Im Confused...

So theres many properties of titanium and niobium that make them super unique. Especially titanium, since it is a very hard metal, you can form it well or texture it effectively. This metal also does not take heat well and connot be soldered. There are a few pieces that I have come across that just dont make sense.

Jose MARÍN's work is a bit confusing. He claims that these pieces below are titaium, but then how did he roll print them? and how did he make domes that are also textured??

Despite my confusion his pieces are pretty awesome:

How Jose How?

Also confusing, this claims to be titanium:

JOSE MARÍN - titanium earrings

Um HOW??

So many amazing artists...

HollyGage.com

Earrings | Keith Lewis. Sterling silver, niobium, paua

Holly Yashi

this is kind of cool/different:

Charles Pinckney - Jewelry Artist Titanium Sterling Gold

Woah Color

I absolutely love color and crazy abstract things; even though these pieces may take color a bit too far they're super fun:

Jinglers Jewelry:

http://jinglersjewelry.com/jinglers_jewelry_gallery.htm

I haven't seen anything like this before

I give the award for most impressive work done with titanium and niobium to Brian Eburah

http://www.jewellersonshow.com/cjos/09/brian5.htm

his work is done so well, its hard to deconstruct how he made the pieces above. The granulation around the stone and the lack of rivets is confusing since you cannot solder niobium or titanium. It is possible the colorful piece is held in by tension along the one side but I feel like there is more than that, I just cant figure it out. 

Creative Endeavors

So four projects this semester, phew this is going to be a doozy.

Project of choice:
I have so many things I still want to explore, one of them being anodizing titanium and niobium. I love color and this is a really greta way to get strong vibrant colors.

Production:
I want to do something incorporating fabric. I've been playing around with some things but i'm still in the design and testing stages.

Earrings, 3 pieces/parts/elements:
I'm at the drawing board still. I have so many ideas, i'm starting to lose my mind. I want to make the third element attachable to the one thats already in the ear. I'm not sure if I want the third element to sit over the ear or to hook on to the top of the ear or to come up the ear from the ear lobe. Between deciding what materials and what techniques I want to do, I feel like i'm all over the place.



Mixed Media:

I haven't started think about this project yet, however I did just run into this photo, I really like the use of material.

then this is just kinda scary but also kinda fun using a similar material:

Theresa Martin

http://tmartinjournal.blogspot.com/2011/08/mixed-media-jewelry-horse-pins.html

When your stuck, maybe its a good idea to refer back to square one...

Tools/supplies i want

I tried the zam out on an enameled piece and it didn't damage the enamel. I think i have finally figured out how to end up with a polished piece of plique-a-jour!!

Leap into the stone setting project

I had no idea you could fold metal on a curve! I learned that you could at the workshop last weekend. I think i have finally figured out what the rest on my stone setting project will look like!!

Experiments

Nice even domes for experimentation with setting a triangular stone.

Im not too sure what kind of composition the set stones are going to go into. I was playing around with bunching up the domes and having them either rivetied or soldered to a forged thinner collar like piece. Not too sure, i'm not sold on any idea so far

Kinetic project

After playing around with the elements of my kinetic project i think i finally found ta good composition.

I think I want to etch a couple of the pieces but not all of them.

Is this going to work... Guess i'll find out!

I want to set a triangular stone inside a dome.

Trying to figure out what size dome the stone will fit into. The tips of the triangle are supposed to just barely fit inside the dome. sounds like some trial and error, oh joy.

Adaptation of Sashiko

In the picture on the left are some traditional sashiko stitches. On the right is my drawings toying with some ideas I having cooking. From the bottom left I think I have devised what will either be a ring band or some encasing element. Using the marriage of metal technique. Still pondering....

Heres some images of how sashiko designs are done traditionally:

Finding supplies is sooooo NOT easy

The only places I could find Undrilled Pearls: 

http://www.ottofrei.com/Undrilled-Pearls/

but they only have off-white ewwww

http://www.ebay.com/

these are 8mm

and these are 5mm

so far they're the only thing I have found that will work... I just wish I could touch them before I buy them! 

I think 8mm might be too big, i'm kind of torn

Side note.... This is my favorite stone: Watermelon Tourmaline 

Kinetic Object

I feel like my mind has been all over when it comes to designing this project. My physical object inspiration was a sandscape. I wanted so badly to incorporate one into a piece but i'm not super sure how that connects to my theme and also not sure if I can make one that A) doesn't leak and B) Looks clean and refined.

My original idea with the sandscape would be that it would be behind a pieced piece of metal, how ever then how will the piece flip around since you dont want metal in the background, so then I was thinking maybe it will have a large boarder and thats where I can put my designs, but it still seemed too straight forward. Its kind of hard to make the sandscape work without using a square or circle. Alas...its just so awesome!!!!

When I was looking into what materials to use in a sandscape I found this pretty cool trouble shooting chart:

http://www.sandscapes.biz/data/instructions.pdf

and apparently they are pretty much just water and sand with the perfect amount of air to allow movement.

The bottom left of the above picture and the top left of the below pictrure is what I was refering to when I said pierced metal would be in front of the sandscape. 

another idea I had was to have different plaque-a-jour pieces that could swivel and depending on how the wearer had then arranged the colors would be different. (Second drawing on left)

and lastly, I toyed with the movement of a spherical object like a pearl in a riveting "caging" like the drawing on the bottom left of the bottom picture.

Better than Etsy?

I just found this site, theres a monthly fee to sell your work on here. I've never heard of it before, but maybe its worth looking into eventually? https://www.artfire.com/

Places to buy Enamel Supplies

I think I like this site the best, They actually have descriptions of the products and its a simple website.
I think they have reasonable prices too. http://www.enamelworksupply.com/supplies.html

However, Thompson enamel has anything and everything you could probably ever think of wanting: https://thompsonenamel.com/index.php?cPath=195&osCsid=6g3vcb9l3r12g4k6938dm4uf92

and rio....well im not really sure why I purchased most of my enamels from them. If I could go back, I probably would choose a different supplier. There enamels have worked fine, they just have limited choices.

Fun Enameling Book

Every time I look at this book, I find something new

The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration

 By Linda Darty

Solder and Enamel, They should really start being friends

This IT solder stuff is way more complicated than it needs to be. While I was looking it up to purchase, I came across this other solder….and well now I just don’t know what to get.

Both IT and Eutectic Solder are used to solder onto enameling metals before enameling. Their relative high melting and flowing points keep the solder from flowing when the enamel is fired.

IT solder contains silver, copper and zinc and can cause enamel to bubble if they come in contact.

Eutectic solder contains only silver and copper and can be depletion gilded and enameled over.

It appears as though Eutectic solder flows at 1435 F

IT solder flows at well I have to look it up since the internet doesn’t want to tell me.

The thing about Eutectic solder is…..

well James Binnion seemed to explain it well…Well at least I think he’s right:

“You need to understand how the eutectic solder works. I don't know

    where the folks at Thompson get the melting point number of 1460 for the

    eutectic solder but the silver copper eutectic flows at

    1435F. The thing about soldering with the eutectic on sterling is

    you will never get it to remelt at the eutectic temperature once it

    flows the first time. The solder diffuses into the sterling or fine

    silver and this raises the solder alloys melting point

    significantly. You will be safe using eutectic solder with your

    enameling but it is tricky to get it to flow the way you expect

    silver solder to flow. It takes some getting used to. IT solder has

    a higher melting range but does have some zinc in it so transparent

    enamels may have some issues.”

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive/201108/msg00966.htm

However… Hauser and Miller describe IT solder as: Special enameling solder where color is important under transparent or translucent enamels.

Just for reference and perspective the melting points of the metals I would use are:

(Melting Point of Sterling Silver - 1640 F)

(Melting Point of Fine Silver - 1761 F)

(Melting Point of Fine Silver - 1981 F)

http://www.kitco.com/jewelry/meltingpoints.html

just for reference: I like how this handout explains soldering and such.

http://www.richard-whitehouse.co.uk/Soldering%20notes.pdf