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Post by stardiamond on Jul 7, 2023 18:20:19 GMT -5
I hate making earrings. Having watched cabbing videos, I see a lot of rock tickling; grind a little, check, grind a little, etc. I like to work fast and bulldoze. Making a cab is getting the shape and dome right. Earrings require getting a pattern match and a shape and dome match. A customer wanted some Tahoma earrings made for a friend. Tahoma has different materials together and tends to fracture. Tahoma is tough to find and I didn't have any. I bought some BMJ from an FB seller and asked if he had any Tahoma. He said he would look. When my order arrived he gave me a Tahoma slab. Not suitable for cabs but good for earrings. I marked up the slab. Two of the patterns were overlapping on both sides. I trimmed the stand alone and then sent a picture of the other two so the customer could choose.   The customer chose the design in the second picture. Trimmed it and naturally it fracture. Fortunately, the designs didn't overlap so I trimmed the second pair. The first pair I trimmed also fractured, but I thought I had enough room to work around the fracture. I rough ground the two pairs.  I was able to get rid of the fracture. It is dopped and I will work on them tomorrow. When I have to be more exact, I like to start fresh. I'll complete the other pair even though the match isn't as good. |
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 8, 2023 13:57:26 GMT -5
One pair is done and they are done to the best of my ability. Normally, I mark the bottoms and stay outside the lines. With these I had to use calipers. I don't think I want to look at the others for a week. The set are better than the pictures.   |
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 8, 2023 14:40:36 GMT -5
I listed them so I needed to take measurements. The length width and height are the same which is scary. One of them weighs .15 gram more than the other.
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brotherbill
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
Posts: 388
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Post by brotherbill on Jul 8, 2023 15:38:06 GMT -5
stardiamondWhen making earrings try using a slab approx. 8 mm thick. Shape one preform only and then split in two on the trim saw. This will result in two preforms that are mirror copies (<4mm thick) and if you dome the inside faces you should have identical patterns.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 8, 2023 15:58:35 GMT -5
stardiamondWhen making earrings try using a slab approx. 8 mm thick. Shape one preform only and then split in two on the trim saw. This will result in two preforms that are mirror copies (<4mm thick) and if you dome the inside faces you should have identical patterns. I've done that with material that I have slabbed. Purchased slabs are usually thinner. I tried a technique where I glued together a stack of preforms and ground a cylinder. Marked the girdle on the top one, ground the dome and then separate it from the stack. Repeated on the next one in the stack, etc. It worked but wasn't a time saver. Getting the shape to match is easy, getting the domes to be an exact match is more challenging. |
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gunsil
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2023
Posts: 345
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Post by gunsil on Jul 8, 2023 16:12:45 GMT -5
Dang I hate making earrings too! people whine when they hold both in one hand and say "oh, but this one is a little different than that one", makes me crazy because when separated by a face they look pretty identical. Then there's the fact that I have to make two settings and it is hard to get as much as one pendant for the pair. I sometimes make larger earrings and have to use thin buff top or flat cabs to keep the weight down.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 8, 2023 16:37:26 GMT -5
The biggest advantage to making earrings is that I can use material that is unsuitable for larger cabs, so the cost of material is free. My buying approach is to get material that produces cabs worth three times the cost of the material. The main reason I make earrings is that I have a very good customer who is a silversmith that wants to make pendant earring sets. My cutting skill on earrings is c+, but the customer is satisfied with the work. I've made about 20 pairs of earrings for her and sold them at a negotiated price of $20 a pair which is ridiculous, but I have sold her thousands of dollars worth of pendant cabs.
I bought a small nodule of super seven on FB and when I got it, it was too small for a pendant, so I made earrings. I paid $32 for the piece so I charged $96 for the earrings. They didn't sell for a long time. I got another piece and made two large cabs. The material was a good match and when I listed one of the cabs, a customer bought the set.
If I was trying to make an hourly wage, earrings would be a waste of time. Making cabs is a hobby and the selling allows me to buy really nice material to work on. When I was a pure hobbyist I had to watch what I bought.
I have another customer who makes rings which for me is a half a pair of earrings and they don't have to match and I charge the same as a small pendant cab.
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