Comments on: Amethyst Vine https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/ free jewelry tutorials, plus a friendly community sharing creative ideas for making and selling jewelry. Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:38:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.15 By: Duane Aldrich https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-414700 Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:38:24 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-414700 Sherry, Thank you! And don’t give up. If I can do it, you can too. Practice, practice, practice. As for tools, you’d laugh if you saw my bench. It’s an old school desk, and my torch came from Lowes plumbing department. Otherwise, I use a Harbor Freight knock off Dremmel tool for buffing and most of my pliers are actually for electronics. Good tools can make things easier but they aren’t necessary to get the job done. Just get to making some items and as you sell a few you’ll be able to upgrade the tools.

]]> By: Duane Aldrich https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-414696 Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:11:34 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-414696 Thank you Dianne! I pretty much grew up soldering electronics and plumbing, but silver is a different beast altogether. Try soldering some easy items first using easy or extra easy solder which melts and flows faster, then work up to harder solders that need more heat. The biggest trick to make sure all the pieces fit tight without gaps, then make sure your piece and the solder are clean and well fluxed. If your solder is melting but not flowing its probably not clean or fluxed well.

Believe me, I have a bag of scrap that I messed up during the join. Just keep practicing. Good luck.

]]> By: Sherry https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-414695 Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:08:35 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-414695 That is simply beautiful. I hope that one day I will be able to acquire the skills needed to make settings like that myself. I have so many ideas for how I would love to display items from my little collection of cabochons and faceted stones but I have neither the equipment nor the skill to execute them. One day… 🙂

]]> By: Dianne H. https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-414665 Tue, 27 Oct 2015 14:37:59 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-414665 Love the curvy, flowing design. Beautiful. I so admire those that can do soldered pieces, since taking a class in it I found out how difficult it is.

]]> By: Rena Klingenberg https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-414252 Sun, 25 Oct 2015 16:49:01 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-414252 Thank you for sharing your artistry with us, Duane! And Bobbie, it’s lovely to hear from you about the special pieces Duane creates for you.

]]> By: Bobbie https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-412748 Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:22:04 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-412748 Duane makes many beautiful pieces of Gemstone Jewelry. I have a number of them. He made a gorgeous necklace for me for our 55th anniversary that I like very much. I have always been very satisfied with his work and I recommend it to everyone.

]]> By: Duane https://jewelrymakingjournal.com/amethyst-vine/#comment-412743 Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:15:35 +0000 http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/?p=41876#comment-412743 Thank you for posting my work. I’ve been making jewelry for about 5 years now, working in gemstones for about 4 years, and precious metals for about a year and learning more with every piece. I really enjoy the metal work side and try to push my abilities when I can.

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