(no subject)

[afmetalsmith]

Oh, gods, it's been a month since I've updated. Again. Sigh.

I've been doing a lot of commission work of late, which does mean I have less to post about (I don't post anything but generalities about commissions until they're done)- so that's part of it.

I'm pretty enthusiastic, though, because in the past few days i've been getting a ton of ideas for nifty stuff. Today I started work on one of the concepts, and I may have stuff to show on it in a few days. Yay! I generally tend to elaborate and over-engineer stuff, so I've been trying to work against that temptation of late; it increases the work and the cost, but does not necessarily improve the resulting piece in ways that anyone but me cares about. :P

So- I hope to have some new stuff up in the next week or so, either on my website, or Etsy, or both.

Comments

[smithing-chick.livejournal.com]

I, too have a problem with over-doing stuff. Which would be why Andy Cooperman yelled at me to "Distill!" last year at SNAG when he reviewed my portfolio.

on the subject of work -

[asthecrowflies.livejournal.com]

are you in the Worcester area, & do you do silver repairs, by any chance? i broke two of my rings while out of town last month =(

Re: on the subject of work -

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

Hi, and thanks for your comment!

Yes I'm in the Worc. area, but I really don't do much in the way of repairs. I could probably fix silver rings, as long as they don't have stones in them; if they have stones, I'd have to take the stones out, fix the rings, and replace the stones- not an especially efficient way of doing it, but that's what I have the equipment for.

I know places that do more repairs often have laser welding machines, though, and with those they can often fix a ring while leaving the stones in place. Some of them don't work with silver (it's harder to weld, for technical reasons) but some do. It's a much more efficient way of doing any sort of repairs, and might be worth seeking out even if your rings don't have stones- especially since "efficient" can mean "lower priced" as well.

So- while I'd be happy to look at them and fix them if I can, I think you may have better luck with someone for whom repairs are a specialty. I know it's sometimes hard to find people who will fix silver rings, though, so I'll certainly help out if I can!

Re: on the subject of work -

[asthecrowflies.livejournal.com]

aww, rats. both rings are broken at the stone settings =( thank you for responding, tho' - if you have any recommendations in the area for someone who can fix that kind of thing, please let me know & i'll talk with them before i look elsewhere. community = good.

xoxoxoxox

Re: on the subject of work -

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

If they are broken AT the settings, what might work would be to remove the settings (and stones), replace the settings in a hopefully more sturdy way, and set the stones in the new settings...

I'm concerned that not even a laser welder might work well that close to the stones, if the stones are heat-sensitive (although some are not particularly).