Question about store policies

I received the following email about store policies:
"I have a question regarding your store policies. I have some customers that ask me "how secure is wire wrapping?" They are worried that without glue or a screw setting that the jewelry will break more easily. What would your response be to a question like that? Also, I was reading in your journal and saw that the core wire in one of your bangles broke. How did you handle that situation with your customer? Do you have a guaranteed for ?? days policy?"

My answer was the following:
I normally tell them that while I test all my jewelry, hand-crafted jewelry is a bit more fragile than commercial jewelry, so they should care for it a bit more.
The few occasions I've had pieces break, I fixed it for no extra charge, except shipping. No day limitation.

New tutorial: Square Cab Ring

I just posted this very instant the tutorial for the Square Cab Ring, which uses a woven technique to set a square or rectangular cushion cab. Check out here: Square Cab Ring tutorial.

Which wires to start with?

I received the following question via email:
"Could you recommend 3 or 4 different gauges of wire that would allow me to do the most of your designs? I would, of course, like to be able to work with all the various gauges, but my budget won’t allow it. "

My answer:
"I recommend the following gauges as a 'starter' kit when working the techniques on my site:

18ga: for underlying thick structures
24ga: for more delicate structure and thicker rosary chains
26ga: to make very delicate rosary chain and to use doubled up as frame for coiled bezels
28ga: for most coiled and woven work.
You will find that the 20ga and 22 ga are alternatives for the 18, in those cases when the bead holes are just too thin, but they are not indispensable to start with. "

If you need recommendations of where to find silver and goldfilled wire, go to my Materials page.

SITE DOWN FOR A FEW HOURS

The main site enioken.com was down for a few hours early today. If you have never visited my site, then you should have no problems due to inexistent cache, however, if you are a constant visitor (thank you for your loyalty!), then it could take up to 24 hrs to clear all the systems.
Sorry for the inconvenience... All purchases WILL be honored and delivered as soon as possible and the downloading system is working properly for those who can see the site.

YOJ 2007 Week 17 - Golden Wave cuff

I think I am finally totally satisfied with the technique, color and design of how this cuff turned out, after a series in the same lines. It really is the best one of all, IMO. The lines are clean like the last one, the Wavy Blue Cuff, but the goldfilled wire and the gemmy stones give it a much more precious look. A pleasure to wear. Goldfilled wire, citrine of various grades and colors, champagne quartz. x

YOJ 2007 Week 16 - Wavy Blue cuff

I feel like I'm on a roll here. After the Seafoam cuff and the Wavy Colorful cuff, the technique is now cleaner and the design much more streamlined. Even though this cuff seems simpler than the previous two, the lines are more elegant -- different styles. This one is made with rose gold-filled wire, lapis lazuli, apatite, topaz, kynite, sodalite and iolite.

Seafoam and Paella Cuffs

Today I got the following question via email:

"I have purchased the coiled bangle tutorial and can't wait to start. I'm very much wanted to also do pieces like the seafoam cuff and eventually the pink paella cuff. Can you suggest other tutorials that would help me understand the construction of these pieces?"

This is what I replied, it might help to understand how those two pieces were constructed:
There are currently no tutorials showing how to construct the paella and the seafoam cuffs, however, this is how they were create:

The paella cuff is essentially the same as the coiled bangle, except there are TWO rows of beads. There were constructed parallel to each other and then connected by spiraled S-shaped pieces of wire, which are woven as you coil the sides.

The seafom is a totally different construction than the paella cuff, in that the beads are not strong to a core wire, instead, two outer thicker wires are shaped in wavy forms, and then attached together with beads, using thinner wire.

YOJ 2007 Week 15 - Seafoam Cuff

Woohoo! Not only did I manage to catch up with the YOJ, but I also managed to create something WITH THE THEME. This Seafom Cuff is made in similar way as the Wavy Colorful Cuff of week 11, but only has two thick gauge wire waves instead of three. The stones are apatite, kynite, iolite, and fossilized coral. Of course, the usual silver charms are present: seashells, a dolphin and a seahorse.

YOJ Week 14 - Rhodochrosite Golden Necklace

Ok, I'm on a roll making these netted bezel pendants. They are just too much fun to make! This one was netted around a chunk of rhodochrosite I found a long time ago -- not drilled -- and I was just waiting for the right project. The stones wire wrapped around it are: colorado sunstone (irregular light rose colored faceted stones), pink tourmaline (the dark pink rondelles) and the fantastic smooth magenta ruby nuggets (really rubies, even though they look like candy!). The smaller light colored rondelles are champagne quartz, AAA grade. All wrapped with goldfilled wire, 28ga coiled over 20ga. The necklace is strung with the same stones and is attached to a chain. Both the ruby nuggets and the sunstone were bought at BonitaCreations.com, one of my favorite suppliers -- Thanks Kris!

To buy this piece, go to the Rhodochrosite Golden Necklace page.

YOJ Week 13 - Lemon Quartz Pendant

I enjoyed so much making the ring with the net bezel, so I decided to make a bigger piece for a necklace. I used an irregular lemon quartz nugget, which is rather large (the nugget alone measures 1-1/4 inches high). The smaller beads attached to the frame are champagne quartz of very high quality. The underlying structure was made with 22 ga wire coiled with 28ga. The net was finished off with tiny vermeil thai beads. The pendant has a woven bail and was strung with lemon quartz, champagne quartz and vermeil beads.

YOJ Week 12 - Netted bezel ring

I made this ring to match the modified mosaic pendant of the Year of Jewelry week 10. This netted bezel holds a rutilated crystal cab. The entire ring looks large, but in fact measures just 3/4 inch wide. An underlying structure made with 20ga goldfilled wire was made for the ring shank and to hold the base of the cab. Then the net was woven with 28 ga goldfilled wire to hold the cab in place and finally, the outer rim was woven with a modified basketweave.
I feel the start of a trend... I have another piece almost ready, in the same lines. I'll post it soon!