Over the weekend I was busy designing the earrings, pendants, and bracelets which I hope to bring to Arizona and California in a couple of weeks.  The sketches serve as working drawings.  After they are complete, I trace the outline of each component of the piece in graphite on frosted acetate.  Next, I "pick" each tracing up with transparent tape and tape it to the sheet metal.  I was able to tape down all of the pieces to the sterling silver sheet by 9pm, but still have the more difficult task of laying out the extremely tiny 18k gold trim pieces.  The material is expensive, and they need to be fitted carefully to prevent waste.

On Febuary 28th, in a few short weeks, I'll be leaving for my Arizona and California art shows.  Yesterday, I got back from the Tucson gem show with new colored stones and fossils that I am pretty excited about.  I'll be blogging, hopefully daily, until I leave in order to show you my design process.  
Today I had all my stone trays out and was choosing stone combinations for both my new Prismacolor drawing cabachons and the gem cabachons.  In the center picture, I have combined an Indonesian "grape agate" with gem spinels and iolite.  This will be a pendant.  On the right is one of the Prismacolor cabs with a gem silica chrysocolla and other small accent stones.  I got the bezel finished before I left, and started work on the pendant bale.
Tonight I will come up with a schedule for the steps:
Step 2:  Making bezels
Step 3: Drawing the designs/ working drawings
Step 4: Tracing and laying out the patterns for cutting the sterling silver sheet and 18k gold trim
Step 5:  Cutting out (piercing) the sheet metal
Step 6:  Bagging the parts and removing tape
Step 7:  Soldering the bezels and 18k gold trim pieces onto the bases
Step 8:  Trimming and filing 
Step 9:  Laying out the designs for internal piercing work
Step 10:  Drilling and piercing the cutout designs
Step 11: Final fabrication; riveting, soldering
Step 12: Initial sanding and preliminary stone setting
Step 13: Initial polishing and final stone setting
Step 14: Texturing and final polishing
​Step 15: Photography, pricing, and website upload