Gemstone Junction Show

We are thrilled to be demonstrators at the 65th Annual Gemstone Junction Show, April 8 -- April 10th at the Golden Spike Event Center (fairgrounds). Stop by our booth to see us demonstrate jewelry making and silver smithing. We will have a few jewelry pieces and lots of stones for sale.

NEW jewelry classes

We are excited to post that in addition to our Tuesday night silversmithing ~ jewelry making classes, we have classes available Thursday evening as well. These are open entry classes, so you can start any time that works for your schedule.  In addition, we have Saturday morning classes available by appointment too.

Jewelry Making Classes

We have several openings for our silversmithing/jewelry making classes.  

Classes are held:

    Thursday and Friday evening from 6-9pm 

    Saturday mornings from 9am--noon. 

All classes are held at the Galleon's Gold Workshop on 12th St. in Ogden, Utah.

Come and learn how to make earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets and anything else you want out of silver, gold and precious stones.

All skill levels are invited to class.

You are welcome to come as little as once a month or as much as 3x a week --- whatever your schedule dictates.

Please email us for more information email: GalleonsGold @ hotmail.com (no spaces)

? ? ? Questions ? ? ?

I would like to post answers to questions that you have about topics that may be on interest to many readers regarding silversmithing, jewelry, taking care of your items, jewelry making classes and/or Rene's background -- What is it that you would like more information about? My plan is to address them in an upcoming post.

Soooooooo---- if you have any questions that you would like answered, please post in the comments.

?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ?

NEW jewelry making class option

Copper rose made in class

We are excited to announce that we are expanding our jewelry making/silversmithing classes.  We now offer classes Tuesday evenings in addition to our Monday and Thursday evenings from 6pm -- 9pm (other times and days are available by appointment).      

Classes are held at the Galleon's Gold Workshop on 12th St. in Ogden, Utah.

Students learn how to make earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets and anything else you want out of silver, gold and precious stones.

All skill levels are invited to class.

You are welcome to come as little as once a month or as much as 3x a week --- whatever your schedule dictates.

Please click here to email us for more information.

NOTE: We are also able to give demonstrations and one day classes to schools, "girl's night out," church groups, scouts, etc. We are happy to travel around Northern Utah and Carbon County in Utah. If you would like us to do something in another place, please let us know and we can see what the options are.

Jewelry classes are also taught by Rene at Weber State University as ART 2350.

Jewelry Making Classes

It's back to school time..........so why not take a jewelry making class at Galleon's Gold?!?! 

Students will learn how to make earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets and anything else you want out of silver, gold and precious stones. 

All skill levels are invited to class.

You are welcome to come as little as once a month or as much as twice a week --- whatever your schedule dictates. It is open entry, so you can start when it is convienent for you.

Classes are held Monday & Thursdays from 6pm -- 9pm (other times and days by appointment) at the Galleon's Gold Workshop on 12th St. in Ogden, Utah.

Please email us for more information.

ALSO::

~ ~ ~ We are also able to give demonstrations and one day classes to schools, "girl's night out," church groups, scouts, etc. We are happy to travel to Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Cache, Carbon and Box Elder counties in Utah. If you would like us to do something in another place, please let us know and we can see what the options are.  ~ ~ ~

Come join the fun!!

Silver care

Let's face it. The fact is, silver and oxygen don't like each other. It doesn't matter if it is sterling silver or silver platted, as soon as beautiful, shinny silver is out in the open, oxygen starts its battle and before you know it, oxidation has occurred. Now your silver is brownish-black. Uggh.


These ideas are for you to help keep on top of the battle:

• Keep your silver wrapped securely in the drawer.  Of course, one way for oxygen and silver to get along is to separate the two. Remember Grandmother wrapping her fine silver and tucking it away in the drawer?  It's because Grandma knew separation is key.  Note: When you wrap your silver, wrap it in soft material like felt or flannel to avoid scratches.
• Don't touch. The oil from fingerprints lingers on silver and becomes the first place oxidation can occur. If you must touch it, rub off your fingerprints immediately with felt or flannel afterwards.
• Polish often. There are many great commercial polishes available to purchase. Make sure you polish your silver with felt or flannel.  It is best to use one piece of fabric to clean and another piece to polish.   Do not use abrasive polishes or sandpaper as it can scratch your silver.
• If you have waited a long time and your silver is pretty much black, polish twice to get the best results.

Hope these ideas help you to keep your silver looking beautiful!

 

 

another favorite....

A while back, I started highlighting the favorite websites I have on our blog.  Life got busy, I got distracted, and I didn't get to all of them.

Tonight's favorite is about making bread in about an hour. YES! That is from when I get the flour out of the cupboard until I pull the loaf out of the oven to cool. 

My cousin got me onto this.  For Christmas, a few years ago, she gave me an instruction DVD and some ingredients to make the bread. Making homemade bread?? Didn't she know I was busy with being a mother, teaching, our acerage and building our small business? Making bread was about the last thing on my mind to do.  "It only takes an hour and my family loves it," was her reply.

"An hour?? Ya right!" I thought. So I placed the ingredients and the unopened DVD in my pantry and let it sit.

Fast forward 6 months and my cousin brought homemade hamburger buns to a family picnic that I missed. My mom was intrigued that my cousin made homemade bread.  Questions were discussed. She was told that I had the instruction DVD and ingredients.

Next thing I know I am getting a phone call about making bread. "Nope." I responded, "haven't tried it yet."  My mom asked me to bring all the stuff with me next time I visited her and together we would check it out.  Which I did. My mom always homemade bread growing up and I thought I would be safe to attempt this with her.  We watched the video and found it was quite do-able. So we gave it a shot.  Sure enough, we were able to make 4 loaves in about an hour from start to finish.  And I was hooked.

I didn't have a Bosch, since that seemed like such a grown up kitchen appliance. But now I wanted one. Within a week, I was able to find used one for about 1/3 the cost of a new one.  And I have been making bread ever since. 

Here is the recipe.

10-1/2 cups of bread flour
1/2 cup of sugar
3 TBLS of instant yeast
3 TBLS of liquid  lecithin
1 TBLS salt
4 cups of hot tap water

Mix it for five minutes in a bosch or kitchen aid.  Cut dough into 4 equal parts. Knead a little to get smooth shape. Place in greased bread pan. Let it "rise" (rest) for 25 minutes.  Then bake for 25 minutes at 350*

Sometime I use half bread flour and half wheat flour.  All white and half-and-half are both delicious!  This recipe's bread is a little heavier than tradional homemade bread, but it is still yummy and we love it!!

Click on image to find our more information!

New items for sale in Etsy shop

We have been busy the last few days and here are our new items for sale in our Etsy online shop.  Please click on each picture to see more information about the piece. Enjoy!

Sterling Silver Textured Snake Ring

Sterling Silver Butterfly Pendant

Pendant with a snake and a bird's head

Sterling Silver Flower w/ Colombian Emerald Brooch

Mother of Pearl Fish Necklace

Sterling Silver Flower with Colombian Emerald Brooch

Sterling Silver Smooth Snake Ring

Silver-Nickel Textured Snake Ring

Sterling Silver Ring with Rhinestones

Record Keeping

This past year, my record keeping for our family for taxes was fabulous and the portion of taxes personal itmes were a breeze.  For our business though, much was left to be desired.  I ended up spending hours and hours organizing them well enough so that our tax lady could do her job. And then we had to meet with her twice, as the first time around we weren't quite organized enough.   As a result, the last few months I have tried to figure out how I could stay organized all year.

I came up with keeping our paper work in an expandable file--because I wanted something portable and can be changed quickly to fit our needs. The front section is labeled for the receipts we keep for taxes: advertising/marketing, car use, fairs & markets, licenses, office supplies, entertainment/gifts, postage/shipping, repair & maintance, supplies, utilities, tax fees, travel & meals and other.

In the fairs & markets file, I keep the receipts in envelopes that I record what happened at that particular fair. The cost of the vendor booth, any food we bought and mileage associated with the event.

The back section is more for organization of our business. I have a folder to keep articles I find inspiring as an artistian small business owner. One file is an indepth list of tax deductions I got from the Small Business Administration's website for reference.  I have a file that holds information on current markets & fairs we have signed up for. And the last labeled file is for future ideas/to do items.

So far, the system has worked for us and I definately feel more on top of things.  YEAH!!

If you have ideas on how to keep your small business more organized, please let me know I am always looking for more ideas!

Jewelry Classes

Have you ever wanted to design and make your own necklace? Or your girlfriend's engagement ring?  Or maybe you saw something in the store and want to make something similiar with your personality on it ? Or maybe you just want to improve your metalsmithing skills?

If so, then come on over to Rene's jewelery/metalsmithing classes.  Students will learn how to make earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets and anything else you want out of silver, gold (or other metals) and precious stones. 

All skill levels are invited to class.

You are welcome to come as little as once a month or as much as twice a week --- whatever your schedule dictates.  Classes are offered Mondays & Thursdays 6pm -- 9pm (other times and days by appointment) at the Galleon's Gold Workshop on 12th St. in Ogden, Utah. 

Also ~ ~ ~ 

We are also able to give demonstrations and one day classes to schools, "girl's night out," church groups, scouts, etc. We are happy to travel to Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Cache, Carbon and Box Elder counties in Utah. If you would like us to do something in another place, please let us know and we can see what the options are.  We will bring all supplies needed. ~ ~ ~

Click here to contact us about the classes.

Collections

We have added some pictures to our collections page.  Our goal is to have a page representing the different work Rene does--a little of this and a little of that! He makes so many pretty things, and I love to show off his work-----but the process gets bogged down at my end---

I know, I know I have said it before, but truely, the taking ofgood digital pictures and transfering them to the web is a perpetual challange for me. I keep thinking one of these days I will develop the skills and one of these days I will have more time to work it out, but alas, the skill is slow in coming and time, will extra time elludes me.  I often think of Benjamin Franklin's quote on time (that is also in my favorite all time movie, Gone With the Wind), "Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of."  

Do I squander time? I like to think not...but oh!  I am rambling again. Anyway-------

Please click here to see our "Collections Page." 


Enjoy!