News from Revere Academy

December, 2007
Newsletter

Greetings!

This issue is packed with tips on modifying tools, making and selling jewelry, and planning for the coming year. Be sure to check out the new online resources on jewelry jobs and opportunities.

This newsletter is designed for you! We want to give you information you need, keep you informed about what's new at Revere, and what members of the Revere community are doing. Email me with your suggestions. If you are a past or present student and your jewelry will be featured in an exhibition, special event, or publication, send me the details and an image of your work. We love to feature the successes of Revere students in this publication!

- Christine Dhein
Assistant Director

In This Issue

Tool Tips from Revere Faculty - Customizing a Setting Bur

Tips for Generating Holiday Sales

Bench Tips from Alan Revere - Checkering Files

Planning Tips for 2008

Tool Tips from Revere Faculty
Customizing a Setting Bur by Ronda Coryell

Often jewelers need to remove metal from the thickness of the bezel wall without removing metal from the baseplate. Here are instructions for modifying an old setting bur to create a tool that accomplishes that task.
1. Remove the teeth from the bottom, angled section of an old setting bur using either a belt sander or a grinder (Figure 1). Remember to keep a bowl of water handy as you grind to quench the bur so that it does not get too hot, or the steel will lose its temper.
2. Grind or sand the bottom of the bur flat, so that it is perpendicular to the teeth on the side walls.
3. Polish the flat surface. I use the side of a hard felt wheel on the polishing machine. This allows you to hold the bur perpendicular to the wheel and get a uniform, reflective surface. The tool is complete when you see a single facet on the bottom of the bur.

Figure 2 demonstrates using this new bur tool to remove metal from the bezel wall. The safe edge will protect the bottom of the setting.

Tips for Generating Holiday Sales

1. Wear What You Make - You are the best possible showcase for your work. Be sure to model your own jewelry.
2. Phone Promotion -During the holidays, men are buying jewelry for women. Call your girlfriend's partners to let them know about your new work. Suggest a piece you know your friend might like.
3. Email Blast - Send an email with information about your jewlery to your friends and collegues. If you have a web site, include a link. If you don't have a web site, include several web-friendly images of your best selling pieces.

Bench Tips from Alan Revere
Checkering File

Hidden deep within the pages of jewelry tool supply catalogs are a type of file, which is little known to jewelers. Checkering files are wonderful, curious files that look like little checkerboard squares up close. The teeth are lined up in perfect rows and columns, unlike the teeth on most files, which are crossing in diagonal rows. The result is that checkering files cut a set of straight grooves, like Florentine gravers. The first pass establishes the location. Following cuts in the same pattern deepen the grooves. Checkering files come in three grades of coarseness #1-3.

These files can produce several interesting textures. If you cross hatch with the file, the result is knurling, as machined onto many tools for a better grip. Try using a checkering file on your pin vise. After all, sometimes you really need to tighten it down and adding a coarse texture will add to your grip.

Planning Tips for 2008

Repair 1, Feb 22-24

Repair 2, Feb 25-27

The Revere Academy is a professional jewelry school where master craftsmen pass on their skills and knowledge to students at all levels. Beginners and hobbyists as well as experienced working bench jewelers come for dozens of short, intensive classes (just 3-days!) and diploma programs lasting 2-4 months. I hope you will be able to join us for a class soon!

Sincerely,

Christine Dhein
Assistant Director
Revere Academy

The Earring Show Dates Extended