New Website!

My website is finally up and running!!  Please feel free to visit www.SliversOfSilver.com when you get a chance.  If you order something from the site, please let me know if you have any trouble with the order process.  I think all the kinks are worked out :)  Enjoy!

Tool Magic Review

I tried it!!  Tool Magic was... not so good.  Here's what I did...

1.  Rolled the Tool Magic container (2 oz. I believe) in my hands to mix it up without getting bubbles (learned to do this for nail polish!)
2.  Dipped the tools slowly in the goo, close to but not touching the joint, then removed slowly.
3.  Placed on a glass to "hang" them to dry overnight.

Here's what it looked like when I was done:

I was very excited to use my "new" tools! They did NOT mar the wire anymore, UNLESS my tool sliped.  After one use, though, you WILL notice that the Tool Magic coating is starting to wear in spots – nicks and scratches.  Now I've used it two days... and most of the coating wore off on the round nose pliers.  The flat surfaces on my other pliers seem to hold the Tool Magic coating much better, but there are still nicks and scratches... Worth my time?  Meh.
Tool Magic Review: 3.5 / 10.

The Art of Website Creation 2

And off we go!!!  I started an account on Prostores.com then "purchased" my first month free of the basic business e-commerce package (up to 5,000 products).  I started by picking my template...   Not a huge variety or very fancy templates, but they get the job done.  Then I struggled for quite a while to find where to EDIT that template!  I wanted to add my own logo and such!  THEN I discovered that it's really easy:  Page Template Manager located in the "short list" of links!  haha.  This tool was very useful, however, quirky.  Most things I asked it to do were fine, but a few actions made the screen go haywire.  Here's what the tool looks like:

Just double click in each region to edit the text, links or pictures.  I discovered, then, the backup or "baseline" feature.  It asks you, "do you want to create a baseline" before you start editing, and the answer is YES!

Now I am setting up the shipping options.  For some reason, no matter what I change the shipping options to on the setup page, it's always $5 on the "real" website!?  Oh technology.  Maybe it just takes time?  And yes, only time will tell.

So far... scale of 1-10, where 10 is me thrilled with Prostores' performance, I'm at about a... 6?  This may change after I distance myself from this shipping issue! Ta-ta for now!

Website: www.SliversOfSilver.com

How do I harden sterling?

As I created ear wires and longer sterling designs like below, I found that the dead-soft sterling silver wire I was using was too darn soft to maintain its shape well over time. That bothered me terribly since quality is of utmost importance to me!

So what can I do to make it “harder”? Well… I researched a few options that I alluded to previously in my “How To Make Ear Wires” posting:

1. Hardening the Metal: If you are at all familiar with the world of manufacturing, you might have heard about “heat treating” metal to change its hardness. “Age Hardening” is what you can do to increase the hardness. This website has good information in the section, “How can I put age hardening to use in my shop?” BUT! Cook my metal for an hour and a half? Not possible for me! I suppose if I had a kiln that would be reasonable, but, as fate would have it, no such luck. Notice, too, the note about not being able to solder after the metal is hardened – this will return your sterling back to its original, soft state. Sounds… too complicated for me.

2. Bending the Metal: Yeah, yeah. Bending the sterling wire makes it harder too – called “work hardening.” In order to do this, though, you have to ruin your shape! I don’t like this idea very much… I’ll just keep it in the back of my mind as a “good-to-know” item…

3. Hammering the Metal: As you hammer metal with your designated jewelry hammer, you are actually stiffening the metal! Try hammering a piece of wire, then bending it. More difficult, eh? That’s what we want in this scenario. I, therefore, hammer my ear wires (when it matches the design) in order to maintain the original shape of the wire.

4. Buying Harder Metal: Okay – not ALL designs look good with a hammered ear wire or with hammered wire dangles. There are different levels of hardness for sterling silver; for the earrings shown above, I used “half-hard” wire. This works really well! I also use half-hard for any ear wires that should not be hammered. Why not use half-hard all the time then? Well, it’s just not as easy for my little fingers to maneuver! I’d say have BOTH types on hand for the best results.

Summary:
- Don’t bother hardening the metal with heat.
- Bend to harden if you want to… I don’t want to.
- Hammer dead-soft wire when possible to solidify the design.
- Buy half-hard wire for designs that should not be hammered.

If you disagree with anything in this posting, please feel free to comment! I love to learn. :)

B.B. Bellezza's Craft Show Tips

In my search for other Handcrafted Jewelry blogs, I found B.B. Bellezza. At the very bottom of the blog, on the right hand side, there is a link to her "Craft Show Tips" PDF file. This is an excellent read for first-time-craft-show-goers like myself! Want to know what you need to bring? What to say to your potential customers? What NOT to do!? She has great info about it all. So, get to it and enjoy!