Jewelry Tools (of the trade)

You may remember the Beauty of Spring Freshwater Pearls blog post.

In that post I (briefly) talked about the tools I used to create the Handmade Freshwater Pearl Dragonfly Charm Lariat Necklace (N099) and today, I'd like to expand on them a little more.

The first tool is a steel bench block. It's quite heavy but the perfect base for flattening, laying out or chasing.

The chasing hammer is used to manipulate metal to make it smooth or give it texture. Chasing is a method of decorating metal objects by making indentations with a chasing hammer.

The last tool used in this design was a wig jig. An acrylic square with tiny holes drilled into it. You then stick small pegs into the holes and then twist wire around the pegs to form the shape you desire. There are different wig jig's for different gauges of wire. In my case, I picked this wig jig up at the local store probably around the beginning of when I started jewelry design. I just don't remember having used it, until now. The wire "popped" off the pegs a few times and the pegs popped out of the holes a few times too, but it's really an inexpensive jig.

As I progressed along in the wire-wrapped necklace, I decided the best finishing touch was to create a lariat style hammered loop using these tools. The end result was exactly what I was hoping for and made me want to use these tools on other designs.

In fact, I'm working out a design (in my head) as I type this...hmmm...I'm on to something here. Stay tuned...

So tell me -have you used any of these tools before? If so, how did you like them?

Advertising Your Jewelry: Interesting Statistics

A field sales executive from HER Magazine Rochester (NY) provided me these interesting statistics:

· Did you know that in the past 12 months over 41,678 of working women age 25 -49 in the Rochester area purchased costume jewelry?

· Most working women will definitely try to find a place to purchase this type of jewelry from as it is primarily used to accessorize with business outfits at work.

Although Crystal Allure Designs handcrafted jewelry is artisan (bridge) jewelry, for those just starting out in the jewelry business this is generally the market they will and can reach.

For a more complete description of the three categories of jewelry design (fine, bridge and costume) check out the "jewelry styles defined" article.

Happy reading!

Free Jewelry & Fashion Article Submission

I am happy to say my readers are requesting more information related to jewelry and fashion. To accommodate, this is a new section of my blog that will provide you with news worthy articles on jewelry and fashion.

Interested in submitting a free article? Here’s how it works:

Submit an article that is written to target women ages 30-50 on the topics of jewelry and/or fashion. The article must “flow” in its topic, be easy to read and free of grammatical errors. Please minimize emphasis of words and do not write in all capital letters.

If accepted, a summary of your article will appear in Crystal Allure Jewelry’s monthly newsletter and will contain a direct link back to our blog to allow the reader to read the entire article. As well, a link to your bio and/or website will also be available.

Please submit the following:

~Article Title (75 characters or less)

~Article Author (50 characters or less)

~Article Summary (300 characters or less)

~Full Article Text (200-1500 characters)

~Website Title (75 characters or less)

~Website URL

~Website Description (250 characters or less)

~Author Bio (200 characters or less)

If you have photographs/images (maximum 350×350) for your article, please provide either a photograph/image URL (such as Photobucket) or send them via email (after prior approval).