Arizona Artist Series: Mark Plehn Q&A Mark of Sacred Spirit Gems has a stirring array of crystals and crystal healing jewelry with stone combinations that are carefully arranged to create optimal healing results for the wearer. He was kind enough to answer some questions in our Arizona Artist Series about his design process and what inspires him. How did you get into metalsmithing? I began the initial metalsmithing aspect of my jewelry career learning how to set gemstone cabochons with sterling silver wire.  Almost twenty years ago I was fortunate enough to have met an amazing silver wire stone setting artist.  She had a small table at a very small northern Arizona town craft fair and after some conversation and my bold request for her to teach me, we ended up at my dining room table a few days later as she passed on her knowledge!  I was and am so grateful for her open-hearted sharing of her talents for my benefit and I appreciate the gift I received tha......

30 base patterns for cabochon rings, necklaces and earrings.  If you're like me, drawing perfectly symmetrical lines for your designs can be challenging. It's already hard enough to saw out exactly what you want when making a ring or necklace. I thought it would be fun to make up some base patterns that I use for my cabochon rings and necklaces for you to use. There are 30 of them along with a basic tutorial of how I went about using one with a bezel cup and cabochon. You can download it for free here . Let me know if you like it or would like to see different designs! It was fun to make and I hope it can help you make something special today. This is the silver and turquoise teardrop cabochon necklace I made with one of the base patterns for the tutorial. ...