And then came the pandemic. I don’t know that anyone really expected this to go as it has, and we’ve each handled it in our own way. As New York slowly shut down…
Keep it simple. I’ve been hearing from so many of my clients these days — couples who have had to postpone planning their ceremony or even postpone…
Whoa! These earrings were packed away in my studio and recently resurfaced. From my days as a student of (not to name drop, but... )
While I’m lucky to do what I do and honored to be included in so many hope-for-the-future weddings, finding that hope in a pandemic…
My wife and I spent a big chunk of last year struggling with an overhaul of our Etsy shop's photography. Though we were satisfied with what we had, we felt that we could kick it up a notch…
A few years back, I was honored to be asked to contribute an article to the Rio Grande Blog. Since then, I've gotten some great feedback on it and thought I'd share it once again. Here's a link the full article.
For the final post of this series, I'll discuss a few techniques and tips for using the materials we previously discussed.
In this post, I would like to briefly discuss how to acquire some of the basic metalsmithing skills necessary to get started. Keep in mind that most moderate-sized cities will have at least one community college, arts center, or privately owned jewelry studio that offers…
I'm often asked about how to get started in jewelry making, so I've decided to put together a series of posts that might be helpful to anyone who has every been curious about metalsmithing and felt that it was beyond their current skill set. It's not! We'll start here with the basic, relatively inexpensive materials you'll need to get started.
Welcome! I’m Chuck Domitrovich and I have been making and selling jewelry for nearly twenty years now. I stumbled into jewelry while attending the University of Washington, which at the time had an excellent metal arts program (sadly, no more!) I was taking art classes to fill holes in my class schedule, and the only thing that would fit was an Intro to Jewelry class. I was skeptical about taking the class because I had no knowledge of and no interest in jewelry at the time. But I did sign up -- and I have never looked back.
I was surprised to find that the basic jewelry skills came easily to me. I loved the small scale and I loved exploring traditional jewelers' tools and techniques. Metal was the perfect medium for my skill set: patience and close attention to detail.
All of the work in my shop is mine, made from my own designs. I work alone, though I do have some of the components cast by a local Seattle company. I use these in some of my pieces in order to cut down on my time and keep them affordable. These components were designed by me and are made from prototypes that I have created myself, by hand, from metal, using traditional jewelry making techniques.
Great! You’ve narrowed down your metal options. You’ve chosen a pattern and width. You’ve negotiated a choice that both you and your partner are…