Learn Something New | Jewelry Designer Blog

August 30, 2011

Blog Giveaway: Tips for Jewelry Photography

Filed under: Giveaways, Learn Something New — juanita @ 3:24 pm

Win $40 to spend at Nina Designs by offering a jewelry photography tip.

Jewelry Photography can be challenging. There are many things to consider so much so that when I began photographing my jewelry I felt overwhelmed. To gain some control over my runaway emotions, I narrowed my focus to the basics: buy a digital camera with a good macro- setting to get amazing close up shots, shoot in natural light, and use consistent backgrounds to lend my shop a cohesive look.

As Emily points out in Jewelry Display Tips beginning with a clear vision of your customers helps you develop the look of your shop – everything from packaging, display, and photography. My customer appreciates vintage finds, so I chose to use an old metal table in front of a window with great natural light as my background.

In the beginning, my photos were BORING! They were a snooze. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I did the only thing I could. I kept trying. By the time I shot hundreds of photos, I began to tweak my approach to jewelry photography in a way that made all the difference. This sounds counter-intuitive, but the more I thought of my jewelry as sculpture and not as jewelry at all, the more interesting my photos became. Once I freed my mind of the constraints of what jewelry should look like, I was able to position my jewelry into unique perspectives, and format my photos in eye-catching and unusual ways.

Win $40 to spend at Nina Designs! What tips have you learned that you can pass along? Offer your tip for a chance to win $40 to spend on jewelry findings. Earn an extra entry by sending a photo to go along with your tip. Leave your tip here as a blog comment and send photos to juanita(at)ninadesigns.com. My goal is to write a follow-up blog with everyone’s contributions. This way we can have a convenient and useful reference when we need it.

Earrings or Sculpture?

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July 28, 2011

Bronze Pendants

Bronze Pendants and jewelry charms are here at last! We have been working hard on this new, affordable line for many months and we are so excited that it has finally started to arrive. We currently have in stock our natural bronze, in a beautiful warm finish that is slightly deeper in color than brass, as well as silver plated bronze. In a few weeks, we will also have gold plated bronze in stock. We are using the same reliable 40 micro-inches of plating over the bronze that we currently use on our vermeil style gold plate over sterling silver.

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin whose discovery heralded a new era in material culture, hence the “Bronze Age”. Bronze is significantly harder than copper which made it particularly well suited to weapons production but it was also used extensively to make jewelry. Dates for the Bronze Age varied by region. It had always been assumed that the Bronze Age began in Greece, Egypt and China, but recent controversial discoveries have placed bronze production in Thailand as early as 4,500BCE, over 1,000 years earlier than other regions! That places our Thai bronze pendants in a long tradition of bronze casting.

Indonesia also has an ancient tradition of bronze casting. In addition to jewelry and artifacts, bronze drums were produced throughout Southeast Asia around 300BCE. The largest known drum, The Moon of Pejeng, still sits in a village temple in Bali. I had a chance to see it about 20 years ago. It is a beautiful specimen of ancient metallurgy. As they do with almost everything, the Balinese have several entertaining myths about this drum. This one is my favorite:

“There were once thirteen and not twelve moons in the sky. One day, one of them fell to earth and got caught in the branches of a tree. Its light was so bright that thieves were forced to stop their nocturnal work and had to discuss how to extinguish the disturbing light. The most unscrupulous of them finally climbed up the tree and urinated on the moon until it burst and fell to the ground in the shape of gong.” (From The Art And Culture of Bali by Urs Ramseyer)

Moon of Pejeng

Bronze Pendants

Silver plated charms

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November 10, 2010

Gold Plate Charms vs. Gold Filled

Filed under: Learn Something New — Tags: sterling vermeil style, vermeil — nina @ 8:30 am

Gold plate charms are widely represented in our collection. Our Vermeil style plating has a gorgeous finish that compares favorably with solid high karat gold. Occasionally we get requests for more Gold Filled items. While we do sell a selection of Gold Filled chain and jewelry findings, we prefer to carry gold plated beads and findings because there is a lot more precious metal in our gold plate than there is in gold filled items.

Gold Plate, Gold Filled, and Sterling Silver

Gold Filled findings have a core of base metal (typically brass) and are covered in a layer of 14 karat gold. Hence, the gold is “filled” with a base metal.

Industry Standard Gold Plate is typically a base metal core (brass, copper, nickel) that has a thin wash of solid karat gold. This type of plating has a layer of gold that is typically 7 micro inches thick.

Nina Designs’ Vermeil style Gold Plate begins with our sterling silver findings that are plated with a thick layer of 98.5% pure gold (24 karat). Our gold plate charms and findings have a layer of gold that is 40 micro inches thick and is considered a gem quality plate.

Our gold plate charms and findings are of the highest quality and are far above the industry standard. Try working with any of our gold plate findings and we’re sure you’ll become a fan. With greater durability and hundreds of styles, what’s not to love? Read more specifics about our plating here.

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April 30, 2010

Tips for Wire Wrapping Silver Charms

Filed under: Learn Something New — Tags: design process, jewelry how-to's — leah @ 8:41 am

Garden-themed silver charms cluster together at the front of this necklace, creating an image of an idyllic moment in a secret garden. I often wire wrap several charms together to create a story. When using multiple charms, I prefer a dense arrangement without a lot of empty space. Often it takes three or four tries before I achieve balance, especially with asymmetrical designs.

As jewelers, many of you are probably familiar with the regrettable realization that a wire wrapped link must be adjusted to correct a necklace design. Wire wrapping provides wonderful security, but closed wire wraps cannot be changed or moved – they must be cut apart and completely re-done!

Several years ago, I started using a wire wrapping trick that has saved me lots of time: I make all of my link sections, but I keep the loops on both ends of each link open until I’m done designing the necklace. This allows me to rearrange the order of the links without requiring me to cut apart earlier work. I can add a link here or remove a link there by simply connecting the open loops. Once I’ve got an arrangement I’m pleased with, I go back and wire-wrap closed all of the loops. Do you have a favorite jewelry making trick?

It took me several tries to achieve balance in this assymetrical design.

Keeping my loops open allowed me to rearrange the links to find the best balance.

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April 16, 2010

Design Process: Knotted Jewelry Links

Filed under: Learn Something New — Tags: design process — leah @ 8:13 am

First try: links look too delicate in contrast to the deer hide leather.

I love using jewelry links in my designs. Jewelry links provide structure and are light and versatile. I use them often in my earring designs, and as standard links in wire-wrapped necklaces. When our buttery soft deer hide leather arrived several months ago, I was curious to see how links and leather might work together.

My first attempt was to tie our smallest 1/2 hammered links onto the leather. I wasn’t happy with the outcome because in contrast to the leather, the links are too light, both aesthetically and in weight (the links popped up and wouldn’t lay flat or even).

I tried again using heavier links, our new rustic hammered square wire links, and I think this necklace is more successful. The heavier weight of the square wire links gives it more shape, and the long length allows the leather to play a bigger role. I’m pleased with the contrast between the straight line of the leather and the roundness of the links – it gives the necklace the look of a line drawing.

I was curious to see how this look might work on a more delicate scale. I made the next necklace with thin C-Lon thread, braided around the links to hold them in place. I continued to struggle with the weight: the links are so light and the braid a bit stiff, so the necklace didn’t lay well. I wire wrapped dangles to the front three links for added weight, and this helped.

I look forward to continuing my exploration of this look. I may re-visit my first experiment with the smallest links tied into the leather. Only this time, I might add a heavy pendant to the bottom to hold the leather down. I can imagine the small links like leaves or feathers, free to move and sway, instead of trying to keep them evenly lined up. It’s important in the design process to give yourself permission to play and explore new materials. Today’s failure may plant the seed for tomorrow’s success!

The heavier links work better with the deer hide leather.

Adding dangles to the front links give the necklace necessary weight.

Adding dangled to the front links give the necklace necessary weight.

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April 7, 2010

A Lesson in Design: Silver chain and quartz crystal necklace

Filed under: Inspiration, Learn Something New — Tags: design process, Inspiration, jewelry design — juanita @ 10:50 am

Before I began working at Nina Designs marketing silver chain, beads, and charms, I never made a piece of jewelry in my life. I bought lots of jewelry. I’ve always loved jewelry, but never made it. And, even though I’m a crafty kind of girl, I was a little intimidated by the process. But all the ladies here gave me tons of encouragement and advice. I quickly learned basic techniques. The harder lessons for me have been how to design jewelry – or, rather, how not to over-design jewelry.

Lay-out of Dream Necklace with many elements

Lay-out of Dream Necklace with too many elements

I’d like to tell you a story about how one necklace came to life. It begins with a woman completely obsessed with two things: oxidizing all things silver and chain, chain, chain! Meaning, I recently oxidized all the silver chain I had at home. And, I love it. The look is moodier, edgier, and just more me. I decided to try to make the fabulous drippy chain necklace with quartz crystals that’s recently been haunting my dreams.

So I got busy over-designing. I added many different chains in my design thinking that would add textural interest. I even contemplated throwing strands of black silk ribbon in there too. I found my quartz crystals with black inclusions. I threw those in there as embellished dangles. Then as an afterthought I add a few faceted black garnet nuggets I’ve been dying to use. I started by laying it all out on a velvet board. Dissatisfied, I walked away and came back the next night. I knew I had to edit.

(more…)

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March 29, 2010

Making Thai Silver Charms

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Learn Something New — Tags: jewelry charms, silver charms, thailand — nina @ 8:30 am

Silver Charms never seem to go out of style. Perhaps that is why this category has expanded to dominate our product line.They are fun, collectible and timeless. By now, most of our clients know how our Bali products are made by hand by extremely skilled silversmiths schooled in an ancient tradition of metal work. Some of you might not realize that our Thai Silver Charms, though cast instead of hand fabricated, are also very labor intensive and require both technical and artistic skill to execute effectively.

The lost wax casting process begins with a hand drawn sketch, usually made by Leah in our office. The sketch is emailed to Bangkok where a wax master model is hand carved using the drawing as a guide. A rubber mold is made from the model, then filled with wax repeatedly to create “Patterns”. The wax patterns are attached to a wax base to form a “Tree” with dozens of patterns on it. This tree is placed in a flask and covered with a plaster-like material called investment. Next,the flask is baked in an oven and the wax melts away, leaving an exact impression of the tree. Molten silver is then poured into the mold and allowed to cool. After the investment is washed away with water, individual charms are clipped from the silver tree. They are trimmed, filed and polished by hand.

See a beautiful Slideshow of the entire silver casting process!

Wax Trees

Clipping Cast Silver Charms

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March 26, 2010

Design Process: Variations on Jewelry Links

Filed under: Inspiration, Learn Something New — Tags: design process, Inspiration, jewelry design — leah @ 8:52 am

I’d like to share a lesson in jewelry design using our jewelry links. We often receive questions from new jewelers about how to approach the design process or what to do when confronted with a creative block. One of my favorite suggestions is to explore a theme, technique or color combination that has worked for you in the past or that you’ve always admired. What happens if you change the scale? What if you mix up metals? What if you substitute a different gemstone? Chances are you’ll hit upon another success that is in the same family as your original piece.

The three earrings below all feature the same theme: combining different shapes and sizes of our ½ hammered links. These links are incredibly versatile and so much fun to work with! We offer them in multiple sizes, shapes and finishes, allowing for almost endless combinations. By mixing up the scale and the metals, I came up with three very different earring designs. They all work because of the layered, rhythmic feel of the repeating lines in the links. What do you do when confronted with designer’s block?

Layered links symbolize keyholes in this pair of earrings.

Like honeycomb, these links create a framework for the honey and honeybee.

The links in these earrings create a golden aura around buddha.

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March 22, 2010

Thai Silver Charms and Fair Trade

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Learn Something New — Tags: fair trade, thailand — nina @ 8:30 am

Thai Silver Charms are a growing segment of our business. These popular items are made at a production facility in Bangkok that we began working with in 2002. Since that time, our Thai Silver Charms and Pendants have expanded from a handful of items to hundreds. We selected our supplier based on the quality of their work and our confidence that they pay fair wages and provide other important benefits to their workers.

Thailand and Indonesia (where Bali is located) are the two largest economies in Southeast Asia but the people of Thailand enjoy a higher standard of living. When adjusted for purchasing power parity, the GDP per capita in Thailand is almost double that of Indonesia, though still far below the United States. The unemployment rate in Thailand in 2008 was only 2.1% (8.9% Indonesia, 9.7%USA) creating competition for skilled workers. The residents in Bangkok also have a higher standard of living than anywhere else in the country.

In keeping with a higher level of development, Thailand has substantial regulations for labor. The production facility adheres to rules handed down by the Tax Department, Factory Department, Labor Department and the Health and Environment Department. They pay a 5% payroll tax that covers health insurance, unemployment insurance, and retirement benefits. They also provide 16 paid holidays in addition to personal vacation time and three months of paid maternity leave. Entry level workers are paid well above minimum wage. Mid-level workers earn the equivalent of salaries at a four star hotel and experienced silversmiths earn about the same as a manager at a department store. The youngest worker at the factory is 20 years old.

Sorting & Grading Diamonds

Setting a Diamond

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February 1, 2010

Gemstone Beads Have Meaning

Filed under: Learn Something New — Tags: gemstone beads — nina @ 9:42 am

Gemstone Beads are not only gorgeous but meaningful. In many times and places, the meaning associated with a particular stone was more important than its appearance. This is still true in Indonesia, where people seek out stones with “power” to give them physical and spiritual strength. The gemstone beads in our collection have many attributes: Amethyst is linked to inspiration, Garnet is associated with passion and Citrine with creativity. For protection or wisdom, try Onyx, while Topaz encourages compassion. Offering clients the chance to select a stone based on its meaning is a powerful marketing tool. Customers treasure items that have personal meaning. Listing stone attributes can help build a story into any design, making beautiful jewelry even more attractive. Read more about Gemstone Meanings in our library. gemstones

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