I’m very excited to introduce my first intern, Francesca Urciuoli. Francesca is a talented jewelry artist from Perugia, Italy who will be assisting me and advancing her jewelry/metals studies here at Anneville for the next few months. Francesca will be helping out with my classes at Anneville Studio and volunteering at WCCPL, sharing with us her unique skills and outlook.
Francesca is fresh from finishing her MFA at the top-ranked metals program at SUNY New Paltz in New York. Before that, she received her BFA in metals from Alchimia in Florence, Italy. Francesca's approach to jewelry focuses on exploring the properties of unconventional jewelry materials such as metals, silicon and fabric.
We invite you to a special Friday Night Liberty to help welcome Francesca. Friday, February 5th, 5-9pm. She will be showing her work, and would love to answer your questions about her schools, her work, the difference between American and European jewelry, what it was like to drive across the U.S. from New York to San Diego, and anything else you might have always wanted to ask an Italian jeweler. Word has it she cooks, too! And that she's bringing homemade Italian goodies for us to share. Wow!
See some of Francesca's work below, and more on her website.

Technically there isn't anything you can't do with a direct-drive mill (as opposed to one with reduction) - but reduction gears make life way easier!
Most importantly, reduction gears make it much easier to roll down sheet from one thickness to another, say from 18 gauge to 22 or whatever you like. Mills are designed to do this; really it is their primary purpose. Traditionally you'd melt an ingot, then roll it to the thickness you wanted before you ever got out the jeweler's saw. It is only our 21st century laziness (and convenient online ordering from places like riogrande.com) that have made us order our metal at exactly the thickness we want and relegated the rolling mill to more of a texturing tool.
Our mill at school has 7:1 reduction, so you can imagine you'd need a lot more force for the same effect with a direct-drive. Rolling down sheet needs proportionally more force as it gets wider. I'd say rolling down anything wider than 2" would be extremely difficult without reduction. Some direct-drive mills have two handles so you can apply more force (by yourself or with a friend) - that would be handy! So to speak.
Oh, and I can't help but add to please never buy a cheap rolling mill ($300 or less, with gear offset from rollers). It will break quickly, but before that it will put horrible waves and distortions in your sheet. Save until you can at least get a Pepe. Or scour ebay and craigslist for a used Durston or Cavallin.
Bottom line, for rolling down wire and texturing fairly narrow metal, I think a direct drive is fine. It'll save you $$ and it'll keep you in shape. But if you are planning to roll down sheet on a regular basis, spring for at least 5:1 reduction. Happy rolling!