Amy Cliser
Mark Shipman
Amy Dalness
Molly Bell
Bernadette Bennett
Molly T. Bell
Eddie Bell
Shelby Chant
Heather Apodaca
Viqui Sanchez
Kevin Whitmore
Yvonne Padilla
Rolling mills are great tools to have in any jewelry shop. They provide quick and efficient ways to roll out metal stock as well as countless ways to texture, pattern, and rework your metal creations. Once you’ve selected your rolling mill (or even if you’ve had one for years) this post includes some great rolling mill tips; from unpacking your mill to regular care that will keep it performing its best for years to come to diving in and using it for a million different jewelry-making tasks!
Bonny Doon
It’s hot outside!! In these temperatures, chunky necklaces and bracelets are shed in favor of simpler choices—like lightweight, easy-to-wear rings! Use the Bonny Doon Split-Die Ring-Forming Kit to create perfect, summertime rings, every time. Today, on The Studio, Phil Poirier demonstrates this ingenious tool—watch and then dream up your own line of summertime rings!
Ashli Brooke Taylor created her Baroque-inspired Copper Pendant using the Bonny Doon hydraulic press. This innovative and powerful tool allowed her to direct all hydraulic energy on the design rather than expending her own physical energy on forming the metal with a hammer. After you see Ashli’s beautiful results, you’ll be asking yourself what YOU can do with a Bonny Doon!
When Phil Poirier, of Bonny Doon Engineering, showed his new urethane hammer to Eddie Bell, vice president of manufacturing at Rio Grande, Eddie was immediately excited by its possibilities for jewelry-making and said, “Man, that’s a hydraulic hammer!” Although the Bonny Doon urethane forming hammer does rather look like a colorful plastic hammer, it is actually so much more than that! Take a look at today’s post on The Studio, and see what this dynamo can do for your metal forming!
Years ago, I watched the founder of Bonny Doon turn a vase literally inside out using the ‘Old Gold’ press Bonny Doon manufactured back then. This many years later, G. Phil Poirier is still pushing the limits of hydraulic forming steadily outward—in this class I got a taste of just how far.
At the 2011 SNAG Conference, Phil Poirier introduced his new hammer, vise, and stakes, to rave reviews. I’m happy to tell you that barely one year later…he’s done it again! At this year’s SNAG Conference Phil brought his brand new Bonny Doon Small Forming Tools, which take the innovations of his hammer and stakes to a whole new level. Check out today’s post to learn more!
When Phil Poirier designed the Bonny Doon Hammer, he was thinking about the ideal tools for anticlastic and synclastic raising. Since debuting the hammer at last year’s SNAG Conference, we have found that it is capable of much more than that.
