I have been thinking about doing some demonstrations on some of the techniques I use to make jewelry at some of the shows and fairs we go to when we have enough space to allow it. I would be somewhat limited in what I could do of course both by having enough space to take my tools and all the displays and jewelry we have for sale, as well as safety considerations. I don’t think most fire marshals would be too happy with me taking my soldering torch set up to what basically equates to a small tent city. I would have to schedule times throughout the day so people could see what interests them and plan accordingly.

I could for sure do some demos on simple wire wrapping (some of the more complicated wraps would take way too long). This technique uses pretty standard jewelry pliers and if people were interested they could learn to do some of their own with supplies available at most craft stores. It still takes practice to get good consistent results, and you have to have items to wrap so I don’t think it would kill my sales of those types of items (Sorry I need to eat too, but I don’t want to treat jewelry as some dark secret, and with anything hand made each person puts their own twist on things so they would be unique) and may give a greater understanding of the time and skill involved in making these types of items.

I think I could also show some simple hand forging techniques as well. I couldn’t fit my medium sized anvil for trips to shows. However I did purchase an antique iron and refinish the bottom of it, and that should allow me to do some small pieces (though I would have to bring them home for the final steps with the polishing compounds, as well as drilling the holes for earrings, and the tumbler to work harden them). I could also demonstrate some simple hammered textures this way, and possibly some metal stamping.

I could also do some wire riveting which is a technique I use currently only if I want the aesthetic look of a hand forged rivet since I have a soldering set up in my studio. Despite the sound of this technique it is using wire to make the rivets not riveting wire together, though you can certainly do that too (Oh that gives me an idea for a riveted necklace I should prototype it and see if it works… Hmmm speaking of I need to do some more riveted rings, I made some prototypes but somehow never got around to making them for sale). This is another technique that uses just a few tools and does not require power (which if it is valuable at all at shows, is normally ridiculously priced, often times more than 30 bucks for one outlet for the weekend.. and when they say one outlet they mean one spot to plug in not both spots on the outlet). Again for finishing such pieces I would have to take them back to my studio to use the polishers and tumble harden them.

What do y’all think? Would you be interested in seeing some of the techniques used to make the jewelry at a show, or would you prefer to just look at pieces and be told about them without the distraction? Are there other things you would be interested in seeing demoed at such a venue? If so please by all means leave me a comment below and I will see if I can come up with a way to add that in. I really enjoy my craft and am kind of excited about the idea of being able to share more of that with people. 🙂

Sorry for jumping around a bit in this blog post it’s a bad ADD kind of day it seems, but I decided to leave it in as it shows inspiration can hit you any time even when writing about something you have done many times before. 🙂