Love everything about your videos. I would say I am a self-taught jewelry maker but, in all fairness, I am UA-cam taught and so very grateful for folks like you.
Hello B. You are more than welcome!! Glad you enjoyed it. This is why I am doing these videos, to open minds and expanding people's knowledge. More to come. Greg Greenwood
Thank you for this video! I really like this type of content, more than all techniques. Design is so important, yet so hard! I often ending up making things too literally! And need to learn about simplification and abstraction.
Hello Chris, Thank you for your comments. I appreciate it. Design is very important. One can have the skills, but if you have a bad design, it just doesn't work. Check out my videos "Jewelry Design Ideas Made Simple", "Foldforming Part 6", and "Jewelry Designs from Nature Part 1". These may give you some ideas. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Greg Greenwood
Another great video Greg-- thank you! Just what I needed to get the creativity going again - lessons on design & abstraction. Have been avoiding my workbench for my watercolors because I've just been stuck trying to decide what to make. I have the workspace, lovely rather expensive tools that I invested in before retiring, plenty of metal and gemstones that I've picked up - just no inspiration. Decided to use one of my recent watercolor paintings/photo reference for inspiration. Thanks again!
Hello LA Os, Fantastic! Very glad to hear you are using your paintings for inspiration. WAY TO GO!!! My sister paints for inspiration and I get a lot of cards in the mail with her paintings on them. It is really uplifting! Keep it up and let me know how it goes. Greg Greenwood
Yay another Greg video. Lovely to see all the different thought processes that go into the inspiration one single animal can give. And the vastly different results. I happened to make a dragonfly pendant a few months back. Looks very much like a dragonfly still, but simplified with some art deco influences.
Hello Frogfairy, Yes, it is fun to see how different people interpret different inspirations. Dragon flies are great subjects. I love art deco pieces. I am sure your pendant looks terrific. Keep watching. Greg Greenwood
What a nice video. 👌 I have a customer who wants me to make a butterfly pendant with a single stone set within. I do entirely wirework and prefer simple designs, so maybe I could adapt your first design for that.
Hi Greg, sorry to trouble you again with this second comment today, but I’ve been looking for inspirational jewellery designs and I’m a bit disappointed with what I have seen on the internet. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? but the work that has most caught my eye is in that lovely image at the top of your home page. Unfortunately, you only give a tantalising glimpse of what looks to be a very nice piece of work, a bit delicate with the radial arms out to the right but, although demanding, I bet it was a lot of fun to make. If I only ever make one piece of silver jewellery, I’d love to make something like this using sea glass and beach stones. I’m already drawing a design along the lines of your dragonfly using a glass bead as the head and copper wings. (I wanted to know how bead makers put those little flowers into glass beads, so, via UA-cam, I taught myself how to do that. . . Step 1/ go out and buy a bunch of equipment!!) one bead that I made is interesting, it’s a black and white bead that looks like it has large eyes and will work well for the dragonfly. Anyway, how could I get to see the rest of your image, mentioned above? Regards . . . Andy
Hello Andy, Feel free to write anytime. I will be starting my website soon and I will have my email address on the site. Then I can send you a photo of the jewelry necklace. Nice to hear you are doing some glass beads. They have always fascinated me. Of course: Step 1/ $$$. Good Luck on the new design pieces. Talk to you soon. Greg Greenwood
I look forward to seeing your website. I’m still waiting for the Cooksongold catalogue but I’ve been modifying a bunch of hammers, turning them into planishing hammers (I have some 16 hammers and then there’s the mallets and lump hammers. I’ve been able to nicely shape the pein and cross pein with an angle grinder and disc. They have polished well and they’ll certainly do to start with. About 40 years ago I had an enquiry for induction hardening the head of railway track. I still have a nicely cut 4-inch length of train track that has ground and polished up to near mirror finish, a bit more elbow grease needed but it’s looking very good, no pits. I’m also getting a bit more creative with my design ideas. I have a load of bead glass rod about 5 mm diameter that I want to incorporate into something. The trouble now is getting to sleep, once I get into something it takes over. You probably know the problem? Regards . . . Andy @@greggreenwood4628
Hi Greg thank you for sharing your extensive jewellery designing and making skills and knowledge. I understand and appreciate just how much effort goes into making one video and to produce such a body of work as yours take a lot of effort, well done!!! I’ve just had the best part of the last two days glued to your channel, watching and re-watching and learning. Over the years I’ve done a lot of coppersmithing for scientific and industrial applications with a little bit of copper art work along the way. There's a lot of similarities between working with copper and silver but it looks like the big bugbear, particularly with silver, is cleaning up after soldering. I noticed that one of your pieces of silverwork looks like it’s very finely pitted, the dragonfly (5:04 into Jewellery designs from nature part 2) Would the pitting, that looks like sand blasting, be a result of extensive use of the magnetic tumbler? I have a couple of questions. In the absence of a tumbler and a grand polishing machine, what tips do you have for the hobbyist who just wants to have a taste at silversmithing. Unless I’ve somehow missed it, I haven’t seen you use any of the very small mops or buffs on the flexy drive. It would be good to see what can be done with say just a little butane gas torch and something like a Dremel to clean up with. I’m sure there are other jewellery makers out there demonstrating what can be done on a beginner’s trial budget but I would be interesting to see what a true silversmith artist can do with the most basic tools/equipment that most hobbyists are already likely to have in their arsenal. Thanks again Greg, I have really enjoyed all of your demonstrations, the only problem I have right now is it looks like you might have got me hooked on another hobby. All the very best. Kind Regards . . .Andy
Hello Andy, Thank you for your kind comments. I appreciate it. Thank you also for binge watching. Hope your eyes are rested!! Soldering clean up can be a challenge. Use as little solder as possible is best. The more solder you use, the more clean up you will have. You are correct about the dragon fly. I used the magnetic tumbler. I wanted the textured look. I will be doing a video on using the flex shaft or Dremel tool with small buffs in the future. You are right, not everyone has polishing wheels. That being said: Please watch my videos " Low Tech Polishing Techniques" and "12 Free Hidden Jewelry Tools and Textures". These videos are targeted to the beginning students and all of us on a tight budget. I think you will enjoy them.!! Ha Ha!! I got you HOOKED!! Enjoy! Thank you for your suggestions and please keep in touch. I am here to answer any of your questions. Greg Greenwood
Hi Greg thanks for the response. As I said I used to do a fair bit of copperwork but joint appearance wasn’t particularly critical. We used to clean up the copper work with a toilet cleaning fluid that had a specific chemical in it, we tried every cleaning product from the supermarket and one cleaner did a fantastic job. We used it as a warm dip, 20 minutes got the copper that beautiful salmon pinky colour, (I’m in the UK so ‘colour’ gets a ‘u’ in it). We used to buy an expensive product called ‘Solder Stop’ this was painted around the edges of the joint area and it totally prevented the flow of solder to those places where it’s not wanted. I found out that the company selling the ‘Solder stop’ fluid simply bought Milk of Magnesia in bulk (it’s a common stomach calming medicine) and they’re-bottled it and charged a heck of a lot for their trouble. I haven’t ever tried it on silver but Milk of Magnesia definitely works as a stopping agent on copper. It might be helpful anywhere where it’s going to be difficult to get in between pillars etc to clean up. Have you ever looked at using solder filings (file down some silver solder and set the dust under a joint) I’ve used silver solder paste for copper but I found that the syringes dried out in a very short space of time. Currently in the UK there is a TV programme Called ‘Make it to Market’ they take fledgling artist/crafts people and set them tasks and a mentor advises them on how to improve their ponticular work (blacksmiths, jewellery makers, stone masons, stain glass artist, glass blowers etc) the biggest problem every one of these folks has is marketing their work, no one knows how to sell their work and the marketing advice they get is probably the most helpful part of their learning process. I sold my special purpose machine tool business to an American company when I was 56, (72 now) but before I did, I learnt that marketing is the best tool in the box. Maybe you could help a lot of beginners on that score. I’m not looking to sell my work; I just want to play!! I’ve ordered a Jewellery tool catalogue I’m sure it will be dangerous $$£$$£$$!!! All the very best from a very wet and windy west coast of Wales. Kind Regards . . . Andy @@greggreenwood4628
Hello Andy, Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is always fascinating to hear other experiences and "Milk of Magnesia" tips. I have heard of the MofM tip, but have never tried it. I will soon. Sounds great. I use Yellow Ochre as a solder stop. Works good, but I want to try your MM. I'll see if I can find the 'Make it to Market' show on the internet. Sounds fun. I get my supplies from Rio Grande Jewelry Supply. Could be expensive to ship materials to you. Or check out Cooksongold In Birmingham. I know they have good supplies. Marketing is definitely a problem for artists. I have done art shows, markets, and galleries with success. But this can be time consuming. At 73, I don't feel like driving everywhere. I am building a website as we speak. I'll see how that goes. I will be announcing it on my UA-cam channel soon. Keep warm and dry on the coast. I'm sure in the summer it is beautiful... I am in Wisconsin near the Great Lakes. Cold and snowy! Nice to hear from you. Take care and keep in touch. Greg Greenwood
@@greggreenwood4628Hi Greg, good to hear from you too. The tv programme that I mentioned, ‘Make it at market’ (I previously inadvertently called it ‘Make TO Market’) is on BBC1 TV so you should be able to get it on the BBC’s iPlayer. If, as I imagine you might be, you are interested in seeing other craft workers, there’s another TV programme that’s been running over here, it’s called ‘The Prince’s Master Crafters,’ It was recently shown on Sky Arts. Prince Charles, who now of course is our King, (King Charles III,) has always had a true passion for Heritage Crafts and he has done a lot of very good work to promote and keep traditional skills alive. The programme shows a group of six amateur crafters and exposes them to additional crafts. (Wood carving, Stained glass, Weaving, Blacksmithing, Stone carving and Pargeting, Pargeting is figuring plaster decoration) I found it very interesting as I believe if you have the aptitude for one craft then there’s a vary good chance you can adapt to another. It’s interesting to see how each participant, (one from each of the above crafts) adapts to and enjoys the other crafts. Ok on Cooksongold, I had just ordered their paper catalogue so it was interesting to see you mention them, I hope for good things. Don’t envy you your snow! Yet another very windy day over here, the view is fabulous, (when we can see out) over the sea but man we pay for it by way of the wind. Our windows are covered in salt and we are 60 metres above sea level !. All the best . . . Andy
Hello Andy, Thank you for the updates on the shows. Hope you can get your tools at a reasonable price. I don't envy your SALT! Take Care. Greg Greenwood
Love everything about your videos. I would say I am a self-taught jewelry maker but, in all fairness, I am UA-cam taught and so very grateful for folks like you.
Hello Cj, Thank you so much! I appreciate you watching. I am very happy to help you. The best to you. Greg Greenwood
im inspired by your designs and enjoy all videos... thanks for sharing
Hello Maree, Thank you very much for your kind comments. You are more than welcome. I am here to help. Greg Greenwood
Hello Greg! Thanks for this video. I really enjoyed it. Your design process has opened my eyes and my mind for future work. Please keep them coming.
Hello B. You are more than welcome!! Glad you enjoyed it. This is why I am doing these videos, to open minds and expanding people's knowledge. More to come. Greg Greenwood
Great video Greg! Thanks for sharing!
Hello Polytwobeers, Thank you for your nice comment. I am very happy to share so all can learn. Greg Greenwood
Wonderful!❤
Hello Tam, Glad you like it! Thank you for letting me know. Enjoy. Greg Greenwood
Wow!!!
Hello Olive, Glad you are enjoying my videos. Keep watching. Greg Greenwood
You are a very talented creator and metalsmith.
Hello Polo, Thank you very much for your kind comment. I appreciate it. Keep watching. Greg Greenwood
I just love you man! Thank you so much! :)
Hello Christopher, Happy to help! I appreciate it. Greg Greenwood
Excelente manera de explicar su arte
Great way to explain your art
Hello Marco, Thank you. Thanks for watching. Greg Greenwood
Thank you for this video! I really like this type of content, more than all techniques. Design is so important, yet so hard! I often ending up making things too literally! And need to learn about simplification and abstraction.
Hello Chris, Thank you for your comments. I appreciate it. Design is very important. One can have the skills, but if you have a bad design, it just doesn't work. Check out my videos "Jewelry Design Ideas Made Simple", "Foldforming Part 6", and "Jewelry Designs from Nature Part 1". These may give you some ideas. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Greg Greenwood
Another great video Greg-- thank you! Just what I needed to get the creativity going again - lessons on design & abstraction. Have been avoiding my workbench for my watercolors because I've just been stuck trying to decide what to make. I have the workspace, lovely rather expensive tools that I invested in before retiring, plenty of metal and gemstones that I've picked up - just no inspiration. Decided to use one of my recent watercolor paintings/photo reference for inspiration. Thanks again!
Hello LA Os, Fantastic! Very glad to hear you are using your paintings for inspiration. WAY TO GO!!! My sister paints for inspiration and I get a lot of cards in the mail with her paintings on them. It is really uplifting! Keep it up and let me know how it goes. Greg Greenwood
Nice video!
Hello Myrna, Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for watching. Greg Greenwood
Yay another Greg video. Lovely to see all the different thought processes that go into the inspiration one single animal can give. And the vastly different results. I happened to make a dragonfly pendant a few months back. Looks very much like a dragonfly still, but simplified with some art deco influences.
Hello Frogfairy, Yes, it is fun to see how different people interpret different inspirations. Dragon flies are great subjects. I love art deco pieces. I am sure your pendant looks terrific. Keep watching. Greg Greenwood
What a nice video. 👌 I have a customer who wants me to make a butterfly pendant with a single stone set within. I do entirely wirework and prefer simple designs, so maybe I could adapt your first design for that.
Hello AnyasCeltic, Thank you for your kind comment. Go for it and let me know how it goes. Greg Greenwood
Hi Greg, sorry to trouble you again with this second comment today, but I’ve been looking for inspirational jewellery designs and I’m a bit disappointed with what I have seen on the internet. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? but the work that has most caught my eye is in that lovely image at the top of your home page. Unfortunately, you only give a tantalising glimpse of what looks to be a very nice piece of work, a bit delicate with the radial arms out to the right but, although demanding, I bet it was a lot of fun to make. If I only ever make one piece of silver jewellery, I’d love to make something like this using sea glass and beach stones. I’m already drawing a design along the lines of your dragonfly using a glass bead as the head and copper wings. (I wanted to know how bead makers put those little flowers into glass beads, so, via UA-cam, I taught myself how to do that. . . Step 1/ go out and buy a bunch of equipment!!) one bead that I made is interesting, it’s a black and white bead that looks like it has large eyes and will work well for the dragonfly. Anyway, how could I get to see the rest of your image, mentioned above?
Regards . . . Andy
Hello Andy, Feel free to write anytime. I will be starting my website soon and I will have my email address on the site. Then I can send you a photo of the jewelry necklace. Nice to hear you are doing some glass beads. They have always fascinated me. Of course: Step 1/ $$$. Good Luck on the new design pieces. Talk to you soon. Greg Greenwood
I look forward to seeing your website. I’m still waiting for the Cooksongold catalogue but I’ve been modifying a bunch of hammers, turning them into planishing hammers (I have some 16 hammers and then there’s the mallets and lump hammers. I’ve been able to nicely shape the pein and cross pein with an angle grinder and disc. They have polished well and they’ll certainly do to start with. About 40 years ago I had an enquiry for induction hardening the head of railway track. I still have a nicely cut 4-inch length of train track that has ground and polished up to near mirror finish, a bit more elbow grease needed but it’s looking very good, no pits. I’m also getting a bit more creative with my design ideas. I have a load of bead glass rod about 5 mm diameter that I want to incorporate into something. The trouble now is getting to sleep, once I get into something it takes over. You probably know the problem?
Regards . . . Andy
@@greggreenwood4628
Hello Andy, Glad to hear about your hammers and railway track. Have fun. And get some sleep!! Greg Greenwood
Hi Greg thank you for sharing your extensive jewellery designing and making skills and knowledge. I understand and appreciate just how much effort goes into making one video and to produce such a body of work as yours take a lot of effort, well done!!! I’ve just had the best part of the last two days glued to your channel, watching and re-watching and learning. Over the years I’ve done a lot of coppersmithing for scientific and industrial applications with a little bit of copper art work along the way. There's a lot of similarities between working with copper and silver but it looks like the big bugbear, particularly with silver, is cleaning up after soldering. I noticed that one of your pieces of silverwork looks like it’s very finely pitted, the dragonfly (5:04 into Jewellery designs from nature part 2) Would the pitting, that looks like sand blasting, be a result of extensive use of the magnetic tumbler? I have a couple of questions. In the absence of a tumbler and a grand polishing machine, what tips do you have for the hobbyist who just wants to have a taste at silversmithing. Unless I’ve somehow missed it, I haven’t seen you use any of the very small mops or buffs on the flexy drive. It would be good to see what can be done with say just a little butane gas torch and something like a Dremel to clean up with. I’m sure there are other jewellery makers out there demonstrating what can be done on a beginner’s trial budget but I would be interesting to see what a true silversmith artist can do with the most basic tools/equipment that most hobbyists are already likely to have in their arsenal.
Thanks again Greg, I have really enjoyed all of your demonstrations, the only problem I have right now is it looks like you might have got me hooked on another hobby.
All the very best.
Kind Regards . . .Andy
Hello Andy, Thank you for your kind comments. I appreciate it. Thank you also for binge watching. Hope your eyes are rested!! Soldering clean up can be a challenge. Use as little solder as possible is best. The more solder you use, the more clean up you will have. You are correct about the dragon fly. I used the magnetic tumbler. I wanted the textured look. I will be doing a video on using the flex shaft or Dremel tool with small buffs in the future. You are right, not everyone has polishing wheels. That being said: Please watch my videos " Low Tech Polishing Techniques" and "12 Free Hidden Jewelry Tools and Textures". These videos are targeted to the beginning students and all of us on a tight budget. I think you will enjoy them.!! Ha Ha!! I got you HOOKED!! Enjoy! Thank you for your suggestions and please keep in touch. I am here to answer any of your questions. Greg Greenwood
Hi Greg thanks for the response. As I said I used to do a fair bit of copperwork but joint appearance wasn’t particularly critical. We used to clean up the copper work with a toilet cleaning fluid that had a specific chemical in it, we tried every cleaning product from the supermarket and one cleaner did a fantastic job. We used it as a warm dip, 20 minutes got the copper that beautiful salmon pinky colour, (I’m in the UK so ‘colour’ gets a ‘u’ in it). We used to buy an expensive product called ‘Solder Stop’ this was painted around the edges of the joint area and it totally prevented the flow of solder to those places where it’s not wanted. I found out that the company selling the ‘Solder stop’ fluid simply bought Milk of Magnesia in bulk (it’s a common stomach calming medicine) and they’re-bottled it and charged a heck of a lot for their trouble. I haven’t ever tried it on silver but Milk of Magnesia definitely works as a stopping agent on copper. It might be helpful anywhere where it’s going to be difficult to get in between pillars etc to clean up. Have you ever looked at using solder filings (file down some silver solder and set the dust under a joint) I’ve used silver solder paste for copper but I found that the syringes dried out in a very short space of time. Currently in the UK there is a TV programme Called ‘Make it to Market’ they take fledgling artist/crafts people and set them tasks and a mentor advises them on how to improve their ponticular work (blacksmiths, jewellery makers, stone masons, stain glass artist, glass blowers etc) the biggest problem every one of these folks has is marketing their work, no one knows how to sell their work and the marketing advice they get is probably the most helpful part of their learning process. I sold my special purpose machine tool business to an American company when I was 56, (72 now) but before I did, I learnt that marketing is the best tool in the box. Maybe you could help a lot of beginners on that score. I’m not looking to sell my work; I just want to play!! I’ve ordered a Jewellery tool catalogue I’m sure it will be dangerous $$£$$£$$!!!
All the very best from a very wet and windy west coast of Wales.
Kind Regards . . . Andy
@@greggreenwood4628
Hello Andy, Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is always fascinating to hear other experiences and "Milk of Magnesia" tips. I have heard of the MofM tip, but have never tried it. I will soon. Sounds great. I use Yellow Ochre as a solder stop. Works good, but I want to try your MM. I'll see if I can find the 'Make it to Market' show on the internet. Sounds fun. I get my supplies from Rio Grande Jewelry Supply. Could be expensive to ship materials to you. Or check out Cooksongold In Birmingham. I know they have good supplies.
Marketing is definitely a problem for artists. I have done art shows, markets, and galleries with success. But this can be time consuming. At 73, I don't feel like driving everywhere. I am building a website as we speak. I'll see how that goes. I will be announcing it on my UA-cam channel soon.
Keep warm and dry on the coast. I'm sure in the summer it is beautiful... I am in Wisconsin near the Great Lakes. Cold and snowy!
Nice to hear from you. Take care and keep in touch. Greg Greenwood
@@greggreenwood4628Hi Greg, good to hear from you too. The tv programme that I mentioned, ‘Make it at market’ (I previously inadvertently called it ‘Make TO Market’) is on BBC1 TV so you should be able to get it on the BBC’s iPlayer.
If, as I imagine you might be, you are interested in seeing other craft workers, there’s another TV programme that’s been running over here, it’s called ‘The Prince’s Master Crafters,’ It was recently shown on Sky Arts. Prince Charles, who now of course is our King, (King Charles III,) has always had a true passion for Heritage Crafts and he has done a lot of very good work to promote and keep traditional skills alive. The programme shows a group of six amateur crafters and exposes them to additional crafts. (Wood carving, Stained glass, Weaving, Blacksmithing, Stone carving and Pargeting, Pargeting is figuring plaster decoration) I found it very interesting as I believe if you have the aptitude for one craft then there’s a vary good chance you can adapt to another. It’s interesting to see how each participant, (one from each of the above crafts) adapts to and enjoys the other crafts.
Ok on Cooksongold, I had just ordered their paper catalogue so it was interesting to see you mention them, I hope for good things. Don’t envy you your snow! Yet another very windy day over here, the view is fabulous, (when we can see out) over the sea but man we pay for it by way of the wind. Our windows are covered in salt and we are 60 metres above sea level !. All the best . . . Andy
Hello Andy, Thank you for the updates on the shows. Hope you can get your tools at a reasonable price. I don't envy your SALT! Take Care. Greg Greenwood