Improving Handmade Jewelry Production is the Maine Goal

Improving Handmade Jewelry Production is the Maine Goal

One of things I find so rewarding about working with Made By Survivors is the opportunity to witness the many wonderful attributes of the human spirit.  Not only do I see unbelievable changes in the exploited women who create our handmade jewelry, but I get to see incredible acts of generosity from people who support our fair trade jewelry programs.

Examples of cut metal from the blanking dies.

Recently, I just returned from Jayne Redman’s beautiful new studio in Portland, Maine. A few months back, she put forward an amazing opportunity for me to come to Maine and learn a jewelry technique that will help drastically improve our production of artisan jewelry in India.  Jayne put forth this amazing offer immediately upon hearing about our programs, I’m talking somewhere around minute two; a truly selfless act as the offer was a donation not only of her time and precious knowledge but also materials.

This low-tech technique, making blanking dies from tool steel, is one of Jayne’s teaching specialties and the cornerstone of her current line.  For Made By Survivors, the technique will allow us to hand cut a pattern and punch the design rather than hand saw each, individual design which is laborious. Making blanking dies requires only basic hand tools and no electricity, a major boon for working effectively in India with the constant power outages that can last for hours at a time. This is a huge improvement when making multiples of same jewelry component. Another upside is the jewelry remains completely handmade because the pattern is hand sawed and hand punched using a vise.

For survivors of human trafficking and slavery in our programs, the implications of this new technique are vast. The survivors will be able to move through orders much more rapidly and punching the designs is simple enough for a newbie to do while really feeling they are making contribution. The time-saving aspect will not only allow our metalsmiths to practice new techniques, but most importantly, it will have a direct, positive affect on their salaries as our metalsmiths can produce our handcrafted jewelry more quickly.

I can’t wait to teach the women in our studios how to make dies so we can implement them immediately. Through the generosity, support and love of others, we can continue to improve the lives and empower the survivors we work with, even if it is just a little bit at a time.

Jayne giving me a demonstration

Jayne’s site: www.jayneredmanjewelry.com for her current line and workshop schedule

Dianna Badalament, Artisan Goldsmith

Growing up in Long Island, New York provided Dianna with the unique experience to be inspired by the bounties of nature and the bounties of an urban, cultural mecca. Beachcombing and making talismans from the ocean’s treasures are some of her earliest memories, as are thrill-seeking adventures to the various havens and haunts of New York City. Recreating that feeling of wonder is something she works to capture, as is the balancing of organic, rustic elements, and urban grit; classical metalsmithing foundations and contemporary design, in her fine jewelry.

Inspiration for the jewelry comes from all aspects of nature, ancient stories, foreign lands, rock and roll, and gritty cities. Jewelry collections are named for the mythological deities of Ancient Rome and Greece. Ancient myth’s divine characters, symbolism, and personification of nature, are an endless muse and feeling like a modern god or goddess in your artisan adornment is an ideal state of being. The idea that the bulk of these ancient myths are younger than the art of goldsmithing is also enchanting, as one of the principal deities of Roman mythology was the god of fire and blacksmithing, Vulcan.

Dianna has a B.A. from University at Albany, New York, where she had the amazing opportunity to study, live and travel in Europe for a semester. She studied the classical techniques of metalworking at Jewelry Arts Institute in New York City and Revere Academy of the Jewelry Arts in San Francisco, where she completed the School’s Jewelry Technician Intensive Program. Dianna worked at the Kristin Hanson Studio in Brooklyn, NY where she was a studio assistant and instructor. She is a member of the Metal Arts Guild in San Francisco and is a part of a community of metalsmiths working to use eco-friendly practices such as recycling metal, using conflict free gemstones and seeking out products that contribute to operating a “greener” studio. Currently, Dianna resides in beautiful Northern California continuing to live her dreams.