Tassel Rings

"Carrier Pigeon" Cuff Links

I've been working on several sets of cuff links that are meant to resemble the vials that would be attached to carrier pigeons. Each cuff link is a small, tubular box that opens to reveal a compartment to hold messages. Heavy-walled sterling tubing is the base, with a patterned band of sterling, and square sterling wire wrapped around the tube.

Happy Holidays!

Sorry it has been so quiet here lately at "Notes from the Bench" -- my hobbies are getting in the way of my hobbies! Despite having 4800+ photos from a vacation this fall that still need to be edited, I have ignored them in favor of working away at the bench on holiday gifts for family, friends and customers. I've actually missed the hands-on, tactile, griminess of jewelry fabrication -- as I was reminded last evening as I was brushing large amounts of black polishing compound out of my hair and scrubbing the dust off most of my exposed skin.

As you can see above, I am rolling out new branding and packaging. I had wanted a cleaner logo for years, and finally took the time to mock something up. A new website will be rolling out early in the new year.

New photography blog

Since "Notes from the Bench" was created to focus on my jewelry endeavors, I have started a second blog that will be more photography-centric. This should reduce the number of non-jewelry-related posts you have to wade through.

HDR is the new black is a blog devoted to my interest in High Dynamic Range photography. It is a controversial technique with many fans and detractors. Since I'm a bit of an evangelist about its merits, I thought I'd share what I am learning.

This way I don't have to struggle to keep my hobby A.D.D. under control -- I can just focus on the appropriate audience for my yammering.

Fire Agate Ring

Finally! I finally finished something new. I wasn't happy with the inital setting for this fire agate, so I dismantled the ring and made a new setting. This time I used 22k bezels, 22k gold balls, and added a trillion cut peridot. The Argentium mokume gane ring band is the same one I used for the early version of this ring.

Say cheese

While on the Worldwide Photo Walk yesterday, the counter rolled over on my camera (much like an odometer does). That means that I have taken 10,000+ photos in the past year. That's an average of 27 shots a day.

Looking back at my post from last year, I guess I am well on my way to becoming "that person" again.

(This is from today in my parking lot garden.)

Bug

Does anyone know what this interesting-looking, but somewhat scary bug is? You can see him by the edge of a 2" x 4" to get a sense of scale. I've never seen anything like it.

Update from my friend Sarah:
What you have there is a leaf-footed bug : Order Hemiptera - True Bugs Family Coreidae.
I want to say the subfamily is Coreinae, and the genus should be Acanthocephala but honestly there are three different species that all look very much alike but they are in different parts of the North America so I can't say for absolutely certain which one is yours . . .