So I thought I'd share the fascinating process that my sweet little words endure, as they journey from a thought in my head to a sterling silver treasure. Step by step, complete with illustrations and photos! Cool! Less reading!
I'll get right to it. First, I sat around and sketched my designs on a piece pf paper. I can't show you this paper, because my hubby is an artist, and DUDE, I can't draw. So once I had the shape and size in mind, I went off to my buddy Adobe Illustrator, who makes drawing so much easier, if you happen to be designing symmetrical shapes with words on them...
I had to figure out some sort of standard sizing, because these pendants are initially being milled out by Mr. Roboto, my friend Erik's really cool CAD wax-carving wonder. I have eight different sizes of pendants, as shown in this picture I created in Illustrator:
This means eight prices, based on the number of letters in each word, because silver is priced by weight, remember? Just like gold. I'm sorry, but if you're feeling hormonal, it's gonna cost you more than if you're just in the mood for pie. It's not my fault.
So, I sent this design, which is copyrighted by virtue of IT'S MINE! I MADE IT! Don't be getting any funny ideas, okay?! These are my plans here, mine! Got that? I thought of putting words on jewelry before anyone even thought of making jewelry. Before cavemen and stuff. So don't even go there, I have a stone tablet that proves this, and I'm not scared to throw it at you if I have to take you to court for being uncreative. Jeez.
SO, I sent this design over to my buddy Erik, who did some magical CAD-ness to create these designs in 3-D. He's a wizard, and I don't even pretend to understand how the heck he does that. When he finished doing that, he sent the 3-D version of my design to Mr. Roboto, who is a (flippin' expensive) master wax carver. This is what Mr. Roboto did for me:
After that, it's into the oven for you, wax! The waxes are sprued onto a tree & put into investment (sorry, no pic, just not glamorous enough to warrant one) and baked for a while at varying degrees until the investment hardens and the wax burns out, leaving a cavity that is ready for molten silver. If the investment stage somehow goes south, this is where you're screwed. New waxes must be carved, and the process repeated. Luckily, Mr. Roboto can carve a new one pretty easily. But imagine if you spent like sixteen million hours carving some insanely detailed work of art into wax, and this step got all screwy? You'd be pissed, that much is for sure. Here is what my words are looking like today:
Did you know that silver could look so...ugly? and dull? Like it just got born and has all that white gunk all over it? Well, it did! Give it a break. It's just a little newborn. Be nice to it. It's still crying. It's so ugly that it's cute. And once it gets a bath, and a nice polish on it's hiney, it will be so super shiny! And then maybe you can look into its eyes and bond with it. You should. It needs you.
More pics and drivel about the birth of a pendant coming soon. Check back here, because this is where I'll be posting it. It would be pretty lame of me to post part two on my other blog, wouldn't you agree?! I'm cool like that. Always lookin' out for my peeps.
xo Chelsea
