Platte River...

Went down to the Platte River a few days ago to see how the river was doing. We have had a record amount of rain the last few weeks, and one of my coworkers had said the river was more full then she had ever seen. For those of you that don't know, the Platte River is famous for being "a mile wide, but an inch deep." The Platte always has tons of sand bars and islands in it, and a real meandering channel. We drove down to a spot near Schram State Park, where the river comes fairly near the road, allowing fairly easy access to the river. Normally you have to walk about 100-200 feet to get near the water, and even that water is usually only a few inches deep.

We pulled off the road into the access point and immediately had to stop, as the water was right there, almost up to the road. We walked out onto the little bit of mud flats that remained and I was able to get this shot of a tree which was now standing in fairly deep water.

Spring Flood on The Platte
Schram State Park, Nebraska

Platte River, Looking towards Louisville

Lonely Windmill

Just wanted to share a quick little shot with you guys... I guess I will do my part in continuing the stereotypical view that a lot of people have of Nebraska, you know the one that states there is nothing in Nebraska but open space....

Shot of a windmill right after a thunderstorm rolled thru...

Windmill in the Storm
Sarpy County, NE

Spent today down at the Taste of Omaha slinging Coke and water and working on my sunburn, to help out one of our friend's groups. Always a fun time, and always some really great food. For those of you that have never attended, be sure to check it out next year!

Details, Details, Details...

This next project started out as a quick little project to make a set of earrings (and give myself a respite from split rings.) We started out with an idea for a decorative delicate loop hanging from a simple stud earring, but as I started to work on the project, I decided to make something that would be a bit more elaborate.

I started out using a 16-18 gauge beaded wire, and formed two matching loops. Making matching sets out of a free form material like the beaded wire is always a bigger challenge then one expects, so the ideal way to work is to make matching elements of the final work before final assembling, as you are able to work on matching only one part, rather then the whole design.

I cut two sets of strips out of the 16-18 gauge beaded wire, one set for the larger loop, and a second shorter set for the top small loop. I formed the two sets of loops using round nose pliers and a mandrel, and aligned the ends so that the wire would leave a nice flat surface for attaching the joint.

At this point I noticed that the flat surface I had left looked like it was missing something, and while thinking about what I could do to fix this, I came across a small silver hollow bead that closely matched the beaded wire. I decided that I could solder the bead on to the loops so that it filled the gap on the flat surface, creating a joint that looked like it was a seamless part of the beaded wire loop. This bead also allowed me to make a simple jump ring to act as the joint. This made the joint far more elegant and clean looking then it would have with two intertwined jump rings. It was at this point that I felt the large loop was needing something more to detail it. I added an inner loop made of 22 gauge beaded wire, and then soldered that to the outside loop. Once the final loop was in place, I formed and installed the jump ring thru the beads, and found the dangle action on the earring to be what I was looking for. Finally I attached the ear post and polished.

This project required a lot of attention to detail, and by paying attention to the detail, I was able to come up with a very nice set of earrings.

Sun on the Grass

The wife was driving home from work last Friday, and saw these enormous thunderheads building off to the west. We decided to head out to the west to see if we could get a good clear shot of the clouds, and just see if any cool photographic moments popped up. We found ourselves traveling empty dirt roads out in the fields near the Platte River and Elkhorn River valley. OF course by the time we got out there, the big lone majestic thunderheads had been blocked in by some lower gray clouds. Thankfully the sun was peeking in and out of holes in the clouds, and would occasionally shoot a beam of warm yellow sunlight down on the fields. We have had a really wet spring, and all the grasses and fields were a very vivid green, and when one of these sunbeams hit the grass, it almost looked magical.

Sunbeam On Grass
Near Two Rivers State Park, Nebraska

Forged Silver Ring Bracelet

This next project was quite the challenge, and took me a few days to finish. I was also working on a repair job for a coworker, so my attention tended to be spread out between the two projects. This project was a lesson for me to learn how to make split jump rings and learn about forging techniques using a hammer and anvil. We started out with 16 gauge silver wire strip which I first annealed then rolled around a straight mandrel to create uniform rings connected in a coil. I then had to saw thru the coils, separating them into split rings. Next I had to straighten the rings so they created a smooth joint (lots of filing, annealing and gentle bending) when the split was soldered together using hard solder. (For those of you who may not remember, there are various grades of solder, ranging from eazy to hard, which offer different melting characteristics and strengths.)


I next had to take the individual rings and hammer them flat on two sides, while retaining the tubular section on two sides. This is a bigger challenge then it sounds, as you have to use a bit of force to flatten the ring, while not smashing your fingers. For the record, I only hit my finger once, and I did manage to not say anything that my Grandmother wouldn't approve of...

After I completed the forging of the main rings, I had to make more split rings for the connecting links between the main rings. I used 20 gauge wire formed into a coil using round nose pliers and then once again cut with the jeweler's saw. Grandma was a tough teacher here, and wouldn't let me use the short cut method of using the wire cutter, as that compresses the metal on one side of the cut, which distorts the shape of the ring, not allowing a smooth joint. I had to cut some of these rings into half, and file the ends until they matched the curve of the main ring at the area where I had retained the tubular section. I then soldered these ends to the main ring using medium solder. Note that I used medium solder here rather then the higher melting temperature hard solder, so as to not disturb the solder joint of the main ring.

When making chains or jewelry using rings, it is best to make them in sections called units. This allows you to modularly assemble the final product, and more easily manage tasks such as polishing and alignment. In this case I created units made up of two main rings and a small squared jump ring (made out of the rest of the jump rings I didn't cut in half) to connect them via the half rings on the main rings. To join these squared jump rings, I used eazy solder so as to not disturb the joints on the main rings.

After assembling a number of the units, I filed any rough spots off using various jeweler's files, and then polished the units. Polishing these units is tricky, and requires a great deal of concentration as the polishing wheel likes to grab the insides of the links and fling them away from you if you are not careful. After polishing the units up, I joined the links with more split jump rings, and added a large spring clasp that almost matched the main rings.


Sorry about the length of this post, but I have decided that perhaps I will use these posts as a bit of a design notebook to help reinforce the lessons and techniques I learned. Hope you don't mind. Please let me know what you think!

In other news, went out and took some pictures with the new camera this weekend. I will try to get some of them uploaded so I can share them with all of you.

More Silver..

Didn't get a chance to put these up before I went to Phoenix for my sister's graduation, as they were her graduation gift. Didn't really want to spoil the surprise. I guess she really likes them, as she has worn them quite a bit, and I have already recieved request for a pair from my cousin and other sister. I guess I will have to work on duplicating my efforts.

Sterling Silver Stud Earrings

Anyway, the project was a set of small stud earrings, using a disk, half dome, and beaded wire to make a nice ornate face. Started off cutting out two matching small discs from a silver plate, drilling a hole so i could get the saw thru the middle of the disc, and then cutting small half circles out of the discs. These holes serve two purposes, one to lighten the weight of the piece, and the second to provide a vent hole for all the solder and flux gases and pickle solution to escape when going thru the soldering process. Next I formed two half domes using the dapping tools, and sweat soldered the domes onto the backplate discs. I then used beaded wire and formed a decorative bezel around the the half dome. Added an earring stud, and then polished.

Simple yet very elegant in my opinion...

Kind of a hard thing to take a photo of... No matter what I got my reflection in there... Kinda turned out cool (totally unintentionally!)