 Put on a swanky outfit, pour yourself a glass of something sophisticated and imagine yourself making a grand entrance into an artsy gallery space populated with interesting people and music .... it's our online opening reception for "Emerge" our juried exhibition! Wander around nibbling cheese (make yourself a small plate of cheese beforehand to get the full effect) and see the jewelry metal art works while listening to celebrity judges Anne Wolf of Anneville Studio and Bette Barnett of Studio Migoto discuss the technical prowess and design merits of each piece. Guess the winners and stick around til the end to see if you're right as we unveil the Best of Show, Best Mokume, Best Steel Piece and Most Creative Piece and award each artist their fabulous prizes. Hope to see you there!
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 Nine artists participated by donating jewelry pieces to the Fandango Under the Stars Online Auction with funds going to support Guadalupe Home, an organization that helps women and families experiencing homelessness. This year, due to COVID, the event went virtual so bids were submitted online. Here's the update from Sky:
"Greetings everyone, I'm happy to see [our] donations being looked at and bid upon. The pictures do not do the pieces justice but you can see them at the Online auction: one.bidpal.net/fandango2021/browse/all, on Facebook: facebook.com/CatholicCharitiesSA/, or on Instagram: instagram.com/catholiccharitiessanantonio/. Thank you all for the great support for this event. ~ Sky". Let's give a big hand to Sky for providing such a great community opportunity and a round of applause to our participating artists! For photos and descriptions of each piece see our previous post: Guadalupe Home Jewelry Team Update.  From sharing new creations and tips & tricks to chit chatting about jewelry metal arts topics, our live Tuesday night Sawing Circle has continued to be an online creative oasis for metal arts geeks throughout April and May. June's hosts include Dale in Anchorage (AK), Carmen in Laguna Nigel (CA), Jan in San Jose (CA) and Garage Kathe, Ame and Anne here in sunny San Diego. We sometimes have interesting surprise guests too! So feel free to join us any Tuesday from 5-7pm Pacific Time. No RSVP or emails needed, simply click the link on our Home page and bring your questions or latest creations for show & tell. Click any photo for a larger view.
Enjoy an exploration of Qing Dynasty jewelry lead by San Diego metal artist Marianne Pickett as she shares items from her collection along with interesting stories about them. Dating from 1644 to 1912, the Qing period was China's last imperial dynasty and from the mythical Qilin to good luck bats, the symbolism and craftsmanship is amazing! Then watch as Anne Wolf demonstrates the use of a clever Japanese scoring tool and tells you how you can make one yourself. Read on for photos.
Due to popular demand and a lot of whining and silly excuses like "I have to work" and "I've been homeschooling my children" we've extended the Emerge deadline! Yay, more time! Here are just a few of the cool prizes up for grabs: Click images to view larger.
All jewelry/metals arts artists to enter their work in Emerge - San Diego Jewelry Lab’s Juried Spring Exhibition. Pieces will be juried by Anne, Bette Barnett and Ame on craftsmanship, creativity and use of the theme and our panel of instructor judges will award prizes for the best submissions. Exhibition is open to metalsmiths worldwide. Work can be any size; wearable, functional, or sculptural; made within the last year. Get details and enter. Click images to view larger. Our Sawing Circles have been filled with great info this month. On any given night you might find a jewelry metal arts presentation, see a useful tool tip, hear a great story, learn a new technique or just enjoy the good company of metal arts geeks like yourself. No RSVP is needed and you're always welcome to join us Tuesdays from 5-7pm Pacific time. See who's hosting each week and find the link on our Sawing Circle page.
 May 20th from 5-6pm Pacific Daylight Time
Meet & Greet starts at 4:45pm. Online via Zoom Join us for an exploration of Qing Dynasty jewelry lead by San Diego metal artist Marianne Pickett. She'll share items from her collection along with interesting stories about them. Dating from 1644 to 1912, the Qing period was China's last imperial dynasty. We will also be sharing some work that wowed us from recent classes and a few best-of-the-best student tips & tricks. As always, stick around till the end for our lively Q&A discussion of all things metal arts. MAAA is a FREE weekly online metal arts live show. In this fun, interactive gathering we offer demos, share tips & tricks, feature work by artists and students from around the world, go on virtual studio tours, discuss historical metal arts traditions and share resources. You're invited to join in! Need help with a tricky soldering job? Wondering if a tip you saw really works? Want to give us a tour of your studio or recommend an instructor? Submit a question or segment idea and we'll follow up. Send it in!
Do some virtual shopping and hang out with Tevel! Tevel is the long-time owner of Allcraft, the renowned jewelry/metals supply shop in midtown Manhattan. He joined us along with Jeanette Craig, author of "Soldering Demystified" to share new and intriguing jewelry tools. First Anne demonstrated using some of the tools on her mokume gane rings - really cool tiny sanding discs, an innovative ring holder and more. Then Tevel and Jeanette answered everyone's questions about these tools and many others. Earl showed off some very interesting delrin-lined pliers from a guitar-making company. We heard from viewers it was one of our best ever, at least for tool geeks (and who isn't??). Read on for resource links.
As the sun warms the earth, green things emerge, slowly unfolding their leaves. As the cold winds depart, wild animals emerge, leaving their winter dens. As the vaccines arrive, we too emerge, hugging friends and revisiting normalcy. In this time and place, like none we've ever known, what does it mean to emerge?  San Diego Jewelry Lab invites all jewelry/metals arts artists to enter their work in our upcoming online exhibit "Emerge". Pieces will be juried by San Diego Jewelry Lab co-owners Anne Wolf and Ame Stanko on craftsmanship, creativity and use of the theme and our panel of instructor judges will award prizes for the best submissions. Exhibition is open to metalsmiths worldwide. Work can be any size; wearable, functional, or sculptural; made within the last year. Get details on our Emerge event page.
We are thrilled to announce that we've sailed past our Guadalupe Home Jewelry Team goal! Captained by the talented Sky Paxton, we now have works from 10 different artists on their way to the annual fundraiser auction for Guadalupe Home - a transitional shelter for pregnant and parenting mothers who find themselves homeless. Here are some of their beautiful pieces ... more coming soon! Click images to view larger. Sky Paxton. Pendant cast in Sterling, dark patina, synthetic (responsibly sourced) Ruby with 18” sterling chain and a hand crafted bail. 35 mm diameter, 30 grams of silver. See more of Sky's work at (link coming soon). Anne Wolf: Chisel patterned copper/silver/kuroshibuichi mokume gane pendant patinated with rokusho (a Japanese patina). See more of her work at annevillestudio.com. Teri Brudnak: Sterling silver earrings with 23.5kt gold Keum Boo. Sterling ear wires. teribrudnak.com. Kay Yee: Earrings with pink pearls set in sterling with dangles enameled with graphite & overglaze paints. Learn more at massconline.com/showcase/kay-yee. Ed White: Nasturtiums Ring Fine silver and 14ct. gold from an old watch chain. It has been hand carved after soldering. Size 6.5. See more of his work at instagram.com/ed_white. Karla Knutson: Reversible Puffed Square Silver Necklace With 24k Gold Keum Boo & 18” Stainless Neck Cable. This necklace is made from sterling silver sheet that I roller printed and brush textured and is fully reversible. 24k gold foil was added using the Keum Boo technique to both sides. The asymmetrical pattern of gold can be turned 4 ways on each side according to your preference. Finally a blue/black patina was applied with liver of sulfur and the piece was waxed to help preserve the patina, although that may change slightly with time and is susceptible to scratching. The hollow form is approximately 1 3/4 " square and 3/8" deep at the center of the squares. The 18" stainless steel neck cable has a lobster claw clasp. See more of her work at etsy.com/market/karla_knutson. Marianne Pickett: Spring Spirit Necklace
Spring Spirit Necklace marries the beauty of a traditional Chinese porcelain shard with triple strands of beads. Turquoise, flourite, and strawberry quartz are highlighted with sterling silver beads and findings.
Come with us to Japan to meet master mokume gane metalsmith and designated National Treasure Norio Tamagawa! We tour his home, work a bit in his studio and even enjoy tea hosted by his wife, who is a master in the art of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Afterwards we take a spectacular hike up Mt. Yahiko to commune with the gods of mokume (well, most of the trip is by tram...) plus, we hear stories and see some great photos from Yoko and Karen, metalsmiths who also recently visited Tsubame-Sanjo area and made their own cool metalsmithing discoveries. News alert! We are also excited to announce that we're now accepting entries for Emerge, our brand new juried online show. Continue on for photos.
 From host Garage Kathe: We had about 18 people attend our March 9th Sawing Circle. One of the resources mentioned was Eva Sherman. She's a metal artist from Cleveland who teaches and has done some demos on the FB group “Friday Freebies for Metalsmiths” and anyone can join. We also discussed Metals week at Idyllwild Arts in June - Ann R. and Karen R. spoke of the fun of live classes in past years. This year all metal classes are on Zoom - 2 or 3 day formats so you sign up for multiple classes, registration is open now. Monica Cardone is teaching Bad Ass Bezels with the Hammer Hand Piece, but her class is full. You can get a discount on Hammer hand pieces from Pepe Tools with a code from Monica.
 Oh my gosh, we had so much fun at tonight's Sawing Circle. We had 16 attendees on hand talking tricky soldering jobs, patinas, gold alloying and other metalsmithing particulars at our first March Sawing Circle. Isla joined us from London, Julia joined from Michigan, Ann was on deck from Alabama with the rest Zooming in from the U.S. west coast. As always there were some really valuable links shared.
We still have spots available for Anne's Stamped Mokume Gane Pendant live online workshop in March but March 5th is the deadline to order your kit for U.S. shipping (March 12th for local pick ups). This is a great opportunity to create - from start to finish - a beautiful mokume gane pendant to wear or give as a special gift. It's also a rare chance to get your hands on one of Anne's exclusive mokume blanks in a color combo she usually reserves for her own works - silver/copper/brass. These photos are from her previous class last year. Keep in mind that you also get a handsome Certificate of Completion and a ticket for our famous end-of-class raffle where we give away gift certificates and sometimes...mokume goodies! All details and registration at annevillestudio.com/classes-and-workshops.html.  The past two days have been great fun hosting a group of 15 students learning mokume gane chisel patterning. Jewelry metals instructor Anne Wolf totally updated this class with new techniques and high-res video and the quality really showed. Plus it was just so much fun with students in attendance from California to Alaska to Washington DC and points in between. We even had the fabulous Francesca Urciuoli Zooming in from Berlin. The students shared a lot of great info (like using old hex keys for chisel stock) and fun photos (MKaye bundled up for a snowy outdoor lunch), but mostly we all enjoyed learning about patterning mokume from Anne...and each other. The work speaks for itself, here are just a few of the pieces created.
Guided by award-winning jewelry designer Ileana Rojas-Bennett, our virtual trip to meet the Maleku people of Costa Rica was great fun. We learned about their village system and ingenious home construction techniques and then viewed hand-painted seed jewelry, colorful masks and intricately-carved gourds. We even learned a few words in the Maleku language - capi capi means Hello! Next, Anne showed us a great approach for making brooch backs (including two special tricks) and we announced the details of our brand new call for art...Emerge. While we weren't able to record the live episode, we do have a video of Anne's brooch back/pin demo. Read on for photos, resource links and the video demo.
 One of our Metal Arts Adventures presenters has brought us a really cool opportunity. Metalsmith and lapidarist Sky Paxton donates jewelry to Guadelupe Home, a transitional shelter for pregnant and parenting mothers who find themselves homeless. This year, he's inviting us to join him in providing pieces to their fundraiser auction. Finished, boxed pieces valued between $150-$500 need to be mailed to Sky by April 25th and he will submit them to the auction folks. So far we have two spots filled - Sky and Anne Wolf - so we're looking for just 6 more people.
If you would like to join in just let us know in the comments below and we will follow up. Thank you!!
 Over twenty metalsmiths gathered on Tuesday evening and we had a great time seeing new works, oogling a gigantic ruby, meeting new people and catching up with old friends (a few who were seeing each other for the first time in 20 years!). In between we talked more about brooch pins, learned lapidary terms, heard about a tool making project, checked out some new home studios and compared notes on current online class offerings - all while working away on our own projects. Read on for more photos and resource links. Click images to view larger. Resource links:
 Thursday, February 21st from 5-6pm Pacific Time
Meet & Greet starts at 4:45pm. Online via Zoom Take a virtual trek deep into the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest to visit the Maleku people, see how they create their hand-painted seed jewelry and learn about their unique language and culture with award-winning jewelry designer Ileana Rojas-Bennett. Next, Anne's will show us a great approach to making brooch backs (there's a trick to it!) and we'll announce the details about our brand new call for art. Stick around till the end for our lively Q&A discussion of all things metal arts from torch tips to patina particulars. MAAA is a FREE weekly online metal arts live show. In this fun, interactive gathering we offer demos, share tips & tricks, feature work by artists and students from around the world, go on virtual studio tours, discuss historical metal arts traditions and share resources. You're invited to join in! Need help with a tricky soldering job? Wondering if a tip you saw really works? Want to give us a tour of your studio or recommend an instructor? Submit a question or segment idea and we'll follow up. Send it in!  Next Sawing Circle is Tuesday, February 9th, 5-7pm
Thursdays were just too packed with cool metal arts stuff so we've moved our Sawing Circle to Tuesdays starting this month. Our Sawing Circle is like a book club but instead of reading, we work on cool stuff, help each other with problems, share ideas and provide accountability for ongoing work. If you've been looking for support for moving forward on your projects during quarantine then this is the online gathering for you. Join us from your studio to work in the good conversation and company of like-minded friends. Totally free, no need to RSVP, simply make yourself a nice snack, settle down at your bench and click the link to join in via Zoom. We're also looking for volunteers to fill in one night a month to help take our Sawing Circle weekly. Interested? Fill out our Volunteer Form. 
Journey with us into the colorful, 500 year old labyrinth of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar guided by San Diego jewelry student & artist Karen Savel. We'll marvel at the ancient arches, see local jewelers at work in their tiny shop, walk in the footsteps of Rick Steve's and visit a gold smelter, stop to watch a street lapidarist at work and finish off with some classic Turkish delights. Next, we sit back and enjoy an informative how-to by enamelist Kay Yee as she shows us her method for creating blackboard brooches. Kay also shares a great list of resources including an inexpensive starter kit and online classes. Read more for resource links.
We are looking for a few friendly people to help as Zoom facilitators in hosting our free online Sawing Circle. Duties include:
Interested? Fill out our Volunteer Form and we'll get back to you. We are looking for a few friendly people to help as Zoom facilitators in hosting our free online Sawing Circle. Duties include:
Interested? Fill out our Volunteer Form and we'll get back to you.  Click to view larger. Guest instructor Anne Wolf shared a guide (from the forum on Ganoksin.com) for making a scoring tool to create intricate patterns like the one on her tsuba. After that we delved into diagnosing torch troubles, pondering ways to extract silver from etching solution, shared ideas for bumping up the contrast on etched brass pieces (try burnishing) and discussed the merits of dental wire as a brooch pin (hint: don't try to cut it, you'll just break your saw. Simply bend it with pliers back and forth to work harden it until it snaps). In fact, Anne gave away 14" pieces of dental wire to everyone who wanted to try it (I'll pop them in the mail tomorrow). We also had a grand time admiring recent works by Cynthia, Alex Gage, Yoko Rover, Jan Piazza, Sky Paxton, Julia and Marianne Pickett. Oh and there were some great recommendations for classes too - including the hopeful scheduling of spring dates for Metalsmiths in Florence. Click read more for resource links.
Thursday, January 14th 5-7pm PST
Meet & Greet starts at 4:45pm This week, guest instructor Anne Wolf shares a guide (from the forum on Ganoksin.com) for making a scoring tool. Scoring tools are useful for all sorts of things, from box making to adding texture to sheet. We'll discuss how to go about making the tool. Anne will also show how to create texture using a scorer she made while taking an online class from Ford Hallam. Our monthly Sawing Circle is like a book club but instead of reading, we work on cool stuff, help each other with problems, share ideas and provide accountability for ongoing work. If you've been looking for some support for moving forward on your projects during quarantine then this is the place. Join us from your studio to work in the good conversation and company of like-minded friends. Totally free, no need to RSVP, simply make yourself a nice snack, settle down at your bench and click the link to join in via Zoom.
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