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

Lapidary class on Dec. 14, 2013, at Graceful Customs Studio

If you ever admired a polished natural stone and appreciated the beauty of its colors brought out by its shine, come learn the very simple techniques of lapidary!  We will provide you with a pre-shape stone and show you how to bring out its beauty!  $85.00, all materials supplied, grace@gracefulcustoms.com, Gilroy, Ca

NEW! LAPIDARY CLASS, Sat., Aug. 27, 2011

Check out the natural gems shown below! Jim Ziegler will be here to show us the basics of lapidary techniques that you can use to make a rough rock into a polished gem! You can set the stone in silver or wire-wrapped it as a pendant. More info to follow, e-mail me if you are interested!

May's Monthly Get Together (MGT) Friday, May 14

Wishing all Mothers a Happy Day today! Our son is barbequing for us today, maybe not outside as it is raining lightly. Nevertheless, I will enjoy not cooking today and being with my kids and our extended family. I am also spending some time social networking on Facebook with friends & nephews & nieces and looking at their pics with their kids! Where did time go?

Well time marches on here also, at Graceful Studios! Frank is busy, designing new tools for our Lampworking community and Jelveh is testing all tools in-between her bead making! I have been practicing my beads with Jelveh's patient instructions, here are a few. I have also been practicing with a new tool, a "grove" making bit for my glass grinder, it makes a shallow cut on the side of cabachons to fit silver wire around it. You don't think the glass pendant is too big do you? Come by on Friday 3:00 - 7:00 pm, torch time is free! Come practice, Jelveh will be demo-ing blowing glass to make small vessels and making chards! We will have 1/4 inch hollow tubes for you! And Jennifer will be here to demo some of her wire-wrapping techniques! Bring her a challenging item to wire-wrap! Have goodies to sell? Bring them, we love to shop! Refreshments served & gift drawing at 6:00 pm.

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!