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.

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. 

If I had a hammer

Using my big textured face cross peen hammer, I forged out these tapered sterling rods. 2 are going to be bracelets and the the 3rd (first picture) is going to be part of a pendant.

Some of the other one off pieces being worked on at the same time 

Scars and Stripes: The Saga Continues

This is the second in the series of Scars and Stripes and about the 10th in the series of sake/drinking cups. This one holds 1.5 oz. It's made of sterling silver and copper. It has a nice substantial feel in the hand weighing in at 85 grams. (2.73 oz.) Price on request

Fun Class

I got to teach a private workshop on soldering and stone setting to another teacher and artists, Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime.  We did the workshop in the studio of another artist and mutual friend.  It was fun and we all learned alot.  Deryn made a great silver ring with 2 bezel set cabs.  Great job Deryn!

Bracelets with stones

Some more new bracelets with stones. The top one is forest jasper. The middle is unknown but I think it's crysoprase or verisite, maybe someone can identify that for me. I got it years ago at a gem show and never knew what it was, the bottom is a carnelian It's much more translucent than this picture shows Quite a nice gemmy stone of an orangish red color. These are priced at about 110.00 to 150. with silver at 40.00

Custom ring with stone

A recent custom job of designing a silver ring with a catseye stone the customer had


After several design sessions we came up with a good solution to his idea of basing the design on the yin yang symbol. This is the rough casting in silver with the bezel ready to be soldered in and the stone set. 

the finished design

Beach Glass custom job

A customer brought me this piece of glass to make a necklace.  It has an open back to let the light thru

Branch cuffs

A sampling of some of the Branch Cuff bracelets I'll be showing and shipping to galleries this month.

From the bench

Here's one for the techies that like to see the process. This is a shot of my bench after 2 or 3 casting sessions. These are all silver except for the gold hearts in the upper left corner. They are still attached to the sprus and casting button. All the others have been cut off but nothing else has been done. This is what sterling silver looks like after casting. Now the fun begins. Figuring out what to do with it all I have a few ideas. But first it's grinding, sanding soldering on parts buffing and tumbling for a high polish finish. Antiquing (oxidizing) for contrast. Most of these pieces will be used in combination with other castings, stones or beads for color. The little gold hearts will be soldered onto the cross. These are part of my hearts line and part of a wholesale order. The trees will get finished and put on chains. There are a couple of leaves in there that will get the same treatment. Just a nice simple statement about nature and the beauty of curved line. Everything else is up for further design. The branches are molded from actual sticks that were drift wood found on the beaches of the north fork of Long Island. The texture will pop out with finishing. The leaves are all one of a kind as is the rose. Not sure what I'm going to do with the rose. Any ideas? Stay tuned to see what comes out. It looks like a mess now but some beautiful jewelry will emerge after I wave my magic wand over it.

Link Bracelets

Diamond shape links with graduated balls dancing around the links. solid sterling

I'm still looking for a name for this one. It's a little heavier than the one above and below and it has 14 gold balls in each link. I haven't done this a while since the cost of gold is so high but I love the contrast of metals

This one I call Sting rays but it could be stars too. These are nice light weight bracelets. Great for summer. Silver shows off you tan

New Buckle and Bracelets

Here's a new lab buckle in sterling. this one is shown on an 1 1/8 in. belt but will fit on 1 1/4. I also have a bulldog and a corgi buckle that are profiles like this.

Two views of the first of a new series of bracelets I'm calling "Blue Ridge"

Three new bracelets made of bronze and silver. Wrapping the bronze in silver keeps the bronze off your wrist and wont give you a green mark. the bronze will ozidize to a nice dark brown and have a nice contrast with the silver vine.