One of the two winners of the “Most Poetic” category of our recent Haiku contest was this beautiful expression of the soldering process:
Torch flame flickering,
Flux smiling a glassy grin—
Watching solder flow
(This one was my personal favorite, by the way!)
Introducing… Tanya Boutros:
The jewelry business has been my profession for 40 years. It’s been a career full of new adventures, discoveries, interesting friendships and continual learning. I’ve seen places I’d only read about in books during my school years, met customers who have become life long friends and shared experiences doing what I love with other people who feel the same way. . .
The 2011 Saul Bell Design Award will be presented at a gala dinner during JCK in Las Vegas June 4th. Leading up to the event we’re taking a look back at some of our previous prize winners. Apichart Warrachart came to America from Thailand and found a freedom to follow the next possibility – and the next – and that has kept him here. This is Apichart’s beautiful, otherworldly piece from 2003. . .
For more than 40 years April 22nd has been designated the day to act for the planet, the day to celebrate the beauty of our mother earth, and on this day we acknowledge our humility and offer her the respect that she so deserves. Wait, back up! Is one day really all she gets? No way! For some of us, everyday is Earth Day. . .
As we lead up to the announcement of the 2011 Saul Bell Design Award winners this June, The Studio will be profiling a few winners from previous years.
Here’s a video about the 2002 Grand Prize Winner, David C. Freda, and the inspiration for his award winning piece “Stag Beetles, Grubs, and Raspberries,” a fine silver and sterling silver necklace with enameled glass beads and 24K and 18K yellow gold accents.
Last week, Rio’s blog group stepped into a conference room, closed the door, and read your jewelry haikus. More than 150 entries in all, ranging from beautiful to witty to hysterical. How could we possibly pick just one?? We couldn’t. There were so many amazing entries, we felt compelled to give out multiple prizes. We broke your haikus into different categories, and have awarded a winner (or in one case, winners) for each category. . .
At Rio, we started an adventure seven years ago to address the health and wellness of our associates and their families. It started as a program to reduce our rising medical insurance costs and, in the beginning, was a classic first attempt at a new program: It took some time to engage associates and build internal support. Over time, however, our Wellness Program has shown huge improvement and associate involvement has snowballed. In addition to reducing our insurance costs, we’ve benefitted from the positive side effects of healthier associates, including increased productivity and less absenteeism. . .
In taking a PMC® class with Yvonne Padilla and CeCe Wire, Margaret discovered she could transfer incredible detail to metal forms and a new world opened before her. . .
Unlike nearly any other jewelry design competition, the final judging of the Saul Bell Design Award Competition invites five unique jurors to a day of lively collaboration and incredible artistry . . .
Bronze is a great alloy to use for creating musical tones, and BRONZclay makes it a snap to achieve a wide range of tones by allowing you to easily mold and manipulate the thickness and shape of your metal. . .
How does a jeweler know that he/she is choosing the right solder or flux for the job? There are so many confusing details related to soldering, brazing, and fluxes that I thought I’d ask our resident expert Mark Nelson to help me sort things out. . .
© 2015 The STUDIO | A JEWELRY BLOG BY RIO GRANDE
Amy Cliser
Mark Shipman
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Molly T. Bell
Eddie Bell
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Heather Apodaca
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Kevin Whitmore
Yvonne Padilla