1/27/2016 - Francesca's first day at Anneville Studio. 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.

1/25/2016 - 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.

8/25/2015 - A few weeks back I finally got a chance to work on a mokume gane billet I fused in February - at a Rio Grande workshop with James Binnion and Chris Ploof. I was anxious to see if it held together and if my billet design was a good one. I'm pretty pleased with the result, and am again eager to tool up for fusing precious mokume. That's my fall project for sure. I absolutely love the color contrast possible with the 22k yellow gold layers. The gray layers are 14k palladium white gold, the silver are sterling silver. This bracelet style is one I've been making in copper, silver and shibuichi for some time now - (see one in my Etsy Shop) but this is my first gold one. And for now, this prototype is mine. All mine... :)

4/23/2015 - I love sterling silver. I love the color, I love how it saws (like butter!) and how cleanly it solders. But most of all, I love to hammer and form silver. In making this piece, I am celebrating silver being a little lower in cost (under $16 an ounce last I checked) and indulging my love of the whitest metal. I'm also fabricating this goblet as part of an advanced metals class I'm teaching at WCCPL, a great continuing education facility just a mile from my studio.

4/23/2015 - I remember back before I was a jewelry/metals student, hearing about rare rose and white gold  from the Black Hills. So confusing, because I knew gold was yellow, so how did some of it get to be rose colored? And of course I knew gold was soft, because on TV everyone was always biting a gold coin to see if it was real! So why isn't gold jewelry that soft? And what is all this business with 14 karats and 18 karats? I've puzzled out the answers to those and many more questions about gold over the years, so I thought it would be fun to share a bit about what I've learned.

2/26/2015 - I can't even begin to describe how much I enjoyed attending the workshop "Mokume Gane with the Masters" at Rio Grande in Albuquerque, with James Binnion and Chris Ploof. (Held February 8-13, 2015.) Turns out the big names of mokume are down-to-earth cool guys who just want to share their knowledge and experience with fellow mokume gane enthusiasts. I was one of 12 students eager to delve deep into the geeky world of mokume - science and numbers blending perfectly with big dangerous tools and hot metal.

2/25/2015 - Next month I'll be taking my hammers and files on the road and heading to the University of Central Oklahoma. Professor and Assistant Dean Charleen Weidell has invited me to share my love of mokume gane with her jewelry and metalworking students. We'll spend three days exploring the world of mokume gane - history, current trends, and practical demos of stamp and twist patterning. Students will receive their own blank mokume to try their hand at patterning too. As part of the workshop I'll be giving a public lecture on my work and how I transitioned from art student to successful small business owner.

2/4/2015 - After about 5 months of planning, measuring, hefting boxes, organizing tools and purchasing equipment, I'm happily settling into my newly re-designed studio space here at Anneville. I had four furniture pieces custom-built for the space by Craig Thibodeau ~ a local and incredibly talented woodworker.

11/12/2014 - My most recent custom piece was a joy to make. A fellow came in to my studio wanting a memory ring to honor his recently departed wife. We worked from the starting point of the rings that they wore during 37 years of marriage. At right is the design we came up with. The 14k yellow gold edging is those actual three rings, which I melted down together then rolled and fabricated into two bands. The center stone is the diamond he most wanted to incorporate - from the smaller ring, the one he had bought for her when they first married. The central mokume gane band and diamond represent their connection - separated by planes of existence for now, but always connected. I was honored to help him remember his wife in this way.