Silversmithing - end of term

Silversmithing ended for the summer last week.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the last class as I fell down the stairs at work and badly sprained my ankle!  At the time, I actually thought it was broken, luckily, it wasn't, but it did mean I couldn't walk or drive.

There were three pieces I wanted to finish before summer.  The chain necklace I've been making for months which just needs to be cleaned up, I'm more than half way across.  This I could actually do at home, then just pickle and barrel polish it in September.  Secondly, the spinner ring which is a replacement for the one that didn't spin which was a replacement for the one that became too big!  And finally, a silver pendent using gold from my mum's wedding ring.

The pan-ultimate lesson brought some disasters.  See that raggedy bit towards the top left?  I melted it.  I heated it too much whilst annealing.  I had to file the whole things down.  I filed for about 90 minutes.  Ouch.

I took this picture about halfway through the filing!  You may notice that the join also split.  Oh dear, not going well!!

This is a new piece.  Sorry for the sideway-ness of the photos.  Apparently you can't rotate in Photobucket without it making a mess of the photo.  The bars are argentium, which I used in my brother's ring.  This makes it easier to attached the tiny gold circles which are cut from mum's wedding ring.  I used a hydrolic press with a set of circle cutters to cut such precise circles.  The idea was to attach them, then run them through the rolling mill to make an inlay, but I decided I liked them standing proud.  I just need to add tube to the back and clean them up and this will be ready.  Sadly, it will have to wait til September now, thanks to the fact I'm so clumsy!

A memory ring

I actually finished this ring a few weeks ago, but I have been struck with a mystery virus which means I've mainly been lying on the sofa, watching TV and moaning.

When we lost mum, I kept hold of her wedding ring.  My dad is the most unsentimental person in the world and treasures his memories of mum rather than her possessions.  I am not over sentimental, but this is her wedding ring.  However, I don't much like yellow gold, it's far too big for me and it's not something I would wear.  After a quick discussion with my brother, we decided I'd make a piece of jewellery for each of us using some of mum's ring.

My brother wanted a skinny ring.  After seeing a demo by my silversmithing tutor a couple of months ago on how to inlay gold into silver, I knew what I was going to do.  The wire in the picture above is argentium.  It is basically sterling silver with 1% of an element called Geranium in it.  This means it doesn't need soldering and will fuse to itself.  This was my first time using it.  The ring is mum's wedding ring.

I pierced a piece out with a saw and filed the edges.  This was incredibly emotional.  I didn't think it would effect me like that, but it did.

The sliver of yellow gold was then inlaid on the silver wire before forming it into a ring.  I don't have many pictures of the process, but I took a few of the finished ring.  I hope you can make it out.  After picking, filing, sanding and barrel polishing, the yellow gold went very dull and hard to make out.  My brother reports that it is becoming more yellow as he wears it.

The yellow is to the right of the centre in this photo.  You can also see where I fused it at the back.  I didn't do a great job, but the lack of solder meant I couldn't hide the join more.

The sliver is more obvious in this photo.

Next up is a pendent for me.  Not sure if you'll see it soon as we only have 3 more classes left before the summer break and I've also been working on a necklace for the past 300 years that I'm trying to finish!

poor defeated spinner ring

One of my earliest projects in silversmithing class was this fiddle ring.  I loved that ring and wore it every day.  I made it to fit on my middle finger.  Then I lost some weight.  You couldn't tell I'd lost weight, none of it came off my fat bits, it all came off my fingers!  The ring was too big... and no, I can't wear it on my thumb, my thumb is smaller than my middle finger.  I gave it to my BFF and set out to make another.

Complete and utter failure!  I only had a small piece of silver that wasn't long enough, so I rolled it through the rolling mill with a texture, and soldered on some copper.  I quite liked the two tone effect.  I made the small outer ring from square wire.  

Once the main ring is soldered, The outside is domed to keep the smaller ring in place.  The join between the silver and copper split.  I straightened, re-soldered, domed, it split.  Again and again.  Finally, I managed it!  I put the smaller ring on, domed the other end, and...

It doesn't spin!!  The outer ring is too small.

Failure.

Silversmithing update

It's been a while since I did a silversmithing update.  After the summer break, then a further enforced break whilst I had a broken shoulder, I went back to class in January.  

I've been working on the necklace that I started last year.  The copper was so tarnished it had to go in the pickle before I started.  I don't know what came over me when I decided to completely hand make a chain, madness!  The picture above is me trying to keep track of which rings were soldered, which ones were next and which grade of solder I'd used.  Solder comes in Hard, Medium, Easy and Extra Easy.  Hard has the highest melting point, so you start with this one.  If you solder something and it comes into contact with the flame again, you want it to be a higher grade so it doesn't remelt.  This would have been a lot easier to tackle if I didn't have a pattern to the chain involving copper and silver rings and larger silver rings!

I feel like I'm going to be soldering this forever.

For a bit of a break, I started another project.  Back in 2016 I made a fiddle ring.  I loved that ring and wore it every day.  Then I lost some weight.  None came off my ample behind or tummy, it came off my fingers!  Yeah, great, thanks body!  The ring no longer fits.  It was time for a new one.

I didn't have a long enough piece of silver, so I added in a copper section!  Since this photo, I filed it down and cleaned it up, but when I came to dome it (to accept the spinner ring), the solder cracked.  I'll be re-soldering this tomorrow night.  And hopefully finishing soldering the necklace... which means I have several months of filing and sanding ahead of me!

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.

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!

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!