Time back at school!

Hello Sunday Readers,

I have now some work for a client that love tiny and beautiful pieces! This pair of white gold and diamonds earrings are in my bench, I still have a lot of work to do before they will be chaining and beautiful.

 

Among the daily things I spend my time at work, I have now some pieces that appertain a my “new time back at school”! Yes, time to learn and enjoying having the opportunity of discovery and cheer time with other goldsmiths and people that love doing jewelry as I do!

Never is too late to give yourself the time to learn, I miss school so much! Having someone to tell you how to improve and get better even if you have some knowledge, it's a gift.

At the studio at Jewel Envy we give many different types of classes, from beginning techniques to advanced ones, my class is called Gem setting, it's a eight weeks class, and my class mates and I, we are working in the setting of stones in 3 rings, and 3 pendants, with synthetic sapphires, rubies, garnets calibrated for the settings. We will get the burs for the settings, and broken burs to make 2 specialized tools that will make gem setting much easier.

My first class was last Tuesday, I have already resized two of the three rings and give them the first cleaning, in the one we are working now is this pendant with a bezel setting, my teacher Mauricio, one of my coworkers will have next Tuesday more new tips to make look the synthetic sapphire like a real diamond! after the last polish I will have a gorgeous piece, still amassing to enjoy every one in gold or silver, with real or synthetic stones, all are beautiful and mean the world to me! 

I know, it sounds challenging but I’m having great time. You can do it too, get more knowledge or learn new things! Come to see us or look in our website, we always have something especially for you!

It’s now the best time ever,  give yourself the chance to change a little bit the hectic live we run every day!

Have a nice Sunday.

Helena

From an Interns Perspective

Hi, my name is Ellen and I am an intern at Jewel Envy. I study Fashion Business Industry in George Brown College and I am taking jewellery classes through continuing education. Working at Jewel Envy have taught me lots in various aspects, such as different techniques, maintenance, working style of different designers and my working style. Some techniques I have learned include wire production, gold plating and I also got to use a laser welding machine for the first time here!

I had an opportunity to work for other designers while working at Jewel Envy and it was a great exposure to different aesthetics of work.  Working for different designers meant different work styles, which I was glad to experience because I would be more flexible working for other designers in the future. Of course, there were times I did not feel as good as other days but I have learned to count these times as an experience and it is another step for me to walk out further.

I am more than grateful that I have started my journey in Jewel Envy, with great people who make beautiful work. This is my last semester at George Brown College, and I am happy to conclude my college years with Jewel Envy. I will definitely keep in touch and hoping to introduce myself as an experienced goldsmith next time. Wish me luck!

Spring is here again!

Hello Sunday Readers,

 

After work on Thursday at the stop light of Bloor and Dufferin I saw a group of boys playing soccer, they were wearing shorts and T-shirts. It was 6 pm; only one thing came to my mind; Spring is here at last! Even if the day was gloomy and cold there was something inside every one of us that felt different, the incredible feeling of blue skies, sunny days, picnics in the park, kids on the streets.

If this country were warm all year around, we will be in heaven!

Spring is the most important season of all,  the people smile again, the music is loud, the ice cream's stores are open, the kids run in the parks, the lights are bright. Life is back again with all its force!

Welcome to outdoors, to fun, family and friends, to relive again after months trying hard to keep going.

I hope Spring means even more to you all.

 

 

Jewel Envy and its team wish you a beautiful Spring!

Come to visit us at Jewel Envy, we can make your Spring even brighter!

 

Have a nice Sunday

 

Helena

Spring, the perfect earring season

Spring is the prefect time of year to bust out those large pair of earrings you have been dying to wear without having to contend with a scarf - we're almost there. In preparation you can check out some earrings available here at Jewel Envy or get in touch with us to start a custom pair. There's a link to each goldsmith's website or instagram - if their style strikes your fancy be sure to check out the link under each picture to see MORE! of their work - Alexis

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Spring jewellery cleaning

It may have just snowed last night, but the longer daylight hours and sense that spring is around the corner has kicked my need to spring clean into gear. I started making lists of things that I can get done before I start my work day, things to do after work, and then things to tackle on a day off. Cleaning jewellery is on my before work task list and my go to for tackling jewellery cleaning is a jewellery cloth. If you are in need of a product to help get some cleaning done yourself, pictured below is a few items that we carry.

In addition to the clothes and liquid cleaners we offer cleaning and polishing services and often let our customers know the best way to care for pieces of jewellery when they're picking up something that has been repaired, redesigned or custom made by us in the studio. If you have a jewellery cleaning question please drop in to ask us some questions! - Alexis 

My go to cloth for easy at home cleaning with a quick rub. Great for daily touch ups before putting a piece of jewellery on.

For heavier duty cleaning this cloth is embedded with buffing compound (the red section) to clean heavily tarnished pieces. This is an occasional deep clean and buff that adds back some shine to pieces.

Liquid cleaners are really great for items such as chain which can be a bit tedious to clean using a cloth.

After everything is clean these strips are a great addition to a jewellery box or even a plastic baggy to put away jewellery next to. This will help to prevent tarnish so you don't have to clean pieces as often.

Piercings and Fine Jewellery

This topic is a serendipitous one for me, as previous experience as a piercer at a tattoo parlor and my current work as a goldsmith bring together an answer for something that many people may wonder about.


What is a piercing?

In basic terms, a piercing is a small hole made to fit a ring, stud or another kind of jewellery in a part of the body other than the ear lobes. The most important point is that piercings are essentially open wounds, and like any other type of wound, should be handled safely and carefully to avoid infections and other type of problems.


So, is it safe to use fine jewellery on a body piercing?

It's difficult to answer this question, it all depends on the metals. For example, copper is present in most silver alloys, and it may cause adverse reactions on the body; it also tarnishes and it oxidizes releasing some harmful chemicals in very small quantities, still something you don't want on an open wound.

Other metal present on fine metal alloys that may cause reactions is Nickel, mostly present in gold alloys, Nickel causes adverse reaction to many people even in small quantities, irritation and can even change the color of the skin around the piece.

Other factors that might influence are the part of the body the piercing is, moisture will make worse any allergic reaction and infection, places like nose, mouth and genitals, also they are highly prone to infections.


In conclusion, for my experience in both fields, my recommendation will be not to use any fine jewellery piercings, look for surgical grade and hypoallergenic metals and leave gold and silver for rings and necklaces, out of reach from any open wound.


I'm leaving some interesting articles detailing more the information:

https://www.liveabout.com/best-body-jewelry-for-your-new-body-piercings-2042483
http://blog.rings-things.com/2013/06/03/surgical-steel-and-hypoallergenic-metals/
https://www.beautips.info/nose-piercings-important-things-to-know/


I hope you find this little tip informative and keep posted for more information,

Mauricio.

 

Spring is almost here and brings gemstones and more with it!

We are more than prepared to say goodbye to the winter and welcome a warmer season full of plants and animals, but that's not all for us here at the studio; Spring is bringing us new Goldsmiths, new awesome gemstone events (more on that will be addressed on the monthly email) and new classes.

New jewelers will be joining our family soon, and  we cant wait to have their work available on the store for you.


There are also plenty of events to come, but those will be unveiled when the time is right, so I will not ruin the surprise. 
Last but not least, our gemstone setting course is running and personally has me excited, after months and months of planning, sketching, writing and thinking, the course has a starting date and will be running, if you ever wanted to learn about gem setting, this is your opportunity. The course will require previous experience with jewellery, but good news, you can take fabrication courses here at the studio and be ready to take the course. go to https://jewelenvy.ca or give us a call at the studio to learn more about the courses.

That is it for now,

Mauricio

Lapidary equipment

Holy bananas batman, we have been bringing in some exciting equipment to add to our repertoire at Jewel Envy. I couldn't hold back my excitement for our latest addition:

Lapidary equipment!!!

  
We can now play around with gem cutting. Instead of jumping back into completing work I had on my docket I decided to scrounge up some amethysts and smokey quartz crystals to play around with.

All the amethysts are sitting upright on the flat surface I created and I am holding the smokey quartz crystal to show the grinded flat surface along with a hole I drilled into the crystal.

I love the of natural crystals and cannot wait to play around with a few more in my stash to make adjustments so I can more easily set them into jewellery pieces. The reason I am so excited to have this equipment to grind and polish gems into unique shapes that will make any custom piece of jewellery that I create even more unique! - Alexis