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This year my Metamorphosis focus is on redo’s of old metamorphosis!
I have two non-redo metamorphosis planned for this year but the rest will be redo’s and I’m really excited about it!
A lot of people are scared to ask me to melt things down that I’ve made them in the past. Never feel bad! Styles change!
I decided to use metamorphosis as a platform to show people that it’s ok to melt down jewellery I’ve made them. So stay tuned…the first redo will be coming soon!
Last year I did a lot. My word for 2019 was ENERGY. The thing with energy is that the more you do, the more energy you have. Which can be great! But sometimes, when you're super motivated and energized, you commit to more than you probably should. Or at least I do. I learned a lot because of everything I took on last year, but I also found myself burning out after intense bouts of work.
I didn't really have to think much about my word for 2020: the word just naturally popped into my head as soon as I started thinking about my 2020 goals. I knew that my focus for the new year had to be quality over quantity. To take on less projects but ones with more value that really speak to me. To find more efficient ways to get things done faster while still being true to my standards.
I'm really looking forward to 2020! How about you? What's your word for 2020?
Kat came all the way from Seattle to be part of this project! She left me her old grad ring that she never wore and trusted me to turn it into something new!
Kat was super organized in regards to sending me information of what she liked and didn’t like. I always love when people have visual references of their preferences because sometimes things get lost in translation or my idea of something is different than theirs!'
To make Kat’s ring, I melted down her white gold ring (see photo of it below) and made a plain band. I picked moonstone and mother of pearl for her ring because they are alternate birthstones to hers (pearl/alexandrite). Her grad ring had an alexandrite but I didn’t want to repurpose it. I made the settings for the stone and then soldered them to the band. After the ring was cleaned up and polished, I set the stones with the middle piece still between the settings. Cutting it out before I set the stones would make the stones harder to set since the band would be weaker once cut. After the middle piece was cut out, I gave the ring one more polish and voila!
This Metamorphosis found it’s way to Greece for my sister-in-law Vicki! She left me all of her old jewellery (see photo below) that last time she came to Vancouver and told me to surprise her with a ring. She sent me several photos of styles she liked and I picked a style I hadn’t quite made yet!
To make this ring, I started by taking out all of the stones from her old jewellery and melting down the gold. I traded most of her white gold for yellow gold, which I then turned into a 4mm band. Once the band was shaped, I use the leftover gold strip to melt “blobs” all over the top of the ring. Then I created seats on the blobs and soldered the settings to those seats. After that, stones were set, ring was polished, and voila! From Vancouver to Greece with love!
The draw to metamorphosis has always been that someone can get a custom piece of jewellery for a reduced price. Over the years I’ve had to raise the price to cover the cost of tools and specialists I work with (casting/stone setting). The reality is, that the more I have to raise the price, the more people lose interest. Metamorphosis is a creative outlet for me and I’d like to keep doing it which means I have to rethink the project in general and how I can make it better for everyone.
That being said, instead of offering 6 spots for the year, I have decided to change my metamorphosis offerings: I will have three types of metamorphosis available to you!
First, there will be two FREE metamorphosis. Details below.
Second, I will still offer metamorphosis for people who want to turn their old jewellery into something new. Details below.
Third, one of the first things people say when interested in metamorphosis is “I don’t have enough materials”. This got me to thinking, how can I include people who don’t hoard old jewellery? I decided I would offer a version of metamorphosis where I supply the materials! Details below.
Metamorphosis offerings:
Metamorphosis - FREE and your materials (must be a referral - application process) - Click here for more info.
Metamorphosis 100 - $100 fee and your materials (must be a referral) - Click here for more info.
Metamorphosis: Sterling Silver - $150 fee and my materials (anyone can sign up) - Click here for more info.
Here are the basic details for all:
There is an initial interview where we discuss your likes and dislikes.
It takes 6 to 8 weeks to make jewellery
Your jewellery will be posted on social media
Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!
I had seen a similar necklace months ago and kept the photo because I knew I wanted to make something similar for someone one day. Verity was that someone! As I was rifling through my stones to find something she would like (she likes pastel colours), I stumbled upon a purply rose quartz. I set it aside while I looked at other stones, but I kept going back to the rose quartz. I decided that it was a sign that the stone was meant for her!
To make the necklace: I made the vessel for the stone which consisted of melting silver and rolling out a piece wide enough to be the walls around the stone and a flat piece for the bottom big enough for the stone and vessel walls, then soldering it together, cleaning it up, soldering the jump rings to it and the 4-claw setting for the cubic (which was from another earring she had), soldering the chain to the jump rings, polishing the whole thing, setting the stones, and lastly polishing everything again.
Really happy that I finally got to make this necklace!
Here’s the coles notes on how I met Michele: she was referred to my dad by some friends of hers. She came in to discuss jewellery with him…and I basically poached her. Sorry dad! And now Michele and I chat about business ideas and she’s a constant source of inspiration (she’s so great - check out her website here).
Michele has great style! Every time I see her, I feel inspired to wear something other than workout gear. And she loves really unique jewellery which is fun because we get to be extra creative!
I originally wanted to make Michele a silver bangle with a splash of gold running through it. The only reason I didn’t end up making it was because I’ve never done it before and I didn’t want to ruin her materials. I would have to play around soldering her silver and gold together and if I screwed it up, her materials would need to be refined to be salvaged. At the time I didn’t have time to play around with my own materials as a test so instead I opted for something I knew would still meet some of the things she said she liked.
To make her metamorphosis, I made five thin bangles and two small and wide gold ones. The process goes as follows: melt silver, pull wire, anneal silver and quench, pull wire, get wire stick in draw plate, have dad pull stuck wire through draw plate because he’s stronger, anneal and quench silver, make bangles, solder them together, polish them, then…melt gold, roll out, anneal and quench, roll out to desired size, make rings, polish them, join them to silver bangles, solder them closed, polish everything.
The best part is that the day of the Metamorphosis reveal, Michele showed up in the cutest outfit that actually looked like she planned her outfit around the bracelet she hadn’t even seen! So great!
A couple years ago, I saw that Picot Collective had partnered with Gemspell to create a custom ring event. I thought, how cool! I want to do that! I recently reached out to a local store to create my own custom ring event. And here we are! It’s happening on June 8th at Good Omen in New Westminster. Good Omen is a wonderful little store and I would recommend popping in to see the trove of treasures they sell! See more at their website.
In a nutshell: you pick a design, a stone, and I make the ring! There will be three price tiers:
1: $85-$100
2: $105-$155
3: $160-$225
I will have a selection of design ideas and stones available to you! Although I will have designs for customers to choose from, I am open to making small adjustments to those designs in order to make a ring my customers will be thrilled with!
Interested in having a custom ring made? Reserve a spot here.
My pop-up shop was a great experience and success and I’m so grateful to everyone that came by to support me. I’ve done fairs/markets in the past, but not my very own pop-up shop. Here are some things I learned:
TIME FLIES. Be organized - I printed out monthly calendars and marked down deadlines so that I wouldn’t forget. It’s easy to forget how much time you need to print posters, get insurance, etc, when you’re in go-mode.
Set mini-goals. For me it was, finish bangles by this date, organize packaging materials by this date, etc. If after that date I wanted to make more, cool. But at least I knew that I would have a certain amount of things done by a certain day. It’s easy to get overwhelmed thinking about the big picture. Making small goals makes everything much more manageable.
Marketing for your own pop-up shop is time-consuming (especially if you have a style you need to follow - my instagram is checkerboard dark/light and black/white). If you are at a pop-up shop with multiple vendors, half the work is done for you. If you are at a fair or market, although there is lots of competition, there is a lot of foot traffic and your marketing is cut down by a quarter. Try planning some things in advance. Last minute posting eats up more time that you can spend on your craft.
Menial tasks can be done while on transit, waiting for an appointment, etc. This will free up your time later to get the real work done. Marketing takes a lot of time away from working at the bench. So if I can multi-task and create marketing materials on the go, it’s a win. I spent a lot of time editing photos, prepping instagram posts, etc, at the end of the day when I was exhausted, so I felt like I was working all day. The days I could get that work done while out and about, I actually got to enjoy my evenings and recharge.
Set up a table in advance if you can so you know what display items you need to buy. If you do it last minute, you may end up buying all sorts of random things you don’t need (which is fine if you can return them). Also, the day before the event, set your table up and take a photo so you
One of my goals for 2019 was to have a pop up shop. When I booked the space in December, April 27 seemed so far away. Now that April 1st is upon us and there’s only a month to my pop-up shop, 1) I can’t believe just how quick time flies and 2) I’m starting to panic!
I mean I’m excited but also panicking. I want to make sure I have enough jewellery made! I hope you’ll pop by for a visit. Also, my pop-up shop is just in time for Mother’s day (two weeks before). Furthermore, I’ll be beside a couple other cool local establishments so it’s worth coming by and visiting all of us to see what your local community has to offer!
Pearl Brooch
I spent a long time figuring out what to make for Metamorphosis 30! Lizette had these opals that I really wanted to use but I just couldn’t figure out how to incorporate their asymmetrical shapes into any designs that would suit her. She also had a few pearls and it made me think of all the lonely pearls we all have but don’t know what to with! How many of you have a bag of random pearls (mostly single earrings because you lost the partner)? Exactly!
Lizette loves brooches which made the choice of what type of jewellery to make easy. To make this brooch, I soldered a bunch of settings together and then soldered them into a hammered silver ring. Then I added the brooch pin and set the pearls. I would have liked to make it a convertible brooch to pendant but with the open back design, that wouldn’t work. (Note: the brooch pin can’t be seen when the brooch is being worn!)
Stackable White Gold and Diamond Rings
These rings may seem simple but let me tell you, when there are infinite possibilities in stackable ring designs, it’s hard to pick just a couple!
I started by swapping Shannon’s yellow gold for white gold since she prefers white and didn’t have enough. I was able to use one of the pre-existing settings (princess cut - square centre stone) from a pendant she had for the thinner ring. Once both bands were made and I soldered the princess setting to the thinner ring, I sent them off to the stone setter!
With all the materials Shannon had left over she actually ordered a third ring which will balance the other two rings nicely. I’ll post a photo of it when it’s done!
Before photo of Shannon’s jewellery
Who’s ready for year 4 of metamorphosis?! YEAR 4! I’m so flattered and happy that you guys love this project (or are crazy) enough to keep volunteering so that I can keep doing it. Thanks to all of you, I get to be creative and create custom jewellery at a fraction of the price.
Interested in participating? Here are the details:
You MUST be a referral (friend of a friend of a friend is fine)
$100 required upfront
You supply the materials (unless I design something that needs something you don’t have in which I will supply the materials)
I will take your likes/dislikes into consideration but will make something of my choice
Turnaround is 6 to 8 weeks
Whatever I make you and it’s details will be posted on my social media
To apply, please send me photos of the jewellery you would like to use for this project and photos of jewellery you would like to acquire.
Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!
Sterling silver and amazonite ring
I’ve been wanting to make a ring like this for awhile so I was pretty happy that it worked out for this Metamorphosis! I have a bunch of ideas of jewellery I want to make and it’s great when I get to use one of those ideas for this project.
It worked out but it was also a struggle! At first I thought I would make it straight from silver but it wasn’t working out with the methods I was using. Then the stone I ordered didn’t arrive so I had to remake it for another stone. I ended up making a wax setting for the ring which after casting was soldered to a silver band.
This ring was definitely a learning lesson and the next few I make will be easier thanks to the struggles I had making this one.
(photo below is of the Errin’s silver before I melted it to make her ring)
During September, I challenged myself to post to instagram everyday and create one story a week. I wanted to try something different and learn a few new things. In an age of social media where people post daily, this might sound like an easy task. However, it’s not! As an entrepreneur, I wear many hats which means I don’t get to dedicate all my time to making jewellery. As such, it’s essential I manage how much time I spend on non-jewellery-making tasks (such as social media).
I did a lot of research and got some great advice before and during the challenge. I want to share what I learned through this experience in case anyone else finds it useful!
Here’s what I learned:
Less is more. A posting challenge doesn’t have to be 30 days to be successful. In fact, starting with a shorter challenge might be best. Jenna Kutcher from The Goal Digger Podcast has a couple great podcasts on challenges (listen here and here).
Plan ahead. Life is busy and if you’re looking for something to post last minute, you probably won’t end up being true to your brand/style. As mentioned in the podcasts above, people lose interest quickly and if you aren’t posting things of value, you will lose people. I used Later.com to schedule posts.
Know your style. If you’re not sure what your style is or want to make some changes to improve on what you already have, check out what some of your favourite influencers are doing and play around with a couple of your photos. Later.com and thepreviewapp.com let you see what your feed will look like ahead of time which is essential if you have a certain style. For example, I like black and white with pops of minimal colour so I wanted to make sure this combination was balanced. Also, keep in mind that your brand/style isn’t just about the photos you post but also about the words you choose. IMPORTANT: you don’t want to end up with a feed that looks just like everyone else’s, so be inspired, but also keep your brand/style top of mind.
Find your tribe. Although I don’t have any metalsmith friends, I have a lot of entrepreneur friends who I’ve had great business strategy chats with. I found my metalsmith tribe online (especially at the Metalsmith Society - check our their instagram here). If someone gives you a good idea, mention them! If you find a cool resource, share it! Let’s support each other!
Hashtags. Some people hate them so much that they just don’t use them. I will admit that they aren’t my favourite thing, but they are essential. After you’ve found your tribe, see what kinds of hashtags they’re using and start using any new hashtags that apply to your business. Some people may only ever see your posts if they follow one of the hashtags that you use. If you don’t use hashtags, only the people who follow you may see your posts.
Stories are important. Apparently some people only look at stories instead of scrolling through feeds. Stories are the place where I started posting things that don’t “match” the style of my feed and even then, I still aim for a certain look when possible. There’s a ton of things you can do with stories and I’ve barely scratched the surface with my story attempts. It takes time to make a story that doesn’t look super amateur, and even when you think you’ve gotten the hang of stories so they don’t look “amateur”, you may still screw up! Which brings me to my last point…
Relax. The point of a challenge is to have fun and learn. The only way to learn is by trial and error. So who cares if you make a couple mistakes (that most people won’t even notice)!
Yellow Gold Brooch
I've never made a brooch before so I was looking forward to adding this project to my repertoire!
I accidentally deleted the photo of Margo's bracelet but it looked like the sample below.
One of the first things I noticed about Margo when I met her is that she always wears interesting matching accessories. And she wears a lot of brooches and makes them look super stylish.
To make her brooch, I melted her gold into a half inch by 6mm ingot. After I rolled it out (to 0.8mm), I started cutting out pieces in the shape of windshields that were then soldered together to create a conical marquise and pear-shape pieces. The windshield-shape is what creates the cone-shape.
Once I had a selection of sizes, I soldered all of them together and added the brooch mechanism which I also mostly made by hand (I purchased the pin catch - the thing on the left that the pin fits into). A little filing and polishing later and the brooch was complete!
Asymmetrical Dangle Earrings
As soon as Katrina left my office, I knew right away that I was going to make her a pair of asymmetrical earrings! She has short hair and said she most often accessorizes with bold earrings. She mentioned loving the idea of asymmetrical earrings, saying something along the lines of them being like eyebrows: they're sisters, not twins!
I hadn't made anything like this before so I was excited to get to it!
Picking the stones was easy. Katrina had mentioned that she would really love some earrings with lapis lazuli. Furthermore, she had a heart-shaped piece of paua shell that I thought would look great with the lapis lazuli. The third stone, lace agate, was easy to pick once I had the other two lined up.
The challenge came in designing the earrings. Do you know how many possible combinations there are for asymmetrical earrings? MILLIONS!
At first I thought I would make the earrings two-toned but then decided to stick with silver so they wouldn't look too busy. I was also going to make them bigger but worried that they might get too heavy. I kept them at about three inches long and pretty light weight so they'd be comfortable for daily use.
I'm really happy with how these earrings turned out (and I think Katrina is too)! Really looking forward to making more of these, especially since I have a bunch of random stones lying around that would be perfect for asymmetrical earrings!
Gold and Diamond Family Ring
Boy did I stress about this one! Monica had a Pinterest board full of jewellery ideas, which was awesome, but I couldn't pinpoint a specific style. I also didn't want to make another ring but that is the only design that kept coming to mind. (Good thing too because that's what she really wanted and she was convinced I was going to make her bangle! Ha!)
In the end, the ring has three elements: she likes two-toned jewellery, she seemed to like wrap rings, and she likes sentimental pieces. In regards to the latter: the three diamonds represent her husband and sons, and she's the wrap ring, hugging them!
I had to get my dad to help me quite a bit with the yellow gold part of this ring. Instead of making a wax model which would have made my life a lot easier, I decided to make the ring by hand. However, I'm not strong enough to bend gold by hand that's thick enough to contour. After the yellow gold wrap ring was done, I melted the white gold and made a bar that was soldered to the middle of the yellow wrap ring. Then I soldered the white gold settings so the white bar, set the stones, and polished the ring.
After I finished making the ring, I started panicking that I totally missed the mark and that she would hate what I made her. I even called a mutual friend for moral support. I know people sign up for this project expecting a 50% chance that they might hate what I make them, but I would obviously like to aim for 100% satisfaction.
Thankfully, despite my panic, she loved it!
Yellow Gold and Flush-Set Diamond Ring
It's been over a year since my last Metamorphosis! Back in November when I decided to start Metamorphosis again, I was excited. As my meeting with Sandy approached for #25, I started panicking. I forgot how nerve-racking this project can be!
Thankfully, Metamorphosis 25 came easy. Sandy had a lot of yellow gold and diamonds, and she wanted a new ring that would complement her wedding set. A lot of times, I've gone back and forth between designs. This time, I had a design in mind and it stuck.
To make Sandy's ring, I started with a wax model. After it was casted, cleaned up, and polished, I sent it to the stone-setter who flush-set (aka gypsy-set) 15 diamonds.
I'm happy with how it turned out and I think she is too!
Here we go...again?!
Last year I benched the monthly Metamorphosis knowing that my hands would be quite full with a newborn. Although I still had quite a bit of custom work throughout 2017, I missed the excitement and creativity of Metamorphosis.
That's why I decided to get back to it in 2018 but with a few small changes. Instead of 12, one per month, I'm only taking on six. I have to be more mindful of my time these days and I don't want to overcommit.
I think I might also change my presentation format but I'm not quite sure how. I guess we'll see how it goes come reveal day.
I announced Metamorphosis 2018 today and within hours all 6 spots filled up and I even have a few people on a waitlist! I'm flattered by the excitement and how many people want to participate. Thank you!
