Just in the Nick of Time

Annealing Scott's ring...the heat turns the gold black. Once annealed I let the ring sit in the pickle for over an hour to get rid of some excess copper that was sticking to it...13 days to go!

Making Scott's Wedding Band

I'm making Scott's wedding band out of some gold I had from a ring I tried making a while back, and didn't love. First step is melting the gold.


Once it's melted down, it looks like a big bumpy blob and you have to roll the metal through a rolling machine to flatten it (or make it into wire). Below is a pic of it sticking out the other side of the rolling machine. Under that is the flattened piece. You have to keep annealing it (heating it up to almost melting) to soften it as the rolling makes it hard.

The next step will be cutting/filing it into the right size and shape. More pics to come...

Talon Logo

The amazing Lulu designed these for me. Web site coming soon!

Braids

I'm really into braids lately and made these little bangles up. I braided the wire and then flattened it. I tend to wear things in threes, but am totally into these two buddies together.

New Stuff

I cast the glass amulette in bronze...loving the more masculine look to it. Think I'm going to sell this along with the glass one.

I made some hammered bangles too.

Wedding Site

Woo Hoo! Finally got this up and running

www.scottandemily.wordpress.com

Exciting details to be posted daily. Just kidding. But you can go there for updates about the wedding.

xoxo

Finally!

The polished bottles have arrived. Next...decide on type of closure - cork? Make a metal necker, figure out how to not break the bottle when I solder the metal, find chain, find a box-type thing to send the amulettes in, nicely ask Grant if he will take pics, Web site, SELL!

Ceremony

Here is where the ceremony is going to be...very exciting!!

More details to come soon...

Bullet Cuff Links

I'm making these little guys for Shannon. They came out pretty cute...

Matching Ring

Citrine Necklace

I just finished this necklace this weekend. It was really fun and easy to make. There are two bezels, the bottom one which is solid silver and on top of it is another bezel made out of gallery wire. The top bezel holds the stone in place. The hardest part of this piece was how delicate the wire is and not melting it when you solder it shut and to the bottom bezel. The stone is a citrine. I'm going to make a ring with the matching stone also using gallery wire.

Engaged

Swoon...

Arrow is Famous!

See the famous guy

Gems

A friend and I headed up to the diamond district to buy some gems for future jewelry projects...I love going to the gem stores cause it's like being in a bond film. They are usually in an office building on like the 7th floor with no windows and you have to be buzzed into a tiny room where they look you up and down and you tell them why you are there. Then they begrudgingly let you in. Once inside you can basically ask for anything and they bring out trays and trays of the most beautiful stones. I could have spent hours and thousands, but we only had one hour and I ended up with the below stones...

Smoky Quartz

Peridot

CitrineSmoky Quartz

HGM Weekend

Mike came to town this past weekend to mix a little business with pleasure.
We hit up Prime Meats in Carroll Gardens for some warm afternoon Weisswurst, beer and wine.
The show at Crash Mansion was maybe not what Mike was hoping for, but it was still fun to hear HGM play and then hit up Jones....looking forward to our trip to N.C. in May.

Very Exciting!

Thanks to Scott, the super-shopper, for finding this...It has been about 13 years since I've had honey nut anything and was just telling him the other day how I much I was craving that taste. I may or may not have sent an email to General Mills thanking them...

UPDATE: GM wrote back the following nice letter indicating more sugary gluten-free cereals are on the way:

Dear Valued Consumer:

Thank you for contacting General Mills regarding our gluten free Honey Nut Chex cereal. We appreciate the time you have taken to share your positive feedback with us. We will be very happy to pass on your comments to the product team. On June 1, 2009, the following cereals will be made available nationwide and all will be gluten free. They are the Cinnamon Chex, Corn Chex, Chocolate Chex and Strawberry Chex. We produced Rice Chex as gluten free last year and this year these others plus the Honey Nut Chex all will be gluten free.

We are committed to creating the highest quality products for our consumers. Feedback such as yours helps us achieve this goal for the future.

We appreciate your loyalty and hope you continue to enjoy our products.

Sincerely,

Paula A. Vaughn

General Mills
Consumer Services

Morbid Anatomy

Scott and I stumbled on this great museum/library on the Gowanus Canal the other day called Proteus Gowanus. They have a vintage library with the most amazing old, out-of-print books on natural curiosities and such.

As it turns out, they are getting ready to add a morbid anatomy section to the library. It will house Joanna Ebenstein's ever-growing collection of books, catalogs, photographs, articles, ephemera and artifacts exploring the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture. I can't wait to get back and check it out. In the meantime, here is her blog, which facinated me for hours and some of my favorite images from it: http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/

Cat Fancy

I'm hoping this comes in the mail soon...

Mike's Moon

I finally finished it! Still working away on my gold ring...

Roller Jammin'

We drove to Staten Island for some "Adult Night" roller action.