Joe Rissin, owner of Rissin’s Jewelry Clinic in Manhattan has been making and repairing jewelry since he was in high school.  Now his clinic is the destination for people who want their fine jewelry or even their costume pieces repaired or upgraded.  Joe also enjoys working with metal clay, and sent me a couple of shots of some custom work he’s done.

Joe writes:
These are pieces that I have designed and made. Above is a genuine butterfly wing encased in an 18KY gold frame and back with a quartz crystal on front.  Below is a back view showing a removable and …read more

Technique Tuesday!
The leaves that I showed you yesterday are really easy to make, but take quite a bit of time. Plan to do them when you’ve got other projects going on so that you don’t have to sit around waiting for the silver to dry.  Choose fresh leaves with deep veins: you’re going to be applying the paste to the bottom of the leaves, so you want the underside to be textured, but not “fuzzy” the way some leaves can be.  Smooth, but bumpy is good!

Step by step instructions

Make Art Monday
This month, I’m going to be focused on bringing you wonderful work by artists who specialize in metal clay: gold, silver, bronze, and the new copper. To start off, here’s a very simple project that I did with silver clay paste and some teeny tiny new leaves from our maple tree. These are each only about 3/4 inch across:

Tomorrow, I’ll share with you the method that I used to make these.  In the meantime, if you’re interested in working with silver clay, there are two brands available that you can research.  Rings & Things carries Art …read more