Member of the Month - Miss July 2004

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Joan Houghton-Theall.

 Meet Miss July 2004!  When we asked for a volunteer to be THE MEMBER OF THE MONTH, , Joan tried to ask a question.  However,  since she was the only person in the audience who moved, she was unanimously selected.  You can see everyone behind her giggling at her predicament.   

We think, however, that Joan is perfect as our first featured member since she is not only a beadmaker but has also been a silversmith for many years.  She shared both these skills when she showed us how to use place silver caps  on beads using cold connection techniques.  The demo was beautifully done and accompanied by a detailed handout which listed the supplies needed, the best suppliers, and a summary of the process.  Thank you Joan - many of us would like to take a full workshop with you.

Shown below are some of Joan's silver capped beads.  The silver runs right through the Bead Hole to make each bead a beautiful piece of jewelry even when strung on a simple cord.

  

Joan is showing us the tools and supplies that she uses for the process. These include a dapping block and punches, circle die cutter and circle punches, a jewelers saw, 24 gauge sheet metal.  3mm thin walled tubing (hard) is used for beads with 1/8" mandrel.  On the right you can see the camera that is videoing the demo and below is the close up that we could see on the monitor.

 

 

 A piece of the 24 gauge sheet metal with some end caps stamped out.

Five more of Joan's beautiful silver capped beads.

One of Joan's capped beads that we didn't photograph at the meeting was the one Joan was wearing.  She sent us a photo and writes that she has "named the bead 'Tammy' because as soon as Tammy saw it she bought it from me!"

Robert Simmons, who was taking the video during Joan's demo and had a really close-up view also wrote:

"Yesterday I finally got around to trying out the silver capped bead

technique that Joan so kindly demonstrated for us at the last meeting. I

did 2 beads and wanted to send her a photo and say thanks."

Here are the photos of Robert's amazing first capped beads and we join him in thanking Joan for a great demo.