I have always enjoyed making things with my hands, and was fortunate to have a family that encouraged a myriad of different hobbies. Many of the skills I used in one of my hobbies has been able to either carry over or inspire ways to make jewelry for me. One of my favorites was always rock hounding (the recreational study and hobby of collecting rocks and mineral specimens from their natural environment). Being potentially the first person to see and touch a stone is still special to me. I would still like to one day be able to get the Lapidary equipment to be able to find a stone, cut and polish it and then set it into a piece of jewelry. The idea of taking a stone from finding it on (or in) the ground to a finished piece just really appeals to me.

       Another of my hobbies was both attending and helping to perform acts at Renaissance fairs. I was stage manager for a live steel combat and fire performance troupe at one point. We made our own costumes including the armor. I learned to make the basic chainmaille weaves helping to produce armor for the combat performances. One Halloween my wife was wearing her Renaissance costume to the school where she taught, and asked me if I could make her some chainmaille jewelry to go with it. I used some of the more decorative chainmaille weaves I knew and made her a fairly simple headband, some earrings, and a necklace if memory serves. People really seemed to like it and when they found out I had made it asked her “Does he sell that?” I hadn’t really thought about making jewelry for sale before, but I enjoyed making it and thought it might be worth a shot, especially since I could do it even if I happened to have a migraine at the time.

       I am unfortunately one of the 2% of migraine sufferers that happen to be male. At the time I was just starting with the chainmaille jewelry I got about one migraine a month that would last for a few hours or a day at a time. They have since increased in both frequency and intensity to the point I had to stop taking my college classes, and currently can not handle most “normal” jobs. I am hoping this turns out to be a blessing in disguise as it has let me focus more on making jewelry and learning new techniques so I can try and provide some income. Fortunately my wife has been very understanding and supportive of me.

       I moved from just doing chainmaille pieces (which I still really enjoy making) to doing some wire wrapped pieces. Not being able to attend classes (or having any available near me even if I could) I taught myself from books and the internet. My wife and I actually took our first vacation together to go to the Jim Coleman mine to dig quartz crystals with my nephews to make into wire wrapped pendants (I’m so romantic our first vacation together and I took her to dig in the mud). We probably will have to go back sometime this year as I am almost completely out of quartz points currently.

       In April of 2014 after much discussion and research I finally got my torch set up. I settled on an acetylene air torch as that was what was recommended by most of the books and videos I had for a starter torch. I purchased some instructional videos by Lexi Erricson and one of her books on soldering, as well as some ebooks by some other artists. This opened up a whole world of possibilities for me but I started out with soldering (although its technically brazing not soldering, the common nomenclature remains soldering) and bezel set stone mounting. This also allowed me to do more silver work, since I was no longer limited to just wire. I really enjoy the silver work, because among other things it gives me an excuse to play with fire 😉 (I’m a licensed pyrotechnician in the state of Texas, and blow and eat fire as well, which I learned back in my renaissance troupe days. (As you can see fire is kind of a reoccurring theme in my life.) I got some other jewelers tools at the same time letting me do a myriad of different finishes on my pieces, from a high polish, to a brushed, or even a hammered finish. These techniques are still my favorite things to do with my torch, though I now do some limited sand casting with it as well.

       Obviously if I have one of my migraines I am limited to what I can do in a quiet, darkened room, primarily chainmaille and wire wrapping again. I feel this keeps me close to my jewelry making roots though and more than once I have come up with new designs when playing with wire, making something entirely different. Of course I have come up with new designs in the middle of the night too waking up from a dead sleep which my wife doesn’t appreciate much (I have gotten better at not waking her when this happens now). I have a note pad to sketch ideas on but more often than not, if I can, I prefer to try and prototype something immediately when I have the idea (plus my drawing skills are abysmal and I am actually dyslexic which doesn’t help much either). It’s interesting how this has changed how I look at things, for example this fall I saw a few dead leaves on a bush that looked kind of like a bird to me, which gave me an idea for how to do a whole line of bird pendants (still not out of prototyping yet… beaks are hard to get to look right :P). My wife decided I was officially a jewelry artist at that point.

       So what does the future hold for me jewelry making wise? Well obviously predicting the future is difficult but I think my next steps will either be limited prong set stone mounting (limited because a full set up of the tools required is over $1000), or perhaps a rolling mill ($800 and up depending on the type and quality) which would make it easier to texture metal and wire. Long term I eventually want to get the lapidary equipment to cut my own cabs still and, maybe, one day the equipment to cut my own faceted stones.

       I love being able to make a well made finished product that I am proud of and I feel that more of the work I can do myself the better I will feel about it. There’s just something about having a nice piece that feels good in your hand, and you know there isn’t a factory in china somewhere turning out thousands of pieces just like it. Aside from the fact that it‘s made well enough that your not afraid of it breaking the first time you wear it. (I actually have a spinner ring I still wear after having hit it with a lawnmower, though it does have a slight ding in the spinning part of the band.) Hopefully this has given you a little bit of insight into how and, to some extent, why I got started making jewelry. The headaches are bad but if I can eventually make my living doing something I love it might almost be worth it…. almost.