Jewelry Making Outside The Box

Sometimes NOT....let's talk more about Glue and Lacquer

Okay....so for years I made collage jewelry and I used glue.

Hot glue does not work for this stuff.  It shrinks in cold, expands (runs) in heat, and your stuff comes apart.   Like the old Friendly Plastic, remember that stuff?  It was awesome to work with, I have to tell you, I sort of miss it.   But it was NO good in heat, it would melt.  In cold, it would CRACK.

Well, hot glue is sort of like that.  No good for making jewelry.   Just don't do it.

Then you have your two-part glues and epoxies.  Yes, they work.   But in time, they will form a nasty yellow crust.  UGH UGH UGH.   And they're toxic anyway.   So something that is ugly and toxic too, well, why bother.

E6000 and GOOP glues work like the bomb.   They DO NOT turn an ugly color in time.  They are relatively easy to work with once you get a technique going.   They stink and they are toxic and they are bad for YOU, great for jewelry making because they are sturdy as can be, but BAD FOR YOU.

Still nothing else works better if say, you want to take a ring shank and glue a rose on top of it and set with a pearl.   Nothing gets banged around worse than a ring.   If you use E6000 and let it cure for a few days before you wear that ring, it's probably gonna hold up....for a long time.   And it's great for stuff that's uneven, you don't have to have all flat surfaces to get it to 'take'.   Again, great for collage jewelry, that way.

If you are going to use this product, and you don't have a respirator or can't stand to work with one, then go outside in the garage, front porch, back on the picnic table or something, to use it.  If you use it in close quarters in winter, open the window a little if possible or use a fan to blow the fumes away from you and use it in short stints only.  DO NOT EAT while using it.  DO NOT HOLD THE GLUE clenched tightly in your little hand, anywhere near your face, while you are using in.  DO NOT INHALE!!!!  DON'T use it every day, and KEEP IT OFF YOUR SKIN.

Another viable alternative is Crafter's Pick THE ULTIMATE GLUE.   We sell it and E6000 both on the website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com.  Crafter's Pick is nice and strong, and it is NON TOXIC.  I dunno if I would use it to set something on a ring shank that's going to get banged around, but I have made some bodacious picture frames with Crafter's pick, very deeply collaged.

  Something like this, however, would take about a week to cure, IMHO.  With E6000, it would be cured in two days.   But it would be far safer to  use.

Okay, so let's talk about lacquer now.  I used to carry a product called Treasure Crystal Coat, it's made   by the Plaid Co.   It really made a magical surface finish on collage like you see here.  BUT the main ingredient is BENZENE,    which is a horrific carcinogen.  So I won't have anything to do with it anymore.

Planning and Why You Should Be a Planner

What does PLANNING have to do with creativity?

EVERYTHING.

Most people start a new design with a plan.  (I don't so much, I usually surround myself with a batch of cool new components that have just arrived, and see where they take me.....but then, that's the business I'm in, it's easy for me to be surrounded with an over-kill amount of cool new components.  Not everyone is in that situation, so......they have to plan.  They can't just go out into a warehouse and snag a bag of headpins.)

PLANNING AT B'SUE BOUTIQUES:

For us on the website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com, we find we run outstock on about 50-75 items on the site at any given time.  We need to be better planners, buy stock on certain things deeper and discontinue the stuff that didn't sell well and get it out of the way.   We're working on that.  FRANTICALLY. 

FOR YOU, IF YOU INTEND TO SELL YOUR WORK:

The beautiful stampings you see on our website are made by large companies, toolers that house veritable libraries of old dies.   These tooling houses call the shots in the design business, because they work when they want to.  They go out on hiatus the the second weekend in December and stay out til til beginning of January, and they also go out in the summer for the first two weeks of July.  Many of them work banker's hours, some even close up shop at noon on alot of Fridays.

If it's say, June 25th and whoops! all of a sudden, we run out of spinner heart charms....well, that will PROBABLY be too close to fax or call a quick order for tooling to be run, have them sent to be finished and plated, before they all go out on two week's vacation the end of the month.   See what I'm saying?

If you anticipate doing a production run on a certain piece and you think you will sell quite a few of them, buy a half gross AT LEAST of your key component.   I know, I know, you run the risk that way of maybe being stuck with alot of something that didn't go over.  AGAIN....planning.  Do your market research.  Check the trends.  See what's out there, envision:   where is the next place current trend/design can go?  How does MY STYLE as an artist fit in there?

But if it takes off, you'll need a BUNCH of that part FAST.   The sad truth is....if we are outstock and your other favorite suppliers are outstock (or in our case, given that we have finishes that were made for us at bsueboutiques.com and NO ONE ELSE WILL HAVE IT) you might have to wait 2, 3 or even FOUR weeks to get that part in.   We have to have it made, finished, plated and polished, inspect it for quality, inventory and then send to you. If the houses are out on vacation, you might be really STUCK.

So if you are designing your fall/winter line for shows, Ebay, Etsy, home parties, store accounts....YOU SHOULD BE ORDERING IN, PLANNING AND STARTING WORK NOW.  Otherwise, you may not have what you need, when you need it.   And if you wait til the last moment to try and get something that's critical, you might not be able to get it AT ALL.

We're gearing up for fall and trying to anticipate demand.  For us it's very hard, since we never know who will find us and clean us out on a component, all of a sudden.  You may actually be able to anticipate your demand a little better than we can.  OR NOT.

But it all begins NOW.   In fact it should have begun a couple of months ago, but, it's not too late to start.  ;-)

Feel free to contact me at bsue1441@aol.com if you have special needs or comments.

Manipulating Filigree to Fit a Medallion

Here's a great example of how you can take a simple filigree, like a snowflake pattern, and wrap it AROUND a medallion to make it hang.   Just measure your medallion and look for something maybe 10-15mm larger in diameter, so you have room to play with.  Be sure the motif of the medallion allows you a border to clip into with the filigree. 

I like to start at the bottom and do two, then go to the top, do two, and then catch the rest.  For this one I used a small, fine round nose pliers.  The top of the filigree had a hanging hole, I just rolled it in.  This piece will still hang nicely, but the prongs look more the same all 'round, because I rolled it in.   

This is fun and easy to do.  Sometimes you have to do a little practicing, and you might actually ruin a few in the beginning but with each one you will learn something that will lead you to eventual success.

NOTE:  This works best with raw brass, our Russian goldplated finish and our ox finishes such as copper ox, pewter ox, brass ox.  Gunmetal and antique silverplate, goldplate tend to be a little too brittle, they work-harden too easily, and sometimes are disappointing when manipulated.

Paint on Metal in the China Paint Style

Did you ever think or imagine that you might paint on plated metal the way that china painters do?   Well, you can.   Use acrylic brush and some fine paints, practice your technique a little on scrap paper...and go for it!  When the paint dries, top with Envirotex resin and let cure.   Glue on a pin back....and there you go.  You could also glue on paper scraps and ephemera and top with the resin, just paint it on.    This plaque is PERFECT for that application, it's about 32x32mm, pewter ox plating, made from the old jewelry tooling.  You'll find them in our Ebay store at http://www.stores.ebay.com/bsueboutiquesjewelrysupplies, along with lots of other examples that will work great!