diamonds!

Last summer I bought myself a few diamonds. I'd had students ask about how to purchase them and I was curious myself so I went down to a local guy and asked if he'd spend some time explaining it to me. And he did. And I mostly understand it all.
After about an hour of talking and playing show and tell I bought a few teeny-tiny, itty-bitty diamonds in white and black. Since then, they'd been sitting in my box of "stones I want to set but haven't yet" and taken out to gaze at on occasion. The night before last I finally set two of them. I just couldn't take it anymore and it was time.
Last year I added gold to my work and now diamonds. I'm not a big fan of bling, but a little bit is nice. Especially when it's paired with something a little rustic or non-traditional like steel. When I decide to make some changes to current work or explore design ideas, I work out the kinks on a few pieces of jewelry. When I have a finished piece I wear it for a while to see if there are any issues with how the piece wears throughout the day and pay attention to what's folks may notice about it.

I tube set this diamond in steel. It's a little rough but the diamond looks nice. I have yet to figure out the best way to clean steel after soldering on it, but I did notice that steel produces a really beautiful flux patina that I may want to play with at some point.

This little guy is my favorite. A gnarly silver ring with a sparkly little black diamond set into the band. I can't wait to make more! Designing new pieces is one of my favorite aspects of studio work. Now I have to go back to the drawing board and figure out better ways to clean steel and then I can produce a much cleaner design mixing the diamonds and steel. Fun!