It is not often that I give a peek inside my jewelry studio.  I sometimes share the occasional *studio shot* on my Instagram, but mostly progress shots and inspiration live there.

My studio is my sacred space.  It is where I experiment and make my ideas 3 demential. Where I work long days prepping for a show and sometimes it is where I go to sit when feeling *uninspired*.  I love to collect and store things.  My studio has also become a space where I mount my findings from my daily walks and travels.  And where I catalogue artifacts for later use or observation…

My workbench

I do not own a tradition jewelers work bench.  My studio is set up in my garage and the garage has a built in workbench reaching either end.  Its sturdy and gives me a somewhat flat surface to work on.  Being that my garage does not get much light, I painted almost every surface white – to brighten it up bit!  Underneath my work bench, I have some cabinets and drawers from Ikea.  They are great! I use them to store my tools and keep them within arms reach when I’m working.

 

 

All the *interesting* things!

I must confess; I am a hoarder of things – but only of *interesting* things.  Give me the weird, the oddly textured and the old – especially the old – and I will store it in my studio.  Twigs from my walks, dead bees and butterflies from my backyard and old tools from retired goldsmiths’.  I also looooooove drawers and cabinets!  I found the antique watch makers cabinet (in photo below) at  Magnolia and Willow in Long Beach.  It’s one of my favorite cabinets currently in my studio.  Mostly because it has the original watch bits in tiny glass tubes stored in the drawers.  My other cool cabinets (not pictured) include a vintage locker that I acquired from a past studio mate.  And my recent acquisition, a vintage metal law document cabinet.

 

 

 

 

My soldering station

I remember my first jewelry studio very well.  And it was very basic; a few hammers and pliers, a jewelers saw and flex shaft.  And a few other tools.  I also remember having no fire!  I was so intimidated with the idea of bringing a gas tank and torch into my studio at that time.

Now, I’ve had an equipped soldering station for many yeas now.  I don’t see how I lived without one back then!  We all start somewhere, right?

Currently, I’m using Acetylene / Air with the Smith torch.  Even now, my studio remains pretty simple.  My soldering has the necessities.  There are various soldering blocks, tweezers and tongs and props.  I have the same striker and soldering pick from my college years.  And I keep two quenching bowls, of different sizes, near by.

 

 

 

 

 

My Inspiration Board and Library

This part of my jewelry studio inspires me daily.  I keep my cork-board here for my studio tool wish list, drawings, exhibition postcards and quotes.  Below the cork-board is where I store all of my jewelry books and jewelry magazines like Metalsmith.   And true to form, I have a few vignettes of interesting randomness displayed on top of my book case.  There’s also a few bust forms here.  I sometimes use them for displaying necklaces and such.

 

 

This was just a surface peek into my jewelry studio.  There are so many nooks and crannies that one cannot share in a single post.  I hope to write future post like this soon!

 

Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you!

cv