Racecar Jewelry

Racecar Jewelry Co. Inc. started by Daniel Grandi in 1998 is a full service investment casting and finishing shop utilizing modern lost wax casting techniques. They produce high quality metal products for jewelry designers, They cast in many types and colors of Gold, Silver, Platinum, Brass, Bronze, Pewter and also provide a full line of production services including mold making, model building, design consultation, and finishing and plating.

I was trying to find a way to produce less esxpensive samples in bronze and found Dan's shop online. I could not be happier with the work they did on the "grill" cuff.

Visiting Queens

In late September we went to Cham! from Bhutan. Thirteen monks from the monastery fortress of Trongsa in central Bhutan perform the mesmeric ritual demon subjugation dances in public spaces in and around New York City. We went to the performance in Corona Park Queens.
It was an amazing experience but I am afraid it was very hard on the monks they are use to performing in an altitude of 10,000 feet and 40 degrees instead of the 80 degree temperature which NYC was enjoying that weekend.


So what does Cham have to do with jewelry design not a lot however on our way home to Brooklyn we stopped off at the Jackson Diner for great Indian food and exploring 74th street. Jackson Heights especially 74th street has many great traditional Indian jewelry shops. The workmanship is amazing and all the gold jewelry for sale is at least 18K if not 22K or even pure gold.
Indian gold jewelry is sold by weight which seems odd to Americans. When I asked about prices of a large filigree bracelet the clerk put it on a scale and calculated the price which was lower than I thought it would be but it was still more than I had. In a way traditional Indian jewelry is highly ritualized especially the jewelry worn by a Hindu bride which also functions as a dowry, it has both traditional significance as a part of the 16 adornments (Solah Shringar) which completes the bride's wedding attire the and is also a commodity.

Jewelry Photography

I have struggled with photographing my work for a really long time I'm not against using photographers in fact it would be great, but I always seem to be really late and I just don't have time to turn over the collection to a photographer. So I take pictures myself with varying degrees of success. I just found a site that give instruction on how to photograph your work but also how to retouch the photos so they look really close to Tiffany’s style of photos. I have to say I was skeptical but I downloaded the tutorial and it was very helpful in fact I would say my retouching skills definitely improved. So go get the free PDF and see how it goes. http://www.imagingprep.com/ they charge for there real tutorials I think I am going to get a subscription I'll let you know how it goes.

I've finished the piece with the extra long cabochons. Rose gold and rubies.

Mr. Ravi K Lashkery from Gemorex was very helpful at a recent meeting. I was attending the JA winter show and his booth had massive smooth emerald necklaces and a lot of unique cut stones and brioletts. He really was very knowledgeable and innovative. you can visit his web site to get an idea of the quality of his merchandise.

They also specilize is custom cut semi precious stones he showed me a few pieces they where working on for another client and I bought a few rose cut citrine, topaz and ruby as well as flat cut stones that are similar in style to the flat cut diamonds.

I recently got these custom made stone ring blanks in. Last June I had samples cut here in New York from rough I bought at a stone importer, most of the material I got was not very good. I thought rough was rough and the lapiderist could use whatever I gave them. I learned a lot from that experience. Buying rough is an art in and of it self and requires x-ray vision.
This is the specification drawing I did and the final stone ring blank I really like making the drawing. It required me to adjust every measurment based on the ring size. I did three sizes the lapiderist was right on the mark.

Robert Bently Has some very cool "faceted" stones. accually they are cut flat on two sides like a table cut and then on the third side the surface is fractured like it was hit with a hammer.I just met with Robert and his staff again this week at the JA winter show and the intresting thing is the cut of the stones is called mirror cut and the are cleaved along a natural cleave in the stone.

these great new cabs I had made they are 20 x 80 x 6 mm and I am fitting them into silver, gold and rose gold bezels with diamond or ruby accents.