SNAG is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 Educational Endowment Scholarships. Three scholarships are awarded each year. Students enrolled in jewelry and metals curriculum at universities, colleges, community colleges, and trade schools are all eligible for these scholarships.
Swaging is a forging process in which the dimensions of an item are altered using a die or dies, into which the item is forced. Swaging is usually a cold working process. However, it may be done as a hot working process. The term “swage” can apply to the process of swaging (verb), or to a die or tool used for swaging (noun). In 2000, I developed this method specifically for attaching pin findings to re-purposed traffic signs, enabling me to use the colorful, reflective fragments as brooches. My technique works best on the soft, thick (usually 2.5mm +) aluminum traffic sign sheet.
Kazazlık, (also known as “Kazaziye” or “Kazaz”), is one of the rare and rapidly disappearing handcrafts of Turkey. Trabzon, a city in the Black Sea region of Turkey, is the only place in Turkey which produces kazazlık. The word, “kazaz” means, the person who produces and/or sells silk yarns. Kazazlık is a weaving technique that uses 0.08 or 0.09 millimeter (approximately the thickness of a hair) pure gold or pure silver wire wrapped around either silk or nylon threads. This silver or gold wire becomes very strong and flexible so that it can be woven without breaking. Generally, three different thicknesses are used to make jewelry: Thin for making chains, medium thickness for earrings, and thick for pendants and bracelets. The overall thickness of these wrapped wires are between 0.3mm to 0.5mm.
This article is about how a non-enamelist came to design and build (and fail and build and fail and build and then build again) a large, torch-fired enameling kiln. First I would like to add a point of clarification: this is about building a torch-fired enameling kiln, not about torch-firing enamels. This is to say that I was attempting to create a kiln environment heated by a torch in which to fuse enamels to metals without the torch flame making direct contact with the object being fired. Although a metallic surround is sometimes used to help manage and contain the heat during a torch firing, most torch-firing of enamels involve applying the torch flame directly to the surface of the metal being enameled.
SNAG is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2012 Educational Endowment Scholarships and the Hoover & Strong Scholarship chosen by jurors Michael Gayk, Katie Macdonald, Brad Nichols, and Cary Stefani. From 62 applications this year representing trade school, undergraduate and graduate students, the jurors selected four recipients.