Bracelet by Sam Patania

Yesterday Ihad a new client come in to look at sapphires for an engagement ring he was shopping for. He was a referral from a relative.I am not very visable to the public, I don’t have a retail store. I  sell through two galleries and a resort. I take commissions in  my studio and do a very small amount of retailing here. I don’t carry much inventory in my studio. I do have some of my Patania Collection pieces here and portfolios to look through for those wanting ideas for commission work.

The new client was referred to my blog so he could see what type of work I do before he came in to talk to me. I try to let people know what type of work I do before we make an appointment so we don’t waste each other’s time. I do not do every kind of jewelry, I have my specialties and don’t take commissions which would be better done by a good wax carver. I have referrals to give for those types of jobs. I used to take in many more types of commissions but have slimmed down my offerings to what I am passionate about.

The client was trying to categorize me so he could understand if I was the one he would bring his novia to for ring designs. On the one hand I had a fantastic array of sapphires to show him, I got them in from Tim Roark out of Atlanta, but my work is not cad/cam perfect, I am definitely a one of hand made type of metalsmith. He didn’t want to offend me but he was trying to understand so he said that my work was a bit rough. He phrased it as a question to which I agreed, yes, I am not a jeweler, I am much more an artist. I love to experiment, I don’t duplicate my one of pieces. I got the impression that he was looking for a more slick retail atmosphere to make him and his novia more comfortable. I understand that completely. I personally look for local interesting people with whom I can establish a relationship with to do business. But, I understand that many people are not looking for what I look for. For instance I would not look for a computer at a “studio” as I would worry about price.

Bracelet by Sam Patania

 As a studio artist I do small scale production and repeat many designs in the Patania Collection. I fabricate here in my studio and occasionally carve wax to send off to Racecar for molding and casting. I don’t reproduce designs I don’t love myself. I have three basic offerings to a potential client. First is the Patania Collection which is a lower price point because all the engineering and production methods have been worked out before they are offered. I design those with multiples in mind. Second offering is commission work where the client is involved in designing and choosing materials and the third is my art work. I want people to enjoy all three of these and they are often all chosen over a period of time by a client. The reasonably priced Collection pieces can be a gift for a loved one. The commissions are important pieces when someone is celebrating an event and the art work is for collectors and people interested in couture work.

The bracelets in the photos are all very simple bracelets made of sterling sheet and pierced by saw work. I had thought of this design years ago but the tooling I had would have been to crude to make what I wanted. It wasn’t until Rio Grande’s Catalog In Motion trade show this year, 2008, when I saw the tools I could use to make these. It was Bonny Doon who came to my aid with their new bracelet forming tools. I was then free to make this style of design. These bracelets retailed at a very reasonable price where I hope more people can feel they can have one of my pieces. These pieces are available through Mark Bahti’s shop, www.bahti.com

Bracelet by Sam Patania

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Pendants by Sam Patania

These pendants are a Patania Collection piece which I took a basic pendant design of my grandfather’s and and modified it to make it more modern. I wanted a pendant in white with a touch of color. I wanted a pendant which was feminine and petite. An everyday piece which was simple and distinctive.This pendant will be wonderful in turquoise or any colored stone. This is a great birth stone pendant. I make the bezel out of gold for a touch of color.

 I have many colored stones I have purchased over the years which I wanted to put in white metal but at the time the only common white metal was white gold. I don’t like most white gold alloys, I do very much love palladium white gold alloy though. Most white gold pieces are plated with rhodium to cover the gold tinge always present in white gold and any solder lines. All gold is yellow, white gold is obtained by adding alloy to it, most common ally is nickle. Nickle white gold is very brittle, in general. I don’t like brittle metal, I love metal which flows, I feel is has more life to it. In general metals with less alloy have more life to them, that is why I love sterling, 18 karat gold and  90/10platinum/ iridium, they are more pure. These pendants are made in Argentium sterling which is a wonderful metal to work in.

I had so much fun making these pendants, I made them with my hydraulic press. I made the forming dies myself and had Dar of Sheltech make me a cutting die set. I press these out of Argentium and cut them out and clam them together. They are hollow. The chain is a permanent part of the pendant as it passes through a piece of tubing at the top. Chain lengths can be customized.

These pendants are available through my studio, please see the “About” page for contact information.

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Bracelet by Sam Patania

Designed by Frank Patania Sr., in the 1950’s this ellegant bracelet has been a popular piece for many years. This bracelet is typical of the Patania family’s simple and strong design philosophy. This piece is strong enough to carry a look or accent your fashion. This type of simplicity can be your entire silver collection which can be worn everyday or dress up with a pair of them for the eye catching evening out. Love it or not Patania jewelry cannot be ignored. This bracelet can be hidden under long sleeves peaking out on occasion or on bare arms for maximum effect. Either way  it will be commented on, our work is not going to blend in to the point of  disappearing. In New York City, Santa Fe, Tucson or Los Angeles Patania work is distinctive and in fashion. Women don’t wear our jewelry because they want to be the same as every other woman.

I chose this piece to be in my Patania Collection for it’s representation of my family’s work for it’s boldness and classic appeal. This is like pearls, every woman needs a piece like this to anchor her silver collection.

I also chose this piece because I love making them, they are so simple in design that it is a piece which had to be made. The kind of piece which I would miss if I didn’t make them. I feel they look better with wear, as time shows on the surface of this bracelet they become old friends. When everything else changes so rapidly this bracelet is timeless.

I make two different widths of this design, pictured is the widest and named Rio Grande for that reason, Rio Chico is the narrow one. This piece is carried by my galleries, please see my “About” page or from my studio.

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Necklace by Sam Patania

I received a commission earlier last month through my father to make one of his classic designs. The client wanted a duplicate of the necklace which was on our Tucson Museum of Art 1999 Stonewall Foundation Show catalog. Both my father and I looked through our archives of drawings and found the original drawings and templates for this piece.

 I ordered the coral from a supplier my father and I have done business with since the 1960’s, R.H. and Company out of Glendale, CA. They sent me this wonderful matched set and I went to work. This piece took me 2 weeks to craft after my apprentice , Dick Barber, did the initial cutting of the sections. This piece is all handmade out of sterling sheet and tubing. I used Argentium for the top layer of the overlay for it’s anti fire scale/tarnish properties. I cut the sawtooth bezel with the shear my grandfather used out of regular sterling.

Necklace by Sam Patania

This necklace has 34 corals set in it with the largest being 10*14 oval and the smallest is a 3mm round.

I was recently asked if I mind duplicating my father’s and grandfather’s work and my answer is that I love to do those projects. They are like old home week for me, it is how I was apprenticed and I miss those projects when I don’t have a commission. I still use the same tools I used when I apprenticed, the only difference being an extra flex shaft drill on my bench I bought from Otto Frei a few years ago. On my “new store bought” bench is also use the Bench Mate bench pin set up. Until I bought that bench I worked on benches my great uncle Carmello ‘Pat’ Patania made when my grandfather opened in Tucson in 1937. A few of the hand tools I use my father and grandfather used themselves and most of the larger tools like a bench sheer and bench break are of the same vintage and I use them daily.

This piece was made for a client who plans to give it to his lucky wife for Christmas. I hope she enjoys it for generations.

Necklace by Sam Patania

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Bracelets from Patania Collection

I selected these bracelets to be in the Patania Collection because they are timeless. They were designed by  my grandfather, Frank Patania Sr. in the 1940’s and are still as strong fashion statement today as they were then. Worn in pairs during the 1940’s and 1950’s they were all the jewelry necessary to complete the Southwestern look. Worn with jeans or dressed up they stood out.

My grandfather and dad made jewelry which was not only distinctive design but made in a way which was pulling the craft forward. Many of the pieces I have selected for the Patania Collection are ahead of their time and this bracelet is a good example. This bracelet is a reverse curve which was to become very popular 60 years after they were designed and made by my grandfather. I have the original tools he had made to produce these. These pieces are fabricated, all hand made. They are hollow so you get a heavy look with out being heavy. These are not thin pieces which will dent easily as so many hollow pieces are. What you get from these bracelets is pure Frank Patania Sr. at his most innovative and forward thinking design.

I updated this design by using Agentium Sterling silver which is very resistant to tarnish and simplifies how I am able to make them. I am able to keep the price reasonable even for an entirely hand made piece. For the bracelets pictured I used Morenci turquoise which my grandfather bought in the 1950’s. I have a small amount of this stone left and use it only for special designs like this one. I named this bracelet “Donna” for my step mother who has been the love of my father’s life for 30 years and a good friend to me.

Turquoise has become more popular to a larger market since the Internet has given the ability to see much more from sources which used to be difficult to find. My family has never followed trends we have always offered high quality turquoise with the idea that any high quality material will always be sought after. Low grade or poor quality will always be poor, high grade and high quality will always be increasingly rare.

The bracelets pictured went to Mark Bahti, www.bahti.com , and I believe at this time he still has one or two left.

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Ring from Patania Collection

I had lots of fun setting up this photo. I can’t remember who the hand model was but I borrowed a martini glass and shot this in front of a photograph taken from a magazine.

The Cathedral Ring pictured is a ring designed by my father in the 1960’s which I have included in my Patania Collection. The Patania Collection is a collection of classic designs taken from the three generations of Patania’s work. These are repeatable pieces which I inventory in a variety of materials. This allows me to provide my family’s designs in an affordable collection.

I have many pieces in the Patania Collection which I will post about over the next few weeks. I decided to put this collection together to keep popular designs available. I have a rich source of designs to pick from some of which have been made since the 1940’s. My challenge was to make them affordable in today’s market. Most of my family’s designs are fabricated pieces which means they are are entirely hand made. This was the way my grandfather worked his entire career. My father ran a workshop for much of his career and I even got a chance to do so early on. A workshop full of artisans is an expensive proposition these days which is why most hand made work on the market today is done over seas.

My way of making these pieces affordable was to have some of them cast by Racecar Jewelry run by Daniel Grandi. Daniel is a premier caster and can produce the finished I and my family require for our work. Finding Racecar to cast for me was a God send. There are many casters working today but my family’s designs were not made to be cast. The designs have large areas of open silver work which is exactly what a caster doesn’t want to do. Casting shiny surfaces is very difficult but, Daniel does it with consistency.

Cathedral Rings from Patania Collection

The Cathedral Ring is available in Topaz, Amethyst, Citrine, Ametrine and Smokey Quartz. It is a bold design which will get attention. It is definitely Patania.

It is available though the Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm, Tucson, AZ 85719, 520-325-1541. Or from my studio 520-795-0086.

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Ring by Sam Patania

Some of my work is influenced by ancient metal work I see in books or museums. A few years ago my kids and I went to LACOMA to see the Egyptian exhibit, it was the second Tut exhibit. I saw the first one too in San Francisco which I  toured think the US in the 1970’s. I try to look at all the metal work I can find, in books, magazines, museums, online and for sale in galleries. I am always looking for jewelry or metal sculpture.

The second Tut exhibit was really rich in metal objects. I also love Roman work and the two bracelets I wear all the time are simple forged pieces, very plain. I left the hammer marks on my bracelets and did very little finishing. I’ll post pictures in the future of these bracelets. I call them friendship bracelets after the bracelets I saw in Mexico which were woven and very simple and inexpensive. I wanted to make a friendship bracelet in metal. Some of the work I love the most is very simple.

These two rings are very simple, the one at the top of the post is an 18K gold band I stamped and file formed. I wanted it to have a Roman feel. A friend of mine bought this ring for his wedding band, I have known him since grade school. I loved the simplicity of it which also had some style, not plain and not over done.

This, as most of my work is, is fabricated giving it more of a nice feel. I have always felt that fabricated pieces feel better than cast. Wax carving can be a high art but 95% of all jewelry sold is cast very thin and cheap. In fact Walmart has been the leading seller of jewelry for many years world wide. As a matter of history I can only assume that the work sold in venues like Walmart reflect our times where there are few people willing to stand out. Price certainly has much to do with sales at Walmart but, the work doesn’t have to be boring just to be inexpensive. Boring is easy to manufacture so price is held down. Boring is a new common classic. Anyone brave enough to come to a studio artist is breaking a mold just by walking in. My clients are looking for value in uniqueness.

Ring by Sam Patania

This is a forged ring in which I set a Jeff Graham cut tourmaline ( www.faceters.com) . It is a very simple ring where I wanted the gold to have some personality but, when I set one of Jeff’s stones, it is the center piece. The design is off center and flows around the finger of the wearer as well as the stone itself. This ring was also fabricated, that is made of sheet gold.

I hope when they dig up some of my family’s work in two thousand years it is not mistaken for Walmart! I don’t think so.

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Bracelet by Sam Patania

This was the first fish bracelet I made. Inspired by my dad’s and grandfather’s fish designs I wanted to make one with Bisbee turquoise all over it. I made the fish outline with square wire and then put as much turquoise as I could bezel set into the center. This was difficult as the stones I was using were large and have to span the radius of the outside of the bracelet. I textured the background with a lined engraver. The dark back ground set the turquoise off just as I wanted it to. I finished off the fish with a sapphire eye.

Photographing bracelets is difficult for me, I stood this bracelet up in a dapping die which is visible in the back ground. I didn’t know which side of the bracelet to shoot so I picked his head. If I shot his side it wouldn’t look like a fish with out several photo’s showing more than one view. When worn the fish appears to be a tapered bracelet unless the wearer turns her wrist to show the head and tail. The eye is a hidden treasure under the wrist.

I have two more set of Bisbee picked out to make two more fish. These fish should be narrower than the one in this picture which was over 2 1/2 wide.

Mark Bahti sold this fish ealier this year.

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Ring by Sam Patania

It is such a beautiful day out, it is the day after Thanksgiving ‘08 and I am in my studio. Taj Mahal is playing blues on my IPod, it’s sunny and cool out. Most of the nation is in winter weather but in SoAz it is gorgeous. This is what we suffer through summer for. I have Christmas orders and some new clients who are interested in my work. The economic times are strange but, I have work for now. I don’t want to get too far in front of myself and start worrying. All I can do is work so that is what I plan to do no matter what happens in the future. I have too many designs I want to do, I bought some silver sheet two days ago to make some new bracelets. I need to get some of these orders farther along before I start to make the new bracelets though, I love this work.

I have a book about William Spratling which I look at often for inspiration. I was looking at it the other day when an all silver bracelet design came into my head and I had to run off and buy the silver for them right away. I drew out the design which is unusual for me and of course now the design is changing and variations are popping into my head. I’ll keep those bracelets on the back burner while I do my Christmas work, at least that is the plan. I may have to start them, I just never know.

I picked this ring to post about because it has the tactile element to it I try to impart to all my work. When you touch this ring it is smooth, the stones and metal flow right into one another. I made it out of 18K white gold with 24K gold bezels to hold the stones in. I made 18K beads to blend the stones together across the top. Picking a set of Bisbee turquoise is tough so when I find a set I try to keep it together. These stones are small and powerfully blue. I got these stones from Bruce Mead several years ago and waited to come up with a design to use them to their advantage.

I have some 18K gold to use and just got more Bisbee from Bruce a few days ago. The stones are large enough for a bracelet so I will have to design for them. Natural Bisbee is always cut in free form shapes so as not to waste any of the stone. The design has to be strong enough to stand on it’s own but take advantage of the free form shapes. I’ll think of something for those stones, it sometimes takes time for it to come to me, in the mean time I’ll work on the Christmas orders and I have the silver bracelets to look forward to making.

This ring is avalable at Mark Bahti’s store, www.bahti.com , 520-577-0290.

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