Next Show - Tiny Longmont Studio Tour Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9 2024

Next Show - Tiny Longmont Studio Tour Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9 2024

My next show is the Tiny Longmont Studio Tour, Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th. I will be at Robin Bryant’s studio at 812 Sumner St., Longmont. The hours are: Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 12-4. There are four participating studios, all within walking distance of each other, with 4-5 artists showing at each studio. Great way to see a lot of beautiful creations, and get a lovely walk in at the same time. Hope to see you then.

Kingman Turquoise March 2021

Just got back from our semi-annual trip to Lake Havasu City, Arizona to see my son, his wife and our two grandsons. Weather was really nice (not too hot there this time of year!). And to top it off, we missed the snowpocalypse in the Front Range of Colorado!

Had to stop in Kingman, Arizona at Colbaugh Processing to look for new Turquoise stones! Got some earring sets for designing earrings. Will be coming soon to the website.

I have had people ask me about the Purple Turquoise I get from Colbaugh. They also have bright green. What Colbaugh does is, take the scraps left over from cutting turquoise beads, dye the turquoise and mix with bronze or copper bits, spiny oyster shell, mix with resin and then pressure pressed to form blocks that lapidarists can then cut cabochons, or beads. This is a great use of turquoise because nothing goes to waste and a “new” stone is created for jewelers to use in their work.

Cyclone Blizzard!!!!

Working in the studio today, looking out the window at the “cyclone blizzard”. Almost “springtime in the Rockies” and we are getting dumped on! Would just be a regular snowstorm except for the wind whipping everything around.

But, it makes for a great workday because-what else are you going to do? Makes me think I should look through my stash of stones and see what inspires me today. I have been doing a lot of work in turquoise so I think I need to change it up with something new. Maybe some Australian Variscite or Dendritic Agate Opals, or, or, or, etc. I will post the “snow projects” when they are finished.

Stay warm out there. Suppose to be clear tomorrow.

Working on some new techniques

I recently added a Pepe rolling mill to my studio equipment.  With the mill I can impress patterns on metal.  That opens up a whole new opportunity to add texture to the raw metals I use for earrings and bezel backings in my custom jewelry.  

After annealing the metal (this "softens" the metal to make it easier to imprint) I sandwich the metal and the pattern sheet between two pieces of card stock.  I use this to measure the thickness by placing the stack in between the rollers and closing them down to a snug fit and set my guide on the top to "0". I then open the rollers, take the bundle out, crank the rollers till I reach that "0" marking again, then tighten the rollers a quarter of a turn more to make sure that the additional pressure will give me a good imprint. I then crank the bundle through the rolling mill.

After the mill process I use a dapping kit and form the blanks into a curved shape that is ready for assembly

After the mill process I use a dapping kit and form the blanks into a curved shape that is ready for assembly

I have had a lot of fun using different things for imprinting.  I use a couple of different sized hole punches on heavy weight watercolor paper and ran sterling silver thru with that pattern.  It looked like shiny bubbles on a matte background because the texture of the paper transferred to the metal.  I also found a great resource for rolling mill patterns on Etsy, RollingMillResources.

I have just begun to play with this new toy and expect to imprint a lot of copper, brass, and sterling silver in the coming months.

These earring blanks have been textured through the mill and formed by hand hammering with the dapping tools and oxidized with Liver of Sulfur.

These earring blanks have been textured through the mill and formed by hand hammering with the dapping tools and oxidized with Liver of Sulfur.

Combine them earring wires and a bezel set stone that is soldered to the whole creating what you see here.

These are 6mm Turquoise cabochons set in Sterling Silver on imprinted Sterling Silver that has been oxidized with Liver of Sulfur.

  These are garnets set in  Oxidized Sterling Silver.

  These are garnets set in  Oxidized Sterling Silver.

A virtual tour of my studio

About a year ago my nephew, Kody Helart, did a video of me and my studio in Longmont Colorado, as part of his final project at the Art institute of Colorado.  

It's a good advertisement for my work and will provide some insight to my motivation and my creative vision.

To see a what's available now or to talk about custom designed pieces contact me via email.

For more of Kody' work check out This video  it gives you a good sample of his work.  He's a talented young man.

Thanks, Kody for the video.