This posting is for all my students. Many of you are eager to keep making on your own so I've created this list to help you choose the basic tools.

Class at The Soundwave Factory

What tools do I need to get started?

So you have learned the basics and now you are hooked! You can't sleep because you're thinking of what you are going to make next.

The good thing about a jeweller's bench is you need little room to set one up. If you have a woodworking friend get them to cut a semi-circle in an old desk.  If you don't buy a clamp and clamp a bench pin to your kitchen table if need be.

As you've already learned jewellery requires a lot of sanding and filing. Save buying the torch until later and prepare everything you need at home before you pay for studio time. Here are the tools you can't live without, everything else will come in good time.

-jeweller's saw, 2/0 sawblades

-flexible shaft (foredom) and small burrs, brushes and a split mandrel

-emery paper - make sanding sticks out of paint sticks

-pliers, flat, snipe, parallel, half-round and round, snips- if you're already a beader you have most of these

-hand files (#2 cut 6" long, one flat, one half round)

-needle files (square, round, half round, triangular)- pay more for swiss cut if possible

-ring mandrel

-rawhide mallet

-steel hammer

-vernier callipers

-steel ruler

-a sharp pin - this can be used as a scribe

-center punch

-dividers

-a thin "sharpie" marker

I think those are the basics, let me know if I have missed something you can't live without!

What would we do without our RCA cords?  I have a pile of tangled up cords just waiting to be put to good use.  Much time has been spent plugging, unplugging, rearranging, re-routing just to hear the music!