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This past weekend I did an art show and there was not very many visitors in attendance…. I was pretty bummed on my way home to have been gone from 5am to 9pm, work hard with little to no reward. I could have been hiking a trail with my kids in the same location instead of manning my art show booth. Well, and then I got to thinking, ‘What a brat!’ I have had a lot of amazingly, surprisingly, unbelievable, successful shows. So, what is this one! that is not!???? They cannot all be stellar. And it was a beautiful day, in a beautiful place… I was with my children and several other really great artists that I actually got to get to know because we all had time on our hands and were free to chat. I got to eat at one of my son and I’s favorite restaurants on the way home, ‘Hot Tamales.’ When I got home I had a stack of orders waiting for me from good customers… So, I put away the loser attitude and chalked up show attendance to a festival in the neighboring town and called it a day. I don’t take a negative attitude too often and I’m not about to start. Then I got to thinking about how blessed I really am ~ great family, lots of great family that would come and get you out of jail no questions asked, great kids, healthy, great hubby, healthy, myself: healthy… I live in a cute, safe, sleepy town and out of my windows and driveway are picture perfect paintings of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. How much more could have have? (Yet, I was whinning.) I have an abundance of love, joy, work, family, friends, dreams and goals. I am so very fortunate….

Here are some people’s emails that made my week to add to my feelings of abundance and that I am truly blessed to work with amazing people and make their vision become something precious that they hold ~ wear ~ and give as a loving gift.

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Tsunami Love Pendant ~Just opened it and I welled up with emotion and almost cried.
It is stunning and beautiful beyond what I can express at the moment!!!
I can not thank you enough for your talent and patience, Joy.
I will forever…Choose Joy!!
Much Love and peace,
Thom

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Here’s the materials I used. Everything is 1mm thick/18G. Curved piece is the gold (also 1mm thick) and it’s stamped with a custom saying on it of customers choice. Do any hammering first. You can’t hammer a spinner later. The hammer blows will distort everything. Large wide strip will be the base band- wider the better. You trim the extra off later. Notice that one skinny strip is much longer and one skinny strip is the same as the wide one.

Measure the band to the appropriate length for the size you prefer. Make one of the skinny bands the same length and solder the skinny band to the wider band (make sure it’s straight and it doesn’t have to be right on the edge) while they are both flat. Use hard solder for every possible step except the very last solder join.

Make the band that spins (in this case the gold band) 2.75 sizes larger than what the actual ring size is suppose to be. Make the longer skinny band 2 sizes larger than what the actual ring size is suppose to be. Solder all rings together with hard solder.

Clean all the rings up. File and grind off one end of the ring where the band is soldered on. Check that you don’t have any excess solder anywhere. That is very important so you don’t get the spinner soldered down to the base band of the main ring on accident.

Make sure spinning ring spins freely, for this the bands need to be perfectly round or they will get hung up somewhere. Check the thinner band for a tight, perfect fit. You are just checking things at this point so don’t force it on. You want to be able to remove the gold band.

Paint any spinning rings with whiteout (sometimes you have multiple spinners). Cover every surface. This will act as a barrier just in case the spinning band wants to solder itself to the main band (like at solder seems).

Put the last band on the ring and make sure it’s a tight fit. This is where the extra width comes in…Leave a lip of silver hanging out from the wide band. This way you are not trying to get it perfect on a band that is cut to perfect size. You have some space to fit the last band on to the ring and space for solder to flow.

Soldering this last step is messy because the whiteout is burning off the spinner. Focus your flame on the extra lip of the ring that is hanging over so your solder flows outward not in towards the spinner band. Use a hot flame: get in and get out.

Make sure the spinner spins…. yippee!!!!!! Spinning freely!!! Saw off the extra lip/edge.

Saw, Grind, File & Polish

And sent to customer in Canada today 🙂 Happy Wedding Jess….     Link to ring: https://www.etsy.com/listing/205657496/18k-gold-sterling-silver-spinning-band?ref=shop_home_active_1

Moving on…

I have be ramping up for a show in Door Co. Oct 11 &12th. It is the Townline Fine Art Show at the Fineline Gallery in Ephraim WI. It’s busy. I can’t wait! I get to see Lissa Flemming from Silverwaves Jewelry in Bayfield Wisconsin and Tammy Rae, Tammy Rae Glass ~ we are all staying together so I am sure it will be all laughs all the time!!!!!!!! Again hope for good weather. We could freeze in Wisconsin in mid-October.

Labradorite, sterling and 18K gold necklace

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/205487582/labradorite-stone-sterling-silver-18k?ref=shop_home_active_10

Barite and Pearl…

https://www.etsy.com/listing/205488630/barite-pearl-sterling-silver-one-of-a?ref=shop_home_active_9

I hope you enjoyed the making of a spinner, and see you in Door County October 11 &12… It’s the busiest weekend of the year up there so if you are driving just for the day, leave early, start at the top of the peninsula and then make your way back. If you start at the bottom of the peninsula with your tourist travels you never get to the top… too much to see, too many festivals, too much traffic. No one is headed the opposite way… clear sailing… Go to the end and then turn around and enjoy meandering your way home.