12.23.19 Wrap it up, I'll take it!

Wow! What a holiday season this has been for me and my jewelry...

two years ago, I'd never done a holiday jewelry show - this year I did THREE!

The lovely folks at the Pottery Barn at the Arboretum (Austin) invited me to do an in-store pop up in mid-November.

It was a busy Saturday - the staff set me up about halfway back in the store, with some of their lovely jewelry boxes to use as display props. All afternoon I visited with shoppers as they were getting ready for Thanksgiving, and just starting to think about holiday gifts.

Some lucky people are going to get earrings in their stockings this week!

That same weekend was the first - of two - for the East Austin Studio Tour, or as most folks around here call it, EAST.

THE Ladysmiths
📷 @in.hansland @happyhannahkkuh

After a fun and profitable day on Saturday, I spent Sunday at Canopy, an artists' community in east Austin, where the Ladysmiths of ATX (I've written about them before) rented gallery space that opened just in time for the show.

This incredible group of women (I'll be writing a lot more about them in 2020) rented a space and got it ready in record time, then brought in nearly two dozen women artists (including me) to sell handcrafted jewelry, ceramics, textiles and fine art!

I am so excited to have a local gallery space where my jewelry is on display and for sale...because it wasn't just open during EAST; for at least the first few months of 2020, the space will be open for business every weekend!

📷 @lindsayhendricksjewelry

Not only did my jewelry (and that of everyone who was there) do well at EAST, it was a treat to spend two weekends watching people - LOTS of people - come in, and shop for handcrafted art and jewelry.

Yes - we were tired when it was over - but, very happy.

I took a break (from in person jewelry sales) for the week of Thanksgiving, but I ran a sale on Etsy (so thanks to all those shoppers, too). When I got home, it was time to get ready for the my last event of the season...

...the Second Annual Holiday Trunk Show at Creative Side Jewelry Academy.

📷 @lindsayhendricksjewelry

For the second year in a row, the incredibly hard working staff of CJSA turned the studio space where I make jewelry into booths for more than a dozen members to set up shop.  It was wonderful to have guests come in and see our work - and our space - and it was especially wonderful to just hang out with my benchmates.

Generally, when we are in the studio, we're working - so our heads our down (sometimes our earbuds are in) and we're sawing, hammering and using power tools...but a few times a year, we come together as a group and get to socialize...and it makes me even more grateful for the place and the people that I have come to think of as a second home, and family.

I'm thankful, too, for my online community.  I've now been writing this blog for five years - and I never imagined I'd be where I am today.



Y'all just keep coming back for more...as the year ends, we're closing in on 26K views...from all over the world...which (at least to me) is pretty amazing.

So, that's a wrap for 2019.  Thanks for being part of my jewelry journey.

Until 2020.

12.09.19 Thank your lucky stars

I try really hard to take a little time every day to focus on being thankful for all that is good in my life (these days, that can be a challenge) - and at the top of that list are the people in my world - especially my family.

This august group includes three amazing young women - my daughter, and the brave souls who have chosen to join our clan as our sons' partners.

These three are as whip-smart, compassionate, and tenacious as they come - each in their own way working to make the world a better place for all of us. 

They also all have birthdays within days of each other - and Thanksgiving. This year I decided to make them birthstone pendants.  I thought long and hard about how to make the pendants both similar and unique - and the answer was literally in the stars.

The two November birthdays are in different zodiacs - one Scorpio and one Sagittarius, and the other Sagittarius is in December...so I decided to put the constellations on the back of each pendant.

I sat at my bench, drilling out what seemed like a bazillion little holes, and wondered if I'd lost my mind.  I used a #70 bit (well, four of them actually - because they get dull pretty quickly) to pierce the backplates of all three pendants...but when I was finished, I was pretty excited.



Once I got the stones in, I was even more pleased - because the stones are largely transparent - the "stars" shine through the front of each piece.

I am so thankful that I am able to create art and share it with the special people in my life. There is a real joy that comes from making a piece that captures something unique about the giver or receiver of the gift - it is my favorite part of designing custom pendants.

I hope that as we head towards the end of the calendar year and into the holiday season, your life is filled with the gift of special people, too.

Until next time.

11.25.19 Hello there, Prickly Pear - Cloisonne Enamel, Part 3

The notion of experimenting continued into the last two days of class.  Ricky encouraged everyone to play around with bending wire, and to look at our "bad" pieces as sketches or sources of ideas for the rest of our work.

One of the specific things he suggested was cutting a shape - square, circle, freeform - out of a piece of paper and use it to visually crop our previous pieces.  This turned out to be an incredibly useful tool for me.


By moving the cutout in my paper over various sections of my experimental pieces, I was able to choose a color palette - mostly blue and green, with some variations on red - and I started playing around with bent pieces of wire.


The other thing Ricky introduced - as a way to create interest beyond just color - was the concept of textured foil.




We had used foil to create reflective areas on our test pieces, but adding texture behind the enamel enabled the creation of even more design variation.

So, armed with a color choices, wire, and background ideas, I started to consider what kind of story I wanted to tell with my cloisonne...I originally thought about wildflowers, but my skills just didn't seem up to that. 

I've used a cactus motif - a lot - on the backs of my turquoise pendants, and I thought I might do that for the cloisonne as well.

I tried bending wire into the shape of a saguaro - but that didn't work so well - and I took another approach; bending little "u" shapes and stacking them up to look like a prickly pear.  That worked quite well.


I wanted to give my idea a try on a copper base before moving on to the fine silver disc we had available...just to see how if it would look I the way I had envisioned. I was satisfied with my initial result and decided I was ready to move on to silver.

There was definitely room for improvement.  I liked the colors, and the look of the textured foil behind the green enamel - but the cactus didn't really fill the oval as much as it could, and the blue was a little too intense.

I opted for two more pieces - one on the fine silver, and another using textured foil to cover a copper oval - giving me a completely reflective background for both.

I lightened up the blue background, which created more contrast with the green, and was definitely pleased with the two enamel cabochons I finished on the last day.

I decided to set all three of them, with twisted wire and granules, and I am delighted with the finished pieces.

I don't know when - or if -  I'll embark on enamel again, but I'm so glad that I took this class...for the opportunity to meet and learn from Ricky, to explore new design ideas, and just to have some fun.



Until next time.

11.11.19 Let it go, let it go... Cloisonne Enamel, Part 2

Photo credit: Ricky Frank

For the entire week of class, Ricky repeated the following mantra; forget good or bad, forget right or wrong - unless the enamel doesn't fuse to the metal you will get a result. 

As I said last time, he was very clear that his goal was to teach us the basic science and techniques of cloisonne enamel - and NOT "how to make cloisonne like Ricky".

He also brought along cases full of his jewelry - and I selected a piece for myself on the first day of class.  It was a very freeing experience - because it meant that whether or not I completed a piece of my own that I wanted to set, I had a new pendant - and that made me very happy.

Having learned how to prepare a base and apply enamel on the first day - we spent the next two days focusing on the science of light and color.  One of the things that gives Ricky's pieces such depth and rich color is his use of metal (silver and gold) to reflect and enhance the light that bounces back through the glass.

He achieves this either by using a metal base or by adding metal foil in layers to his pieces.  

We made a number of sample pieces by covering some or all of a prepared base in foil - both silver and gold - so that we could begin to work with layering color.

The exercise was not just about art - there was a very important science lesson involved...some colors of enamel (remember, it's ground glass) are reactive with metal when they fuse.  I had an "oh, yes, that's right" moment when I remembered learning about this property for some colors in my glass fusing classes at Blue Moon Glassworks.

In order to prevent any unwanted reactions, the first step is to cover the metal with a layer of flux (not the same flux as metalsmiths uses to make solder flow) - which is clear glass - to create a barrier between the metal and the colored enamel.

We used red (which reacts with metal), blue, green and opal white to create samples with one and two layers of color that allowed to see how each color looks over gold, silver, and white.

At this point - Ricky told us we were going to make "some bad pieces" - which really meant no expectations other than more learning. 

The definition of "cloisonne" is an enamel piece with wire in it - just one wire will do.  So, that's what we did.  We added one piece of wire to a base, and experimented with it.

We worked with black and white backgrounds, foil, and the colors of our choice to make test pieces so that we could spend the last two days of class making "better pieces" (all the while remembering that the point of the class was to learn).

I'll share that process - and the results - in my upcoming...201st...post.

That's right folks, this is post number 200! Thanks for hanging in there with me and reading along for the last almost five years.

Until next time.

10.28.19 Hot Fun in the Summertime - Cloisonne Enamel, Part 1

One of the best things about CSJA -
classes are always set up and ready to go

Meteorological "fall" began the same mid-September week I took cloisonne enameling class with Ricky Frank - and the daytime highs hit 100 here in Austin.   Thank goodness for AC, not just for the outside temp, but because in the studio we had multiple kilns running at roughly 1400 degrees Fahrenheit for fusing glass.

Since then, actual fall has started to arrive...but I digress...

I'd wanted to take Ricky's class at Creative Side Jewelry Academy for several years - especially since learning about his connection to some dear friends and subsequently receiving a piece of his jewelry as a gift - but the timing just never seemed to line up.

This year the dates worked and I was all set to take the class in May - however - Ricky needed to reschedule. Finally, in September it all came together, and I had a fabulous time learning the basics of cloisonne enamel from a true master along side some wonderful fellow students.

Ricky demonstrating use of the kiln
Photo credit: Creative Side Jewelry Academy

From the first day of class, Ricky made clear that he wanted us to understand both the science behind how glass enamel works as well as techniques for creating our own individual pieces.

He was especially clear that while there are right and wrong ways to do things like using equipment and tools, this is not true for creating.  Short of having the enamel not to fuse to the piece (that actually happened with some of the copper ovals) there are no failures - only results.


With these principles laid out, we started learning some very basic - but important - steps in creating cloisonne.

Copper blanks with and
without base enamel

Before beginning any piece, you have to prepare the metal base.  This involves coating both the front and back of the form (in this case, copper) with enamel.  The top layer (where the cloisonne will be created) requires only a single layer, but the back of the piece needs several layers of "counter enamel" to ensure that the piece will heat and cool (and thus, expand and contract) at the same rate, so that as additional layers are added on the front, they don't crack.

This was just one of many times Ricky emphasized the importance of understanding the science behind the process rather than just telling us what to do.


With a blank prepared, we started to learn about just what it is that makes certain pieces just "enamel", and others "cloisonne" - and the answer is: wire.  The addition of just one wire to the surface of the piece (creating shapes or cells for colored enamel) turns it into cloisonne.

To get started, we all made a simple piece divided into four sections to experiment with different applications.

Although it doesn't look like much - this little exercise involved bending wires, positioning and then fusing them into the enamel before experimenting with application techniques...and we were just getting started.

I'll stop here for now (at the end of the first day) - stay tuned for more installments.



Until next time.

10.14.19 I Feel Lucky

During basketball season I wore my UVa pendant and earrings a lot, and posted pictures to a Facebook fan group in a discussion of lucky charms...as a result, several folks asked if they could buy earrings or a version of the pendant - so I said yes to both.


I found a source for blue, white and orange glass cabochons, and set about making a couple of custom pendants.



About a month ago, I got a call from my college roommate; she asked if I wanted to meet her in Chicago, and get on an alumni bus to go to South Bend, Indiana to see our alma mater, UVa, take on Notre Dame in football.  Her husband had received a pair of tickets to the game, but couldn't go, so I said SURE! and proceeded to make hotel and airline reservations.

I also decided to make an extra pendant as a birthday gift for her, and took it with me.

Notre Dame had the luck of the Irish on their side for the game, but every other aspect of the weekend was a reflection of my good fortune.

For starters, there was the weather - I didn't have any trouble flying from Austin, but shortly after I landed, it turned dark and stormy, and lots of folks coming in for the weekend were delayed.  Since we both arrived on time, we were able to have dinner with another longtime friend who lives in Chicago, at a fabulous place in Little Italy.




By Saturday morning the storms had cleared, and we got on a charter bus with lots of other alumni and headed to South Bend.  When we arrived, we were greeted by lots of blue and orange at a fabulous tailgate.  We then proceeded to visit old friends and make new ones over beers and burgers before heading to the stadium.



We had great seats (even if we were surrounded by folks cheering for Notre Dame) - and although they didn't win, our Hoos held their own against the Irish and their VERY LOUD fans.

It was a fabulous weekend, filled with fun, good food, and a chance to spend time with people who mean a lot to me. It also gave me to time to pause, and more than anything else, I was reminded of how fortunate I am...


to have had the opportunity to attend college - especially a great state school like the University of Virginia - where I made friendships that I now measure in decades;

to be able to drop everything and dash off to spend a weekend with those fabulous people;


and to have the opportunity to continue learning at Creative Side as a metalsmith.

Sometimes, with all the difficult things going on in the world, it is wonderful to be reminded of how much there is to be celebrated.

Until next time.

09.30.19 Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match...

Ever since I started taking classes and making jewelry - going on five years ago - I've had people ask me if I could repair or rework old pieces for them.  My answer was always no, and after repairing one pair of earrings, the answer remains, no. While I have achieved some level of mastery with silver pendants, and I am happy to make custom pieces for folks, the last thing I want to do is mess up something that is important to someone else.

Photo credit: Snooze Eatery

So, when a dear friend came to me earlier this year and asked for my thoughts on pulling diamonds and emeralds out of old pieces, and doing something new with them - I said I'd be happy to look at them with her - but then I was going to refer her to someone else to do the work.

We met for breakfast at Snooze (the food is all good - but I think my favorite is the Spuds Deluxe), got caught up on lives and kids, and started talking about what she wanted to do with all those stones.

There were some inexpensive diamond earrings she had bought for herself, some emerald earrings, and a ring with a large emerald and some fabulous baguette diamonds.  She was no longer wearing any of it - and she wanted some new pieces that she would wear!

Photo credit: De Pastel

I knew before we had finished our conversation that I was going to put her in touch with De Pastel. You'll recognize De's name from lots of posts - she was my instructor for Fabrication 201, and both kinetic jewelry classes.  She's an amazing metalsmith, and has become a great friend.

Not long after we had breakfast De was in possession of my friend's jewelry, and the process of deconstruction began in earnest.  I also got to be a virtual fly on the wall as the new designs began to take shape.

Photo credit: gift recipient

The first piece was a three stone ring, that I knew was going to be a gift for my friend's daughter's birthday.  I got a message from my friend - along with a photograph - when she delivered the finished ring.  Everyone was thrilled!

The remaining stones were set into new earrings, and two more gorgeous rings that my friend kept for herself.

It can be frustrating to have jewelry that you never wear hanging out on your dresser or languishing in a drawer - and it is so satisfying to see great stones in unworn pieces take on new life.

Photo credit: De Pastel

It's also incredibly satisfying when I can connect people in a way that is beneficial to both of them - and strengthens my bond to the jewelry community.  It has been such a joy to watch the process involving two wonderful friends.

I'm excited to get caught up with my friend later this summer - and see all her updated bling in person!

Photo credit: De Pastel

Until next time.

09.16.19 A Few Small Repairs

Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen
She opened a book and a box of tools
Sunny came home with a mission

-- Shawn Colvin

This time last year I was gearing up for the holidays - I wanted to have enough inventory for the couple of small shows I was doing and to make sure that my Etsy shop was well stocked.  This year, I am taking a somewhat different approach.


Even before we went on vacation in July, I had decided I really needed to take some time and focus on myself - and what was good for me.  So, when we got home, I made time in the studio a priority.


I hadn't really been at the bench on a consistent basis since taking the kinetics class in the spring, where I made this turquoise pendant, which has become a favorite.  I wore it all summer, with my rediscovered turquoise earrings from high school!

I really like the earrings, and started thinking about maybe making some similar ones.  I thought, how hard could it be...get some large, closed jump rings, bezel cups and small stones...I even did a little sketching.



Then I remembered I had a pair of similar moonstone drops (with the earwires cut off) that someone had given me with the suggestion that I could salvage the stones.  I decided that instead, I would see if I could repair them.

I took the earrings with me to open studio with one of Creative Side's wonderful instructors - Rita Marie Ross - and asked for her advice.  She said she thought it would be a great learning experience for me to do the repair - so I got started.

I couldn't repair the earwires until I removed the stones from their settings.  I used a dull X-ACTO knife to open up the bezels, and when the stones fell out, so did a bunch of little pieces of paper (which would probably have caught on fire).  The paper had been packed in behind the stone to lift it up in the bezel, and there was a small piece of black paper on top (to make the stone flash blue - another tip I learned from Rita).

Once the stones were out, I soldered on new earwires, cleaned up, filed and reshaped the bezels.  Even with the bezel cups filed down, the stones were a little short, so I punched out tiny silver discs to elevate the stones - but first, I darkened them with patina.  Same concept as the paper - but now the entire setting was silver.

The next step was to reset the stones...and I was reminded why I don't make things with little, bitty cabochons.

Using a tiny bezel pusher (made using a nail and the belt sander) and a sharp burnisher, I worked until I had pushed the metal down securely over the stones.

In the process I also gave myself callouses on my thumb and forefinger, and poked myself (and drew blood) on my middle and ring fingers on my left hand.  So much for my ambitions (delusions) of making more earrings with tiny bezel set stones.


I am really pleased with the repaired earrings, they look great with my moonstone pendants - including one I made several years ago in Vickie Hallmark's PMC (precious metal clay) class at Creative Side - and Rita was correct, it was a valuable experience.  However, from now on, if I want earrings with tiny bezel set cabochons, I will buy them from a fellow jeweler who enjoys that kind of work!

Until next time.

09.02.19 Ladysmiths on Labor Day

Photo: National Museum of American History

We Can Do It!

Making is not dainty work.  It's sweaty, and dirty and really hard on a manicure.  It's also women's work...but until relatively recently, the jewelry industry has been dominated by men.

The good news is, that's changing.

I learned a lot about this ongoing change when I took a series of classes at Creative Side Jewelry Academy with Marlene Richie on the business of jewelry  Lucky you - she's teaching her series again later this month.

Photo: Courtney Gray/CSJA

More and more, women are becoming leaders and innovators in the world of metalsmithing.  Living in Austin, I'm incredibly fortunate to be a member at Creative Side, where Courtney Gray has created what Rio Grande calls "one of the most forward-thinking jewelry schools in the US".

Photo: Ladysmiths of ATX

To be honest - before I started taking classes - I never imagined that I would be spending several hours a week using power tools and a torch to fabricate ANYTHING out of metal (and I sure couldn't have imagined working with gold)!  But becoming part of the metalsmithing community has been incredibly empowering for me - and not just the part where I am making things and improving my skills.

Photo: Jodi Rae Designs/WJA Austin

After 30+ years of work in public policy, jewelry is a second act for me. I am continually impressed by the incredibly smart and creative young women I am meeting at the studio and through organizations like WJA and Ladysmiths of ATX.

Yes, jewelry is art; it is creative; it is decorative...but it is also WORK and it has real value.

On this Labor Day, we recognize the importance of work and workers, and that includes people who are creatives and makers.  These are the people who add beauty and richness to our lives - and that matters for all of us.

Until next time.

08.19.19 One Step at a Time

Now that I am mostly done traveling, I am determined to spend more time in the studio - but not just making pieces to fill the Esty shop - I want to work to improve and expand my skill set.  At the top of that list is working with gold.

After having some successes adding granules to pendants (both in my kinetics class with De, and on my own), I had a pretty epic fail.

Combining gold with argentium silver in a single piece is complex process because the two metals have different specific gravities and fusing/melting points. 

In my first attempt to solder a 14K bezel to an argentium back plate, the differences between the metals got the best of me, and the gold actually sank through the silver (good thing Rio Grande recycles scrap metal). I learned some things - which was good - and I will come back to it.  However, for the time being I've decided to focus my work with gold on things that are a little less complicated.

Two things I'd never done before were create a step bezel for a faceted stone or create prongs out of wire (I did create prongs for a faceted stone in a wax class - but that's a completely different process).


I had recently acquired a great faceted turquoise, but because it was not a cabochon, I couldn't make a flat setting, so I built a step bezel.

A step bezel has two pieces of bezel wire - one inside the other - to create a cushion or "step" to created a seat for the pavilion (the pointed underside of a faceted stone).  I made two oval bezels, and then soldered them both to the back plate.




Since the stone didn't have a flat back, it wasn't really suited to a cut out on the pendant; so I went more of a hollow form look that would echo my two tone kinetic earrings.  Instead of gold granules, I chose make prongs using the same 18K gold wire that I used for the earrings.

To solder the prongs on to the bezel, I secured the setting in Kate Wolf soldering clay, used a third arm to hold the prong in place, and worked carefully to avoid melting the small gold wire.




With several deep breaths, and De at my side, I successfully soldered all three prongs on without melting any of them - and then used the same process (clay and a third arm) to solder a jump ring for the bail to the top of the pendant.


The rest of the process was very similar to finishing any other bezel set pendant - except that I used a prong pusher in addition to a regular bezel setting tool.


I'm pleased with the outcome, and the pendant looks great with my hollow form earrings.  However, since pierced backs are kind of my design signature, I'm going to stick to working primarily with flat backed stones.

It's nice to have a couple of options - prongs and granules - for adding small amounts of gold to my pieces, and I imagine that I will get more comfortable with the process as I do more.

Until next time.

08.05.19 What I read on my summer vacation

A couple of posts back, I referenced a book, this time - the post is actually ABOUT the book...

...and if ever a book was written for me, it is Stoned, by Aja Raden.

I am the daughter of a physicist and a mathematician.

I have a Bachelor's degree with a major in government and a minor in religion from the University of Virginia (founded by Thomas Jefferson, the first ambassador to France - relevant, at least to me, because France figures prominently in this book).

I have a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and for more than 30 years I worked in the field of public policy.

I am now a jeweler.

Stoned touches on all of these topics!

Ms. Raden begins her story talking about her mother's jewelry:

I've always most especially loved jewelry. My mother didn't have a jewelry box. She had a jewelry closet. Some of the pieces were real, some of them were fake. It didn't really matter - it all held me in equal thrall; it was all real treasure.

With that passage, I knew I was going to love this book - because I had the very same feelings about my mom's jewelry (and when I wear pieces that belong to her, I still do) that Ms. Raden describes.  But, her book is so much more than just an appeal to pretty or sentimental things - it is a book about the science of metal and gems, of history, politics, economics and romance. It is funny and insightful, and I am grateful to the person in one of my online metalsmithing communities (I wish I could remember who) for recommending it.

Ms. Raden divides the book into three sections - Want, Need, and Take.

Photo credit: Stephen Lang.

Want is about what things are worth - who determines that, and how - and why the value of things changes over time.

One of the examples she uses in Want is wampum beads - similar to those used to purchase Manhattan Island.

Photo credit: Encyclopedia Britannica

Take is about what happens when we want something and can't have it.


In Take she discusses - at great length - the diamond necklace created by King Louis XV for his mistress (but never paid for) that was ultimately used to frame Marie Antoinette and lead to her imprisonment and death.

Photo credit: Mikimoto Pearl Museum

Have is about when we finally get what we (think) we want.

In Have, she writes about Kokichi Mikimoto and his quest for the perfect pearl. This is the Taisho-ren (Boss's pearls) necklace - the largest strand of perfectly cultured pearls ever created. He never sold them - but he always kept them nearby, usually in his pocket.







Stoned is the story of modern human history.  As Ms. Raden puts it The history of the world is the history of desire. This is an examination of that history.

I won't tell you anymore - I don't want to spoil the stories for you - but I do encourage you to get a copy of the book, put up your feet, and enjoy.

Until next time.