Taking A Turn For The Better With My Jewelry

I decided that I wanted to do more, to take my jewelry to the next level, coming from so many generations of jewelers it should be easy right? But they are all fine jewelers, meaning they deal with precious metals, diamonds and the like.  And here I am making jewelry with semi-precious stones, adding brass, copper, natural and or dyed stones, and beads.   So for many months I have been researching into learning how to make silver jewelry.  Silver is very big here, so I am in luck :) 

By pure coincidence, but I know there was no one but God behind this casual encounter, I met a local free lance jeweler who had the time and the patience.  His name is Jorge, he is in his late 60's from Uruguay and has about the same experience my father has!! Bingo! My dad living in Florida and me here in Santa Fe made it impossible for me to learn from him.  ( I should have shown interest earlier in my life, but it is never too late :) )  I met Jorge while at a local consignment shop.  I told him that I wanted to start making jewelry in silver, and he offered to help me and allow me to use his small shop, located in his own room :) proof that you can create jewelry anywhere so space is not an excuse!.

Short of a month later, and dedicating about 6-7 hours a week for this, investing some cash on different types of silver, sheets, wires, etc.  I am using his tools, so I have saved some cash on that, I do have pliers, hammers, cutters, and the smaller stuff, but you need to set up a different kind of shop for this purpose.

There is a local jewelers supply, where I get the majority of my findings, and the rest we make.  I have been able to finish a few pieces,  learning how to solder, how to make a bezel around a stone, how to shape a raw stone, mainly turquoise,  make my own small clasps, polish, and basically how to be comfortable using a total different medium.

These are some of my first very simple pieces, as I go along I get more bold, and creative....we are making some awesome pieces for my jewelry store gallery!!  Now I am having fun designing really unusual and interesting pieces.

But I need to get my own silver studio/bench/workshop, and another blessing, my father has some extra equipment that he is sending me so I can start my workshop....you need a lot of equipment, and it is not cheap ;(  Just found a great long vintage bench where I can set up a sort of an assembly line so I can save time. So it is never too late to learn and give a new twist to your favorite craft.

From Art Shows to Art Gallery In Less Than Six Months!!!

• After a few months of doing local, Santa Fe NM shows, at the Artist's Market on Sundays, my husband (the guitar maker, Kath Guitars) started to get a lot of publicity with a local newspaper that wrote a piece on him.  After that, he has met and work on a lot of local musician's guitars.

I continued to sell, while he stayed home working on repairs on Sundays.  I did pretty good considering I am the 'new kind on the block'.  But an opportunity arose for us to rent some great space on a very busy street, right on Old Santa Fe Trail, also known as the historic Route 66.   The space used to be a small one bedroom adobe house, in great condition!  My husband had been toying with the idea of getting a shop, elsewhere, meaning other than in our garage for his growing business.  While walking around looking for some beads, I went into the Milagro Gift Shop, and met the wonderful owner, Connie.  17th Generation Santa Fean!! Very famous and wonderful person.
 
She suddenly remembered that she had a space to rent, mind you I was not even inquiring, not did I think I could afford it, but she was so nice, I could not say  no.  I actually loved the place, it has a great room as an entrance, another room, where the bedroom should have been and a separate kitchen an bathroom, and it's own portal with PARKING!! In case you don't know parking is the most annoying thing for tourists in this town.

I liked the place enough to tell my husband, but I did not even considered it a possibility, when he saw it he was very excited!!  But instead of just placing his workshop, he allowed me to have the front room to set up my jewelry!!   We signed the lease at the beginning of February and we are planning on having a grand opening March 2!!  I will also have local artist's work :)

I always wanted my work to be in a gallery, never expected  to be a gallery owner.   Thank you God :)