6 Torches. 3 Dresses. 2 Days. And Soldering Like a Lady.

Back at the beginning of December, I took a trip to the F&W headquarters in Ft. Collins, CO. The task at hand was filming 6 complete metalworking DVDs each one featuring a different portable torches.

Over two days. That's like 16-hours. Which leaves little room for error.

I like tight deadlines. Seriously. A cross-country jaunt involving fire, film, lots of tools, and intense prep worked for me. So I hopped on a plane and headed for the bright lights of the Interweave production studio in Colorado.

I am really excited about this project. I chose the torches specifically because they are easy to find, straightforward to use and work with small spaces. Some of them may be familiar and some may be completely new.

A few of my torches.

The projects took a little more planning. I wanted to create projects that were contemporary, interesting and adaptable. A place for viewers to have a jumping-off point. I don't want you to make cookie cutter projects...I want you to take the ideas and run! (Thank you Emily Miller and Kriss Silva... project assistants, extraordinaire! Without the two of you, these projects just would have been jumbled pieces of wire. Bathed in my tears.)

Six projects. One for each torch.

On the first day we jumped right in! I had a camera on me all day. It was a mix of behind-the-scene footage and on-camera instruction. And lots of bright lights. And red lipstick (MAC Ruby Woo.) And coffee.

Behind my bench.

I did a lot of off-the-cuff quips and the footage was used to create a couple of promo videos. Here is one where I discuss my biggest on-camera screw up...



Now you can join me and learn to "Solder Like a Lady." (Read as "like a kick-ass lady, in red lipstick and pretty dress, with a torch.") Thanks to my dear friend Mary Cravens, I was well dressed and my three frocks were comfy and camera-ready. Custom apron on and ready to fire things up. Go stylish or go home. It's a great motto for just about everything.

The Interweave/F&W gang were terrific! They made everything go super smoothly and the resulting videos are gonna be great. Here is one more promo...

They are set to release in late Feb/early March. Stay tuned to the blog for more info when they are available along with a special tie-in project coming up soon in Step-By-Step Wire magazine. 

I also just hosted a webinar about small-space jewelry soldering. Find it here. I discuss a few of the torches that I used in the DVDs and cover everything you need to solder in your home studio. It's a great companion piece. A few more webinars are coming up soon that will tie in as well. I'll keep you updated about those, too. Thanks for watching!

Winners! 'Cause I am crazy like that!

Thanks so much for your kind words on the preceding Dakota Stones post. The random number generator chose rhealeanne as the lucky winner. But you know what? Since I had nine more nice folks commenting, and since I have some nice beads to share, I am going to send each of my commentors a little giftie.

If you commented on the last post, send me an email through the "contact me" link on this blog with your mailing address and I'll send it out to you when I get back from my gift show trip after January 20th.

Have a great week everyone! And just a quick reminder, if you are going to the Tucson Gem Shows, I'll be teaching some great classes at JOGS at JewelryTools' Education Center. Check them all out here: http://www.jewelrytools.com/classes/kate-richbourg/ and use the following coupon codes to save when you enroll!

• Buy 1 class, get $20 off: KR1420
• Buy 3 classes, get $75 off: KR1475
• Buy 6 classes, get $175 off: KR14175 

Congrats to my commentors and hope to see some of my blog readers in Tucson. More info on other classes that I am teaching this year is coming up soon.

Classes in Tucson 2013

Have you been to the Tucson Gem shows? It happens every year in February in Tucson AZ. You can find everything there, from the finest diamonds and jewelry to geodes sold out of an RV belonging to an old rock hound. It's all there.

This year I am going to be in the thick of it! I am so excited to teach at the J.O.G.S show. The fine folks at JewelryTools.com sponsor the Education Center at the show and invited me to teach a few of my best-selling classes. Click on this link to see all the classes and days I'm teaching.

JewelryTools.com is an online tools supplier that carries the entire EURO TOOL catalog, including brands such as Wubbers, Lindstrom, Wolf, Lortone, and many more. Based in Utah, you may be familiar with their sister company, Wire-Sculpture.com. All the tools will be available at the show and you'll get to use many of them in class.

Simple Soldering Boot Camp

 Plus, I have discount codes you can use to save on taking a class! Just enter the code in the Promo box at checkout and the discount will apply to your total.

• Buy 1 class, get $20 off: KR1320
• Buy 3 classes, get $75 off: KR1375
• Buy 6 classes, get $175 off: KR13175

Start making plans now as travel and lodging during the gem shows gets filled up fast. The classes are going to be great. There are 18 world-class instructors (see all instructors here) teaching a diverse selection of classes (see all classes here).

Ring Roundup

Hope to see you the biggest jewelry event of the year. I'll be there with torch in hand ready to make some jewelry. Come and join in, post-class margaritas are on me!

How to Clean Metal Jewelry Tools.

My tools work hard. They get hammered on. They get used in class. They get packed in a box and shipped across country. Consequently they are not the prettiest tools on the block, but who needs pretty when they are so solid and sturdy?

Sometimes though there is a blemish that I can't ignore...RUST!!! Once in a while when I unpack my tools from a class or if I accidentally leave them next to a corrosive (like Silver Black or other corrosive solutions) or get them wet and forget to dry them off, I spy little sections of rust starting to form on my beloved tools. Rust is the enemy of steel and it has to be dealt with before it becomes an issue.

If I see just a small bit on the surface I'll just buff it away with a swipe of steel wool, but that is just a temporary solution. Rust has a tendency to creep and needs to be eradicated before real damage is done.

No worries! The tool doctor is in and let's meet the patient that I am restoring to health today and the review the supplies I'm using.

My dapping block. Check out the rust. Ick.

Here are my supplies from left to right: WD40, 0000 Steel Wool, 1000 grit sandpaper, Scotch 3M Metal Finishing Pad (Find them in the paint section of your hardware store near the steel wool) and Pro Polish Pads (the best thing for polishing metal EVER. Period. I stock them in my Etsy store.)

First, lay an old towel or rag on your work surface and make sure that you are in a well ventilated area. Spray the effected area with the WD40.

Then grab your steel wool and buff the WD40 into the surface of the tool. See how the rust starts to disappear. Don't wipe off the WD40 yet. Keep it on for the next step.

Next, follow up with the fine grit sandpaper. This helps to refine the surface of the metal. Make sure to use 1000 grit or finer as you don't want to mar the surface of the tool. After this step wipe away the WD40 from the tool.

Use the 3M pad and buff the surface again. This pad is a great tool to bring metal back to life. It resurfaces the tool and makes it look almost like new.

And finally, grab a Pro Polish pad and buff the surface one last time. Make sure that the tool is completely wiped clean with no moisture on the surface. If the Pro Polish pads get wet they leave a gummy residue behind. But used dry they will make the metal shine like new!

Look! The surface is shiny and clean and there is no trace of rust to be found! The WD40 helps the metal resist further rusting. While you're at it check out your pliers, too. I'll bet the tips of your chain nose and round nose pliers might need a little love, too. 

My Xuron tools were looking a little sad, but are now revived and ready to work on an upcoming wire wrap project. 

Taking a little time to tend to your tools will give you many years of use. Do you have any tips on how you care for your tools? Share them in the comments, I'd love to hear them.

JTV Here I Come!

Okay. So let me tell you a story.

Way back when, in like the very late '70's, my parents got cable TV. (Stick with me here, I am bringing this story back around. It's just gonna take me a while.)

It was really exciting. Cable was newfangled to me. See, at home with Gran and Grandpa we did NOT have cable. We barely had color TV. When I was little we had an antenna and rabbit ears for our 1950's B&W TV. It stood on a rickety stand and even had a remote that made a crazy ker-plunk noise when you changed the channel. We had three stations and all of them were snowy.

Our TV kinda looked like this.

Eventually we did get a massive, late '70's cabinet color TV. Still had the rabbit ears and the snowy picture was in color. But let me tell you, baseball games are best watched in B&W. The Wizard of Oz, however is not. Who knew that Oz was a different color than Kansas?

Anyway.

On the weekends my sibs and I would converge on my parents house. Modern. With an Atari. And a pool. And CABLE!!! Cable was so awesome back in the day. MTV. Early HBO when it came on at 4 PM and showed five movies for the month over-and-over-and-over. (Almost Summer, anyone? Anyone?)

Cable also had a newfangled phenom. Live on-TV shopping. Dial in now and buy all KINDS of stuff. Pots and pans and luggage and flocked hangers and dishes.

My mom and I loved it. My mom was an early adopter of home shopping. We watched it all. It was so entertaining.

The main thing we loved to watch were the jewelry segments. Diamonds and gold and designer collections. We loved it all.

Well, fast forward to current day. (Sunday, August 12 and Monday, August 13, to be exact starting at 10 AM EST 7 AM PST.) I am on Jewelry Television (JTV) presenting my favorite tools for the jewelry designer. I KNOW! Cool huh? Me on home shopping...on TV. (My mom is STOKED!)

If you check out the JTV site, you can check me out under the "Experts" page. If you do not get JTV on your cable/satellite system you can watch me LIVE streaming on your computer.

I leave tomorrow for their headquarters in Knoxville TN.  More to come on my adventures in the next few days in Tennessee. Set your DVRs, though. I'll be coming through live and in color. No rabbit ears needed.