cabochon ring

I have another silversmithing project that I haven't yet shared, and, as I wrote that, I remembered that I've been working on a bracelet too and was meaning to finish it during the summer break!

This is a cabochon ring.  A cabochon is a flat backed stone (or piece of resin, plastic, whatever), I've used them before in bead weaving and bead embroidery.  To mount a cabochon, using whatever technique, you create a bezel, in this case a strip of silver which surrounds the stone.

When I bought the supplies for this project, I didn't want to spend too much money and luckily, the stone I liked the best was this blue goldstone.  I think it cost me all of £1.90.  I don't have it on as I type this, so I can't check, but I think it's about 8mm diameter.

The process is to cut a piece of bezel strip (thin silver) to the right height using tin snips.  The day we made this I had terrible shakes due to the medication withdrawal so Lisa (the tutor) had to do it for me.  Usually I hate a tutor doing any part of my project for me, but I had no choice, I just couldn't do it, the fact they were right handed tin snips and I'm left handed didn't help but I'm usually quite good with right handed tools.  I formed it into a circle to fit the stone, then soldered it to a piece of 0.8mm silver sheet, I then pierced out around it with a jewellery saw.  The stone was put into place and then the top of the bezel strip is pushed down on to the top of the ring, just slightly round the edges so the stone can't escape.

I made a simple ring from 2mm round wire, though of course you could use any kind of wire, or flat sheet, you could texture it or stamp it first... the possibilities are endless.  I found it a really fiddly process and couldn't see myself doing it again, but I like the finished ring and I bought another stone at the same time (can't remember what it is now!) so I might have to try another.

Fiddle ring

I haven't been to silversmithing class since the beginning of July as we are having a summer break.  I thought I'd get round to showing everyone the pieces I made before we start the next term in September.

I was really pleased that the tutor Lisa had fiddle rings on the schedule.  Mr CA has a fiddle ring (bought, not made) where the band has a groove in the centre and a wire ring fits in the band but can be spun around.  I've always liked the ring and wanted to make one of my own.  The end result is different, but I'm happy with it.

You all know I struggle with taking pictures of jewellery (and pictures of anything else for that matter!) but I think you can make out what I'm trying to show you.  There is a flat band which curves top and bottom.  Held between these curves is a wire ring which moves freely on the band, but can't come off.

Perhaps you can make out the texture?  This was achieved using a rolling mill and pieces of fabric.  I used some small pieces of copper with a variety of fabrics to see which texture I wanted to achieve.  The results were really interesting.

Here are the pieces of copper on top of the fabric I rolled them with.  The one on the left above is a piece of thick jersey, the one on the right is an upholstery fabric with a very defined raised weave.

Left above is a piece of canvas and right is some kind of synthetic material, the kind you might make a scarf from, it falls apart if you pull it around.

This was from a bag of fruit, a plastic mesh.  I thought this would be the winner but actually, the texture was rubbish.

I don't know if you can make it out, but I used the yellow synthetic material.  I wrapped it round the piece of silver so it is textured inside and out.  Clearly, I could not clean up the join as it would remove the texture so you can see the join in the band.  Not in the wire ring though so it's easy enough to keep the seam in the band to the inside of my hand.

I really enjoyed making this, I can't wait to do some more experimenting with the rolling mill.  I also love the finished ring and wear it a lot.

Silver bracelet

I finally finished another piece in silversmithing class.  I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago but keep forgetting to take photos as it's usually on my wrist rather than in a "to photograph" pile.

The task was to make a silver bracelet using links of soldered wire.  I chose to use a 1.5mm square wire, never one to make things easy on myself, I chose a wire that likes to twist itself round whilst you're trying to solder it!

I made 6 large links - they're about 1", then a slightly smaller link to use as a clasp.  I made some small links which are just over 1/4" to link them together.  I spent a LOT of time filing, sanding and polishing these links so the solder joint is completely invisible.

I made the toggle clasp using a piece of the wire which I hammered to get a lovely texture, I then soldered a little half-circle to the back which I could use to attach it to the bracelet with the jump rings I'd made.  When I put it all together, it was too big.  I was going to discard the link I'd made for the clasp but was worried the toggle would fall out of the larger link, so I experimented with putting the two inside each other and a design was born!

I am incredibly proud of this bracelet.  It took me many hours to make (mostly sanding!) and I love the accidental design.  It's barely been off my wrist and I was no opportunity to shove it in someone's face and say "I made this"!  Next up in silversmithing is a bezel-set cabochon ring.  No idea what that is?  You'll find out...  Just give me a few more weeks to do some serious sanding!

Speed Craft #2 - Brass work

April was the first Speed Craft of the year at Debbie Bryan.  Me and wonderful mum went last year in October and loved it so much there was no way we were going to miss this one!

There were 5 craft tables and 5 groups of 8 ladies (I would have loved to have seen some men there, but alas, there were none!).  We started at one table, had 45 minutes to craft, then a tea break before moving to the next table.  We continued round the room like this, stopping for lunch and for tea breaks.

We were welcomed with Bucks Fizz (I had Elderflower Cordial as I'm allergic to oranges and can't drink alcohol!).  We started with ceramics brooches/buttons with Katie Almond, moved on to metal working with Emma Hender.  Then there was a break for lunch before we did some concrete work with Bethany Walker, more coffee then a needle felting session with Debbie.  The last table was origami notebooks with Katie McKeag who works at the shop.  I can't find any web links for Katie.  We finished up with Cosmopolitans (more Elderflower for me!) and more cake!  I forgot to mention cake was served several times during the day....

I'm starting with our second table as at the time of writing I hadn't received back our ceramics or concrete pieces.

Emma is a silversmith.  She'd bought a load of brass rings which she'd oxidised - that gives it the black surface.  This meant we could scratch and scrape into it to create patterns or pictures.  Great idea Emma as a silversmithing taster can't be an easy thing to plan!

I was enjoying it so much I didn't take any photos of the equipment we used - I really am a bad blogger!  I mainly used a scribe - a sharp pointy tool - to score and scrape at the metal to create geometric lines.  The W was unintentional!

I used a file to scratch the ends and the top and bottom to reveal the brass.

I have also inscribed a song lyric inside the ring, but that's staying private!

Of course, I enjoyed this, I do love metalwork / silversmithing, and I can safely say I'll be doing more of it - every Wednesday in fact!

Cloud with a silver lining

I'm getting towards the end of my first term of silversmithing and I haven't had much to show!  Piercing out shapes is quite quick, soldering is quite quick, but filing, sanding and polishing is not!

This is the second piece I've made.  I hammered a sheet of 1mm silver with the round end of a hammer to create a nice texture, then I pierced out a cloud shape.  I'm afraid my photos aren't great.  The top one shows the colours well, but the second one shows the texture which I just couldn't capture before.

Nor did I think to take a photo of the back! I've soldered a little arch on the back, the chain is threaded through the arch.  I drilled 3 holes at the bottom.  I then made my own headpins by heating the end of a piece of wire in a torch flame until it balled up.  I added a crystal and and wrap-looped them onto the cloud.

I am VERY proud of this piece and I'm pleased to say that I've had quite a few compliments whilst wearing it!

I'm currently working on a bracelet and hope to have that finished to show you soon.  I've signed up for the next term which begins in April.

Silversmithing - rings

Last year me and Mr CA did a 2 day silver jewellery making workshop.  The teacher was so good that I put myself on her waiting list for her evening class.  Back in January, a space came up so I'm not attending a silversmithing class every Wednesday evening.  My teacher is Lisa Pearson, I can't find her on social media, so you'll have to believe me when I say she's a brilliant teacher.  Not only does she clearly know her onions, she's a really good teacher, great with an explanation and very patient.

Most of the class have been doing it for a while, so they kind of get on with their own thing and Lisa helps and advises when she's needed.  She also does a demonstration on different silversmithing techniques each class.  There is one other newbie besides me and we are going through a schedule designed to teach us the basics.

Over the first three weeks we made 3 silver rings.  The first (on the left) is made from simple 2mm round silver wire, shaped, soldered, filed and hammered to give a nice texture.  Mine turned out too big so I didn't bother polishing it up, though I may incorporate it into a necklace in the future in which case I will finish it.

The middle ring is made from 2mm x 3mm D-wire.  The inside is flat to your finger, the outside is curved.  This is just shaped, soldered and polished and I'm really happy with mine.

Finally we made a ring from 1mm sheet silver.  We used a pre-cut blank and textured it with a cross-pein hammer to give the bark texture.  We then soldered, filed and polished before burnishing to bring up the shine.  I'm also very happy with this ring but don't find it very comfortable to wear as it's 7mm high and I've only got titch fingers.

Week 4 was a pendent so watch out for that coming up...

Silversmithing

Mr CA and I went on a fab silversmithing workshop ran by the local college at a local venue The Textile Workshop.  Yes, you read that right, Mr CA came with me!  It's his first time to one of my craft classes but it's something he's fancied giving a go for a while and we have talked about it in the past.  I found this class on the Textile Workshop's website and as it was £38 per person for a 2-day course (excluding materials) there was no way I was passing it up!

It was a great class, the tutor - Lisa Pearson - was brilliant and we both enjoyed it.  Mr CA will be my beautiful assistant, demonstrating the various stages we went through to make these rings.  (I made these rings, Mr CA made a masculine one for himself).

We started with 2mm silver wire which we bent around a ring mandrel and hammered with a rawhide mallet to get it to the correct size and a perfect circle.

As there was an overlap, we used a piercing saw (like a hacksaw) on a bench peg to saw the join between the overlaps to make our ring bases.

This is what you come out with after that stage:

Then comes the fun bit - soldering!  The join is painted with flux which is a liquid that helps the solder to run.  A tiny pallion of hard solder was added to the join and then you use a blowtorch to melt the solder into the join.

It is quenched in cold water, then placed into pickle - an acid-based liquid heated to 60 degrees centigrade - to burn off the fire scale.  It's then rinsed in cold water.  Then it was time to file to get the joins lovely and perfect.

It was about this time that I became so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to take many more photos!  At this stage you could hammer the ring with a ball pein (round) or cross pein (wide and short) hammer to create a texture.  I did that on 2 of my rings.  I forgot to say at the start, we were making a set of 5 stacking rings, though I quickly discovered my fingers are too stumpy for 5 rings, so I made a set of 2 stacking rings to be worn with 1 spacer, and a single ring to be worn with 2 spacers.

I cut out these shapes from 0.8mm silver metal sheet using the piercing saw we used to cut the rings.  It was quite tricky and fiddly but I didn't cut myself.  I hammered some dots on one of the flowers (that's what they're supposed to be!) and for a tail of the bunny using a centre punch which is a spike you hit with a hammer.  There's a lot of hammering in silversmithing!

I shaped the flower using this.  This is a doming block and the doming punches to use with it.  I put the flowers into the concave slots, then hammered the punch on top to create the curves.  I made a couple of silver balls by just heating a small piece of silver, then soldered these into the rings.  The ring tops were then soldered onto the bases using easy solder, pickled and rinsed.

The penultimate step is to clean up the rings using needle files and them emery paper of various grades until the rings are as perfect as you can get them.  As you can see in the above photo, the soldering process leaves them white.  We put them into a barrel polisher and they came out all sparkly!

Here are the spacer rings with the bunny, can you see the light glinting off the spacer rings?

I had a bit of time left, so I used a piece of copper to cut some circles using a circle punch, then domed them in the doming block.  I drilled top and bottom, except for one which was just drilled at the bottom.  I plan to do some enamelling on them and turn them into a pendent.

I also used some more 2mm wire to make necklace connectors.  I spiralled them using pliers which was really difficult as the wire was so thick.  I then ran them through the rolling mill which flattens them.  I have plans for these, hopefully I'll show you before too long.  I also pierced out the heart, though I didn't have much time for finishing it properly.  I think I'll texture it, then I can use it in a piece.

Well that was a long post!  It was a brilliant class and I WILL be doing more silversmithing!  I'm on the waiting list for an evening class, but I also intend to do some at home... watch this space (but not too soon, you know how it takes me an age to get to anything!).  This class was also responsible for pulling me out of a depressive episode which just shows the power of craft!

soldered circles

I'm afraid this is a bit of a dull post (aren't they all!) with only one photo.  The Wonderful Mum and I went to a class at The Bead Shop Nottingham to practice working with solder again.  Last time we made copper components and I made my favourite piece of jewellery: this copper bunny necklace.

This time we were working with sterling silver wire and I made my second favourite necklace ever!  I really should get it together to do some soldering at home as I really do love the results.

This simple piece is 3 wire circles, hammered to give them texture (I only hammered the outer two), then soldered to make continuous circles.  It's then simply hung on a chain.  I like it because it's understated and though I usually wear more statement kind of jewellery, I like something elegant once in a while.  

burn that bunny

A couple of weeks ago saw me and my lovely mum attending another jewellery class at The Bead Shop Nottingham.  It was basic silver-smithing, focusing on soldering using wire.  We were given some copper wire and shown how to make links.  Then we were left to it... immediately an idea formed...

Oh what a surprise, I made a bunny!  I am over the moon with this necklace.  Usually in the technique classes I don't go home with a finished piece, but I knew exactly where I was going with this one.

First I made the circular links.  Form a link from 1mm copper wire, cut and file the edges, solder, pickle, rinse, sand, hammer flat, hammer to add texture.  I REALLY enjoyed this technique.

I made 4 links in total, then I tackled the bunny.  I formed the shape I wanted and then filed the points that were to be soldered.  It's the bit between his ears.  Of course, I formed the shape, it all fit perfectly, I then fiddled with the neck and the ears moved.  It took me ages to get them aligned again!

We also learnt how to make ball-end head pins.  These are bits of wire with a ball or a flat circle on the end so that you can thread on beads.  I made 6 and then went downstairs to raid the shop for crystals.  These were 15p each, but they are Swarovski and they are stunningly beautiful in the flesh.  Or in the crystal.  

I also picked up a large white Swarovski opal for the bunny tale.  It's simply wired in place.  You can see the join where I soldered him in the photo below, but I don't mind that.  He's also hammered to add texture.

I also bought a trace chain and cut it up to form links between the components.  I made the jump rings too and was planning on making the clasp, but the trace chain came with one so I just used that.  Apart from the chain and clasp, it's entirely hand made.

What do you think?  I love it, it's one of the best things I've ever made.  There's only one problem with it...

Bunny tends to fall sideways when I'm wearing him... I wonder if I need to wire the chain to his ears tightly instead of having him on jump rings?

I'm joining in with Something Old, Something New, this will be my "new".  I'm also linking up with Fiona's Something New for 2014 as although I've soldered lead before, I've never soldered silver or such delicate items.