He Loves Me Knot January 27, 2014

Been on a necklace binge for the Big Day coming up in a few weeks. And loving the new chain from Rio Grande!!

This first one had me sweating trying to solder the three silver rings without fusing them together. The title is probably not original…but I got a bit of a giggle…

         I call it He Loves Me Knot…

A bit of a short post today…just a few more photos of some V DAY necklaces.

AND A GIVE AWAY !!!

Post a comment here on or before Tuesday, February 4th.  I’ll draw the name of one lucky winner and send this necklace off to you as quick as can be. Be sure that you include your email contact, if not linked to your name.

Sterling silver heart swirl pendant on an 18 inch chain.

With warm appreciation for all your kind support,

                                                        Lynda

Flowers and Swirls May 8, 2013

Last time I promised an update on the bezel earring project.

Before last night’s class, I experimented with a few sterling silver wire swirl designs,

hoping that one of them would be “The One” to use as an embellishment to the bezeled turquoise stones.

Just wasn’t sure if any of them would work with just one solder joint to hold them together.

Teacher Pam is such a great resource and encourager, but even she wasn’t sure my idea would work.

But, hey…where else am I going to be able to try out new ideas!

At her suggestion, I did a bit of filing some flat edges on both the swirl bottom and bezel top.

Solder only flows with solidly touching pieces.

Even using easy solder, I was so nervous that I would melt the thin fine silver bezel before the solder flowed.

To my great relief and joy, it worked!

The swirly designs that made the final cut was made from 14 gauge wire.

Hammered, filed, and textured with my brand new brass texture plates

that arrived in the mail on Saturday.  Love them!

I still have to figure out some cool ear wires to hang these beauties on

and also decide if I want to oxidize the swirls.

Although these two swirl designs didn’t make the cut for this project,

I think they’ll be very happy in some other earrings.

Ordered from Forgeron Tools and Jewelry Supply.

Some textured, domed, and oxidized copper discs in this lovely floral pattern.

Textured these elongated copper washers (spent some time in the rolling mill).

 Can’t wait to see what oxidizing does to bring out the beauty of the patterns.

 

Oh, and if you could use a Cuteness Fix today, I took this shot this morning of the baby hummers.

They are quickly filling up the nest!

 

Copper Works April 17, 2013

This post will be mostly photos.

The textured copper post earrings were made in jewelry class last night and are not quite finished.

My first time attempting to attach sterling silver wire posts…a bit tricky for me.

I included a shot of an earring where the post “popped” off in the pickle solution,

which means that it really wasn’t a good soldering job.  GRRR… Try again.

 I’m also going to try and give the left earring a bit more texture to match the right one a little better.

Pam had purchased some really cool texturing hammers for us to use.

Then, into the tumbler for a good polishing.

Also thinking about adding some aquamarine nugget dangles.  Not sure…what do you think??

Last is a bracelet with a toggle clasp I made from a piece of copper sheet.

Added some of those pale green aquamarine nuggets.

Pam showed us a little different method of soldering on a post from Rio Grande.

See the tiny sterling jump ring?

You put the solder piece into the middle of the jump ring.

Then when they start to ‘liquify’ you quickly stick the end of the post wire into the puddle

and take the flame away and let the solder cool.

Nifty when it works! And a very strong earring post.

Copper and Aquamarine Bracelet just listed in my Etsy shop today…

Class… Week Seven February 27, 2013

Just a quick look at how I spent my time at last night’s jewelry class.

And my, how the three hours sped by.

One of my goals is to take full advantage of the heavy-duty expensive tools available there

and making some components I can work with when the class is finished.

One is a “Big Mama” metal shears, the teacher calls the Beverly Shears.

I found some pretty Brighton jewelry tin boxes at a thrift store last week,

thinking I’ll try out making some tin bead caps and pendants

…quickly realizing that getting rid of the thick box rims was going to be a big problem.

Beverly to the rescue! “Like buttah”  Wish I’d taken a picture of her.

Trimmed the rims right off, so that I could use a nifty steel metal blank punch.

Also made some copper blanks while I was at it.

Drilled a center hole on a few and tried doming them in the dapping block.

Not perfect, but kinda cute!

Also, included a peek at the progress on my bezeled ring project.

Took me two tries to solder the trim to the back plate.

Next week, I’m hoping to make and add the split ring shank and wear it home.

Class Week Six February 20, 2013

So last night, we get to the heart of these classes.

Bezeling a stone cabochon.

After watching a video of the process, I’m crazy jumpy,

waiting for  the instructor to measure and cut the pieces for my project.

I’m only going to note the basic steps…so this is not in any way a tutorial

…but just to give you an idea of the project.

First, I brought a couple of cabochons from my favorite local bead shop.

Each about 12 x 6 mm. Just picked two from a big bowl of $1.00 beads.

Not sure what they are, but maybe a lapis and some kind of pretty agate.

Pam said to just make sure they are flat backed.

I received 3 pieces for the bezel.

A thin strip of fine silver to form the bezel, a strip of decorative beaded wire,

and a flat piece of sterling sheet.

First… fit, trim, file, and solder the bezel strip to fit snugly around the cabochon.

I finally settled on the lapis stone.

Next… fit, trim, file, and solder the beaded trim strip into an oval.

The last photo shows how they all fit together.

Next week, I’ll solder the bezeled stone piece to sheet metal in four places (sans stone).

Also, have to trim away the extra sheet metal

and more filing and sanding to smooth everything out.

Between now and then, I need to decide if I want to make a ring or a pendant.

And I’m not sure, but I think I’m leaning toward a ring

because it adds another layer of challenge to make a split shank ring.

And when am I ever going to get to try this again?!

I have to say it would make a pretty big beautiful ring, too!

In between all this, I had time to try out an experiment

with my cheapo box of copper washers.

Rolled them in the rolling mill, being very careful of my fingers.

Took a couple of passes…but just look what happened to them!

Big uniformly shaped ovals of copper beauty.

This pair was hit with the torch for a heat patina after texturing with a ball peen hammer.

And these had a layer of netting placed on top in their last run through the mill.

Pretty darn cool, huh?