Nice little post.

Last night I received a very nice but short post on my etsy.com shop. It simply read.

I love your jewellery but why is it so expensive compared to so many other items of  mokume gane jewellery on etsy. Most of the other mokume gane jewellery looks very similar and yours is so different why is this so.

Here’s my response.

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at my jewellery and as you have noticed my jewellery is a little different to most other mokume gane jewellery on etsy and compared to other mokume gane jewellery on etsy it is a little more expensive. Unlike so many people who sell mokume gane jewellery, I make every item of mokume gane, there are suppliers of ready made mokume gane which alot of gold and silversmiths buy in. Few artists master the art of making mokume gane themselves. Every item I sell I have made, I do not buy in anything and even make up specific alloys such as shibushi and shakudo which you can not get commercialy.  So you are paying for the expertise in not only making the item but the time and expertise in making the mokume gane as well. I actually worked out that after all material, living and running costs of my business I make less than minimal wage, in the UK I belive this to be £5.73 .  Please take in to account the high costs of living in the UK as well.  The cost of the USA is considerably cheaper than the UK and if your buying in ready made sheets that only need cutting to shape you can produce and item for less.

Now I think I’ll keep a copy of this for the next person to ask the same question.

Royston

I’m still alive.

Yes folks its true, I am still alive.

I had a littel 50% sale on my etsy shop and to my surprise it done quite well.  Yes I’ll be having one again some time in the future but when I do It’ll only be for 24 hours and you’ll get about 24 hours notice so  keep an eye on me to know when.

Other stuff thats been happening, damascus steel rings are gaining a huge following now, I truley do think I’m the only person making these in the UK, good news for me I think!

I’m getting a bit behind all of the “my projects” I’ve been working on, general life in the workshop’s getting in the way. I will be putting more interesting items of mokume gane jewellery up on the shop as well as launching a new website some time in the near future. I fancy something just that bit different. Again you’ll have to check back often to see for your self.

Till then, stay groovy.

Royston.

When things go wrong, and they some times do.

I couldn’t believe it, today my milling machine broke. Now it’s not the most expensive machine in the world, nor the biggest or best, but its mine, and as I use all my machine tools as often as I do, when one breaks its like a lame dog you have by your feet. You know they want to play but can’t beacuse they are unable to.

It was only 2 weeks ago I had my lathe repaired because of an electrical failure, now the milling machine is stuck, to say the least. That will teach me to buy “cheaper” Chinese products. Anyway with the milling machine the handle on the column came off in my hand. No big issue you’re thinking, but the 1/2 inch metal bar it was attached to had sheared off and the locking nut jammed tight shut. Now you see the problem. With nothing to grab hold of to un-tighten said offending nut, it’s taken hours of careful grinding with a Dremmel tool to get passed the hardened part of the shaft to be able to drill the bolt, and use a left hand tap to back out the very offensive bolt.

Now this is not over yet. I still have to buy a left hand tap and as the brake only happened last night, no shops were open to by said tool.  Now the point of me telling you all this, is simple. Its not till somethings broken do you realise how much you use it. When the lathe was out of commission, it put me back 4 whole days, due to the amount of Damascus steel rings I’ve to make, cutting those by hand is nigh on impossible. Same as the milling machine, I was roughing out a Damascus steel pendant and the next thing I knew I was breaking out the hacksaw to try and save the time.

Well its all part of the daily life in my workshop. Boring to some, exciting to others. It’s just normal to me so thought I’d let you all in on it.

Royston

Wanted!

Well folks, I was approached by Vogue magazine a couple of weeks back and will now be featured in the August issue of Vogue magazine! It’s only a aditorial, but it’ll be going out to 1.2 million readers. So here’s hoping for the work coming in.

But no sooner has the deal with Vogue been done than GQ and Tattler are on to me for the same aditorial. Coincidence? I think not. Still its a little more coverage than I had last week.

I’ve all so linked in with www.metalcyberspace.com a great website for metal workers of all backgrounds from all around the world. Please do check it out as it may well put you in touch with local craftsmen and women in your area. A big thanks to Susan for adding me to that website.

Later.

Royston Upson

Stretching things a bit far.

Well the life of the Mokume Gane goldsmith can be an interesting one. Time out is something I’ve not had much of lately so I enjoyed a peaceful weekend at my parents, but the weekend is over, and Monday came around sooner than I wanted. Monday 15/06/09 was a day I promised myself I was to tell you all more about what I’m up to.  Getting back into the routine of blogging again and sharing my wares.

Well I’ve too many projects and not enough time, and as long as people want to get married and want something unusual I’ll have a job. Great news is that I was approached by Vogue magazine here in the UK to cover my work in a bespoke jewellery special, keep an eye for that coming out in August this year.

So I’m trying to build up my Etsy shop at the moment as I have rather a lot of jewellery laying around needing finishing. Also a few of the experimental pieces I’m playing with are also coming along quite nicely, one of which is ribbons of mokume made into a veneer material, not sheet,  but twist patterns of copper and silver. I’m playing with the idea of making longer lengths of twist pattern Mokume Gane for a very unusual project. I’ll let you into a little snippet for now. But in my usual style, stay tuned because I will be back real soon.

Damascus steel rings are here to stay.

I’ve been working on a fair few damascus stainless steel rings of late, and have finished off the first of many gold lined rings. This one was machined from the solid bar but I have a cunning plan to get more pattern out of some of these billets of damascus steel. I think you’ll agree it looks quite nice.

This ones been lined and railed with 14K yellow gold, it gives a good colour and does not cost the earth. 9 carat yellow, which is a very popular jewellery alloy here in the UK, just doesn’t have the colour I need or want to give that striking appearance. Of course any other metals could be used, such as 14K red, 18K in red and yellow as well as 22K yellow. There is no point lining with another white metal, for obvious reasons.

Enjoy the pictures and I’ll post more soon.

damascus ring being trued up on the lathe

Damascus steel ring with 14 K yellow liner adn rails

my grubby left hand, and a damascus steel and 14K lined ring.

Life keeps getting in the may of a man and his Mokume Gane

Well, as the title says, life has this habit of stopping things in their track some times.

Now I can get my teeth into some of the more interesting things I want to get on with,  I have been working on a number of commissions of late which has taken all of my time. This and the fact the allotment we have also takes up a huge amount of time, then there is the paper work, the social side of life, yes even I like to get out and see people, trust me when I say being in a workshop on your own all of the time makes you go mad.

I’ve included a few pictures of some of the blocks of Mokume I’ve been working on, a rare shot to see them actually being fired, most pictures you’ll see are either the before or after shots. But a shot of the billet in the forge anywhere on the net is a rare thing.  So just for you here they are. I’ve also included what a perfectley formed block of mokume should be like when you come to clean the billet up. Here a block has had all the trailing edges cut back, not one of them split and held firm even when being bent. Perfect lamination.

Gold billet in the forge

fired gold billet being cleaned up

Damascus with gold liner

Completing a number of commissions at the moment, one of which is a damascus steel ring with gold liner. It is looking great even if I do say so myself, and is for a wedding ring. I will get the picture up when it is completed to show you all, the contrast of the gold and damascus patterning  is lovely. This is only one of a number of damascus steel commissions I am working on, it is proving to be popular with my clients.

Up to the eyeballs.

Still busy as a worker bee feeding its queen at the moment folks. Lots of things are afoot.

I’ll be back with some interesting stuff soon.

Till then, be good.

Royston

work work and more work.

I can’t really grumble, I now have so much work on that finding time to do all the other things I had planned have gone out of the window. This is the reason I haven’t had a chance to update the blog in a while. Wedding rings, invoices, business planning and other day to day running of a small business take up the other time as well.

Still the weather is good and the future for this Mokume Gane goldsmith is looking brighter.

R.