{"id":102,"date":"2010-10-24T18:49:01","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T23:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jewelryartsinstitute.userblogs.ganoksin.coms\/?p=102"},"modified":"2010-10-24T18:49:01","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T23:49:01","slug":"student-of-the-week-tamra-stoller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/jewelryartsinstitute\/2010\/10\/24\/student-of-the-week-tamra-stoller\/","title":{"rendered":"Student of the Week- Tamra Stoller"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$ <\/a>\u00a0Congratulations to our latest Student of the Week- Tamra Stoller. Tamra went to Rome and was inspired by the motif she saw on a column.\u00a0\u00a0She came home and worked long and hard to make this beautiful piece.\u00a0 She worked with one of our most talented instructors, Louise Parrish, \u00a0who has since passed away.\u00a0 Louise specialized in the jewelery of antiquity.\u00a0 Together they worked out a magnificent pendant which would not look out of place at any ancient Greek or Roman gold exhibit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 This pendant’s construction is based on three main techniques-fusing, wire shaping and repousse.\u00a0\u00a0 The wire shaping of the petals\u00a0is the first step using 22k gold wire Tamra made herself.\u00a0 To insure proper fusing we at JAI<\/a> alloy and mill our own gold using our own special alloy. \u00a0Fusing is similar to granulation in that we attach 22k elements\u00a0to each other without the use of any solder or flux.\u00a0 To get the most beautiful shapes for our wires the key is to use your fingers as much as possible\u00a0to shape the wires against the pliers. \u00a0Too much grabbing and squeezing\u00a0of the wire by the pliers ends up with the wires looking chewed up and ragged.\u00a0 The lightest touch possible is essential in making them beautiful.\u00a0 The next point is just as essential.\u00a0 If you need 10 petals, make 20 and then just choose the 10 most beautiful that match each other the best.\u00a0 This is the thing the really great jewelers do without hesitation and the most difficult thing to convince students to do.\u00a0 If you need 10 and only make 10, I guarantee you a least a couple of them will be not as nice and take the level of your piece down a few notches.\u00a0 I’m not a believer in trying to make your piece perfect, that leads to madness.\u00a0 However, trying to make it as beautiful as possible\u00a0should always be\u00a0our goal.\u00a0 Tamra clearly followed these maxims and look at her amazing result!\u00a0 I suppose we will talk about repousse another day but here is to Tamra.\u00a0 Well Done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"