have to be identical in design, but having had made the first, the second will go much faster. What you learned with the first try won’t have to be relearned… your techniques will become more refined as time goes on and you will be able to create fine jewerly if that’s the direction you want to go towards. Having jewerly with a handmade quality does have it’s own rewards too and a market.
Once you gain experience with enamel and casting you can combine techniques to produce one of a kind pieces of art. Don’t let set backs dismay you… I’ve overheated and melted stuff that took hours to make… chaulk it up to experience and keep on going…I chose metal work over ceramics because hot metal is alive!..silver and gold are like clay except harder… they still can be worked into shaped, not with bare fingers but using hammers… still plastic and malleable. Don’t stop and go elsewhere, but devote as much time as you have available to create art in metal and stones. It never gets boring. If you start selling, keep pictures of everything you make… as your skills evolve, you will have a record of where you started and what level of skill you have mastered… The most important thing is to enjoy what you are doing… it’s not a job but a labor or love… best wishes and the best of luck for the future…
It does now that i did some adjusting. Im learning a lot about springs w this lol
Thank you so much. You’re actually really right about keeping the pictures because the jewelry that I make now is so much better than even anything I started with. I absolutely love doing this and I wish that I had taken the steps when I was younger to do this full time.
the only suggestion that I have is to master one technique before going on to another. If you try casting, enamelling, fabrication, machining all at once, you may still get good results but it will take you a longer time to become master of all. I did my work as a hobbyst and just for the creative fun of it. I had to do it on and off because I had a full time job that was a double time job. I never bought expensive equipment as I never had the time to use it… nonetheless, I started with simple and worked my way up to more elaborate as my experience grew. There were a few disasters along the way, but chalk it up to experience. My only regret is that my health problems finally precluded me from sitting at the bench for hours at a time. I had to quit making jewelry but the experience I gained is something that I am more than willing to share. I also approached metallurgy scientifically. Having a science background does help, especially when it comes to the properties of alloys. Making my own 18K gold from bullion coin gold, making my own solders and wire and sheet, saved me a lot of money. None of this is particularly difficult to do. I too love this website because of the true sense of a community. No one has trade secrets to hide. Technical problems are solved by other people’s experience and knowledge. Best of wishes on your continuing career in a real art form…
I’m afraid that’s just my ADHD personality. I am do my best when I’m learning a lot of things at once because I get bored easy. LOL
trying new techniques is fun. it’s hard to become master of all… you’ll find what your’re best at as you continue to explore. In time you could very easily become master of all… good luck, and best wishes.
The biggest advice you’ll get, is not to give up. You should see the first pieces each o us has made. We didn’t get to where we are easily. Thank God my first attempts are in a small box, n a larger box, buried n a large 3 ft. long storage unit n another state. Yours looks wonderful compared to mine.
Thank you. Ill show my first ring when im brave enough lol
Just seeing this and dont think i answered. So the clasp has a self made spring under the little “button” you see. The other side just slides right in and it bounces into place to keep it closed. To remove it, you just push down on the button or slide it out snd it spribgs back.