silver-solder and metal workshop Sunday, May 25, 2014

Open house, 3 to 6:00 pm, come see demos in silver-soldering and metal working. Gem carving also happening today!  grace@gracefulcustoms.com

Metal working workshop open house-Nov. 9, 2013

For those who like to solder, form, and create projects out of metal, you are welcomed to stop by on Sat., Nov. 9, 2013 here at Graceful Customs Studio.  We will be working on  projects, you can ask questions like how to make rivets, products to polish metals, setting cabachons,
electro-forming supplies, and see demos, or demo a technique yourself.  Carmen Martinez, our instructor for the silver-soldering classes will be here to show us her latest projects and help you move forward in your metal art.  We will have soldering torches available for your use and a huge anvil to hammer!  Hours:  12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. drop in anytime.  No cost.  e-mail Grace at Grace@GracefulCustoms.com to let us know what your interest is!  And feel free to share with us what you have been working on!

Rock On! Rock Carving Class this Weekend

Where did the torches go? Don't worry, Lampworkers, the glass torches were just temporarily stored so the flex shafts could be mounted on the tables for the rock carvers to learn the time-honored technique of "Intaglio carving" or carving from the back of a stone. Ron Martinez, www.visionsbyron.com and his lovely wife, Carmen, were here all weekend, taught 7 students, designing, selection of burs, flex shaft use and carving techniques. One of the students brought his own saw to trim his own "material," to carve! Thank you all for a great and fun weekend here. I, as usual, ran out of time to final polish my carving, but hope to finish it to show off, (even my son was surprised my rock looked pretty good for a beginner!) Ron's next class, a "beginner's class" will be on June 4-6, 3 days, in San Jose. E-mail them for more info: CARam67@aol.com and everyone has to have a flex shaft, it is a powerful, multi-use tool that can carve for long hours, polish, and drill rock, metal, and glass! Ron & Carmen are distributors of Foredom equipment and can help you select carving, drilling and polish tools!