Golden Anderson Studios invited some of the staff and volunteers from the Millicent Rogers Museum for a demo day.
General overview of jewelry tools and samples
This demo was geared towards Millicent Rogers and the jewelry that she designed. We know that she made jewelry, we don’t know how much she could physically do. During the last few years living in Taos she suffered from a stroke that left her Right arm weak. She used to work wax to keep her hands and arms strong. I can tell she loved to work with wax and have things cast in silver, her own variety of red gold as well as 24K gold.
Describing the process of creating the Ulu Bolo
During the demo I showed lots of the different tools that I have made during the process of reproducing her copyrighted designs. I demonstrated some of these jewelry making processes and tools so the staff have a better working knowledge of the jewelry that they see in the Museum. I chose some of the more dramatic things to demonstrate like turning on a huge torch and doing some casting.
Having a little fun
In the process of re-creating a design of hers I take meticulous notes about all the sizes, shapes, thicknesses and processes I use from the beginning to the very end… just like a recipe for baking a cake.
Setting up a die in the hydraulic press
There are not many people that get to see the jewelry making process. This was a great way to briefly explain and show what happens during some of these manufacturing steps. At the end we had some really interesting discussions about Millicent, her life here in Taos, her tremendous spirit and the huge gifts she left behind.
Getting ready to demo the soldering of a bolo tip
