Free Projects

Jewelry Soldering Basics - How to Solder Jewelry: Solders, Flux, Tools & Setup

TammyJones — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:09:42 GMT

Soldering is the "gateway" jewelry making technique that will let you take your jewelry designs to a whole new level. Soldering lets you do the seemingly impossible: take two pieces of metal and create one single piece of metal with them. In this introductory eBook about soldering silver jewelry (copper, too!), you'll learn:

essential basic information you will use again and again throughout your jewelry-making lifetime
what solder is and how it works
what types of jewelry solder are available, what forms they come in, and when to use each one, with convenient reference charts that will make it easy to figure out exactly what you need
what flux is for and how to use it to make your jewelry soldering more successful
how to set up an area in your workspace that is dedicated to soldering so you can feel confident about working with hot metal, an open flame, and fuel for your torch
the specialized terms you'll encounter about the basic jewelry soldering supplies, tools, and pieces of equipment you'll be using in your new soldering station

How to Sell Jewelry: Tips for Your Home-Based Jewelry Business and Selling Jewelry Online

TammyJones — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:37:26 GMT

Learn how to sell jewelry and improve your home-based jewelry business with expert tips from successful jewelry business owners in this free eBook, How to Sell Jewelry: Tips for Your Home-Based Jewelry Business and Selling Jewelry Online. Selling jewelry should be enjoyable as well as profitable. Long before jewelry and money can change hands, someone has to let likely buyers know the jewelry is out there and where, that it's for sale, and for how much. Learn essential information and manageable ideas to get a plan of action in place for a truly successful jewelry-making business in this free eBook.

Whether you want to start a jewelry business from scratch or just need tips on how to market your handcrafted jewelry online and how to price jewelry effectively and fairly, this free eBook is an essential guide. In How to Sell Jewelry: Tips for Selling Jewelry Online and Improving Your Home-Based Jewelry Business, you'll find information about how to use the Internet and social media to promote your jewelry business online. Learn how to bring jewelry buyers to your business whether you're selling jewelry online or off, and learn how to make money selling jewelry today!

Elegant Bangle Bracelet, Part Two

TammyJones — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:58:33 GMT

Here's the rest of the instructions for making Connie Fox's elegant twisted-wire bangle bracelet. (See part one here.)

Elegant Twisted-Wire Bangle Bracelet

TammyJones — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:47:59 GMT

A bangle bracelet using beads and twisted, wrapped sterling silver wire by Connie Fox.

For part two of this project, click here.

Connector Link

Erin Carey — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:52:07 GMT

| Tools & Supplies

20-gauge sterling silver twisted wire
Bail-making pliers
Round-nose pliers
Flat-nose pliers
Flush Cutters

By Alicia Champ

How To Make Resin Jewelry: 3 Free Projects Plus Bonus Guide to Resin Jewelry Supplies

TammyJones — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:19:56 GMT

Ready to give resin jewelry making a try? With our free resin tutorial, How To Make Resin Jewelry: 3 Free Projects Plus Bonus Guide to Resin Jewelry Supplies, you will learn the basics of working with resin. Discover why working with resin can be so addictive with three free resin jewelry projects. Each of these free resin jewelry projects can be created as is or can be used to inspire resin jewelry ideas and designs of your own. Start by using premade resin jewelry molds or jump right into creating custom bezels and adaptations for your resin jewelry designs. Then, brush up on the five types of resin for jewelry and learn how their properties will affect your final resin jewelry. All of this and more is waiting for you when you download your free resin jewelry-making eBook from Jewelry Making Daily!

Metal Stamping Jewelry: Free Metalsmithing Video on Metal Stamps and Metal Stamping Tools for Jewelry Making

tiffwarble — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:14:17 GMT

Metal Stamping Jewelry: Free Metalsmithing Video on Metal Stamps and Metal Stamping Tools for Jewelry Making

Tammy to add description here.

Free Chain Maille eBook: 3 Free Chain Maille Projects, Plus Bonus Guide to Aspect Ratio, Wire Gauge, Inner Diameter, and Outer Diameter

TammyJones — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:11:29 GMT

Jewelry Making Daily Presents: 3 Free Chain Maille Projects Plus Bonus Guide to Aspect Ratio, Wire Gauge, Inner Diameter and Outer Diameter is the perfect sampler collection of chain maille projects and chain maille jewelry instructions. You can start by learning how to make chain maille earrings with colorful jump rings and glass beads in just five minutes!

Then try a basic two-by-two chain for a colorful chain maille bracelet delicately ornamented with vine-like coils. Next, move on to a chain maille necklace featuring patterned focal beads that hang from a handmade foxtail chain; this classic chain maille weave is one of everybody's favorites.

But that's not all-with the fabulous bonus guide to working with jump rings that comes with the free eBook Jewelry Making Daily Presents: 3 Free Chain Maille Projects Plus Bonus Guide to Aspect Ratio, Wire Gauge, Inner Diameter and Outer Diameter, you'll learn everything you need to know about aspect ratio, inside diameter, outside diameter, wire diameter, and wire gauges to allow you to follow these chain maille jewelry tutorials exactly as shown-or successfully adapt them into your own original designs.

Ocean Jasper Illusion Intarsia

Karla Rosenbusch — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:05:17 GMT

Color play and clean joints create an intriguing design. Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist contributors Tom and Kay Benham teach you how to cut a beautiful mauve, pink, and green slab of Madagascar Ocean jasper for an amazing intarsia project. The setting project for this fantastic stone can be found in the August, 2011 issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.

The Jewelry Makers Video Guide to the Micro Torch: Fuse Wire Links with a Butane Torch

TammyJones — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:56:55 GMT

Take the first step toward soldering and using a jewelry-making torch! Learn to use a micro torch, sometimes also known as a butane torch, creme brulee or kitchen torch, for fusing fine silver jewelry. Watch and learn as Denise Peck, editor in chief of Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry magazine and senior editor of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine, teaches you how to fuse fine silver wire links with a small handheld torch.

How to Enamel Jewelry: Expert Enameling Tips, Tools, and Techniques

TammyJones — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:12:25 GMT

In jewelry making, enamel is one of the most versatile sources of pure, luscious color-powdered glass you can apply with great precision onto silver, gold, copper, and other jewelry metals. With enamels, you can paint with a broad brush or add minute and elaborate detail to pendants, bracelets, earrings, and more. You can work in rich, saturated tones or in the subtlest of pastels. You can create a world of sharp contrast in black and white or one entirely of shades of gray. You can even mimic the colors of the finest gemstones, but you can also produce hues and patterns you'd never find among the trays of stones at any gem show.

In this fabulous free eBook, Jewelry Making Daily presents How to Enamel Jewelry: Expert Enameling Tips, Tools, and Techniques, you'll find three useful and inspiring guides to making enameled jewelry. In "Enameling," Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist's technique and tool maven Helen Driggs answers the question "What is enamel?," shows you what's in a metalsmith's enameling tool kit, and explains some basic enameling rules of the road. In "21 Enameling Tips," Helen shares 21 top tips from Marianne Hunter, Amy Roper Lyons, Karen L. Cohen, and Marjorie Simon-four of the most accomplished enamellist jewelers working today! And in "Enameled Filigree Beads," Pam East walks you through a simple technique of torch firing enamel onto a premade bead using a handheld butane torch instead of an enameling kiln. The enamel adds color to the bead, while the silver filigree creates the look of delicate cells like those in cloisonné enamel work.

Whether you're just exploring jewelry enameling for the first time or have been enameling jewelry for years, Jewelry Making Daily's How to Enamel Jewelry: Expert Enameling Tips, Tools, and Techniques is sure to teach you something new about one of the jeweler's most exciting and colorful techniques.

The Complete Lapidary Experience: Hunt, Cut, and Set Gems

TammyJones — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:47:03 GMT

Get ready to enjoy the full life story of a gemstone from rough lapidary rocks to gem cutting tools to gleaming cabochon to finished jewelry as you learn to do it yourself in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist presents: The Complete Lapidary Experience: Hunt, Cut and Set Gems. From start to finish, this is a trip you won't want to miss!

Center-Finder Circle Template

TammyJones — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:14:17 GMT

Place a round disc or square component in the center of the template (checking the sides to make sure it's in the center) and then use a straight edge to extend the lines across the component with a marker. The center of the object is where the lines intersect.

3 Free Glass Bead Making Projects Plus Bonus Checklist

TammyJones — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:52:38 GMT

In this fabulous free e-book from Jewelry Making Daily, you can discover the thrill of glass bead making yourself through the centuries-old technique of flameworking--or as it’s popularly known, lampworking--in which you heat those magical bars of color in the flame of a small torch (which used to be a lamp, hence the name). Each of these three great projects will demonstrate different ways of making lampwork beads that combine colors and create different forms.

Silversmithing Techniques from Jewelry Making Daily: 3 Free Silver Jewelry-Making Projects

TammyJones — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:51:40 GMT

Improve your skills as a jewelry-making silversmith while you create an outstanding silver pendant, ring, and pin. With silver sheet, silver jewelry findings, and basic silver jewelry-making supplies, you'll be sure to hone your silversmithing skills as you re-create these outstanding pieces. You can also use any of the projects in this terrific free jewelry-making eBook as a springboard to develop a unique silver jewelry design of your own.

In the Kentucky Agate Pendant, you'll learn to create a hammered sterling silver frame that will set off any cabochon with distinction. You'll also create a decorative backing for the stone using jump rings, giving the piece an interesting visual surprise as well as clever structural support.

To make the Bamboo Silver Ring, you'll use only the basic techniques of forming, soldering, and filing-but it will challenge you to use these skills with precision as you bring out the design's unusual texture. The bamboo motif also gives this versatile design a vintage look that works equally well in contemporary stack rings.

For a keepsake piece, try the Pottery Shard Brooch. This offbeat project will teach you how to set an unusual freeform focal: a bit of old china treasured for its antique pattern or perhaps because it belonged to a beloved grandmother. Whatever connection you have to your found object, you'll learn how to work an irregular shape into a pleasing design as well as enhance the antique look with liver of sulfur, fabricate your own pin stem, and set a half-drilled button pearl.

Whether you're into making silver jewelry for yourself or friends, or to create custom silver jewelry to sell, you'll find Silversmithing Techniques from Jewelry Making Daily: 3 Free Silver Jewelry-Making Projects a valuable reference and source of inspiration.