The idea for this necklace had its origins earlier this year. At my jewellery making evening class we were given the opportunity to have an object cast in silver. The object had to be one that would be burned away in the
lost wax casting method, and I took along a cluster of three empty acorn cups.
The resulting silver piece was attractive, and I toyed with the idea of adding felt balls to the cups, but in the end decided the silver was just a little heavy for jewellery.
When autumn arrived I started to make a selection of felt balls in autumnal colours, some with patterns. I wanted to make something a little different from the plain bead strings I'd made before, and it was when I picked up some more acorn cups that I realised what to do. I would put felt balls into real acorn cups. These would require cold connections, so this would also give me more practice with tube riveting, with which I haven't had much success to date. The main part of the necklace (there's a photo right at the end of this post) is made up of felt balls strung on 0.46 mm 7 strand beading wire. The balls are made from merino tops. The basic shape of each one was made by needle felting. A few of the balls have patterns (spots and stripes) that were added by needle felting. All the balls were finished off by wet felting. The necklace has a wet-felted string, and fastens with a felted ball and loop. There are silver jumps rings included in various places to balance the appearance of the shiny rivets.
It is the pendant that involved the most work. It is made up of two acorn cups, complete with stalks, and bound together with 0.6 mm sterling silver wire. Each cup has a felt ball attached to it by a tube rivet. Here's how I did the riveting.
Step 1. Wash the acorn cups thoroughly. I collected mine in an area grazed by sheep so was very conscious of the need for this!
Step 2. Make the first hole in the side of the cup. I used a 1.2 mm bit in a small hand drill, and then enlarged the hole with a 1.5 mm drill (I am going to be using 1.6 mm outer diameter tubing for the riveting). I found that trying to bevel the outside of the hole to get a countersunk rivet led to me breaking the acorn cups. This is an option better left for riveting in metal.
Step 3. Start the second hole by first putting the drill through the first hole, so that the two holes will be well aligned. Make the second hole.
Step 4. Before cutting the tubing, push it through both holes. This will enlarge the hole to just the right size and you can mark the tube to show where to cut. Have only about 1 mm sticking out at each end. If the tube is too long it will bend when you try to form the rivet - I know, mine did!
Step 5. Cut the tube to length using a piercing saw, neaten the ends with a needle file.
Step 6. Place a felt ball in the cup. Run a large needle through the holes and through the ball. Repeat in the other direction. Then place the needle back in the channel you have just created and pull the needle back and forth, keeping it in the ball, so that you can remove the cup.
Step 7. Replace the needle with a round needle file or an awl and leave it in place. This will enlarge the channel ready to take the tubing, but it needs to stay in place as holes in felt balls are self healing, and the hole will have disappeared by the time you've picked up your tubing for the next step!
Step 8. Push the cut-to-length tube through the hole in the ball instead of the file/awl.
Step 9. Insert the ball and tube into the cup, pushing the ends of the tube through the holes in the cup.
Step 10. Fix the tube in place using standard tube riveting techniques, which I won't cover here. Tube riveting is described in most Jewellery Techniques books, and there's an online tutorial available
here. You need to register to get access to the tutorial, but registration is free.
Step 11. Throw away your broken acorn cup, choose a new one and return to step 2! It was difficult to rivet the delicate acorn cups, and I broke five cups along the way to successfully riveting two for the pendant.
And here's the finished necklace:
It has both fibre and found objects and fits the
Whiplash theme for October/November 2007, which is fibre & mixed media inspired jewellery.
Until recently I had thought that the only way to reuse the silver in this old bracelet (at the back of the picture) would be to melt it down and use it for casting. However, with my recent experience in forming, it occurred to me that the components could be recycled by forming techniques, which would also wipe out the surface pattern. The two shiny bits of silver in the front of the picture were each generated by annealing a link from the bracelet, and planishing it on a steel stake. 
This (you can click on the image for a larger view) is my idea for converting the fold formed earring project into a pendant. Instead of cutting two separate tapered pieces, I'll keep them joined together. I am planning to try option (a) rather than (b), as the wider part of the fold is then available for drilling holes for hanging the pendant. My main concern is that the curve will form quite differently than it did for two separate pieces. We'll see!
These silver earrings are being made in exactly the same way as the first copper pair (I followed the project on p60 of Elizabeth Olver's Jewellery Making Techniques Book). 
The idea is to use it to hold pallions of solder so that they are easy to pick up when soldering.
1. Just starting to hammer the folded pieces
These earrings are my very first attempt at fold forming and I am thrilled with the result. I followed the project on p60 of Elizabeth Olver's Jewellery Making Techniques Book.
It was very satisfying when the tapered, folded metal began to form the promised curve! I shall include photos taken at different stages of the process in a later post. I used 0.5 mm copper sheet (instead of 0.4 mm) and changed the hoops to posts, but otherwise followed the instructions. The outer diameter of each semi-circle measures about 35 mm.
I found these seed heads by the roadside in East Lothian at the weekend. Of course they don't look quite like this in real life, as I had some fun tinting the picture to go with the blog! I think these would be good for casting. They are open at the top and I love the little crown around the edge.
A quote from the Ganoskin article on repoussé:
When autumn arrived I started to make a selection of felt balls in autumnal colours, some with patterns. I wanted to make something a little different from the plain bead strings I'd made before, and it was when I picked up some more acorn cups that I realised what to do. I would put felt balls into real acorn cups. These would require cold connections, so this would also give me more practice with tube riveting, with which I haven't had much success to date. The main part of the necklace (there's a photo right at the end of this post) is made up of felt balls strung on 0.46 mm 7 strand beading wire. The balls are made from merino tops. The basic shape of each one was made by needle felting. A few of the balls have patterns (spots and stripes) that were added by needle felting. All the balls were finished off by wet felting. The necklace has a wet-felted string, and fastens with a felted ball and loop. There are silver jumps rings included in various places to balance the appearance of the shiny rivets.
It is the pendant that involved the most work. It is made up of two acorn cups, complete with stalks, and bound together with 0.6 mm sterling silver wire. Each cup has a felt ball attached to it by a tube rivet. Here's how I did the riveting.
Step 2. Make the first hole in the side of the cup. I used a 1.2 mm bit in a small hand drill, and then enlarged the hole with a 1.5 mm drill (I am going to be using 1.6 mm outer diameter tubing for the riveting). I found that trying to bevel the outside of the hole to get a countersunk rivet led to me breaking the acorn cups. This is an option better left for riveting in metal.
Step 4. Before cutting the tubing, push it through both holes. This will enlarge the hole to just the right size and you can mark the tube to show where to cut. Have only about 1 mm sticking out at each end. If the tube is too long it will bend when you try to form the rivet - I know, mine did!
Step 6. Place a felt ball in the cup. Run a large needle through the holes and through the ball. Repeat in the other direction. Then place the needle back in the channel you have just created and pull the needle back and forth, keeping it in the ball, so that you can remove the cup. 
Step 7. Replace the needle with a round needle file or an awl and leave it in place. This will enlarge the channel ready to take the tubing, but it needs to stay in place as holes in felt balls are self healing, and the hole will have disappeared by the time you've picked up your tubing for the next step!
Step 8. Push the cut-to-length tube through the hole in the ball instead of the file/awl. 
Step 9. Insert the ball and tube into the cup, pushing the ends of the tube through the holes in the cup.
Step 10. Fix the tube in place using standard tube riveting techniques, which I won't cover here. Tube riveting is described in most Jewellery Techniques books, and there's an online tutorial available here. You need to register to get access to the tutorial, but registration is free.
Step 11. Throw away your broken acorn cup, choose a new one and return to step 2! It was difficult to rivet the delicate acorn cups, and I broke five cups along the way to successfully riveting two for the pendant.
These are the planished earrings previously posted in their unpolished state. Now, after tumble polishing, they are nice and shiny. It has been pointed out that they are not quite square, so I'll need to take a file to them. The side length is about 15 mm. 
This repoussé hammer was on special offer, and I couldn't resist it. I think it will be suitable for planishing too. There is a shortage of undamaged tools at the class, so it will be great to have my own. 
Carried on planishing the shallow copper bowl at the class this week. It is looking OK, but there are a few dents from the edge of the hammer. The two smaller pieces in the photo are also planished, from 0.5 mm copper sheet, but they'll need a stint in the tumble polisher to bring the finish back up again after pickling.
