Went into my studio to work today and couldn't find the piece on my workbench that I was last working on.  Took a look in the pickle crock pot and there it was, but instead of being shiny silver, it was gunmetal black!  There was no other metal in the pot, so I could not understand how that could have happened.  Deciding that something had contaminated the pickle, I picked up the ceramic part of the pot to dump into my used pickle jar and discovered that the metal part of the pot was all rusty and corroded inside!  How that happened, I don't know.  The ceramic part didn't appear to have a crack in it.  At some point though, water or pickle water got into the metal part of the crock pot.  The pickle in the ceramic part of the pot looked very clear and clean.  So I'm still not sure how it was contaminating the silver in the ceramic pot unless it was via condensation on the lid leaching somehow into the pickle.

It's a mystery and my jewelry piece that I had accidentally left in the pickle all night was ruined.  Needless to say, I'm purchasing a new crock pot tomorrow and starting over.  This time I will keep checking the metal part of the pot for problems.

Has anyone else experienced a similar situation with their pickle pot?  

After traveling around for a good part of April and playing catch-up upon returning, I have not been able to spend much time in my studio.  I have several items in progress though and thought I would post one of my stone heart charms.  The charm is a rhodochrosite heart set in Argentium sterling silver.  It has a swivel lobster clap at the top of the charm so it can be switched around to whatever you might want to wear it with--a bracelet, zipper pull, purse charm, pendant--you decide!

You can purchase this and other jewelry pieces of mine on Etsy.  My Etsy store, TexturedMetalDesigns

I just purchased Bill Fretz's DVDs on "Forming Hollow Rings".  I had not made rings in a quite awhile, but had a desire to make myself some attractive, casual rings that I could wear every day.  

I have been fortunate to take one of Bill Fretz's classes in person on "Basic Jewelry Hammering and Forming" at Rio Grande Jewelry in Albuquerque, NM.  So I thought I would try the ring DVD.  It's a great instructional DVD.  As a result, I have made 3 rings beginning with the spinner ring that I posted earlier.  The next two rings I made were take offs from the spinner ring.  I thought the same type of ring would look great with stones on them instead of a spinner. 

This is a flared, wide band, textured ring with a 4mm Rhodolite stone.

 This ring features an Ant Hill Garnet.  Do you know why it is called ant hill garnet?  Ants actually mine these rings.  They bring the rough garnets up from below the ground and deposit the stones in the ant hill when they are building or repairing their home.  These garnets come from the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.  They are a gorgeous deep red.

 

Sterling Silver and 14K Gold Spinner Ring

I have been making more rings.  Yesterday I made an Argentium sterling silver ring with a 14K gold spinner.  This ring is known as a spinner ring.  I textured and oxidized the wide band.  The ends of the ring are flared with a dapping punch to keep the spinner from falling off.  I enjoyed making this ring and intend to make more of these in the future.