Join me this coming weekend at the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival in Fernadina Beach, Florida.  I'll be in booth 408.

Hope to see you on March 3rd and 4th at the Fine Arts Fair at Tioga.  I'll be in booth 37.  Supposed to be great weather so come out and enjoy the fun!

You can see my new sea glass cuff bracelets at the Downtown Dunedin Craft festival in Dunedin, FL (near Clearwater) this coming weekend.  Hope you can make it!

Hope to see you at the Mount Dora Art Festival in Mount Dora, Florida the first weekend of February. Based on customer feedback, I've made some new adjustable sea glass rings.  I'll be in booth 78.  Let's hope for some warm, sunny weather!

For anyone interested in how I make my jewelry, here's a short video showing some of the activities involved in metalsmithing; soldering, forming, filing, sawing just to name a few.  If you were to ask me what is the most fun I'd have to say "Playing with Fire"!

I am often asked if I can make a piece of jewelry  with a customer's own sea glass.  The answer is "Yes .... BUT...."  With the BUT being the sea glass must be jewelry quality.  Most of my work involves bezel setting the sea glass so there are certain characteristics I look for in sea glass for my jewelry that I'd like to share with you.

The photo above shows three pieces of sea glass that are excellent for bezel setting; smooth, relatively flat, no chips.

These are the same pieces of sea glass as photo 1 from the top.  Again, no sharp, irregular edges which makes it possible for a bezel to conform to the sea glass.

The pieces of sea glass above while very pretty won't work for bezel setting.  They are too irregular.

These are the same pieces as photo 3 but from the top.  The pieces are too sharp and/or irregular while piece# 4 is more of a marble.

I'm sure some clever jeweler could find a method for using irregular pieces which are also known as "craft" quality.  But for my jewelry I am sticking with jewelry quality sea glass.

Join me in booth 248 on March 18 - 19th, 2017 at the Naples Downtown Arts Festival.  Hope to see you there!

I though I'd make some sea glass rings for my upcoming shows.