Stone set ripple

This scrap of silver sheet carries echoes of previous work. The jigsaw bump (promontory? tab?) came from a very unsuccessful brooch. The silver from inside that polygon went on to be the back of my penannular bottle glass brooch. I've now used some of the remaining sheet for two bezel settings. The smaller one is for my puffin pendant. The other one is for a stone set ripple pendant.

I soldered the finished bezel setting to the very first ripple I made.

Then set the stone, which is 8 mm in diameter. The ripple is 45 mm long. This photo was taken after the first few pushes of the pusher.

I had taken more care to ensure that the top of the bezel was flat this time, and I think the setting is neater than my earlier efforts. This is a pleasing result, and I may try again with thicker wire. I think that it fits in well with the rest of the Ripple Suite.

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.

Ripple band ring started

The ripple band ring, which will be part of my Ripple suite (with earrings and bracelet), will be made from 1 mm thick silver sheet, decorated with little ripples made from 0.6 mm wire. I've made a start on this.

Each mini-ripple was made from a 6 mm diameter ring of wire. These differ a little from my other ripples as there is no loop, and I cut off a little bit of wire after shaping each.

I spent a lot of time on fixing the ripples to the silver sheet, because it took a long time to work out how best to do it. I started out trying to solder all six ripples at once. None of them joined to the sheet, and the end of the wire balled on a couple of the ripples.

My next attempt was to fuse the ripples, as they heated up very quickly. I tried just one ripple, and although the wire looked very hot and liquid, it didn't attach. I decided this was not the time to do my first fusing project after all.

The next change was to hammer the ripples flat, and solder just one at a time. I finally had some success here, but success was strongly related to how I was supporting the sheet. I had to give up on a couple of runs as I was heating the sheet, my tweezers and the soldering block, and just couldn't raise the temperature high enough with my little butane torch. Holding the sheet above the block with the tweezers covering just a tiny bit of metal in a distant corner was the best approach. I suspect if I had been at the class with access to a bigger torch, this would have simply changed, rather than solved, my problems. I would have had melting crises instead!

Before taking the piece to the class to finish, I have cut the silver the right width and length. The surface finish is going to need some work.

Steel block

In the course of my non-jewellery making life, I was given this steel block. It was one of several being used in a project, but they had some left over so I asked if I could have one. It measures 5 cm x 5 cm x 1.9 cm (2" x 2" x 0.75"). I think it will be very useful for hammering, but I'll need to polish the surface first.

From ripple necklace to ripple bracelet in one easy step

The next step in assembling my ripple necklace was to solder the loops on the links closed, leaving the main part of the link open so the links could be joined together.

The soldering went well. After pickling, I was able to lay out the links to check the length of the finished piece.

Making the second set of solder joins (to close the links) turned out to be harder than I'd expected, and this was one part of the construction that I hadn't practised in advance using copper. In several cases, I managed to re-melt the hard solder in the loop, and the loop then got fixed to the next link. In fact, by the time I'd finished I had just enough undamaged links left to construct a bracelet instead of a necklace.

This is the bracelet shown before the ripple links have been forged.

And this is the bracelet after the ripple links have been forged. The ripples have also been slightly bent to suit the curve of the wrist. The bracelet is still to be tumbled polished.

I hope to be able to salvage some of the wire from the wrongly joined links to make other items. But I need to re-think the whole design of the links before attempting another necklace.

Ripple necklace started

I've started to construct my ripple necklace in silver. Here are some of the links at three different stages in the shaping process. So that they can be joined together neatly, the loop for these links is perpendicular to the plane of the ripple. Each piece of wire is initially 6.25 cm long.

Double ripple test piece

These earrings, made from copper with the earwires in silver, are made using two ripples links with the relative sizes mentioned in this earlier post. The total drop is about 5 cm. I am happy with the way the two links hang together and will proceed to make a pair in silver.

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.

Tree ring design another update

I am making good progress with this piece. I made my usual mistakes, and melted the wire when soldering. A little work is still required to neaten the shape up after this, and I shall texture the wire further to hide the mishaps. The holder for the felt seems to have worked well.

It was originally going to be a brooch, but is now going to be a pendant. This is partly because of practical issues associated with fastening a brooch, and partly because I am less likely to wear a brooch.

For earlier WIP posts about this piece, see here, here and here

Further progress with tree ring design piece

I've made good progress with the silver holder for my felt spiral. I am now a little further on than the pictures show, and have cut off the excess base plate shown in the last picture.

For earlier WIP posts about this piece, see here and here

Tree ring design work in progress update

Both rings made from square wire have now been bent and soldered. The bezel is soldered to the back/front plate and the plate has been pierced close to the bezel, but more filing is required to neaten the edge.

The previous work in progress post on this piece is here.

Fold-formed necklace nearly finished

The fold-formed necklace is nearly finished.

I decided that 5 links of the oval chain on each side was adequate; there was a danger I'd produce a mayoral chain by adding more. Instead a purchased silver chain with oval links was used to add length. I made an S clasp from 1 mm wire for fastening.

The necklace is now ready to tumble polish.

Scallop earrings before polishing

I made these following the project on p68-69 in Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders. They still need to be tumble polished, but I think they look pretty good already. Each one has two curved pieces of wire, and the fish shape is not fixed because each curved bit of wire can move independently where it hangs from the ear wire.

I made these because I was looking for rather quicker gratification than I can get from my evening class pieces, which may take weeks to complete. However, as a side benefit, making these earrings has given me some ideas for the Coast design project, particularly regarding making jewellery based on the shapes of waves and ripples.

Tree ring design: I've started to make it at last!

It seems as if I've been working on this for months, probably because I have, but I'm pleased to say that I have at last started to make my tree ring design brooch. The design has been discussed previously in 1, 2, 3 and 4.

So far I've soldered the bezel, and have bent the first of the two wire shapes, though it hasn't been soldered yet. The design was discussed with a different tutor this week, who pointed out that I'll need to join the wire rings somehow on the side without the setting.

Democratic jewelry making?

Results of online poll: an experiment in democratic jewellery making

The pie chart shows the result of my online poll that finished on 4 March. I had suspected that the poll might receive no votes at all, so I was pleasantly surprised that there were six votes cast in addition to my own.

The poll concerned possible configurations of a necklace made up of a fold-formed pendant and chain of oval links. There were three options, and each voter could vote for only one. The options were named Jaunty C, Inverted U and U.

I was the only person to vote for the U configuration! The Jaunty C was the most popular.

I then asked the same question of my fellow students and tutor at the evening class. This was a rather different situation as we had the pieces in front of us, and a consensus was reached by discussion. In the end, it was a case of picking the least bad option, rather than a vote for a clearly preferred arrangement. There was some support for the Inverted U because of the symmetry between the curves of the pendant and chain. However, there was a widely held view that this arrangement looked too much like a cult symbol for comfort. Jaunty C, the most popular in the online poll, was rejected because of its resemblance to the letter C. This would make the necklace unsuitable for anyone whose name didn't begin with C. There was even a comment that it looked very like the C for a (probably) famous brand of lager. I've checked, and it does. So that left the U configuration.

Taken together, the two polls cancel each other out. Looks like I'll have to make my own decision after all!

This has been an interesting exercise. I enjoyed setting up the online poll, and seeing the number of votes gradually increase. It has made me realise that it is a good idea to seek others' opinions, even if you still follow your own view in the end. I would probably (pun intended) never have noticed the similarity to the beer logo on my own.

My thanks to the online voters - you made my day!

Oval link chain progress

The picture shows some tulips and the chain for my fold-formed pendant. The chain is gradually taking shape - the oval links are now joined with soldered 6 mm rings made from 0.8 mm round wire. The rings have been stretched slightly from round to oval to make the chain more flexible.

The online poll in which people could vote for their favourite arrangement of the components of my necklace has now closed. Thank you to those who voted! I was delighted that people took part, and I will be filling the space on the right of the blog with a new poll just as soon as I can think of a suitable topic. Results of the poll will be in a future post.

Orientation of fold-formed pendant relative to oval link chain

To help me decide on how to assemble the necklace, I took some photos of different arrangements of my fold-formed pendant and the first few oval links. I've set up an online poll so that people can vote for their favourite layout. The poll appears in the sidebar on the right of this blog, just below the introductory bit. Go on - cast a vote! The poll will be open until 4 March 2008.

Silver ring with polymer clay cabochon

I got slightly diverted from my tree ring design plans, when I came across this cabochon the other day. I made it myself from polymer clay a year or so ago. I usually prefer the clay polished, but not varnished. However this is an exception, as it is varnished, and I love it!
I have made a setting for it, and now just need to fix the setting to the ring. The thread in the picture is to help me get the cab out of the setting again. If this comes out well I shall be sorting through all the little collections of polymer clay beads I have around the house to find more forgotten treasures.

Easy oval links for a chain

I am starting to make a bespoke chain for my fold-formed pendant. The chain will have a few large oval links, and I have started to make these following the method on p110 of Elizabeth Olver's Jewellery Making Techniques Book

I was delighted to discover how easy this was, assuming access to the necessary tools, as I had been worried I'd have to pierce the ovals. In fact they are made using soldered jump rings. You then roll each ring in the rolling mill, and miraculously out comes a beautiful oval. I used 2 mm round wire wound on a 6 mm knitting needle to form my rings.

I chose to hammer the links so that they go well with the pendant, but they looked pretty good before hammering. I am now going to decide how best to link them together.

Hammered earrings: recyling the bracelet continues

The January 2008 Art Jewelry magazine has a project called Pounds Sterling. It is a necklace made up of links of hammered sterling silver. Each link is a slightly domed semicircle made by cutting a disk of silver in half. The bracelet that I am recycling (see 1, 2, 3) offers a source of silver ovals. So I have adapted the project slightly and am making a pair of earrings.

The straight wires, which are soldered to the back of the half-ovals, will be bent into hooks from which the remaining half-ovals of silver will be suspended.
Apart from hammered fingers, things went remarkably smoothly with these, so I hope to complete the last few steps without drama!
For scale: the wires are about 20 mm long.