Sometimes I paint...

Yes it's true.  I like to paint too.  During one of my "Mommy needs quiet time" moments, I decided on a pet portrait of one of the most adorable dogs, Taco. (Instagram: frenchtac0 follow him.  You won't be sorry.) He's a French Bulldog and so friggin' cute.  It was nice to let my mind wander from jewelry...

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Week 6

But back to the jewelry...We pretty much worked on stone setting all week.  It was a bit of a "meh" kinda feeling for me after the "Big Project" ring last week.  I wanted another.  Instead we set.  And set.  And set.  Much of it was fancy shapes: princess cuts, marquise cuts. The exercise of setting the stones was very informative and I learned a ton about effectively avoiding breaking the fine tips of pointed stones.  The "pocket" or "parking garage" are key in making a space for the tips.  I've set a few princess cuts and pear shapes over the years but really got a clear picture of how it is actual done. 

Making a parking garage for the point of a princess cut.

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Crabby McCrabby.

Marquise cuts were on the menu, much to my dismay. Marquise cut (aka: Football or eyeball) aren't really my favorite cut.  Actually I kinda think they are fugly.  Yup. Fugly.  The v-tip prongs with the four standard prong setting pretty much looked like a crab.  It made me a little crabby to be setting the marquise all day long. *Snort* Even with the lack of enthusiasm on my part, I finished them up and learned some very practical details.

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The middle of the week a little milgraining practice was thrown in.  I love milgrain.  I want to milgrain everything.   It's kinda like "bedazzling" but on a micro scale.  It makes it all sparkly!! 

More setting: a semi bezel, teeny bezels, marquise bezel and oval basket head settings (to prep us for setting our "Big Project" ring.)  

Milgraining. It is in the details.

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Bug eyed from setting.

With all of this stone setting going on, I began to get a little bug eyed from all of the micro vision.  Lots of breaks and giggles from my bench neighbor, Nick, were helpful in keeping me entertained.  

Nick, the funniest awesome-ist bench neighbor a girl could ever want.

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Week 6 projects.

The week rounded out with another bench test.  We half shanked a ring, set and polished a ring and made a chain repair.  We had about 1 1/2 hrs to complete.  I think it went well for everyone and the tension was much less than our last test, er, timed exercise.

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Week 6 projects (minus our bench test pieces.)

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After spending all day, every day at the bench during the week, I find it difficult to sit at the bench much on the weekends.  With the holidays around the corner, I have got to get some new product in my Etsy shop.  A moissanite rose gold wedding set and a two tone gold ruby ring were finished and are soon to be listed for sale!  All that stone setting came in handy!  These were a breeze and much cleaner than BB (Before Blaine.)

New work!! Soon to be listed at http://panicmama.etsy.com