These are a few pieces of my new Signal collection:

I have more of these coming!

One thing is sure — My shop will be closed about 3 weeks, from Friday, June 17 to Monday, July 11th (this may change depending on how many boxes get unpacked once we arrive!)

All that in mind, I think now is a great time to have a jewelry sale! All finished jewelry 20% off, from now until I close Friday 6/17:

http://www.rainestudios.net

pg 23 in Step by Step Wire magazine

raine studios’ Shenandoah Earrings

Lauren Anderson purchased a full kit from my Etsy supplies store for the bracelet, earrings and pendant last summer. The kit I sold at that time did not come with a photo tutorial, just a page of written instructions and a photo showing exactly where each ring was placed along with a caveat that the kit was really for advanced chainmaillers. (I now have a photo tutorial for free on my blog.)

She did make some minimal changes to the ring sizes. At the time she purchased the kit, I was using 16g 10mm and 6mm rings for the large upper and lower ring (I’ve since switched to using 14g) and she doubles those rings instead of using them singly as I had. She also changed all the ring sizes to imperial inch sizes rather than metric. Switching to imperial probably does alleviate the tight fit the pesky 20g 2.5mm rings cause in my ring choices, but still, the design remains primarily the same as mine.

Since my friend pointed this out to me, I have been kind of really busy, my husband and I are moving across the country this summer and we’ve been getting our house on the market/traveling out of town to house hunt, etc. so I really have pushed it to the back of my mind – it was fairly easy to do since everywhere I looked did not have the issue on their shelves yet.

It was also easy to do since it just gave me that awful pit in my stomach to even think about, so I just ignored it as hard as I could.

But now, the magazine is actually out in stores, and I am forced to actually think of this.

A few weeks of ignoring and mulling it over have done a lot for me. Was she within her rights to do so? I don’t even know. I doubt she followed the claims of copyright infringement that swirled around these designs last fall, or maybe she would have thought twice before submitting them to the magazine. I’m certain that those who followed that story would recognize these pieces immediately.

The inital anger and betrayal have faded, and now all I am left with is disappointment. Lauren Anderson and I are on the same Etsy Team, the Chainmailler’s Guild and I’ve cheered on her accomplishments (and they are many) on our team email mailing list. The thought that such a talented artist would act in this manner is very disappointing. And I have to admit, I’m also disappointed because these pieces were ones that I myself wanted to submit to a magazine, after our move and my full time job switched from “full time working web designer & mom” to “full time jewelry artist & mom” … I’m disappointed that now I won’t ever be able to do that.

Here is my letter to Step by Step Wire magazine, cc: to Lauren Anderson

TO: sbswire@interweave.com
CC: Lauren Anderson

Letter to the Editor,

I am quite disappointed to see a very close rendition of my own “Shenandoah” earrings in the June/July 2011 issue under the name Lace Skirts by Lauren Anderson.

Lauren Anderson purchased a kit from my Etsy store for the Shenandoah bracelet, earrings and pendant in July 2010. Lauren made some changes to the ring sizes in the published tutorial and I’m sure work hard on the tutorial itself (my kit did not include a photo tutorial, just written construction tips). But the fact still remains she did not design this piece. Perhaps submitting this piece with her changes was perfectly within her legal rights. How much tweaking and adjusting does one need to do in order to classify it as her own? I am no expert.

I am hurt and very disappointed to think the artist I supported and looked up to would submit a piece as her own, when clearly it was not.

Amy C Sanders
raine studios

http://rainestudios.net

http://www.crazymokes.com/2011/05/shenandoah-earrings-in-step-by-step-wire-magazine/

Any further updates I will post here on my blog.

-Amy

This can be worn on a chain as a pendant, or you can make two, attach earwires, and wear them as earrings! I also have a matching bracelet that I also sell a kit for. I’m hoping to post a bracelet tutorial as well, but it will probably not be for a while. One can use this tutorial and easily adapt it for the bracelet if wished.

If anything is unclear or needs more direction, please let me know so I can improve the tutorial! If you make something, I’d love to hear your feedback and pictures!

Shenandoah Pendant/Earrings This Pendant uses 4 different sizes of jump rings (double ring counts if making earrings): 14g 10mm – 1 ring 14g 6.0mm – 1 ring 18g 4.0mm – 23 rings 20g 2.75mm – 56 rings I sell a kit for the Shenandoah pendant, Shenandoah earrings, Shenandoah bracelet, or a kit for all three together at http://www.rainestudios.net. 8/18/2011: I have revamped the ring sizes and found some better fitting rings, which also means I have kits available in copper and NuGold brass. I have left some of my notes for how to get a ring into a tight fit, but in general, the rings are not super tight any longer. Feel free to post comments, questions, observations on this blog post, or you can email me at amy at raine dot net. Want to see something up close? Click the photo for a bigger version.
1. Close sixteen 20g 2.75mm rings.
2. Open a 14g 10mm ring and add all sixteen closed 20g 2.75mm rings to it, and then close.
3. Open a 18g 4.0mm ring, and attach it to two of the 20g 2.75mm rings that are dangling on the large 14g 10mm ring and then close.
Open another 18g 4.0mm ring, and weave it through the same two 20g 2.75mm rings that the first 18g ring went through, and then close. This is called “doubling” — instead of one 18g ring, now there are two rings woven through the exact same place.
4. Open a 20g 2.75mm ring, and weave it through both 18g 4.0mm rings, and close. Then double it with another 20g 2.75mm ring. Use a magnifier if needed to get make sure these tiny rings are closed properly (and that you don’t go blind!)
5. Open a 18g 4.0mm ring. Weave it through the two 20g 2.75mm rings you just added, and also through two adjacent 20g 2.75mm rings hanging on the large 14g ring. Close.
Now we need to double the 18g ring we just added, but it is a very tight fit. It’s no longer a tight fit! I’ll leave these notes in however, in case you’d like some tips on weaving tight fitting rings: We will go through the proper holding and weaving of this ring very carefully. Hold the large ring with the 18g rings facing you, and the single 18g ring towards your hand, so you can grab it with your forefinger. You can see the small opening in the small rings where the next 18g ring will go.
Now we open a 18g ring. Hold this ring with a LOT of the ring in contact with the pliers, which will enable us to hold it very firmly with a good hard grip, without marring the ring with marks. We want the end of the ring pointing toward us. We are going to weave from behind and come out the front. I’ve used a blue sharpie on the ring to enable a better view in the photos.
We hold the big 14g ring firm against our thumb with our middle finger, and use our forefinger to press on the single 18g ring we are doubling. We want to press it downward, in order to open up as much space as possible to slip the new ring through the 20g 2.75mm rings. It may take a few tries to weave the ring through this narrow opening. Try rocking the ring forward and backward if it won’t come through.
Now that we’ve gotten the ring through, we need to pull the ring through a bit more and go through the other 2 small 20g 2.75mm rings with the opposite side of the jump ring, then close securely to complete our doubled 18g 4.0mm ring.
6. Add 2 small 20g 2.75mm rings to your newest doubled 18g 4.0mm rings, as in step 4.
7. Next, we continue to repeat steps 5 and 6, until we havea total of eight doubled 18g 4.0mm rings going around our large 14g ring, and there are no additional 20g rings dangling on the large 14g ring. The last doubled 18g rings will have two 20g 2.75mm rings dangling off the end, and the first of the 18g doubled rings will not.
8. Now we add and close two 20g 2.75mm rings to EACH of the last doubled 18g rings. Add another two 20g 2.75mm rings to the 2nd to last 18g doubled rings as well.
9. Pre-close six more 20g 2.75mm ring.
10. Open the 14g 6.0mm ring, and add the six pre-closed 20g 2.75mm rings. (But don’t close it yet!)
11. Weave the open 14g ring through the four 20g 2.75mm rings on the last two doubled 18g 4.0 rings, and then close.
12. Next repeat steps 5 & 6 three times, to bring the swirl of the Shenandoah "S"up and around the 14g 6.0mm ring and complete the pendant. Use a 18g 4.0mm ring as a bail for your chain, and wear as a pendant, or make two, attach earwires, and you have earrings! Enjoy!

James: The first one.

Amy: The first one? NO. No. The first one is NOT going. Look, there’s no other photos like that one. It’s got to stay. Look at these last 3, one of these three have got to go.

James: Then why didn’t you say one of those three had to go, instead of one of all six had to go?

Amy: Because I thought you would have enough SENSE to see that it would HAVE to be one of the last three!

James: …

Amy: …

James: The middle one.

Amy: Yeah. The middle one.

fini.

And here, I show you, the photo that got axed. Bid it adieu. It shall live here, but not with it’s sisters on Etsy or my website.

Farewell, sweet photo.

Which means this will be my last term teaching at Stars Beads in the Washington DC metro area! (Northern VA to be exact.)

I decided to make my very last class at Stars, a project that is very near to my heart, and also one of my best selling kits – the Shenandoah pendant. In every one of my classes, there is always someone that spots this piece and asks when it will be taught in a class. For some reason, I’ve always held back on making a class for it, but if you are one of these folks who have begged me for it — now’s your chance! I decided I might as well go out with a bang for my very last class at Stars — my “going away” class, if you will, we will be making the Shenandoah Pendant.

I’ve also added another new class – full persian. This one will be lots of fun, I just love this weave, it’s so slinky and SEXY!

I’m also doing some old favorites — Celtic Visions bracelet, and the Celtic Visions Star Pendant, and Byzantine Love Knot bracelet.

With the price of sterling silver reaching for the sky, I will be bringing project kits in sterling, copper, and jewelry brass to all my classes so that you can pick whatever metal you like, and even mix them up.

Hope to see you there!!

Saturday, January 22, 10-2pm Byzantine Love Knots Bracelet class Stars Beads Vienna, VA	Saturday, January 29, 10-2pm Celtic Visions Bracelet class Stars Beads Vienna, VA	Saturday, February 12, 10-2pm Full Persian Bracelet class Stars Beads Vienna, VA
Sunday, February 13, 12-4pm Celtic Visions Star Pendant class Stars Beads Vienna, VA	Last Going Away Class! Sunday, April 3, 12-4pm Shenandoah Pendant class Stars Beads Vienna, VA

This first month’s topic is: “How did you get started in your craft?”

I had started with simple stringing — beads on beading wire, remaking projects from a book.

It was when I took a class at a local bead store, Stars Beads. It was a simple wire wrapping class, which was a fantastic way to learn the basics of wire wrapping, loops, wrapped loops, clasps, pins — you name it! It was a fantastic start, and like a race horse champing at the bit, I wanted more.

In my class, the teacher used copper wire — affordable to learn on, to be sure, but I found that I really wasn’t inspired until I started using silver wire (even craft silver colored wire, to start out with). Sterling silver was a dream, and I was really enjoying myself.

But I wasn’t REALLY hooked until I set eyes on chainmaille. Now that was stunning. I ordered a kit to make a sterling silver byzantine bracelet, and by the next year’s February, I was investing in equipment to cut my own jump rings. And by that fall?? I was teaching my own chainmaille classes at the bead store.

For a while, my view was totally narrow — I focused on chainmaille alone, and it continues to be a true addiction! With time however, I started to expand my vision again. I took my first metalsmithing class, a 1 day affair that opened my eyes to all the possibilities! I’ve since registered for a weekly class, and then re-registered almost each successive term.

Metalsmithing opens up even more possibililities, and of course, I’ve continued to explore other techniques (kind of like a very distracted puppy — SQUIRREL!) Lately I’ve also been digging enameling, and am considering turning in my weekly metalsmithing class for a weekly enameling class next term.

It’s so much fun to experiment with new techniques while continuing on with old addictions!

Thanks for reading along — be sure to check out the other participants in the November Etsy CREST blog carnival!

Birch Tree Jewelry
Twisted Cow
CT² Designs
Sandi Volpe
Sew Artsy Amy

I love making chainmaille jewelry, and I love teaching it as well. Full caveat, I sell my own jump rings and kits, so I offer this free chainmaille tutorial to be able to point my customers and students to use as a reference. More tutorials will be forthcoming as my time allows.

The tutorial is geared toward a beginner (so if you’re not, please forgive the over-explanations!), but I do assume that the chainmailler knows how to open and close jump rings, flush tight and close (hmm… maybe that should be my next tutorial?)

I offer a kit for Celtic Visions Star in several metals on my website. A bracelet kit will be coming soon as well.

Enjoy and if there’s any steps that aren’t clear, please please let me know so I can try to clarify them!

16 AWG 6.0mm inner diameter (6.25mm in copper or jewelry brass) 18 AWG 4.0mm inner diameter 18 AWG 3.0mm inner diameter (3.5mm in copper or jewelry brass) (I sell a handy kit for the pendant right here!) Set aside your 18g 3.0 rings for now, you’ll only need them at the end, and only for the Celtic Visions Star pendant. I usually do a little pre-closing of rings before I begin, but I don’t like to count out exactly how many, mostly because I’m usually wrong by the time we get to the end! 1. Start by pre-closing a little pile of 18g 4.0 rings. (or not! However you want to do it is fine, I don’t mean to presume! *grin*)
2. Open a 16g 6.0mm ring and add 2 closed 18g rings to it and close.
3. Open another 16g ring, and add 3 closed 18g rings.
Before you close it, run it through one of the 18g rings hanging off the other 16g ring. NOW close it.
You should have something that looks like this.
4. We’re going to repeat step 3 over and over until we have a chain that is FIVE 16g rings long.
5. Open a 16g ring, and thread it through the dangling 18g ring from the very first of the chain, and through the 1st dangling 18g ring of the second section of the chain. The resulting ring configuration is kind of like an upside down triangle shape.
Open another 16g ring and add it through the exact same rings as the first, so the 2 16g rings lay right on top of each other. This is called "doubling" and it’s a useful technique that is used a lot in chainmaille.
6. Now we’re going to repeat step 5 over and over, until we get to the end of the chain. Each new section of doubled 16g rings make the same upside down triangular shape as the first section. Your chain should now have 5 big rings on the top, and 4 doubled big rings on the bottom. The last top row big ring has 2 little dangling rings on it.
7. Now go back to the beginning of your chain. Fold the TOP doubled 16g ring UP to lay on the FRONT of the chain, and fold the BOTTOM doubled 16g ring BACK to lay BEHIND the chain.
This is confusing, I know, but hopefully the pictures can clarify. See how one of the rings is on top of your chain, and the other is behind, like a little jump ring sandwich? That is what we want, a sandwich. A tasty, tasty jump ring sandwich!
8. If we just let go of the chain at this point, our doubled rings will just fall and we’ll be back at step 4. What we need to do now is secure these rings into place, and we do that by putting an 18g ring through each layer of the "sandwich". We are actually duplicating what the 18g rings on the bottom are doing — we’re doing the same thing for the top of the chain. Open an 18g ring and weave it through the space at the top, just like the two on the bottom.
As you feed the 18g ring through, make sure it goes through all three 16g rings — all the layers of the "sandwich" if you will. You also need to make sure that you don’t weave it through, or below the middle 18g ring.
9. You have the top right side locked down securely, now you need to do the same thing for the left side on the top of your "sandwich".
Take a moment to look carefully at this picture. Notice how the 18g rings all form what kind of looks like an "H" the two rings on the top are the top of the H. The horizontal ring in the middle is the middle of the H. And then the bottom 18g rings complete the lower half of the H. If you pull a little bit on the ends of your chain, your "H" will look a little less H-like, the rings on top and on bottom will bend toward each other a bit, but that’s OK. I’m still going to refer to it as an "H" now and then!
10. Now you need to repeat steps 8 and 9 until you have folded up your doubled rings and locked them down into place all along the length of your chain. As you complete each section, check that your "H" looks good. Make sure that you don’t feed any rings through that horizontal ring (the middle of the H) or accidently put a ring below or above where it shouldn’t be. Guess what! If you’re going for a bracelet — you just keep repeating all these steps and you’re done! That’s all there is to it to Celtic Visions. Add sections on to the end of your chain until you arrive at your desired length. Add a clasp, and you’re all set! If you want to make a Celtic Visions Star Pendant, then stay with me!
11. At the end of your chain, you now have 2 18g rings dangling off. Add one more 18g ring to bring the grand total up to 3.
12. This part is tricky to explain, but bear with me. You want to thread a 16g ring through only the two OUTTER rings. So push the middle ring back a little bit, and thread a 16g ring through the outer rings only. It’ll be tricky, but you can do it!
Once you have your 16g ring through, and closed, then double it with another 16g ring.
13. Now fold back each ring, kind of similar to the way you were folding back the rings previously in the chain. One comes on top of the chain, and the other folds back behind the chain.
After you have them folded back, push them outward, toward the end of the chain, and ease the two little rings back, until the two large rings are pushed all the way out. Take care, because they will fall out of place easily. If you look carefully, we have half of our "H" there. The other half is missing, and will be added when we connect the chain together into a cicle/star.
OK. Take a deep breath, go get a cup of coffee, make sure you’re nice and relaxed for this next tricky part. We’re almost through!
14. Add another 18g 4.0mm ring to the end of your chain — right onto the rings that we just folded back and have half of an "H". This ring is going to be the other half of the bottom of the H.
Notice the ends of your chain now. The end of your chain has the folded back DOUBLE rings with a 18g dangling ring, and the beginning of your chain has a SINGLE ring with no dangling rings. We are going to pull the ends of the chain together now, and connect them. As you do this, make sure that the 18g dangling ring you added on the end of the chain stays in the INNER part of the circle, not the outer part. We will be able to add a ring to the outer part later, but once we connect the circle, we’ll never be able to get a ring into that inner part, so that’s why this ring needs to stay on the inside of the circle.
(DEEP BREATHS! CALM MEADOWS! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT!) 15. Take the beginning of your chain and open the 16g ring on the end. You don’t want anything to slide off this ring, so be careful, and don’t open it too much! (about 30 degrees is fine). I’ve taken a blue sharpie to the open 16g ring to make it easier for you to see where that ring goes. Bring the ends together, (making sure that 18g ring is in the center/inner part of the circle) (AND making sure nothing slides off that ring that we opened at the beginning of the chain) thread your open 16g ring IN BETWEEN the 2 doubled rings through the dangling 18g ring — first on TOP of it, and then BEHIND it and then THROUGH the middle 18g ring and finally, after you’ve managed to weave that ring through all of that, make sure you come up IN BETWEEN the doubled rings again. Once you manage all that — close. I like to turn my bent nose pliers backwards to make it easier to grab and close this ring. Did you make it? YAY! GO YOU! The rest is easy peasy!
16. Take a look at your piece — can you see the missing part of the "H" ?? They are kind of squished up H’s now, but they are still there! Add a 18g 4.0mm ring through all the rings to finish off the H.
17. Now to add each "star" tip. Break open your 18g 3.0mm rings. Squish the top of each "H" together, and put a 18g 3.0mm ring through both. Repeat this for each of the 5 "H" rings. (bye bye, blue sharpie-ed ring)
Look at that, you’ve made a Celtic Visions Star!! Add a jump ring to use as a bail to run your necklace chain through (your 18g 4.0mm rings work great for this) and you are all done. Congrats!

Did you enjoy this? Please leave a comment and let me know!

-Amy

This is the bracelet – I named it Autumn Splendor. It really is “micro” chainmaille, as the rings used are quite tiny – 20 gauge wire, wrapped around a 2.75mm mandrel, and then precision cut with my saw. The entire piece is really sweet and dainty, especially with the little swarovski crystals I used to compliment the copper colors.

Before packing it up, I checked it over carefully – I do this to every piece to make sure nothing escaped my notice when it was made – but especially for this piece, as it is made up of very tiny jump rings, and has been rattling around in the box I use to transport chainmaille pieces to and from classes (I like to show all the possibilities of chainmaille to my students!)

It had stood up remarkably well, and a lovely patina had developed over the piece. It had turned to an antique caramel color, which some find very beautiful. However, my customer had not held it in her hands when she purchased it — she had looked at it’s picture, which was taken when it was shiny and new orangey copper, not patinaed copper! I didn’t want her to receive anything less than what she expected when she purchased, of course!

So I took the piece, along with a copper Celtic Visions bracelet which had also darkened up considerably, and polished it up. It’s very easy to do, so I thought I’d share.

Take a mason jar and fill it about half full with white vinegar or lemon juice (bottled/ non-fresh/ concentrate is fine). Add about a tablespoon of salt. Drop your copper jewelry in and close tight. (Have you ever heard of half a lemon, dipped in salt, to clean the bottom of copper pots? It’s the exact same concept!)

Swish it around for a few minutes.

Remove, rinse well, dry, and voila! Gorgeous new copper.

I did this in my tumbler instead of in a jar, which has stainless steel shot in it which burnishes the jewelry as well. It also does the job much quicker. I rinsed out my barrel well, added water as I normally would, and then added a hefty dose of vinegar and dropped in the jewelry. I skipped the salt as I suspected the stainless steel shot burnishing action would do the job just fine.

Here are the two bracelets before and after:

Sorry it’s so blurry — But I think you can still see quite a difference between the before and after.

I popped the customer’s bracelet into the mail, and the Celtic Visions piece I slipped on my own wrist, next to the full persian sterling silver chainmaille bracelet I’ve been wearing non-stop lately.

The glow of the copper comes through much better in this photo. They are both lovely, don’t you think?

Oh, I should mention — exPress-O is currently running a $50 gift certificate for raine studios jewelry! She said such nice things about my jewelry, and my head is swelling horribly whenever I glance at the comments! Hop on over, become a “follower” of her blog, post a comment of your favorite piece of raine studios jewelry, and you’ll be entered to win.

You can also get a code for 15% off jewelry for new customers (only accepted at my http://rainestudios.net shop) when you join my mailing list.

Have a great weekend! I’ll be in setting up my booth in Front Royal at the Festival of Leaves tomorrow, if you’re in the area!

-Amy

Least you think the only thing I’ve been worrying about is copyright issues, I have a craft show in ONE WEEK! And 2 more coming after that, though not all at once, thank goodness.

And.. ahem.. I haven’t really been worrying about it ENOUGH!

EEP!

Last year, I did some last minute entering of craft shows – school cafeterias, church basements, fire department bingo rooms — you know, that sort of thing. I really did not do all that well. This year I decided to plan ahead, research some good shows, apply early and hope for better results. And I did.. and now… the first one is in a week!

While I have had this looming event in the back of my mind, I’ve been absent mindedly doing things to prepare. Now with it a week away, I find myself staring down the thought of, what now? A real show? What do I do? How exactly am I going to set up my booth?

Over the last few months I’ve bought a tent & table, a banner for my tent, a credit card “knuckle buster” and credit card slips, & some jewelry displays. As they’ve each arrived, I’ve kind of tossed it in a corner of my work area. (Except for the banner, which gets unrolled by small children, danced around, oohed and ahhed at, and then re-rolled up about every other night.)

I haven’t really even been busting my ass making more jewelry. I have tried to make doubles of things when I get orders, and I’ve been making my class samples in multiple metals (brass, copper and silver), but I haven’t really thought about if my inventory is *enough* inventory.

In fact, the table I bought is in our garage covered in all the discarded crap that is waiting for our fall yard sale. I should probably just buy another one! Probably two!

I think tomorrow I’m kicking James’ car out of the garage, setting up my booth, and make sure I get a list going for all those little finishing details.

-tent weights
-director’s chair
-figure out how much cash change to bring
-will i need a dolly or something to transport stuff from car-to-booth?
-do I still like my table coverings?

Oh yes, there’s the panic, I feel it settling in now Let’s use it to motivate ourselves, shall we Amy?

One thing I DID do.

I made sure the booth tent fit in my Prius! So at least I know I can get there! LOL.

If you are in the Northern VA/DC Metro area next Saturday, I’ll be at the Taste of Falls Church Fall Festival at Cherry Hill in Falls Church — my spot is by the basketball courts. Please stop by and say HI!

Oh, and be sure to tell me my booth looks AWESOME!

-amy