I've been catching up on custom orders over the last couple of months.  This ring was commissioned by fellow artist and Riverside Farmer's Market vendor Bonnie Tickner for her husband.

She wanted a plain band ring with a tiger's eye stone, and not too bright and shiny.  So I created this simple ring with a bit of texture and this beautiful stone.  We decided it looked better with a darkened finish.


Even though the design was simple, creating this ring presented an interesting challenge.  It is ...
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A couple of weeks ago I attended our local Rock and Mineral Show.  As always there was a good turnout of vendors selling rocks from all over the world.

Not all of the rocks were ethically and sustainably mined, but by doing a lot of digging (through boxes of rocks, that is) and asking many questions, I was able to find a good selection of fair trade (most found by small independent rock hounds) stones.

I always find myself more attracted to the rough cut slices of rock, rather than the polished...
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The Aspiring Metalsmiths team I belong to has a monthly blogroll challenge.  I missed the one last month (I managed to take photos and start my post and then my computer crashed and I lost it), and I'm late with this one, but better late than never, right?

The topic this month is "What skill do you want to learn next?"  I found it incredibly difficult to choose just one thing.  I love learning new skills and, still being very much an "aspiring" metalsmith, I feel that I haven't really solidifi...
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