The Making of The Silver Farrier Quater Horse

This buckle was designed for 1.25 inch belts. It is now on my Etsy store.  Its based loosly on shape of a horse shoe and the Western style buckles. This is the process for making a Quarter Horse Farrier buckle in silver. I have done this one in bronze but this is the first time I've done it in silver. You can see more about this design here and see the finished bronze version here
After the casting process, which takes many steps, I start sanding down the silver to get all the surface imperfections and oxides off.

 Then I use various hammers to get the final size, shape, and texture. 

 The silver is then oxidized to create the dark areas and the highlights are polished.

New Jewelry for the Fall Shows

This is just the beginning.  I have been busy making new things for the Downtown Gainesville and The Gathering of the Artists shows. I'm using more color stones and making some bigger pendants. These are mostly for the "Sea Life" series, Crashing Waves but some work in the "Forest Life Series" as well. There is some cross over between these two series when I get into the one of a kinds.  I'm also makeing some long neck chains with no stones and big links, a new very heavy sterling cuff bracelet,  more earring designs with and without stones in silver and colorfull aluminium. Not to forget about the guy's, I have a new money clip, tie tack and cufflinks as well a new sterling silver buckle...
  These may not be on the website yet, or ever!. They are one of kind and with 2 more shows, I'll wait to see if they sell before putting them on the websites. However at this time I still have all of them so leave a comment, email me, message me in instagram or facebook , Pick your platform!, if you want to order or price information or more pictures, and I will see that you get the one you want. If they make it on my Etsy store or website I'll send and email so be sure you are on my list.

This stone is Russian Charoite.  This is a fairly rare stone and going up in price.I got these a while ago so they are still reasonable.   This one is set with an amethyst
The over all length is about 2 inches.

This is a purple stone called sugilite. It's not as blue as this picture look in this pictureThis pendant is about 3 inches over all length

This stone is another Charoite about the same size as the one above 18 x 24 mm. this one has a 5mm moon stone as an accent

A Surf Bubbles pendant with crysopease, green aventurine, and moonstone as a dangle on the left

Zioisite with some ruby in the matrix and rhodinite accent stone. This spiral setting could a crashing wave or a plant form so I guess I just have to call it one of a kind

Lemon Jasper and Peridot are stones in this asymetrical spiral vine pendant.

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Custom Bracelets with Elks Tooth and Green Stone

Bracelets made for the customers stones

This bracelet started with this pendant.  The customers heir loom piece was a pendant she never wears so she wanted to make it into a cuff bracelet

I have all the parts made and ready to assemble

the parts , at long last, are all soldered together

The second bracelet is a clasp bangle using an elks tooth provided by the customer.  I had to cut the oot off and slightly reshape the tooth in order to make a bezel for it

The bezel is made and soldered in place after shaping the silver wire around it

The clasp at the back is soldered up and ready for the custom cut tooth part I'm shaping into a 5mm stone

finished elks tooth bracelet

You can see other bracelets ready made on my websites here and on my Etsy Store here

 

Elks Teeth Jewelry

This project stated when  customer came to me with these elks teeth. Souvenirs from a hunting trip. The idea is to make a pendant and a pair of earrings 

These are the natural teeth as I received them

I reshaped them and sanded the bottoms flat in preparation of setting them.

Here the wax models are ready to cast.  The teeth can't be heated up so they have to be removed from the wax for the next step

The wax has been transformed into silver and the and the teeth are being adjusted to get the fit back in the cup.

The finished product. . If you have an idea for a project contact me here

Shirt Studs? What's That

Who wears shirt studs any more?  Don't shirts come with buttons?  Well yes but if are wearing a nice tux and a fancy shirt, you might want to have some cool buttons to go with your cufflinks.  This was a custom order for shark heads shirt studs. So this is what I came up with. I was afraid just the heads would be too small and unidentifiable so I included the fins.

The customer loved these sharks head shirt studs. They went with some shark cuff links that had special meaning. they are now available on my web site.

Development of New Farrier Buckle Design

The Farrier series got its name because the original buckle was forged with a black smithing technique and took the shape of a horse shoe.  Originally i thought it would be the only one but since then i have added 2 other conventional style buckles and I'm now working on getting 2 new designs done for the website and Etsy store. These are also in the Farrier series. One for 1.25 inch belts (" The Quarter Horse") and one for 1.5. (the Work Horse"). I already have the Square Farrier  in those sizes but I'm ever expanding and these news ones are more "horseshoe " shaped.

This is the original design idea for the 1.5 farrier.  I'm now calling it the  "Workhorse"

These are the 2 sizes I made to use as the models for the process. These buckles will be hammer textured but they have to start out smooth and must be sanded and polished before texturing. 

The Quarter Horse being textured with a cross peen forming hammer

Preparing to make the tongue. This step is actually quite time consuming.  I make them from the raw bronze wire.

The Quarter Horse with the tongue installed. Testing for fit and function.

Quarter Horse patinated and waxed and ready for the web.

The Work horse installed on the 1.5 belt for fit and function.

The Work Horse buckle in bronze on a 1.5 inch belt

The inch and a half Work Horse and the inch and a quarter Quarter Horse for comparison

Suburban Tribal Revisited

Suburban Tribal is a line I started several years ago that I have been selling exclusively through art shows and galleries. I'm redesigning the line with some new twists and adding them to my website and Etsy store  The idea at that time was to make colorful, bold, big, but light weight and inexpensive earrings made with anodized aluminum, brass and sterling.  I still make some of the originals. They are all assembled with jump rings and ear wires for an articulated, fun and funky, action look. Everything moves and is loosely jointed. They are heavily textured with hammer and tool marks with some sanding away of color to reveal the aluminum. This gives them a "tribal" look.
  The new designs are more like a collage. Smaller, more refined designs smoother surfaces.  I'm adding some more sterling as well.  The new ones are more work as they are now being bolted together with tiny nuts and bolts or rivets. For the most part, they are more static, petite and elegant. But they still have the great saturated colors, interesting patterns, and light weight of anodized aluminum.   Maybe a bit more "suburban"  Hence, Suburban Tribal.

The original Suburban Tribal collection or anodized aluminum and with heavy texture, tool marks and sanded color. 

Here are some pictures of the new designs

Exploring the Explorer

I wanted an all around buckle that could be worn anytime, anywhere, from the exchange floor to your best friend's wedding, to exploring the south sea islands. I recently discovered Indiana Jones has a similar buckle holding his gun belt. Thus the name Explorer seemed fitting. I first came up with the idea of making conventional style buckles for my line about 3 years ago. I have made them in the past but have not added any to the line. I was caught up in making fish buckles and other non-fish themed buckles (e.g., the Arrowhead, the Spearhead) using prong stye attachments.

The original design was intended for 1.25 inch belts, however 1.5 inch belts have increased in popularity so I decided to scale up the buckle. If I just made it wider, the proportions would be off so I had to re-carve the design to accommodate 1.5 inch belts. Below are some pictures of the process and the final outcome.

This is the 2 wax originals ready to put in plaster for casting.

This shot shows the rough castings just out of the plaster.

 Here are the castings cleaned up a bit in the acid.

 The filing begins.
In order to do the hammered texture, the surface must first be smooth and polished.

 Ready for hammering.

 Top view of the finished piece.

View the final Explorer buckle in Sterling Silver on 1.5 inch brown cow-hide belt.