Review - Brief number 3: Design and make

Image created using Picasa and the Hockneyizer.

The third brief at Level 3 of my course was introduced in this post, with a follow up in this one.

We were asked to produce a learning journal based on a theme, to design a suite of jewellery based on the materials in the journal and finally to make the jewellery we had designed. I chose "Coast" as my theme, and settled on the shape of a ripple in the sand as the basis for my designs.

I produced a set of three pieces (a bracelet, earrings and a ring) that all included the ripple motif. As with the previous brief I am very happy to have followed a documented design process, and feel I am getting closer to working like a real designer. I like the finished pieces too, which hasn't always been the case!

The Coast learning journal contains a lot more material that I didn't exploit this time around, especially concerning colour, so I shall return to it in the future.

The end of the beginning

Display cases at end of year exhibition for OCN jewellery classes

My contribution to the display.


I have now attended the last class of the three year OCN (Open College Network) course. The time has gone very quickly. I have learned a great deal, and my approach to jewellery making has certainly matured - I shall be reflecting on this in a future post.

The college I attended has had to respond over the years to changes in the way in which government funding is made available for adult education. Such funding reduces the cost to the student. The OCN class I attended involved quite a lot of assessment because it was a requirement for continued funding. The assessment suited me rather well, as I like to document my progress (hence this blog!), but for many people the emphasis on assessment meant that there was less time for the practice that is essential when learning. More changes mean that this year was the last one that the OCN course was run, so I feel very lucky to have completed my three years just in time. In future, the college will be running more expensive, but less assessed, courses instead.

I called this post "The end of the beginning" because for me the classes represented the foundations of what will be a longer period of activity. I intend to keep designing and making jewellery, but recognise that I will need to set myself tasks and targets, as it would be very easy to stop without the structure provided by weekly classes.

Ripple earrings v2.0

I love my double ripple earrings, but they are just a bit big and dangly for me to consider them for everyday wear. This latest pair is slightly less flamboyant, with only one, smaller ripple on each earring. The total drop is 4.5 cm (1.75"), and the ripples themselves measure about 25 mm by 12 mm ( 1" x 0.5"). The ripples are made from 1.3 mm diameter silver wire. Because this wire is thicker than the 1 mm wire I was using before, it was possible to replace the hanging loop with a drilled hole. The wire was hammered flat and the hole drilled using a 1 mm drill bit.

One of my classmates gave me a really good tip for using such a fine drill. He shortens the shaft by holding the bit in two pairs of pliers and twisting so that it breaks. The bit can then be put in the chuck with only a short (e.g. 1 cm) length sticking out. It is much easier to control and doesn't go all wobbly in use!

There was only one solder join to make on each ripple, and I managed to make the joins quite neatly. The ripples were forged, and finished using 600 grit wet and dry paper, followed by a 20 minute tumble polish.

Ripple poll: vote for your favourite Ripple

I've set up a new online poll - you can see it in the sidebar on the right of this blog, just below the introductory bit. Please vote in the poll to let me know which of the three Ripple pieces you like the best! There are full size pictures of each of the pieces in this post. The poll will be open until 11 August 2008, but please cast your vote soon. I take great delight in seeing the votes come in!

The Ripple Suite: Complete

Double ripple earrings and bracelet


Ripple band ring with liver of sulphur (sulfur) patina. It is 5 mm wide.


Double ripple earrings (again)

And the inspirational photo.

The work in progress posts: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
The design posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

What do *you* see?

There's a little stick figure man in there (his head is where the two small ripples overlap) - see him? There's also a hint of two pregnant ladies, with tiny heads ...

First adventures with liver of sulphur

I am amazed at my success with applying a liver of sulphur/sulfur patina to one of my fold formed earrings. I would have been happy with black, but getting lovely colours was quite a bonus! Whether I shall be able to repeat this is, of course, quite another thing.

I started with the ripple band ring. I scrubbed it with soap and water, then applied pumice powder using a glass brush.

I used liquid liver of sulphur, sold by an art clay supplier who supplied it in the little bottle shown here. I added the liquid to hot tap water in the tub on the right. The red liquid came out of the bottle in a little glug rather than drops, but there were probably 10 drops or so. The ring was suspended from a thread and submerged for about 30 seconds.

This is how the ring looked after rinsing. I sanded the surface of the ripples with 600 grit wet and dry paper, but thought that the oxidation wasn't dark enough, so dipped the ring for a further half minute.

Here's the ring after its second dunk, and after sanding the ripples and the edges to remove the oxidation there. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Then I found my fold-formed earrings. I decided just to try the nicer one, which has more regular surface indentations. This time I didn't use any pumice powder, but just scrubbed the earring with soap and water, then rinsed and dried it. It took much longer for a colour change to take place this time, perhaps because the solution had cooled down, or because there was soap or grease left on the surface. The inside of the shape (which hadn't been scrubbed) turned black first.

When the silver had turned a copper-like colour, I removed it from the liver of sulphur, rinsed it and used wet and dry paper on the surface. Then I returned it to the solution for a couple of minutes, before rinsing and sanding again.

And this was the result.

Progress with Ripple pieces

The bracelet has been tumble polished and is now completed. The main section is 16 cm (6.25") long

The double ripple earrings (in silver, based on this copper test piece) need more tumbling, and perhaps a little shape tweaking. The two shapes are arranged slightly differently from the prototype, as they look better that way in this case!

The band ring is coming along. I have shaped the flat strip (seen in this post) into a ring. I've done some filing and sanding, but it still needs to be tidied up considerably. I think that this ring may become my first experiment with liver of sulphur.

Setting another polymer clay cabochon

I need a bit more practice with making bezel settings. I am getting much better at the first steps, but am not happy with the results of using the pusher and burnisher. The final result looks crinkly and unprofessional. So I'm setting another polymer clay cabochon that I made a year or so ago.

The cabochon is identical in shape and size to the one featured before because I used the same mould to make it (pictured). I think I bought mine from here. The cabochons are relatively easy to make following the instructions that come with the mould. Most of the effort goes into the finishing using various grades of wet and dry paper (used wet).

Here are four pictures taken during the setting process.The first three are in the phase when using the pusher, the last one (bottom right) is after some work with the burnisher. I am finding these photos very useful. They show up irregularities that I don't notice by eye - that little notch on the right hand side for example. I should have removed it before stating to push the bezel.

and now there are three

I made a little pendant to go with the earrings I made earlier. This shape is the baseball design on p81 of Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders, but with one of the loops removed. The circles are about 1 cm across.

Review - Brief number 2: Combining techniques

Image created using Picasa and the Hockneyizer.

The second brief at Level 3 of my course was introduced in this post.

A list of seven techniques was given, and we were asked to design a piece of jewellery that used at least two of the techniques. I had to exclude two because I hadn't been very successful with them in previous efforts (repousse and enamelling) and two because I hadn't yet tried them for myself (casting and using a variety of metals). This left forming, mixed media and stone setting.

My final piece, the tree ring and felt design, included mixed media and stone setting techniques. Although the piece isn't a particularly dramatic combination of two advanced techniques, I'm pleased with it. One of my aims with this brief was to move beyond producing beginner pieces and to try and make something that was the product of a documented design process. In this respect at least, I have succeeded!

Finished at last! Tree ring and felt design

I am pleased to report the completion of this piece!

Things I like about it: The holder for the felt. I like the way it looks. The felt slice was easy to insert, fits snugly and looks smart. The shape of the rings. That it is the first thing I’ve made that really was inspired by a photo.

Things I would change: The rings should be thicker. The flattening of the square wire was necessary to disguise mishaps. It would have been good to retain the square shape.

This is the clasp I made. The chain is purchased, and I suspect it is too delicate. I'm pleased with the rings made with square wire.

Side view!

The inspirational photo

And the design drawing

Finally, here’s a list of the previous posts about this design:
Design phase: 1 2 3 4
Building phase: 5 6 7 8

More from Creative Silver Chains

Made following instructions in Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders.

Scallop earrings after polishing

These silver earrings were seen as work in progress here. They were made using the project instructions on p68-69 in Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders.

Fold-formed necklace is finished!

The necklace is finished - for now anyway. I am still unsure about this, and may divide it into two necklaces in the future - (i) the chain and (ii) the pendant on a black cord, or on several coloured strands.

I'm also toying with the idea of seeing what liver of sulphur does to the silver fold-formed pieces.

Globetrotting ring

This ring of mine gets about a bit! It was last seen posing in North Yorkshire in this post. Now here it is in La Jolla, California. Click on the picture to enlarge. The ring has a rather splendid shadow in this picture.

Completed. Silver ring with polymer clay cabochon

I finished the ring that I previously mentioned in this post. My ring and I then went off to do a location shoot at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden (North Yorkshire), and you can see the results above!

I made some mistakes while setting the cabochon, primarily by using a burnisher rather than a pusher for the first step. This led to a corrugated setting, and the end result is still a bit dented and uneven. However, I am still pleased with the result.

Hammered earrings completed

I have finished the earrings shown as work in progress in this post. The silver came from an old bracelet, and the design of the earrings is based on a necklace project in the January 2008 Art Jewelry magazine.

The total drop is 4 cm.

These close-up photos are so unforgiving! I think I may not have finished after all; there is still some filing and polishing to be done! Space was tight on the back, so I had to file down the top of the lower half-ovals so that it was possible to close the little hook.

I am going to put these to one side and come back to them in a few weeks. I need to view them with a fresh eye to be sure that I am not judging them rather uncritically because I am so pleased to have recycled the bracelet!

Review - Brief number 1: Origami with metal

Image created using Picasa and the Hockneyizer.

I introduced the first brief at Level 3 of my course in this post entitled Brief number 1: Origami with metal. At that time I didn't really think that what I'd be doing would bear much resemblance to origami. However, the technique that caught my enthusiasm was fold-forming, and the first few steps in creating a fold-formed piece involve folding the metal. Just like origami.

It took me a few weeks to get going with this brief and I doubt that anybody would want the outputs, as they look like the beginner pieces they are. However, it has been a vital building block in developing a useful set of skills and I think the techniques learned here are going to be ones that I use repeatedly.

Silver fold formed earrings - completed

These are the earrings that appeared in two previous posts (1, 2). They have now been completed by soldering the wire hoop inside the fold formed shape, which wasn't too difficult. The easy solder melted very quickly and the main hazard was melting the wire hoop or the fold-formed piece itself.

The earring at the front of the photo turned out very well and I am pleased with it. The one carefully hidden away and out of focus at the back isn't so neat. It has the appearance of crumpled silver paper! If I want to wear these I think I'll need to make another one.