PB Cohen Creations

One of my sisters has asked me to create a ring for her daughter, to replace one lost while scooping up leaves. Julia has blond hair, blue eyes, lives in Southern California, and became taller than I am a couple of years ago. Technically speaking, because of that last item (really, just that last one), I don't have to speak to her anymore. But I've decided I can still make her a ring!

I made the mistake of sending Susan to a few web sites to try to find something close to the ring that was lost, and possibly get some new ideas. Several hours later she came back with "Geometric shape but not too squared off. With texture. Probably not too big and not too sticky-up." Plus about 20 pictures, none of which were "perfect," and only some of which even came close to resembling each other.

Obviously, if she had found the "perfect" ring she would have purchased it from somebody else; I'd never make an exact copy. But we narrowed it down to three (click on the picture for a larger version). I apologize to the original artists for not being able to name them.

The current plan is to take these three images and let them stew in my head, and try to come up with something interesting, in my own style, that Julia (and of course my sister) might like. On the list are: texture, sorta modern, maybe even a little cute. I'm not likely to do a stone right now, since I haven't done any in awhile and don't feel like practicing. But I think I can figure something out.

Here's the first try, which is on the "cute" end. Unless Susan loves it, these won't be the final product, but sometimes you just have to get the first try out of your system.

Stay posted.

I actually hate those blog posts that say things like "Sorry, internet readers, that I haven't been writing much lately." So I won't do that. Basically, I've been making jewelry for many years, and set up a web site a couple of years ago. Things happened so I stopped paying attention to the web site, but some of the old posts are still interesting, so I'll keep them. I plan to use this (redesigned) space to talk about art, and show off what I'm making. That last will go a bit slowly, since I never did quite master the skill of taking photographs of small, shiny things. I'm working on it.

While working on the new design, I discovered that these days many artists have several web sites. I wonder if that's because they 1) paid somebody for a fancy, pretty "business card" site that they never want to get rid of. But then they 2) started an Etsy shop, or some other online marketplace site. And then, when blogs got more popular they started one of those, but because they didn't have enough computer knowledge, they 3) set one up on a free blogging site. And then, because the free blogging sites don't usually offer free photo hosting, they 4) started up a free Flickr site. That's a lot of web sites! Plus, these days there are more marketplaces out there than just Etsy.

Too much to keep track of, in my mind. I'm lucky enough to have enough computer knowledge to do everything myself (although I'll probably set up an Etsy shop soon). But even so, this redesign is more than enough for me. I can't imagine wanting to deal with more than two sites myself.

To those of you who have a lot of sites: Do you find it hard to keep track of it all? Wouldn't you rather spend your time making shiny things? Or does tending the web sites offer a productive break?

Oxidation is the chemical process that takes place when a substance combines with oxygen. When iron oxidizes, rust is formed. When silver oxidizes, it tarnishes, or turns black. All metal oxidizes, but some metals react to oxygen more quickly than others (you've probably never seen aluminum that isn't oxidized, unless it's been anodized — and then you're not exactly seeing the aluminum).

A lot of jewelry is allowed to oxidize to a certain extent on purpose — this adds "color" and interest to a piece. But you'll probably want to keep the pieces from tarnishing further. Here are some general tips about caring for metal jewelry.

Oxidation: The best way to keep a piece from oxidizing (further) is to keep it sealed up in a reclosable "ziplock" type plastic bag, with all the air pushed out. A more stylish option is a good quality jewelry box, nicely padded to create an airtight seal, and kept closed. Even with these precautions, and particularly if you wear the piece often, you may need to shine it with a standard jewelry polishing cloth. I have never tried a liquid dip polish, so I cannot recommend it for use on non-metal objects, but I have heard that people have good luck with them. Try it at your own risk.

Cleaning: Things get dirty. Get the piece wet in warm water, and place it flat on a clean cutting board. Put some mild dish soap (no toothpaste!) on an old or unused hand-powered toothbrush, and scrub away. You want enough friction to create suds, but not so much you'll damage the piece. Scrubbing against a cutting board should keep the piece protected. Particularly if it's a chain, work on a small section at a time, supporting the rest with your fingers. Rinse thoroughly and dry gently using a lint-free, soft cloth. You may find this method will shine the piece up enough that you won't need a polishing cloth.

This time of year, and particularly considering the political climate in the Unites States these days, I decided it was important to make some vampire stakes. Here's a photo of the finished stakes (remember you can click on any outlined photo for a close up):
I don't have any photos of the process, but I'll try to describe it. I believe the tool of choice would have been a wood lathe. Without that, I believe a band saw and a belt sander would have been useful. Perhaps someone with more wood-making experience would have a different opinion. Since I don't have any of those tools, I made my stakes with a scroll saw and a drum sander attached to a drill press.

I primarily worked with one-foot-long lengths of one-inch diameter dowels. It was useful to have a long "handle" to work with while shaping the points. Plus, I've always felt a two-sided vampire stake is the best way to go. However, you probably wouldn't need to make it longer than one foot, and you can see that about eight inches — the square stock on the bottom of the photo — also worked well. Since I chose to make my points about three inches long, a six-inch long stake would be the smallest I could make, and would probably be too short for practical purposes.

Measure your desired point (in my case about three inches), and then mark the rough cuts on one side of your stock. It's easier to imagine this using square stock. Cut one side, turn a quarter turn, and then make your next two cuts. I made my rough cuts taper to a 1/2 inch diameter center rather than an actual point, and this turned out to be a good idea since I wasn't able to be very precise with the scroll saw. The square stock was balsa wood — far too soft for a vampire stake, but the experiment proved that square stock is easier to work with than round. The drawback is that there's more finish work required at the sander, since you'll probably want a round shaft to your stake. Interestingly, the soft balsa wood wasn't substantially easier to work with than the harder wood in the dowel (probably pine); it was the squareness that helped the most.

Once you've made your rough cuts, sand everything smooth with the drum sander. This will take awhile (particularly if your cuts weren't smooth or even), and I strongly suggest you wear a dust mask.

If you survive the coming weeks with no need to use your stakes on vampires or other ornery creatures, here's a suggestion:


And here's a close-up, though not a great photograph:

Oh, and apparently, I could make some money on these stakes. As it was, I made some money on the jewelry.

Thanks to Beth Millner for some brainstorming ideas.

Occasionally I take classes at the local art center. One assignment was to make something out of metal that would make noise. It didn't necessarily have to be jewelry, so I decided to try my hand at forming a small bell out of a sheet of copper. First we had to make a model out of Bristol board. (Remember you can click on any outlined photo for a close up.)


Never having used stakes before, I wasn't quite sure what shape I'd be able to end up with, plus it was rather difficult to make a bell shape out of flat, thick paper, so I made a few. All cuts, flaps and holes were for shaping the paper, not intended as a design element for the actual bell. If all goes well, the finished bell will look like the model on the left.

Some of my classmates really liked the holes in the top of the Bristol board model. Although I feared they would easily get misshapen during the forming process, I went ahead and made them. The copper disc is 4 1/2 inches in diameter.


Forming is a slow process, requiring a lot of annealing, a lot of air cooling, and a lot of hammering. During the first day I worked on it, I didn't anneal enough, and often overheated the piece. Each "day" is either three or four hours, but of course there are other things happening during that time period. Equipment is shared, and I work on other things while I wait.

On day two, I annealed more often, although still occasionally overheated.

There is a bit more shape to the disc, although still not a lot. As you can see, the holes are starting to get misshapen, even though I haven't been whacking on them directly. Just goes to show how the metal moves.

Here's the bell after the third day:

Since the forming process is so slow, I'm glad I decided to take photographs so I can prove that I'm making progress. The diameter of the bell is now 4 inches. The current theory about why the holes are getting misshapen is that I've been overheating the metal. So now, instead of placing the bell bowl side up on top of a fire brick, I push it into the fire pebbles and fill it with a few more, protecting the holes and annealing the rest. I've been annealing more often, trying to avoid breaking those small strips. Keep your fingers crossed. The close up of the holes shows where one strip is getting close to breaking; it also shows that I cut out those holes slightly off the center punch mark.

Fourth day:

Slow but steady progress. Class is over soon, so I'm not sure how close to a bell shape I'll actually get, but it makes a pretty good bowl right now. Well, except for those holes. One of the strips broke, it's at about 2 o'clock in the picture. I haven't decided what to do about it yet, although soldering something to the inside to patch it up a bit is an option. It'll depend a bit on time. The diameter isn't consistent (oops) but most measurements are about 3 3/4 inches.

Fifth day:

The diameter still isn't consistent, but several measurements of the diameter are 3 5/8 inches. (Checks to make sure 3 3/4 is bigger than 3 5/8.) The photo of the holes isn't great, but I didn't realize that until after day 6. In case you can't tell, two of the strips are now broken. The metal is pretty dirty, since the sink in the studio is broken.

Sixth day:

The diameter of the bell is now 3 1/2 inches. Three of the strips are now broken. I'm not convinced these things are breaking because I'm overheating the metal. The first strip, maybe, but not these other two, since I've been protecting them with the pebbles. I think they're breaking because those holes were too big and too close to the center of the copper disc to take all the stress of forming the bell. If I were to do it again (unlikely in the near future) I might make holes, but if I did I would add them after I formed the bell. I'm pretty sure you could cut holes in the outside edge of the disk before forming, and not have a problem with breaking.

Seventh day - the end - or is it?

This was the last day of class, so there wasn't actually much time to work on projects. I mostly tried to ensure the bell was even, and that no more strips got broken. The diameter remains at 3 1/2 inches. The instructor hinted that the stakes in the classroom might not have been the proper ones for making a bell shape, and that it probably would have been better to cut those holes out after forming the bell. Fine. The next step, to be taken at some time in the unknown future, is to cut some of the center out and patch it, either completely, or keeping part of the holes for decoration. Since that step wasn't going to happen that night, I decided to just even it up, and clean it.

Just look at that shine! In fact, I gave up on getting great photographs, because I couldn't compensate for the utter shininess of the bell. It makes a better bowl right now than it does a bell. I've played with a lot of copper, and I've never created such a brilliant shine before, so I can't say for sure how it turned out this way. But the steps used include: annealing it often and overheating it a fair number of times, and cleaning it after each heating with dish soap and a generic Scotch-Brite type scouring pad. I only put it in the pickle pot (the hot acid bath used to clean fire scale off annealed and soldered metal) once, at the end of the entire process. Then I scrubbed it thoroughly with soap and pad two or three times, it needed a lot of scrubbing.

I want to "finish" it sometime, but I still haven't decided what to do.

First published in hardcover in 2003, the paperback version of this book came out in 2006. It is typical of "how to" books published for — I think — the US market in the past few years. There is a basic introduction to the craft, along with information on materials and tools needed, and photos and descriptions of the basic techniques. Any specialized techniques used in the project section are also described, and safety issues are covered. Then, the book offers several projects, described in words and pictures, from start to finish. Usually, there's a small gallery of various artists' work at the end. This formula is very useful as a teaching tool, and presumably successful as a book format, since several publishers seem to be following it.

My main problem with the formula is that it tends to emphasize information for the beginner. Every book starts out with the basics, and every book has projects designed with the beginner in mind. Projects usually get more complex by the end of the book, but not all projects end up being very complex. And with some of these books, complexity doesn't seem to be the point.

This isn't all bad, even for people who are ready to see more advanced projects. For example, it's interesting to see which tools a particular artist feels are the Must Haves for the craft. And you can almost always get a tip or two from seeing someone work on basic techniques.

Gollberg's Making Metal Jewelry follows the formula well, and tends toward simpler projects. In this case, one doesn't really miss complex projects, since the emphasis is on techniques that don't require soldering, or using a torch even for annealing. This makes it a good book for a beginning jeweler.

There are 21 projects: five necklaces, five earrings, five rings, four bracelets, and two brooches. The projects cover a nice variety of techniques: piercing and sawing (sometimes quite intricate), surface textures, folding and bending both wire and sheet metal, jump rings, linking beads with wire wraps, cold connections (including rivets, tube rivets, and nuts and bolts), copper etching, and prong-set cabochons. Included are ideas for different kinds of findings, including making a catch and joint for a brooch with no soldering, and making post earrings. Gollberg uses several different metals (silver, copper and brass), and several different shapes of metal (flat sheet, tubes, and round, rectangular and square wire).

The projects also include a nice variety of designs. Ancient designs (a thorn clasp and mandala are used) and more contemporary ideas are covered. Simple elements get nice surface textures, and pieces aren't always flat (the bracelet shown in the lower right of the book cover is a lovely example). In addition, Gollberg stresses the idea of modifying her designs to suit your own style. To support this, she sometimes provides her own alternate designs of projects.

In all, a fine book for a beginner, and an interesting collection for a more advanced jeweler. Gollberg also provides a circle divider template, which is essential for many of her projects, but useful for many other designs as well.