Past Techniques:
We maintain a techniques web page that provides links to
the discussion of techniques in our prior newsletters. You can visit
this web page
here.
Follow the links on that page to the discussion of the
technique in that
newsletter.
 Jewelry Technique:
 This
week's jewelry making technique is a discussion on how to make the
wire wrapped pendant shown right and left. The picture on the right is
the front of the pendant, and the picture on the left is the back, or the
portion worn next to the wearer's body. This technique uses 20 or 22
gauge soft wire. The pendant is begun by making a spiral using our
WigJig Spiral Maker and can be made with any of our WigJig tools and the
associated Spiral Maker. The approach we use will work with a stone or
other object in almost any irregular or regular shape. Please select the pictures
left or right,
or
select here to
view our free instructions for making this wire wrapped pendant.
As with any new jewelry making skill, we do suggest that you practice this
technique with inexpensive practice wire
Nostalgia Corner:
 This
week's featured design in our Nostalgia Corner is the design for our Spiral
Link Wire & Beads Bracelet. We received a lot of questions about the
Spiral Link at the Tucson Gem and Jewelry Show, so this seems like a good
time to bring back that design for a second look.
Please select here, or select
either picture to view our free instructions for making our Spiral Link
Jewelry Wire & Beads Bracelet and Earrings Project shown
here.
Warning! Philosophy Follows.
This is only a statement of philosophy.
Boomer Philosophy:
In the past month we received an e-mail from a lady who
began by telling us how awful our web site was and finished by asking for
directions on how to find a specific design that she indicated she had
previously found on our site. Unfortunately, it wasn't our awful site
that had that design, it was some other web site. We responded to this
lady as politely as we could that the design she was seeking was not now and
had not ever been on our site. Of course this lady was not a customer,
she was just someone who wanted something for nothing and felt that the
insults were justified because we hadn't made it easy for her to get
something for nothing from us.
There are many ways to respond to a situation like the
above. One way is to say, people can sure be rude. Another way
is to wonder if this non-customer would do the same thing if she were trying
to borrow a cup of sugar from her neighbor. Our opinion is that
leading with insults isn't the best way to ask for favors. We really
don't believe that she would do this with her neighbor. The final
response is the most appropriate response -- to learn from it. We
never want to treat another human being the way this lady treated us.
This lady made an error by assuming something that turned out to be wrong.
She did not give us the benefit of the doubt and she vented her frustration
for her own shortcomings on a completely innocent stranger -- us. Our
take away from this is that we will never be able to stop some people from
behaving this way, but we want to make very certain that we try to never make
this same mistake. (I can honestly say that I have been frustrated at
times, in the future I will try to be doubly cautious that I don't allow my
frustrations to turn me into the kind of person we have described here --
both wrong and rude.) Our message to our readers is that like us,
please learn from this incident. Don't assume the worst and don't let
your frustrations turn you into somebody you would not like.
Boomer and Gary apologize for the sermon. They were
both reminded that they aren't perfect and that it's a good idea to keep
that fact private. It's best not to advertise your imperfections as
the above e-mailer did. We hope to learn from this situation and
thought we would share it with others.
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