An Insider’s Take on Gold Manipulation Case

I have been watching metals being manipulated for years. Well, now it has become obvious,

Here's a Good Read, check it out.

If you use Silver in your production, BUY!

I am going to predict that at some point, maybe as soon as after the election, regardless of who wins, metals will go up and I mean UP!

So get it while the getting is good. 

Yes, Silver is being manipulated! Listen to this expert:

Link

It seems no one is able to do anything to prevent this, or catch the manipulators doing it. I have seen estimates for a bottom price for silver as low as $10 per ounce. It is going to take awhile for the world markets to settle back down from the mess they are in. Hint -- keep an eye on what is happening in China and the other Asian markets.

Silver being used by Investors

Hi Everyone-
Here is a really good (recent) take on how Silver continues to be manipulated.
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Lewis/2013-08-15-The-Unbearable-Lightness-of-Being-Long-Silver.html
Since most of this activity centers around 'paper' silver (the equivalent of air) and is connected to people investing in silver for profit, it really doesn't matter to me as a craftsman because I only buy metal. Like he says in this article, 'silver seems cheap'. It is! And it will probably stay that way for awhile longer, so get your stash stocked up while it is affordable.

Get some Silver, the price has dropped.

Thanks to you new folks who just subscribed to my blog and thanks for hanging around to all of you who are still subscribers. I haven't posted anything in quite awhile, I have been away from my bench, pursuing other creative things like music and sewing.

Today I wanted to bring it to your attention in case you haven't noticed -- SILVER spot price is all the way down to $22.75. You can see that in the chart on the right side of your screen. This price is very affordable to us craftspeople, so it is time to buy.

An interesting thing occurred during the past few years -- due to the SILVER price getting so high, many people turned to Copper and other less expensive metals for their production. Since I am a Silversmith, enjoy soldering, know how to bezel set stones, etc, I am not that crazy about a lot of the work I have seen on Etsy, Pinterest and other websites. However, I have seen some really interesting pieces and I hope the artists who developed these techniques will start using SILVER again. I am referring to the Bohemian style jewelry that is proliferating right now -- twisted wire, lots of beads, simple construction, NO soldering, etc. Since the price of SILVER is low and these techniques are fast and furious, I don't see why the quality of work can not come up by switching back to SILVER and still be affordable.

I plan on starting a new production run soon. When the SILVER spot price was $45+ an ounce, I just couldn't justify using up my stock for the ROI I would get for my finished work. The spoiled public will only pay so much for silver jewelry and there is no way I can get my prices down to match what is available as imports, regardless of quality. Now that the price has dropped I can eek out a profit again, while maintaining my quality and design standards. 

So thank you to the World Banker guys (who are constantly ratcheting everything up and down) for focusing  on other commodities like Oil, Bonds, etc and allowing the SILVER price to go down. I appreciate being able to get back to work. So get some SILVER and get busy! =)

Please comment!

Estaban

PS I have a couple of Jewelry related Boards on Pinterest -- check them out if you have time:
http://pinterest.com/stram99/jewelry/
http://pinterest.com/stram99/my-jewelry/

Silver is taking off again.

Okay I've been watching and Silver has already started to inch up. It has been holding steady for quite some time around $30 spot... today it went above $35. I believe it will go on another run up to $40-50 by end of second quarter, so if you need materials, get them soon. It seems expensive, yes -- the old days are gone -- but if you think about it you make money on it as it rises if you buy it soon enough to catch the increase.

Argentium Silver

I was asked recently the best way to avoid fire scale on pieces when soldering and I recommended using the Argentium silver from Rio Grande. It costs a little more than normal sterling but will probably be worth it to solve this problem, or at least help minimize it.

In case you haven't seen a Rio findings catalog lately then you should get one. Call them at 800-545-6566 and request one. If you tell them that you are an Instructor you will probably get it free, I have never paid for one. The catalog is huge nowadays... beads, display furniture, dichroic glass, etc. Also, there are so many types of raw materials available that you don't even have to do the pre-work yourself. I'm talking about Reticulated sheet, Cuzco-Pattern Mokumé Gane, and even silver plated copper (to cut costs) and more. I did all this stuff by hand years ago but silver was $5 an ounce then... who can experiment very much these days.

So in order to broaden the range of pieces you are making and save a lot of work, try some of these other forms of pre-fabricated materials to make bigger pieces cheaper with more interesting results.

Gratitude is a State

Handled a tricky design problem yesterday. Looking back, it turns out that it was really easy and just staying with it was what it took to get it done. Today I want to say out loud how much gratitude I am feeling. Yes, I have a list.

Go Silver Go!

Hi All-
Since the Federal Reserve doods stuck to their plan today (click the TITLE link to read an article if you want) .... things will remain the same for another go-round. I was braced for a big correction in the Silver price (drop) if they raised interest rates... but they didn't... so silver is gonna keep going up. Since I predicted $50 by the end of 2011 and it will probably get there by Friday (or maybe even by market close today)... I will have to think about it and give you a new updated prediction.
Too bad I am not running a hedge fund.... I would've made a bunch-o-loot!!
The good news is the Silver Jewelry you are making is worth more, so don't be afraid to price it correctly. If somebody think your price is too high ask them to step aside, there will be somebody else right behind them. Stress quality in your work and you will survive when others drop out.
Don't give up, Art is more important than money.

Another New High

Hi All-
You probably know this already but in case you don't ,
Silver Spot price hit $40.00 today.
Wow, I don't know what to say .... and I am gaining confidence about my predictions .... see my past posts. So, if this continues, it is possible that Silver will be $50 by the end of 2011 (or even $100) depending on some other market factors and world events. Check back.

Silver hits new Spot high today!

SILVER HIT $36.00 TODAY!! It is going to go to $50 by the end of 2011, possibly even $100 if some other factors kick in. The only thing holding it back is the fact that it is being manipulated in order to encourage investors towards other paper investments, which are the equivalent of air.

I'm loving this, my collection has doubled in value.

Not sure how this is affecting PMC artists. PMC is already twice as expensive as spot silver. How is everyone doing with sales? Are you being able to realize the markup you need?

I would love to hear your strategies and what you are doing to keep being able to produce Jewelry.

Don't give up! People will always want to adorn themselves, and that is where we come in.

There will always be a market for jewelry. Good luck fellow artists!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Best to all of you this next year in 2011.

My prediction for silver to reach $30 by the end of the year was weak.... today it closed at $30.91. I'll be keeping an eye on it in the first few weeks, how it acts early should indicate how it will extend into the new year. The spot price will probably continue to rise, maybe $2 or more within 30-45 days. If you deal in Silver primarily like I do, you are no longer doing crafts, you are entering the area of Fine Jewelry. Be happy about this because the competition is thinning out. Emphasize quality and you will be realize sales.

Let's all dig in and make jewelry like we never have before. I'm promoting my more substantial (weighty) jewelry as a way to 'wear your wealth'. Another strategy to make silver affordable might be to include smaller amounts of silver in a piece while combining it with other metals like copper, brass, etc. This seems to be popular and effective with artists on Etsy.

Good luck!

Wow!

Hi Everybody,
Amazing! I mean WOW!!! It only took the market a little over a month to move the price of silver to $30 (closed at $30.06 today). Not sure what to say at this point.

If you do have the money to buy silver you may want to get some and just hoard it and ride this out. That is what I am going to do with all that I have now. It is sad but I am suspending my production because my silver is making money just sitting there.

If all of the uncertainty about currencies is going to continue it is going to be worth even more soon. I was predicting $30 by the end of 2010, but now it looks like it may go to $35 or higher. I'll keep you posted.

Need I say more?

Hi Everyone!

I have been sitting back watching my Handmade Silver Jewelry Collection increase in value =). This is not because of my fabulous designs and the constant demand for my pieces, rather it is because the price of metals continues to climb. The market is about an hour before closing and silver is sitting at $24.70 per troy ounce. Whoa!!!!!

I know I warned you that this was going to happen and it did.... so here is more good news. Silver has NOT YET finished it's rise in price. And again, I am no expert at the investing game but from what I understand there is going to be even more adjustment forthcoming. One of the factors that is really starting to kick in is the number of people who are simply investing in metals as a commodity. So us craftsman that use it for our livelihood just have to grin and bear it, so to speak, as one of the crowd. This is increasing every day because of the second and more basic reason.... the weakening of the US dollar against other world currencies. We are far from seeing the end of this.

It would take another post to discuss some of the things going on behind the scenes (you won't hear about on CNN or Fox) that will affect the Dollar when they kick in and I would also probably sound like some kind of conspiracy theorist, which I am not, so I will (again) just say.... the price of silver is going to go up more... and more... and more!

If you are an Artist that uses silver in your production you should buy as much as you can as soon as you can. You will automatically be making money as the price rises, even if you don't use it. I for one would like to buy a truck load but those days are gone. It was not that long ago (10 years) that I did my work based on $5 an ounce silver -- HooHoo! .... or is it BooHoo!

Anyway, I wanted to say Hi and let you all know I am still here. So round up your cash and Buy Silver while it is cheap.

Hi All-
Yes I consider my making jewelry Art. It is a peculiar medium because Jewelry is a common item and most of the time it is machine made and we get it at a Stores. Unlike Painting or making Pottery which are very commonly considered Art and always win the awards at Juried shows, it is more utilitarian. So we are used to it having a price tag on it and NOT thinking of it as Art, more like an accessory and similar to the way we think of clothes or shoes. Actually I don't think that ALL jewelry IS Art and much of the jewelry people make nowadays is definitely not Art, it is more like craft. Okay so what's my point?

Today I was working on some jewelry while sitting in a public place and a friend happened by. They said to me... ''you are making jewelry" and I replied, "yes, I make it all the time". She then said the inevitable "where are you selling it".... like since I haven't been doing any shows or trying to sell it in public lately means I stopped making it. NOT! For about 20 years now making jewelry has been my main artistic outlet and during this time I have taken different approaches to ridding myself of all the stuff I have made. And yes it is important and nice to gain some monetary reward for my effort but this is where I want to express myself.

I do not make jewelry to make money. The type of jewelry I make involves many hours of tedious process and many of the steps are not actually fun, like sitting at the buffing wheel for example. I make jewelry because I like the materials, I love fire, I am able to create pieces that will not only endure but are wearable and also have some value beyond the weight of the metal itself. Most importantly and primarily, I do this as a MEDITATIVE process. I have been able to convey this a few times to people I have met at shows and other places. The little steps and processes I have made my work require that I be PRESENT. So it is a way for me to BE in what I consider the best state that I can be as a human. Making Jewelry for me is a Labor of Love. I know this sounds like a cliche. I do not spend the time making jewelry to end up with the piece. It is good that I do derive some result, a product that I can sell, but I am literally making jewelry to spend the time doing it. It is very similar to making pottery -- there is a saying that "a Potter changes the clay, but what really changes is the Potter".

Okay, so what I am getting at is that Yes, I am still making jewelry, and Yes, I have some for sale... in fact I have it laying all over the place. However if you are waiting for it to be on a table or in a showcase somewhere like you presume it should be because it is jewelry, you are not going to see my work and you are dissing me as an Artist. I am always ready to show it to anyone and I will also sell it, have your checkbook ready.

PS This is also why I call myself a Jewelry Artist rather than a Jeweler, because if I call myself the later the next question will be "can you repair this?"
I don't do repairs except on jewelry that I have made, which rarely breaks.

All of the above is my opinion, which is a vanity (of course) and therefore worthless =).

Please feel free to use this space to discuss Art, making money, etc. Your comments and replies are welcomed.

Time to get some Silver

Okay, I have posted about this before (last time Silver was hovering around $12 ounce) and I don't mean to be redundant, but NOW is the time to increase your supply. Logically a lower commodities price would indicate a stronger Dollar, but there are so many factors in what causes them to go up and down that it is beyond my time limits to stay current with the reasons why on a daily basis. However I do check Silver daily and I have noticed a fairly large drop in price in the past week. Will it stay this low? I don't really know but today's price ($15.26) is the lowest it has been for quite some time and I don't really see it going too much lower, so again, get some while the getting is good.
If you haven't read some of my previous posts about how cool it is that because we are craftsmen we actually get metal when we buy Silver (many investors get paper) you can read those if you want.
It is also a good time of year to get going on all your projects. It really isn't too early to start making your collection that you will sell next Christmas. Maybe you don't work that far ahead but I do. Just consider this a heads up and good luck with your work.

Happy New Year 2010

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I noticed that I have had a few new subscribers so WELCOME to my blog. I hope in the future there will be more interaction, that is questions, comments, discussion, whatever you want.
I already know how to make jewelry and I am interested in helping other people, so let me know how I can help. My typical style involves a lot of soldering. Some of my chains require 500 individual solders. There are some pieces I made in this style on this webpage.

Here's a photo of a piece I made a while back using parts created with an interesting technique that I first discovered about 15 years ago. Recently I saw an article in a jewelry mag about how to do this. I can tell you here. The parts are cast using water.
I was reprocessing some silver for future castings into small pieces by filling my crucible and slowly pouring the molten metal into water. I noticed I was getting these cool little dome shaped pieces sometimes. I started paying more attention to the way I was pouring and my success rate got pretty good.
Once I had a little pile of the pieces I just incorporated them into other designs. What is really neat is they required no mold and no finishing!!
I like casting a lot and it requires a lot less tools than some other techniques, plus it is very immediate. Once a piece is cast it can be cooled and in your hands within minutes. Casting is great way to make parts to use later. Besides water casting, unique pieces can be attained casting onto wet-straw, ice, sand and lots of other mediums. Hope you like this tip. Happy 2010!!

Buy Silver Now!

Hey Everybody, I know I alerted you before to buy silver because prices were down and I gave my reasoning about why the price had dropped.Well, it's kind of like anything in life... the more you learn the more you find out you don't know. I just read a very interesting article and according to this guy the market is being manipulated -- read this -- and really has nothing to do with the weak dollar or oil prices or anything else. Okay, it is very complex and whether it will all play out, we'll see. However, it seems like it IS playing out.

After these big financiers process a bunch of their ' loss-orders' which will net them Billions or Trillions, the price of Gold and Silver will take off again and most likely double or triple what it was before. If this happens, Silver will be $60 an ounce!! Right now it is $11.50, so BUY NOW!!

Take advantage of being a craftsman and the fact that you can actually buy real metal instead of what an investment banker would want to give you... 'paper' silver. People who want to invest in metals right now are waiting in line. It is in such short supply that it is only being given to fabricators. That is me and you!! So again I will say, BUY NOW!!

Price for Bronze PMC

Sorry it took me so long, but I just checked the price for the new Bronze PMC and it is relatively cheap compared to Silver PMC. The Silver PMC (.999 silver) is around $45 for a 25 gram lump while the Bronze is only about $35 for a 200 gram lump. Wow! That is quite a difference.

Like I said in my previous post, I am personally not that interested in producing jewelry made from copper, brass and the like. However, this is a breakthrough in my opinion and I will definitely be getting some and checking it out.

I just completed teaching a PMC class and as always the 25 gram lumps were slightly prohibitive because they just disappear too fast. At almost 50 bucks a pop the creativity is stifled a bit. Using this new Bronze PMC should allow more freedom to experiment and ease some of the economic tensions that new students have.

Actually, the Silver PMC still intimidates me when I hold that bubble gum size wad in my fingers. I remember the first time I experienced PMC -- I thought 'this is great, but I want a 5 pound bag instead of this little tidbit'. But that is just me. Since I have a pottery degree and understood what clay will do 30 years ago I was very excited by PMC and the possibilities. When I heard CLAY, I thought alright! But then I realized the economic disparities between PMC (precious metal clay) and clay, lost a lot of my initial enthusiasm and reverted to my more conventional silversmith methods.

So if you haven't tried it, get some Bronze PMC and go wild. Once you get some great results let us all see what you've done. Send me a photo and I'll post it here on this blog.

Bronze PMC

I just got this notice today and it is good news for us PMC artists.
Rio announces BRONZE PMC! Surely it will be much cheaper than even Silver PMC, and even though I am not in a habit of producing my jewelry using Copper, Brass, and the like... I am definitely interested in this as a lower cost alternative for some 'parts' of my jewelry.
Check it out, here is the link for the June Newsletter and Clasp Conference.
Click Here.

Keep on truckin

If you are old enough (I am) to remember the 60's art from the hippie days that flourished, you will remember the 'Keep on truckin' dude... well, that is the subject of my post today. I haven't posted any 'help' in over a month and I wanted to let you know I am still here. I have been working a lot and not at the computer but I always think of myself this way... truckin on... I will never stop or give up.

Part of what I want to do here is tell you stuff, but there is another part -- answering questions. Since I haven't received a lot of comments I have let my blog sit unattended. Truth is, I would rather be working at my bench then sitting at the computer and if I really have time for only ONE thing, I will do my Yoga first ;) -- it is that important to me.

So I am here NOW to encourage you to ask questions and post your comments about jewelry making, PMC or anything you feel is relevant to life in general. Just do it, as the commercials say.

I also want to remind you of my upcoming classes (only 4 weeks away), go here to check it out. I'll be teaching at the ESSA in Eureka Springs, a beautiful place and the school has a brand new metal-smithing building that we will get to use. I have a plan for the classes of course, but they are small, so really, we will get to do anything we want.

Join the fun and sign up today. Give them a call if you need more info.