Sessin Durgham joined Rio’s Technical Support team in 2006. Prior to that, he worked five years as a retail bench jeweler making custom designs and altogether has spent 27 years attending juried outdoor art shows, teaching forging workshops and selling his wares (or taking home[...]
Here in Tech Support some of the most interesting, fun, and challenging parts of our job is to evaluate and review new tools and equipment. But we don't just review tools, we're also constantly searching for new and innovative techniques that we can share with fellow jewelers. Th[...]
The hobo nickel, a unique American folk-art form, gets its name from Depression-era hobos, who used a pocket knife to alter the image on Indian-head nickels. Often the Indian was altered to depict a bearded hobo wearing a derby, but religious and political figures, animals, celeb[...]
We were thrilled when Phil Poirier bought Bonny Doon Engineering in 2006, not only because his career as both a jeweler and a tool-maker made him the perfect person to take over Bonny Doon, but also because his workshop is in Taos, New Mexico, just a few hours north of us. We've [...]
Eva Martin is a storyteller. But rather than using words on a page, she embeds them in her jewelry designs. She gets to know her clients very well, through emails and conversations. And she gets to the heart of their stories to design pieces that will come to life with such de[...]
What's happening is that most of the low-quality, inexpensive rubies now being sold in the market are not just "treated rubies" but something altogether different--a mixture of low-quality corundum infused with lead-glass. The amount of lead-glass present in the stones now in the[...]
“BAM!” is what Emeril the chef says on his cooking show. And “BAM!” is what I felt when I saw the price of silver top the $30 mark on Monday. Lately, listening to the news has seemed surreal. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has been quoted about “fear[...]
Over the years, Bill Fretz has attended many trade shows and demonstrated all the different Fretz hammers and their uses. At those shows, he's answered the question, “What’s this one used for?” countless times. In this post, Bill outlines how his enormously popular planishi[...]
As you may have already heard, Rio Grande recently installed more than 5000 solar panels atop its parking lot. To acquaint yourself with some of the details of our solar project, you can read our “Powered by the Sun” announcement here. Now that our solar array has been functi[...]
Back in 1995 I became the precious materials product manager at Rio Grande. As a new manager, I began reading National Jeweler magazine, and one day, I came across an article about a new jewelry-making material from Japan, Precious Metal Plasticene. It was invented by Dr. Morika[...]
We love that we get to play a role in the creative and productive process of so many jewelers, and we honor the contributions jewelers share with the world. On occasion, however, we learn about a customer who uses their creative skill in a particularly generous way. In the spirit[...]
You need a dust collector for two reasons: Health Money First off, even working outside, you can’t avoid breathing in airborne debris, some of which may be toxic. With the right collector and a well-maintained filter, you can see to it that your work environment is not a h[...]
In the previous three parts of my series on Designing a Jewelry Collection, I've talked about what a collection is, design principles, designing for your customer and the … [Read More...] about Designing a Collection part 4
Manhattan jewelry designer and entrepreneur Sandy Baker is the owner and creative force behind Sandy Baker Art Collection. She claims she has been in the business for … [Read More...] about Influencers in Jewelry Design: Sandy Baker
