Friday, February 10, 2012

My Little Secret


 I'm a jewelry maker, but I'm also a jewelry deconstructor.  
(That's not a word, but I'm sticking with it.)  
See, I'll make a piece.  
I'll list the piece. 
 I'll show the piece.  
If it doesn't sell within 2 years, I'll consider breaking the piece down 
and reusing the materials in new jewelry.  

See that cone shaped thing above?  
That was a ring from a body of work made over 10 years ago.

I needed some 18k gold wire.
  I priced that needed 18k gold wire in today's market
 and 
nearly fell on the floor. 
 Gold is expensive.....darn tooting expensive.  
Enter the cone ring.  
I snipped off the shank and milled it down to 18 gauge wire.  
Problem solved.



 I have a drawer of dedicated, retired jewelry.  
Some are failures, 
some are old works, 
some are unsellable.  

All will become something new and wonderful, eventually.



12 comments:

  1. That's the way to do it! And it must be fun to reinvent something that you've been staring at for a couple years!

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    1. It certainly is.... even more fun to take really ugly jewelry and melt it into a blob of metal :)

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  2. Used to do this at the shop as well. It's fun re-working something that's a sure dud. And when it sells, even better, because the costs have been absorbed long ago. Hoorah!

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    1. Glad to hear that others are doing the same. In this economy, it's what smart business owners do!

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  3. Ohhh, I'd love to dig around in that drawer of retired jewelry! How fun that would be!

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    1. Funny you say that Alice... I would go bananas looking at the odd-ball pieces that my instructor collected over the years. He couldn't see what was so amazing!

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  4. Exactly what I am doing . Re-purposing a sterling silver necklace that didn't go over so well.

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    1. Perfect! That's the beauty of precious metals.

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  5. I do that all the time and I always felt so guilty about it, like a dirty little secret. I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

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    1. Judy... I wanted to name this post "My Dirty Little Secret", but it seemed to salacious for a metalsmithing blog :)

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  6. That is one thing I love about metal work...you can salvage the stone and melt down the metal and start all over again! No waste!...well cept for the time you'd initially spent....lol

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  7. Being creative is always a great thing, you can reuse things you've already made!

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