All Posts

Mary Lee Hu: The Wire Jewelry Master

In my last newsletter, I mentioned Mary Lee Hu's new book, Knotted, Knitted, Twisted and Twined, which is now available on Amazon books. Mary Lee is also written about in the last two issues of Ornament magazine. The first issue features her work on the front cover and the second (most recent) includes her in an article about designers, well worth the read.

How To Make Wire and Fiber Jewelry Pendants

I have just held my first workshop on how to make fiber and wire pendants and it was a real treat for me. I've devised a simple way to weave wire with what I call a "portable loom" that you can get at any hardware store. The students all picked it up immediately which was great.

Wire Jewelry Projects: How To Manage Them

I was teaching a new workshop recently and one of my students marveled when I said that I typically have ten or more wire jewelry projects going at a time. She asked me how I manage that and so I thought that would be a good title for a blog post.

Wire Jewelry Making Kits: Good Idea?

Hmmmm, I have started teaching again which really fires me up to come up with some rather interesting new ideas. Fueled by the enthusiasm of overbooked classes,I can't help but wonder about the viability of making up some kits from some of these new classes.

Jewelry Making Instructions: What Method Is Best?

As we start out with a new year, my thoughts turn to jewelry making instructions and what's the best method of delivery. We all learn differently but as artists we are naturally visual and share that essential characteristic. Even given that though, we still are all different kinds of artists and still learn somewhat differently.

How To Make Wire Jewelry 2011

How to make wire jewelry 2011 seems an appropriate topic as we all wind down on the year. This is the year that this website, 10 years old, was given a complete overhaul and the ramping up continued thru the bulk of this past year.

How To Make Wire Jewelry: Weave and Roll Wire Jewelry and Metalsmithing Workshop

I just taught the first wire jewelry making workshop that I’ve held in several years. I’ve joined forces with the Whaley Studios here in San Diego to start teaching again by holding a series of weekend workshops on various wire jewelry techniques. The plan at the moment is to hold a new workshop maybe once a month until I’ve got my old and new followings up and running again.

Jewelry Making Classes Coming in San Diego

I had a surprise this weekend, an unexpected event. I attended an open house at Whaley Studios here in the Hillcrest area of San Diego. The event was held to honor students and their work. All students were encouraged to bring samples of their work for display. The event was open to both new and old students of Jay Whaley. Let me give you a bit of background on this first before I go on:

Wire Jewelry: About Wire Smithing

I was interviewed yesterday on Blog Talk Radio from Whaley Studios located in San Diego. We started out with the usual questions about my background and how I got interested in making wire jewelry. To make a long story short, I started out metalsmithing by taking a series of courses and clearly remember thinking to myself, "there's nothing new that I can do here".

Wire Jewelry: Using Copper as an Alternative

Although I think the topic of using copper wire as an alternative to silver these days is well covered on the web, I've been seeing some things that I think are worth comment.