Charles Lewton-Brain
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain trained, studied and worked in Germany, Canada and the United States to learn the skills he uses. Charles Lewton-Brain is one of the original creators of Ganoksin.
Contributions From Charles Lewton-Brain
Molding Alternatives for Jewelers
Jewelers need to make molds of objects and parts frequently. Usually wax is poured into the molds and the results...
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Tips for Working With Drill Bits
Tips for working with drill bits
In previous columns, I’ve explored the everyday activity of drilling, touching on drilling boards...
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Australian Ingenuity
Tool modifications from the land down under
I just returned from Australia, where I shared foldforming and keum-boo lessons at...
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Process Oriented Metal Education
Art school is in some ways a difficult place to learn to be a metalsmith. Traditionally, it took industry from...
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How to Harden and Temper Tool Steel
Learn to harden and temper your own custom-shaped jewelry tools. By master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain. Filmed in full HD 1080p....
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Other Uses for a Pencil in Jewelry Making
Two surprising uses for a pencil as a tool in jewelry making. (1) Gain extreme control over the burr on...
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Make Your Own DIY Rotary Burr
Make your own high quality rotary burr from an inexpensive disposable lighter. By master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain. Filmed in full...
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Make Your Own Cardboard Disc Sander
In this video, master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain will show you how to make a handy cardboard disc sander. You can...
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Method to Quickly Identify Tool Steel
Learn how to quickly identify whether a piece of steel has the quality you need for making jewelry tools. By...
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Turning Wax on a Flex Shaft
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain shows how to turn wax, like on a lathe, but with a flex shaft instead. Filmed...
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How to Make Wax Engraving Tools
Learn how to make your own wax carving tools from everyday steel construction nails. When jewelers carve wax many of...
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Foldforming Overview and Techniques
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain invented foldforming and demonstrates the technique in this video. Foldforming is a system of metalworking that...
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Preparing a Hammer for Foldforming
Charles Lewton-Brain often hears about the difficulties novice blacksmiths encounter when using forging hammers for foldforming. See how he solves...
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Keum-Boo
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain discusses and demonstrates how to make Keum-Boo foil and use the technique. This a method of...
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Paper Die Embossing
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain demonstrates a technique called "paper die" which involves compressing or cutting a stiff piece of paper...
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Patination for Small Scale Studio Use
In recent years there has been an increased interest in patination and metal coloring. This may be seen as a...
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The Art of Doublée Making
Historically, a wide range of techniques has been used to clad or coat silver or base metals with gold. These...
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Tips for Modifying Vises
A good vise is a vital piece of equipment for any goldsmith because it can act as a third hand,...
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Making Wooden Raising Stakes
This article offers a few tips on making your own wooden raising stakes instead of buying rather expensive metal ones....
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Tips and Tricks for Scoring Metal
Scoring metal is incredibly important for custom jewelry construction. It enables you to reduce the number of parts in a...
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Thai Chaser Tool Tricks
I was recently in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand, where I spent a month visiting silversmiths and chasers...
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Hints on Making Tubing
This article is an extract from the book 'Hinges and Hinge-Based Catches for Jewelers and Goldsmiths'
Not all sizes and...
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Jewellery Career Options
One of the most interesting things about the jewellery/metals field is that there are so many career options, so many...
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Jewellery Repair
Repairing jewellery is an extremely tricky job. Work often pretends to be something else, metal is not what it is...
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Craftsmanship Improvement Method
This is a method to reduce technical problems which one repeatedly experienes. We all find during the learning process that...
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Small Bench Tools Descriptions
This selected list describes a number of small, easily made tools which can improve efficiency, speed and ease of working...
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Jeweler’s Shop Machines
About Anvils, Buffing Machines, Casting Machines, Drill Press Machines, Flexible Shafts, Hydraulic Press Machines, Rolling Mills and more...
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How to Make Prong Notching Pliers
These pliers notch round prongs easily to a given depth and replace a bur for the job. They are made...
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Homemade Engravers Ball
There are several methods of obtaining the smooth rotation of a piece of metal necessary for engraving on it. Many...
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The Kinds of Hammers
Hammers are an essential part of silversmithing and goldsmithing. While one can buy hammers ready made one can also do...
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Notes on Files for Jewelry Making
When one gets a new file one traditionally dips it in alcohol and sets fire to it to burn off...
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CAD/CAM Systems for Metals and Jewelry
If you are involved with computers you know how rapidly things are changing, prices are sinking and capabilities increasing. Computer...
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Bench Trick Guiding Principles
What is a bench trick? A shortcut? A faster way of doing something? A better method? A tool used for...
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Jewelry Rendering Tools and Projects
These pages contain a list of recommended tools to jewelry rendering, as well as a series of projects that I...
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Working Posture for Craftsmen
Many craftspeople have posture and body position problems. Ramazzini, the founder of occupational medicine and author of a groundbreaking book...
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Organize Your Workspace
How you set up your shop, your working procedures and workspace can affect your safety, comfort, stress level and efficiency...
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Dealing with Fire Scale
Fire scale or fire stain is a reddish purple toned 'bloom' or 'stain' that appears on silver/copper alloys such as...
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A Metalworking Hand Tool List For Beginners In Jewelry-Making
Making jewelry is sometimes seen as a difficult or an expensive proposition. In reality a basic metal working shop can...
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Different Types of Knuckle Hinges
While this one may seem a little odd at first glance the idea has merit. Linda Chow suggests that a...
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Basic Hinge Making Technique
It is important to pick tubing with an appropriate wall thickness and material strength for the requirements of the piece....
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Working with Jewelry Hinges Made Easy
Sometimes working with jewelry hinges can be too taxing. And not knowing how will make your work even harder. Here's...
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Important Principles of Casting Safety
Here's something to aim for: a well laid-out, orderly workshop, well-lit by multiple non glare light sources, well-maintained equipment, electrically...
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Frequently Used Wax Tools
Dental probes and knives make good wax tools. Your local dentist or dental hygienist or school for the same can...
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Investment Procedure for Lost Wax Casting
Clean, fresh investment, water and investment at room temperature, de-ionized or distilled water or water that has been sitting overnight....
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How to Make a Chasing or Forming Tool
We are assuming you are using W1 water hardening square stock drill rod, W1 tool steel. Many suppliers will sell...
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Basic Principles for Tools and Equipment
Saving some dollars on equipment can be really helpful to a shop's bottom line. Often tools and equipment from other...
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Cardboard Disc Sander Tool
A cardboard disc sander is a very useful tool. One uses the side or large flap of a fairly rigid...
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Suggested Tools from Karl Fischer
Ask for a catalog with an English supplement. Order by surface if a heavy order as shipping from Germany is...
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Polishing and Finishing Aids
For polishing it is recommended to use primarily bristle brushes for most of the removal work and to follow up...
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Stakes and Swages Shaping Tools
Stakes are objects used for shaping metal over, on and into. Hammers or mallets are used to form the metal...
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Modifying Tools as Dapping Tools
Dapping tools are punches with a ball shaped end. As they are used to dome metal discs and making halves...
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Flexible Shaft Tricks
A good selection of burs may be had from your dentist. Dentists often throw out burrs which still have a...
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Basic Chasing Tools
As well as being used for chasing they may also be used as punches to make textures. A stamp or...
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Wire Drawing Hints
The trick to drawing wire by hand is to grasp the tapered end that sticks out the front of the...
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Tubing Cutting Method
A jeweller and goldsmith has to cut tubing fairly regularly. My favorite methods include: cutting only on the upstroke using...
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Soldering Hints and Tricks
Medical hemostats and forceps make good clips for wire solder. Soldering clips for soldering work may be made from cotter...
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Goldsmithing: Pitch Options
Pitch is used all over the world by goldsmiths and silversmiths to hold metal in place while working it with...
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Hinge Pin Installation Options
It is, however, usually best to bevel the openings of a tube slightly to give the rivet a better purchase...
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Scoring and Bending
Scoring and bending is one of the most important ways of constructing jewellery. Scoring is a method of obtaining very...
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How to Make Earring Posts by Hand
Yes you can make your own earring posts. It is generally more cost effective to buy them, but making them...
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All About Jump Rings
Jump rings may be made most easily by using a small hand drill with various sizes of mandrel. Take a...
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How to Step-Roll Wire
One requires a taper on the end of the wire to grip it with when placed through a drawplate for...
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Making Your Own Tubing
Not all sizes and wall thicknesses of tube come seamless from a factory or refiner. Especially when working in gold...
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Hinges with Bearings
A bearing is essentially tube sections which are attached to the metal being hinged into which the hinge itself is...
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All About Hidden Hinges
Hidden hinges are sometimes used on bracelets and jewelry pieces. I saw one on a Vietnamese bracelet once and have...
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Basic Tubing Catch Fabrication
First one chooses an appropriate metal for the various parts, that is a metal with appropriate structural for it's thickness...
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Cufflink Hinge Pins
Cuff-links can work well as a plain three-part hinge. There are some basics to the construction of cuff-links. The cuff-link...
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Cast Hinges for Jewelers and Goldsmiths
Cast hinges are a very important part of much production jewelry work, partly because hinge assembly on such pieces is...
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Production Project Proposal
This is an example of a production project proposal involving the reproduction of two historically important buttons. This shows how...
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Basic Jewelry Construction and Soldering Principles
A short review of construction and soldering principles would be a good idea at this point. They're fairly basic. Principles...
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Methods for Applying Patination Solutions
Extremely clean metal surfaces give better results. See the article on Cleaning metal Surfaces for more information on cleaning.
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Patination Sources from the Internet
Here are some patination sources on the internet.
Remember that all patinas are toxic and irritant and should not...
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Patination by Copper and Copper Alloy Fuming
Patination is a technique which has become popular for some kinds of fashion jewellery in recent years. Usually a patina...
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Using Liver of Sulfur
This is a mixture of potassium sulfides which has traditionally been used to darken or 'antique' silver and bronzes. This...
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Granulation Method
Note that while there are many 'secret' recipes and granulation was 'lost' this was as far as I can tell...
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Small Scale Double Making Procedures
Double is a German word of french origin meaning rolled gold or gold fill material. I use it for the...
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Reticulation Technique and Procedure
Reticulation produces lovely textured surfaces that appear very 'natural' and can be controlled to produce specific patterns with practice. Used...
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Depletion Gilding Notes
This is an academic paper, not a technical 'how to' guide. Many of the procedures described are unsafe in practice....
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Keum-Boo Technique
This Korean technique for applying 24k gold to silver is in fact widely used in various cultures; Japanese, Chinese and...
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Cupric Nitrate Patination of Metals
This patination solution gives you a range of greens, olives, browns, black, turquoise and yellow-greens on many metals because it...
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Process of Cleaning Metal Surfaces
For all metal coloring and electroplating a clean metal surface is essential. The cleaning process must remove mineral oils, organic...
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Brief Notes on Shakudo
As with most Japanese metal coloring methods the techniques are metallurgically based rather than solution oriented; in the West we...
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A Method of Steel Patination
As part of a large scale patination project in which I patinated a steel roof surface 24 by 48 feet...
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How to Do Paper Die Embossing
The annealed metal is placed in a sandwich between soft 'pusher' paper and a hard paper which will serve as...
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Pinback Placement Hints
It is customary to place the joint at the right of the back of the pin and the catch on...
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Optical Effects in Gemstones
This list introduces some of the terms used in discussing optical effects in gemstones.
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Make Your Own Polariscope
Polariscopes are a very useful, simple and inexpensive to make piece of gemological equipment. They are used to tell glass...
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Specific Gravity of Gemstones
Archimedes is said to have discovered that when a body is placed in water the volume of water displaced is...
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Gemstone Fluorescence
Fluorescence is the emission of visible light from a substance under the stimulation of radiation of a shorter wavelength. It...
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Minerals and Crystals Systems
A Mineral may be defined as a homogenous substance produced by the processes of inorganic nature having a chemical composition...
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Gem Microscope Considerations
This short paper discusses some of the things to think about when considering obtaining a microscope to use for gemology....
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Definitions of Physical Properties of Gemstones
A perfect crystal is bounded by plane faces which meet at angles specific for each kind of material (angle analysis...
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Basic Optical Principles for Gemology
The optical characteristics and properties of gemstones often provide the fastest and best methods of identification. A certain amount of...
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Lighting for Jewelry and Small Object Photography
The kind of lights and lighting, especially lighting for jewelry, that I recommend for our drop shadow system are photofloods...
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The Origins of Fold Forming
In 1979 and 80 I went to study at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Pforzheim West Germany at the suggestion...
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Basic Bead Setting Techniques
First the stone's diameter is measured at the pavillion and a dent is made in the metal for the pilot...
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Basic Gypsy or Flush Mount Setting
First the stone's diameter is measured at the pavillion and a dent is made in metal for the pilot drill...
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Tube Setting Method
Tube setting is a simple method of setting that can take as little as five minutes or less per setting...
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Engraved Bezel with Vertical Walls
Stonesetting has been a part of goldsmithing for as long as people have worked in precious metals. Perhaps the oldest...
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Book Review – Designing Jewelry
Boy these people are really good at what they do. I’d love to watch them drawing sometime. Like their previous...
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Book Review – The Art of Jewelry Design
Do you like sumptuous drawings and colored renderings of gemstones and fine jewelry? Interested in basic design principles for commercial...
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The Best Jewelry Books: A Comprehensive Reading List For Craftspeople
A selected bibliography list for the jeweler - Metal working, Casting, Plating, Enamelling ,Gem Cutting, Setting, Engraving and Etching, Other...
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Getting the Most Out of Trade Shows
MJSA's Mary Walek asked me to do a session called "Shop the Show" in New York. When I first read...
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Resume Preparation for Gallery Presentation
The first questions to ask yourself when preparing a resume are: For whom is it intended? What do I want...
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North American Sources for Equipment, Materials, etc.
This page offers a list of some useful North American Sources for Equipment, Materials, information, etc that would be very...
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Confidential Disclosure Form
This form may be used if you have an idea for a product and wish to approach a manufacturer. It...
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PR Marketing Tools to Have
The point is to survive and prosper as an artist or craftsperson. This means that one has to deal with...
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Depth of Field in Photography
Depth of field refers to the amount of the object that is in focus (the depth that is in focus)....
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Photography Considerations
Three - dimensional objects will be well served by the methods described before, such as overhead diffuse lighting, fill card...
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Tips on Working with 35mm Slides
A note on slide developing: you want your slides to be developed for the best quality possi¬ble. If you want...
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Reflective Objects Photography
Reflective surfaces are a special case. I remember seeing an Art in America magazine once, and on the cover was...
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Jewelry Photography Film Types
The film that I’m going to recommend, and that I use myself, is 64 ISO Tungsten Ecktachrome film. It only...
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Small Objects Photography Check Lists
These are some check lists to use when preparing to phtograph objects.
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Photography Setup Options
The use of 'Plexiglas L's' is an extremely effective small scale lighting system. You take white, translucent Plexiglas, and you...
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Basic Setup for Jewelry Photography
A vertical copy stand is sometimes used for shooting prints, drawings, jewelry and other fairly flat objects. A copy stand...
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Holding Objects for Photography
If an object will sit by itself on the shooting surface this is not a problem but often it needs...
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Considerations in Image Creation in Photography
Now we're going to start talking about taking the picture - actually getting closer to taking the image. There's a...
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Photographic Equipment for Jewelry and Small Objects
We are assuming you have a 35 mm camera. You will need a ‘single lens reflex’ (SLR) camera with a...
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Jewelery Workshop Ventilation
Ventilation means removing noxious materials, dusts and fumes from where you can breathe them in. It is about taking away...
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Basic Safety Principles for Jewelers
Aim for: a well laid-out, orderly workshop, well-lit by multiple non glare light sources, well-maintained equipment, electrically and fire safe,...
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Metals Safety Information
Goldsmiths work with metals. Our bodies react to metals, their dusts, salts and oxides. The metals that jewelers come in...
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Chemical Inventory and Profiles
If you know what the chemicals are that you use and what their dangers are you will be less likely...
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Studio Safety Evaluation
Just as a professional would do, it may be a good idea to conduct a walk-through of your shop. The...
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Safety Procedure Evaluation
When looking at your shop and workspace and considering safety issues it is important to evaluate the procedures you use...
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Basic Chemical Storage Principles
There are a number of basic principles in storing chemicals. Know what your chemicals are, what their hazards are, their....
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Rules for Tools
While it is clearly impossible to give a set of rules for each tool and procedure that goldsmiths use, this...
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Grinding Wheel Safety Rules
Besides the safety instructions that you get from a tool manufacturer in the tool manual it may be necessary for...
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Gas Handling Guidelines
Jewelers work with compressed gases of all kinds, in torch systems, kilns, casting machines, abrasive blasters, laser welding machines needing...
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Electroplating Safety Precautions
The "General Safety Rules for Tools" article applies here too, as with all power tools. Read the instruction manuals and...
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Jewelry Workshop Safety Report
This talk briefly reviews issues of studio safety and discusses ways of recognizing risks in the studio and reducing hazard...
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Book Review – The New Jewelry
Well, this is a book I have to have in my collection. I recommend it for yours. As a contemporary...
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Book Review – One of a Kind
If you like art jewelry, innovative work, future jewelry directions and opening up new markets for the jewelry industry you...
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Book Review – Gem Care
This slim paperback book is a real addition to the book collections of the working jeweler, the jewelry shop owner,...
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Book Review – Collecting Rhinestone & Colored Stone Jewelry
This book by Maryanne Dolan is in its third edition and is clearly a required text for those interested in...
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Dermatitis and the Jeweler
Dermatitis is a group of skin conditions that may often be contracted by exposure to chemicals and metals. These may...
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Modes of Working with Jewelry
This short paper offers a set of names to describe how the jewellery metals field is made up in terms...
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Basic Fire Safety for Jewelers
Have a fire plan; ask your fire department for advice. Keep the appropriate extinguishers around and in good shape. Get...
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Patinating Brass Alloys Using Contact Plating
This procedure should be undertaken with appropriate precautions; goggles, gloves, protective clothing, adequate ventilation. Recently I have been presented with...
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Structuring for Efficiency in the Studio
Being more organized, and planning how you use your time will mean that you will spend less time on some...
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Gloves and the Jeweler
Gloves are used to prevent skin contact with a hazard, whether physical (like a razor edge on a piece of...
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The Teachers’ Role
I believe the teacher's role is as a guide, an instigator, a devils advocate as well as instructor. A teacher...
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Jewellers’ Objective Attitude Towards Designing
It is sometimes useful to have criticism of one's work in order to develop it. While studying as an apprentice...
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Dusts in the Jewelry Workshop
Dust is small particles of a material. There are dusts you can see in the air; these can be breathed...
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Noise and its Effects
Noise is so common that we don't tend to think of it in terms of exposure in the same way...
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Learning Metalsmithing Process
An art school is in some ways a difficult place to learn to be a metalsmith. Traditional systems of industry...
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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, other RSIs and the Jeweler
Carpal tunnel syndrome is only one of many kinds of repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) and cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). RSI,...
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How Jewelers Approach Work Materials
This diagram shows how jewelers approach working in the field in terms of how they relate to the material. The...
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Safety Issues and Litigation
After writing my recent safety book something unexpected happened. I had a number of calls from lawyers about safety issues....
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Sample Consignment Agreement Contract
The following is Consignment Agreement contract. It is intended for information purposes only although if you wish to use it...
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Separating Work and Home
Often craftspeople start out making craft objects in their living space, a kitchen, a living room, and sometimes continue working...
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Studio Lighting Considerations
How you light your shop, illuminate your working area, experience the reflection from surfaces and the paint you choose for...
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Tweezers Tips and Tricks
Tweezers are a constant in a jeweler's life, particularly in these safety conscious times. Tweezer use can help reduce your...
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Gem-Setting Tools: A Practical Guide To All The Hand Tools & Bench Supplies You’ll Need
This article lists the basic tools someone learning stonesetting might want to have around. One would of course add to...
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Goldsmith Kit Basic Tools
This article lists the basic tools found in a standard Western Goldsmith's toolbox.
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Organize Your Bench
The next time you sit down at your bench, don't think of it as just a bench. Think of it...
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Tips for Creating Jump Rings
Jewelers use jump rings extensively as chain components, connectors, and linking devices for multiple construction problems. Here are a few...
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Methods of Closing Jump Rings
In high volume production operations, many jump rings need to be closed one after another. For such fast paced operations,...
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Cutting Jump Rings
Once you've wound jump rings around a mandrel, what's the best way to cut them apart? Some craftspeople use hand-held...
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Steps on Making a Rolled Fold Heistad Cup
Rolled folds are folds which utilize the rolling mill and it's unique properties of equal, directional pressure on the plastic...
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Tips for Repairing Pearl Jewelry
When taking in a piece of pearl jewelry for repair, it may be necessary to remove the pearl to avoid...
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Steps on Making a Basic T-fold
This article describes the steps to making a basic T-fold, one of the main categories of fold-forming. Numerous variations are...
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Solder Flow Retardant Notes
While goldsmiths normally strive to have their solder flow easily, there are times you don't want it to flow, such...
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DIY Metal Shaping Tools: How To Make Your Own Jewelry Hammers Or Mallets
Jewelers spend hours fixing damage that they themselves did to the metal. Soft hammers and shaping tools limit the injuries...
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The Ganoksin and Orchid Community Story
This talk was the part of a speech about the history of the Ganoksin Project Website and its growth. The...
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Polishing Tools and Tricks
The mantra of polishing jewelry is the shinier the better - and obtaining polishing perfection takes skill and practice. It...
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Soldering Parts Using Pourable Soldering Jig
There is a great way of doing very complex and repeated solderings in one go. This very important method uses...
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Practical Wax Modeling Techniques
To begin with I highly recommend this book of technical information and procedures for anyone wanting to learn wax modelling...
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Book Review – Lapidary Carving for Creative Jewelry
This book is an expert and concise introduction to the world of carving gem materials. You could actually do it...
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Art vs Craft
The Art versus Craft issue is a complex question and one that has bedeviled creators a great deal in the...
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Protecting Gems While Soldering
Repair jewelers are frequently called upon to solder close in to a set gemstone. Besides the normal dangers of heating...
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Turning Burrs Into Stonesetting Tools
Stonesetters frequently convert and and reuse tools intended for other purposes. Often when a tool is needed they will cast...
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Steps on Making a Chased Wedge T-fold
This article describes the steps to making a chased wedge T-fold. To begin with a loop is made from a...
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Safety Notes for Jewelers on Pitch, Chasing and Repousse
An ancient system of working metals, this procedure uses steel punches to manipulate the metal while it is fixed onto...
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How to Modify Tools for Carving Wax
Casting is the most important method of commercial jewelry production. Even for small workshops, lost-wax casting is often the fastest...
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Patination Safety Considerations
Jewelers use so-called -oxidising- solutions to darken metals like silver, copper, brass, nickel silver, bronze and, with specialized mixtures, on...
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Steps on Making a T-Fold with Table Insert
This page describes the steps to using a table insert in a T-fold. A table insert is an object, or...
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Pitch Bowls and Alternatives for Jewelers
Chasing and repousse is carried out on various surfaces using steel punches to strike and manipulate sheet metal or cast...
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Steps on Making a T-Fold Boat Fold
The boat fold branch of T-folds is an interesting avenue. It permits you to have a curving, concave table, and...
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Enameling Safety Issues You Should Know About
Enameling involves the firing and melting of suitable glasses onto and into metals for decorative effects. It is done at...
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Lapidary Work Safety Precautions
Goldsmiths sometimes do a little rough and ready lapidary work with emery and leather sticks or even polishing compounds on...
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Book Review – The New Clay
The New Clay is a serious and readable text offering polyform clays as a material for unique and production jewelry...
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Hydraulic Press Safety Precautions
Goldsmiths began to use hydraulic presses in small shops in the 1940s in North America. Factories have used hydraulic presses...
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Book Review – Fabergé and His Works
ver read an annotated bibliography? Its not normally thought of as exciting reading by non-researchers. But if you are interested...
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The Jewelers and Asbestos
Asbestos is a real problem for jewelers. When I was first a student in 1974, we had a bucket of...
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Sand Casting Safety Notes
Sand casting is used extensively for large-scale casting, such as engine blocks, and the grates that one sees around trees...
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Gold of Africa: Jewellery and Ornaments from Ghana
Now this is a truly attractive book. One of those coffee table type books dripping with gorgeous National Geographic quality...
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Steps on Making a Plunkett Fold
One of the most intriguing, and fastest ways to make fold-forms are in the Rolled fold part of the system....
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Drilling Tips and Techniques
We all drill, all the time. We take drills and what they do for granted, but reviewing the obvious doesnt...
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Goldsmithing in the Future
This article is a set of predictions for what the jewelers bench and workshop will experience in technological change in...
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Cool Hunting in the Jewelry World
One of my roles for the last few years has been that of an innovation awards judge for MJSA. This...
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Pickling Notes
Jewelers treat soldered objects with dilute acid solutions to remove oxides produced from heating and soldering as well as glassy...
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Jeweler’s Workday: Sitting and Looking at the Bench
In the Jewelers Bench Book, the MJSA/Ganoksin project published in spring 2008, there is an extensive look at what happens...
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Fold Forming Tool List
These are some of the metal ' tools that you will find useful in fold-forming. Ear muffs or plugs and...
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105 Jewelers Bench Comments
In late 2006 I put together a survey on the Jewelers bench to which many Orchidians and others responded. There...
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Organize Bench Workflow with Trays
There are numerous mass production processes that bench jewelers can adapt and use to streamline their studio jewelry work. One...
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Scoring and Bending Procedures
Silicon carbide separating discs are superb for scoring metal for bending, particularly when the metal sheet is less than 4...
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Hammering and Forging Safety Guidelines
Goldsmiths and silversmiths use hammers frequently in their work, silversmiths especially. A regular trade goldsmith might use a bench hammer...
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Methods to Effectively Bend Tubing
Jewelers need to bend tubing for various constructions, including neckpieces, earrings, catches, and cuff links. Normally, precious metal tubes are...
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Book Review – Delightful Beaded Earring Designs
This small paperback book is written and illustrated by Jan Radford. At 8.95 it is an affordable introduction to 'Indian'...
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Creative Uses for Duct Tape at the Bench
Ask any bench jeweler the best way to secure a band-aid to his or her cut finger during a day...
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Steps on Making a Leaf or Ruffle
This fold is an example of forging on the open side, and introduces how to use hardness dams in foldforming....
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The Different Kinds of Line-Folds
Line-folds offer a large area of exploration. In addition to the use of line-folds by themselves, it is valuable to...
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How to Make a Riffle File
Every now and then when you are fabricating a piece or polishing a casting, a hole or hollow will pop...
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How to Make a Heistad Cup
Fold-forming is a hand-working technique applied to single sheets of metal to create surfaces and three-dimensional forms quickly without soldering....
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Steps on Making a Basic Wedge T-fold
This page describes the steps to making a basic wedge T-fold
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Book Review – Classic Earring Designs
This small paperback book is written and illustrated by Nola May. At $9.95 it is an affordable introduction to 'Indian'...
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Jewelry Making Study Sheet
Jewelry making is a big job. That is that there is a lot to know and a lot to learn....
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Resists and Electroplating to Create Patterns
With the ever-higher cost of precious metals, many jewelers are increasingly working with non-precious metals such as stainless steel, titanium,...
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