Materials

The jewelry on this site is made of silver, glass beads or other glass elements, and tile grout.

Forming the metal

Constructing the silver frame is the first step of the process. With the exception of some of the earrings, which are assembled from castings, all of the pieces are started by shaping their outlines in square wire. The wire is bent, cut and soldered into the shape of a leaf, for example. Then the flat wire outline is soldered to silver sheet that has been previously textured by pressing it through a rolling mill between two sheets of paper. After the wire has been soldered and the joints completely flooded, the excess sheet is trimmed away with a jeweler's saw. The edges are filed and sanded smooth, so no joint can be seen, and the piece is pounded gently from the back to give it a slight dome. The findings (earring posts, pin backs, etc.) are soldered to the back and the piece is brushed to give it the final finish. (After every soldering the piece is immersed in a mild acid bath to remove the glassy flux and the trace metals that darken the silver when it is fired. Each piece is "pickled" in the acid three times and brushed after each immersion. This process deletes the trace metals and forms a layer of fine silver on the surface of the piece.)

Adding the bead inlay

When the metal forming process is complete, the work is ready to be inlaid. This is a very simple process, though meticulous and time consuming. The beads are first glued in place. A water- based glue is painted in small sections on the area to be inlaid, just enough area that can be beaded before the glue dries, and the beads are laid on top of the glue. Sometimes the beads can be handled on the strings that they come on, but many areas are filled with one bead at a time, put in place with needle nosed tweezers. After the beads are glued in place and the glue has dried, the work is ready to be grouted or flooded with wax encaustic. The glue is strong enough to hold the beads in place, but not by much. If the work is bumped or, god forbid, dropped on the floor at this point, many of the beads would be knocked out.

Working with tile grout

The grout is purchased as a dry, white powder. It is mixed to a clay- like consistency with acrylic paint, which gives it color and strength. This clay-like grout is then pressed onto the surface of the beads and forced down to the silver, filling the frame. The surface of the beads is wiped off with a fine sponge, and the grout is allowed to set. When the grout has dried, the work is scrubbed gently with a toothbrush and dried with a soft cloth. When the surface has dried again, acrylic paint is applied to seal the grout. Once this has dried, the work is given a last cleaning and it is done.

Working with wax encaustic

The wax encaustic can be purchased in a wide variety of highly saturated colors that are much richer than can be achieved by coloring white grout. They are sold in small bars. The individual colors are first melted in small quantities, poured onto wax paper and cut into thin strips to make the color manageable at jewelry scale. These strips are then melted into the beads with a heat gun. In the process of cooling, any overspill is wiped off. When cooled the work is buffed with cotton swabs and can then be cleaned in the same manner as the grouted pieces. See Cleaning your jewelry below.

About wax encaustic

Wax encaustic is a term applied to a painters medium that dates back to 100 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses intricate portraiture from A.D. 50-100 that have been rendered with wax encaustic. Primarily it is beeswax with ground pigments, though the beeswax may be mixed with other waxes and/or resins to affect hardness and working properties.

I love working with this medium because of its strong adhesive qualities, its color permanence and the wonderful array of available colors. These qualities are mitigated somewhat by its vulnerability to high heat. Encaustic will melt at temperatures over 150 degrees so should not be left on the dashboard of a car or anywhere else approaching that temperature.

Other inlay materials

In the mosaic process, all of the elements that are unified with grout, be they pottery shards, tile, beads, or found objects, are referred to as "tesserae". The tesserae used in most of the jewelry on this site are glass beads, but increasingly, the glass beads are being used with other glass elements, and some pieces are made with no beads at all. These glass elements are made in the studio with colored glass rods that are melted and manipulated in the flame of a torch. This process is called "lampworking" because, originally, the flame source was from small, tabletop gas lamps. One of the simplest things to do with hot glass and a torch is to pull out a melted blob of glass into a longer, thinner rod called a "cane". Melting two colors together and pulling them out can make a striped cane. A "twisty" can be made by twisting those colors as they are pulled. Sandwiching a stripe of colored glass, which will flatten out into a ribbon, between two layers of clear glass, and twisting can make a "ribbon twisty". You may have guessed this can go on and on. Some of the best glass makers in the world have developed designs whose strength rests on this fundamentally simple technique, and the Italians, in particular, have developed many cane techniques and terms which specifically describe them (latticino, filligrana, murrine…). In the studio, these long canes can be pulled to a size that equals the width of the glass beads and then cut into small pieces to be used as tessarae.

Cleaning your jewelry

Silver is a metal that tarnishes and eventually you may wish to clean it. The bead inlay is permanent and will only need cleaning if something gets spilled on it, in which case soapy water and a toothbrush should be employed.

The simplest way to clean silver is to dampen the piece and rub it, using your fingers, with baking soda. This will bring back the shine, and will leave some darkening that may be desirable in recessed areas. If the piece is severely tarnished, use a silver polish such as Wright's, www.jawright.com, available in many large grocery stores. Apply the paste, let it sit for a few minutes and then rinse while brushing with a toothbrush.

Do not use the clear dips that are highly toxic and illegal in some states.