Metalsmithing 101 - Class Four & Five

Ta Da! My first project is complete! The stone is Biggs Jasper, and considering it's the very first piece of silversmithed jewelry I've ever made I'm pleased with how it turned out.



In class 5 I made a chunky spinner ring with 3 textured spinners on a wide 18g hammer textured band. I'll wait until after I tumble it before posting photos. I'm amazed at how shiny sterling silver gets after tumbling. As pretty as shiny silver is, I plan on doing some oxidized pieces as well. On Tuesday (class 6) I begin my Mom's Charoite & Amethyst pendant. Hopefully that will progress quickly enough for me to be able to complete my more complicated ammolite pendant before the 8th and final class.

Aside from having my nose buried in my sketch book dreaming about all the silversmithed designs I'll be making in the future I've been busy making my usual style pieces for the remaining 6 Christmas Craft shows I'm doing this year. I'm tickled pink about my new necklace puppets. The color and texture of the fabric works perfectly with the black satin ribbons and the black semi-gloss bases. My table display color theme is black and brown with wood and black wrought iron. I'm aiming at having a bit of a rustic yet elegant presentation. I think it's working because I get a lot of compliments on not only my table setup, but also on my website. Here's a photo of the most recent show I did. Sorry for all the background distractions. Everyone was supposed to have skirted tables, but many vendors didn't honor that request.



These little bracelet project kits are going over well =)



Here's my little Christmas tree with snowball drop earrings as decorations. You can also see my gift wrap samples.



I have a few wood picture frames I'm using to display earrings



That's it for now. I'm sorry about the irregular entries. I tend to get wrapped up in what I'm doing offline and I don't realize how much time has passed in between blog posts.

Many Blessings to you and yours . . . Ronnie


Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Class Three

During the third class we selected bezel wire for our stone, then soldered the bezel, then soldered the bezel wire onto sterling silver sheet. I'm doing a frame around my stone. Some students chose smaller stones so they're setting their stones right onto the ring shanks. They selected thicker bezel wire that they can file in a half moon shape to go around their ring bands. I've been watching what they're doing so when I make a ring like that I won't be totally unaware of how to do it.



My intent was to leave enough space around the triangular bezel so that I could add some little balls. BUT, when the torch flame hit my pieces it moved the bezel wire up the sheet. You'll notice how little sheet there is at the smallest end of the triangle. Oh well. Maybe I can add another larger triangle underneath and have a 'stepped' effect with enough room to add little balls.



I also paid off some of my tab and bought some extra bezel wire, some sterling silver sheet, and a small oval charoite cab. I was originally going to use the charoite for my Mom's pendant, but I decided it was too small for that so next class I'm buying a bigger oval charoite cab, and a small amethyst round cab to use in the design for my Mom's pendant. The two cabs will be set on a larger soft rectangular sheet backing with two silver balls on either side of the amethyst. I'm doing a wire swirl bail. The bail will have an extra curly tail on the back of the pendant. I think it will be really pretty.

Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.

Metalsmithing 101 - Classes One & Two

For our first class we learned about tools and safety precautions. We also selected stones for our projects, and used our jeweller's saw to practice cutting in copper sheet.

During our second class we hammered and soldered our ring shanks for our first project. I was surprised by how quickly the whole process happened. Heat, quench, pickle, hammer, form, heat, flux, solder, quench, pickle, file and we were done. I was also very surprised by how short the flame was from the torch. Filing takes the longest amount of time, and that's only if you're as meticulous as I am. I think I can do this!

I selected a triangular piece of brown jasper for my first ring. I forget what type of jasper, but I'll ask again on Tuesday. The instructor's husband cut the stone. Here it is:



And here's what my ring band looks like before I add the bezel set stone. I will be adding a larger backing around the bezel with some sterling balls as decoration.



And as promised eariler here's a picture of my pretty ammolite. I will be making this into a pendant with decorative elements representing vines and buds. It's a fairly significant sized cabachon at 31mm X 14mm. I will be posting this picture again in another entry in a series I'm calling Stone Talk. I love stones so there will be a lot of talk about them. =)




Ronnie is the jewelry designer at RadianTrace Jewelry. She's also the graphic artist at Mable's Makings, and the author of Ronnie Unplugged.