In case you were wondering how I get any jewelry making done with a baby in the house, well, most of the time I don’t. Remember my post about my traveling metal studio? I still do most of the metalwork at my parents’ house, and most of the beading and wirework during naptime or if [...]

I’m a bit obsessed with photography at the moment. But I’ve been working on new jewelry too. I love my latest pendant, and I love these photos I got of it. The pendant is made from argentium sterling silver, which I hand forged, textured, drilled, sanded, and polished to a finish that I like. I [...]

As you probably know, I am mommy to an infant (although VERY soon I’ll have to start calling him a toddler), which means my metalwork tools need to be safely stored where he can’t accidentally find them and use them to poke his eyes out, or swallow, or otherwise injure and/or poison himself. I’ve started [...]

At the suggestion of a helpful person on twitter, I went to the Ace on San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito to find tiny drill bits – what a GREAT hardware store! I’d been there before for other tools and lightbulbs and things, but I didn’t fully appreciate just how nice of a store it [...]

I managed to find some very small sized drill bits at a local hardware store, only to come home and discover that a #60 from the hardware store is actually *bigger* than a #56 I bought from Otto Frei/Frei and Borel. So my post on bit sizes a few days ago may be true, except [...]

For drilling soft metals like silver and copper, you can use hardened steel drill bits that are sold at hardware stores, if you can find a small enough size. Diamond coated bits are good if you are drilling something harder, such as glass or a harder metal. I get diamond bits from jewelry supply companies [...]

If you are drilling holes in metal so that you can make wire rivets, it is important to make the hole the same size as the wire. So, with drill bit sizes having a completely different numbering system from wire gauge, how do you know? I did a little research, and this is what I [...]