Author Interview with Joe Silvera

This is a video interview I did with my publisher, Kalmbach books, about writing Soldering Made Simple: Easy Techniques for Kitchen Table Jewelers. 

The video is part of their Meet the Author series. In the interview, I talk about the inspiration and goals for my book, but more importantly, there are lots of previews of pages, illustrations and diagrams from my soldering book. 

The chatter in the background is from the author event at Bead & Button. Lots of authors and such talking and sharing stories. There is also some fun film of the Meet the Teachers event at Bead & Button, from demonstrations during the show, and from classes I taught at the same event.

All in all, it's a sweet short video and especially helpful if you'd like to get to know more about my book, Soldering Made Simple: Easy Techniques for Kitchen Table Jewelers. 

To find out more about our jewelry classes in soldering, stone setting, lost wax and more, visit SilveraJewelry.com. Our classroom at Silvera Jewelry School in Berkeley is fully equipped. Each student has a jewelry bench and tools to use during class. Most classes include all materials for no additional fee. And techniques taught are home studio friendly so that you can continue making jewelry at home. 

Hope you like the video!

Watch a Bezel Setting Demo on Video with Joe Silvera

You can watch a free video about how to make a bezel setting with Joe Silvera, as part of my guest appearance on Jewel School. It's in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

This was shot after my guest appearance on Jewel School to promote my book and dvd, Soldering Made Simple. It gives you the highlights of how to make a bezel setting. I rattled on for about 2 hours at least on film, so this is edited down to the essentials.

My favorite thing; the split screen on soldering to see soldering from above and below to put the bezel onto the sheet metal. My favorite laughs: I don't know, maybe it was my video player, but my voice seemed way out of sync with some segments - which makes me look like a dubbed kung fu movie actor. I like to turn the sound down and just make up what I'm saying. Like: "Hmm, you killed my brother. Now I will solder you into a setting with my jewelry monkey style. Hyahhh!" Okay, I need to get out more, but how often can you make fun of yourself on video?

Hope you like it! Want to learn how to set stones? Try our Stone Setting Suite Retreat, coming up in May at Silvera Jewelry School.

New Summer Jewelry Workshops at Silvera Jewelry School

I just posted new summer workshop dates at SilveraJewelry.com, including lots of new classes in wax carving, like Lost Wax: Figurative Wax Carving, shown above.

Check out this 2-day workshop and more at Silvera Jewelry School.

Organize: Samples of your Enamel Colors

This post is about a recent moment of organizational genius that my wife Anat had in her enameling studio.

This sample board holds sample firings of some of the colors she uses. Each sample was fired on a uniform size penny (pre-1980) with a large hole punched in it.

The samples are hung on hooks on a board painted a simple white. Each sample is labeled with it's color and number. The labels were typed up on a document and then printed, cut out and taped onto the board - less expensive than using a label maker.

Anat measured the pennies and divided that into the length of the board to figure out the spacing for each row. She marked the locations for the hooks and made holes before painting. Then she painted the board and screwed in the brass hooks - find a size with a gauge that matches the hole.

And it's a beautiful solution! So pretty how they hang and catch the light. It makes it so easy to see the colors to choose for a project, even to take them off the hooks to compare side by side. My suggestion, as an organizational freak, is to label the back of each sample with its matching number, with a label machine, to make putting them back simple to do.

How do you organize your enamels or colors for your medium?