Rosewood and Sterling Earrings by Violante Ulrich

These beauties are made by Violante Ulrich. Her designs reflect the strong influence of Taxco silver pioneer William Spratling - but with a more modern twist !

Sterling "Matchsticks"

I love this jewelry style and use the technique in many of my designs.

These matchsticks are the basis of my "shinka shinka " jewelry line. If you have been wearing Shayna Jewelry over the years you will know what I am talking about ...If not, no worries - go to my other blog to see photos of my pieces and you will see what I am talking about . Ana and I like to call these balled wires " matchsticks "... but since we only speak in Spanish to each other ...we call them "cerillos".

Who is Ana you might ask ? Ana Celsa Garcia Salgado is my "right hand woman" in Taxco and my friend . We have worked together over many years and I have the honor of being the Godmother to her two children . She is a huge heart and has two extra helping hands that I have come to rely on over the years so that I can provide even more people with unique and handmade jewelry designs. Ana takes care of making the cerillos for me and she does a great job . Plus we have fun together and I get to practice my Spanish when I am around her.

The cerillos are made by first cutting a coil of sterling silver wire into the appropriate length section and then forming the ball on the end of each wire by heating them (individually ) with the torch.

For the "shinka-shinka" jewelry elements , each individual wire is then threaded with a bead of some sort and then used in an earrings, necklace, bracelet (etc ) design

Claudia Cota and the Mexican Kitchen

Claudia Cota is a native of Mexico City and an architect who designs jewelry influenced by the Mexican kitchen . This line features handcrafted bracelets and necklaces which are adorned with the cooking utensils necessary in the traditional Mexican kitchen

Scorpions

Aaaay-yay -yay...que Taxco !!!! I love all of the treasures that this Colonial town offers and spend my time designing , producing , buying and selling jewelry (wholesale and retail sales ) Here is a photo of the scorpion belt buckles , key chains and pendants that I find here . They make my neck hair stand on end if I look at them too long but I find them fascinating .They are real scorpions preserved forever in clear resin and definitely fit the "conversation starter " category . People are enamored or repulsed by them . I have yet to meet anyone indifferent !

P.S. I have often heard that it is the smaller, lighter -colored scorpions that are the most poisonous / dangerous - the "guerritos" ... Oh, and that if you see one scorpion -be on the lookout for its mate - they travel in pairs !

Just a note- The metal used to make these is alpacca , sometimes known as nickel silver.

* What is nickel silver?

Nickel Silver is the generic name for any of a range of non-precious bright silvery-grey metal alloys, composed of copper, nickel and zinc. Despite its name it contains no real silver. It is also commonly called German Silver.

Nickel Silver gets its name because its colour matches that of silver reasonably, and because it was used as a low status substitute for silver in the 19th century. (There was then no effective trades description legislation to prevent confusion of this alloy with sterling silver). Nickel Silver was (and still is) widely used for the commercial production of industrial components, housewares, flatware and cutlery, and as the metal substrate for silver-plated goods, hence the term EPNS = Electro-Plated Nickel Silver.

*History
The family of Nickel Silver alloys has been known since the early 18th century and were initially developed in the far east. European traders brought back metal ware goods which were described using the Indian word Tutenag or the Chinese word Paktong. This new alloy with its properties of strength, relatively easy working and silvery colour began to be used for a range of consumer goods, but it was not until the 1840s that the alloy was developed in its modern formulation. By then firms such as Elkington in England and Berndorf in Austria were looking for a stable, cheap, silverish metal as a substrate for the new process of electroplating. Hence EPNS was born, and its German equivalent Alpacca.

* This info is taken from the following website :

http://pages.zoom.co.uk/leveridge/nickel1.html