Saturday, February 28, 2015

What’s on my Bench

Hello again, and welcome back to Whats on My Bench! Today we are thrilled to give you a peek into the studios of two more of our JET Team members. First we talk to Gaiana of BellaVeaJewelry. One of Gaiana's clients recently asked her to make her some custom earrings:

Supplies are laid out on the bench ready ...
"This lady not only has a great sense of fashion, she is also a great cook with a successful blog called Freakycurry.com, and a mom as well as a very nice person! We agreed on a budget, and discussed her ideas in more detail."

... and an idea gradually emerges
"My client was looking for some very large statement earrings with a Bollywood feel. I had never made anything quite so dramatic before, so I was very excited to be asked to work on this custom order for her."

Et voila! These really do have a Bollywood feel to them!

Thank you for showing us how your earrings progressed, Gaiana. We're sure your customer was delighted with her purchase! In our second glimpse behind the scenes, we're delighted to be visiting CapitalCityCrafts to watch Barbara working at her bench.

Barbara's cast silver butterflies, acorns and twigs are piled up on her bench waiting to be turned into jewellery
"Each acorn has be carefully cast in two parts. I solder each one and finish it into a one of a kind sculpture. To make the cap, I carefully carve details and a tiny leaf."

Barbara has finished preparing and polishing these butterflies, and is now setting them with gemstones
"I worked with a CAD designer to make the master butterfly piece, which was then printed with a 3D printer. I then had to finish the master by hand before the mold was made for the casting."

And this is where all Barbara's jewelry magic takes place!

Thank you Barbara for sharing this fascinating insight into your work! We love all your silver creations!

I do hope you have all enjoyed our looking at our JET Team benches this week. Until next time!
Donna

22 comments :

Unknown said...

Wow! The commissioned Bollywood earrings are spectacular, I bet their time intensive! I think Barb is a master when it comes to her casting, it's fascinating to hear you use a 3-D printer too...jewelry goes Hi tech in the 21st century!

Unknown said...

Wow, the benches are so CLEAN and ORGANIZED!!! So fun to see. . .

mjsee said...

I haven't seen the top of my bench in weeks. Perhaps I should do something about that...

Beautiful work, Gaiana and Barbara!

Keystring said...

Love seeing the progression of the beautiful creations, the finished products, and learn the story behind it all! Thanks for sharing!

LoveStoneArts said...

I'm so impressed with your work Gaiana and Barb. Thanks for sharing some of your creative process. CAD and 3D, that's exciting!

Ida said...

It's always great to get a little insight into people's creations. Thanks for sharing, Gaiana & Barbara!

jemsbyjb said...

Loved reading about Gaiana's designing her special order and Barb's processes. It really does show that the process for designing jewelry is so diverse.

Thanks ladies!

Anonymous said...

I love seeing views of other artisans work stations. So inspiring. Those earrings are Fantastic! WEll done!

Jennifer said...

Beautiful work and so fun to see the difference in style and techniques!

Beadsme said...

They both work in such a tidy manner. I just have everything sprawled all over the dining table.
Great work guys.

Unknown said...

Gaiana's earrings turned out gorgeous! I want to play with all of Barbara's beautiful components! I'm jealous of her professional bench too!

erika said...

I wish my benches looked as tidy as Barb's! It's great to see Barb's superb cast butterflies get the bling treatment, and Gaiana's earrings are stunning!

Unknown said...

Loving this peek into the "inner sanctums" and all the awesome creativity from the JETs!

Cher said...

How fun to see the work area and how the pieces progress... great feature!

Gambatte said...

It's great to get a look behind the scenes at two wonderful designers. Those Bollywood earrings are absolutely amazing, and I love the cast butterflies. Makes me think about cleaning up my bench. Every time I do, it's a disaster again within a few hours!

Gemstones on My Mind said...

I'm so impressed with both Gaiana and Barbara's skills at the workbench. It really gives me an understanding of just how creative their work is. So beautiful!

Unknown said...

Very impressive and interesting. Always fun to see what others are doing. Your workbenches look so neat. Mine is always cluttered so that I can hardly see the top of it.

Mollie Ann said...

Fabulous peek behind the scenes with two of my favorite jewelry designers!

Michele said...

Lovely post, it's nice to see what everyone is working on especially from the JETs!!!

SendingLoveGallery said...

enjoyed seeing what's on their benches and learning more about their process for making that fabulous jewelry!

WanderingJewel said...

Great collaboration piece Gaiana, it turned out beautifully.

Cool process Barbara!

Ribasus said...

OMG. You are SO ORGANIZED! And your work has the clean, professional finish to it. I would be embarrassed to show the utter chaos in which I work. HAHA