Beginner's Silversmithing : Part VII - It's a wrap!

I'm wrapping things up before the year ends!

But before I do that, allow me to get this off my chest first. So here's the story. 2009 hasn't been a particularly good year for me. True enough, I got to go places, see new things and learn new things. That, I am very grateful for, given the 'predicament' that I'm now in.

At the same time, it was also the most heart aching moments I've ever experienced in my life. So heartaching that I even woke up in the middle of the night with an heartache. So painful that I still shudders at the thought of it. I think there was a short period of time in the UK, that I was experiencing some sort of a depression.

It was something personal. To others, it might seem like nothing but to me, it hurts a lot. All I can say is that lesson learnt although I would have appreciate it even more if it wasn't done in the way that it was done.

There are two sides to a coin, so many different branches from the same tree, so many different veins on the same leaf.

Anyway, I'm just glad to be back at home. No wonder they say there's no place like home!

I need to get this off my chest, to wrap things up, shove it behind the doors of 2009 and in the words of a friend, "lock it and throw the Keys into the Depths of Yesteryears and will look forward to the trials and challenges of 2010. It ain't gonna be a smooth ride, but then again, nothing ever is".

So, I'm ending all the stories of my UK adventure in this post, on the last day of 2009 and tomorrow onwards shall be a fresh start all over again.

Sorry, I've digressed too much along the way already... LOL.... just need to get it off my chest! Phew!

Okay, back to the story. The ring you see above was the one I remade out of the failed metal clay pieces. Remember this and this?

I was very amazed but at the same time very intrigued with metal clay.

I attended the silversmithing course right after the metal clay classes. The failed metal clay pieces merely gave me the perfect excuse to experiment further with the medium.

The particles of metal clay, once fired, goes through a sintering process and turns to metal. Hearing that and actually seeing it happening right before my eyes was a very different feel together. Yes, I'm in awe with metal clay.

Accordingly, you can do what you do to metal the same way to fired metal clay as well. I was very keen to test it out.

I brought the failed pieces to Yvonne and told her I want to have them melted and turned into a new ring using silversmithing techniques. Yvonne was just as interested to try it out although she did mentioned that she wasn't very impressed by it. Oh well, she's a purist, I reckon! LOL.....

But...... before we can go ahead and melt it. If you remember, the petals of the rose was set with some CZs (Cubic Zirconia) and we need to remove that first.

 It felt just like metal!


Okay, this part felt a 'lil funny. It just reminded me of tooth extraction at the dentist! LOL... XD

Don't ask me why. That thought just sprang to mind! :P


 All rotten teeth CZs are removed!

And now, we're all ready to melt!



It melts just like how sterling silver would!

 
Molten fine silver.

When cooled........

You get fine silver ingot!

Next up, to put it through a couple of tests. Well, I didn't actually had this in mind but Yvonne implicitly suggested it, so what the heck!

First and foremost was to put it through the rolling mill.


 If you're wondering what's up with the patterns, well that's because we did some stamping with it!
In other words, after turning it into metal sheet, we ran some other stuffs together with the sheet through the rolling mill. Some pretty obvious ones that you can see are like paper clips, chains and I think the netted effect was from some mesh I think.
Actually, the edges of the sheet cracked a little initially. You know, just like how flour dough cracks a 'lil when it is a 'lil dry. Then I think it was because we didn't anneal it enough or something because as we anneal it and run it through the rolling mill, it turns out alright in the end which led us to continue with the stamping.

Ouh, we also try out doming but doming wasn't exactly experimented with that metal clay piece. We just used some sterling silver scrap that Yvonne had but I believe it would work on that just as well because doming is just a very straightforward technique of turning metal sheet into dome.
You do this......



To get this......




Pretty straightforward, no? After we are satisfied with all the "guinea-pigging" work. We start getting down to business and that is the remelt it to make it into the second ring design.
 

We melted it again to turn it into square wire. The design for the second ring is predominantly made from wire with a circle disc thingy affixes at the top.





Erm, okay, I think it'll probably be clearer for you to see from the pictures.







It's just a long piece of wire folded into half , soldered at the ends and with a round silver disc soldered at the fold. Actually, what I had in mind was to have the disc soldered above the wire instead of below, so that the disc appears to be floating at the top instead of impressed down on the hollow. Oh, well......
Also, if you see from the picture below, the ring band is not a joined band, which was intentional. It wasn't supposed to be so close to the other end that it looks like it is almost joining already. Now, it looks  more like an unfinished piece rather than part of the design. o_O
The wires was too long already, which is why it ended up almost joining. It was supposed to be shorter. The ring ended up slightly loose at that time but ever since I returned to Malaysia, I think my fingers expanded or swollen or what, I'm not sure but it seems to fit alright.



Okay, now it's to put it through the soldering test.
Here's the thing, I've read before that metal clay is more porous compared to sterling silver. So, I was keen to see how it's going to survive the soldering test. It can be done but there are a couple of things to look out for.
The two wire ends were soldered together using easy solder paste. No problems with that but on hindsight, I wondered now why was it soldered when it could have been fused together. Fine silver can be fused together, remember?
But anyway, the problem came with the disc.

Sa Kor had to cut the disc out for me since we were running out of time. :P

What you do not know is that the disc was actually cut out from a sterling silver sheet. So what we are doing now is soldering sterling silver to fine silver.

What was said about fired metal clay is that is is more porous that it soaks up solder more that sterling. Therefore, burnishing is recommended on the area of metal clay where the solder will be. We of course, did not do this step because neither of us know or thought about it at that time. It was due to the experience at that time which led me to search up on this upon return.

I'm not sure exactly what is meant by soaking up solder but when we were soldeing the disc to the fold, the solder kept 'jumping' and spreading out onto the disc upon melting instead of 'flowing' through which is ordinarily the case. In other words, it was kinda 'messy'.

It took us I think 3 time until we finally get it but even then, the finishing was a bit messy I think! *shrugs*



Also, another thing is this. I'm not sure if it's due to the earlier 'abuse' or the aftermath but the finishing looked horrible at the moment. The earlier abuse is the earlier melting and remelting coupled with the 'torture' through the rolling mill that we did earlier on. The aftermath abuse is not polishing it and me throwing it around.

After being worked on in the manner that we did, I even find the shine not as good as the other metal clay pieces. This one ended up a some sort of a matte silver *shrugs*




When I was still wearing it 24/7 upon return, it was still doing alright. But then I can't stand wearing my jewellery pieces 24/7 and so, I took it off and just left it on the bedside. Now it tarnishes horribly. I compared it to the other fired metal clay pieces. The others haven't tarnish one bit.

Either way, I just felt the something's amiss in this trial effort. Like it was done haphazardly without the requisite information. *scraches the head*

Oh, boy..... maybe I'll try the appropriate polishing step and we'll see what happens. But I wasn't been told about polishing in silversmithing in the class due to lack of time........ hhhhmmm, trial and error lor I guess and ......aaah, Google to the rescue!

Alright folks, it's a wrap then! Happy 2010! Have a great year ahead!

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Beginner's Silversmithing : Part VI - Saw & Solder

This is just a simple pendant necklace that Shaunee wanted, designed by herself of course. It was inspired from a necklace that she saw in one of the 'idea book'. Okay, I gave it that name myself.:P What it basically is, is just a folder file thingy which holds cuttings of many many different designs of jewellery for us to get our inspiration from.

Just like how when we're stuck for ideas, we flip through magazines for inspiration. It's what most people who makes jewellery do, I guess. *shrugs*

On the day of arrival, right after dinner, Yvonne passed us a few 'idea book'. Two, I think. For us to look through, to get an idea what are the pieces we want to make. That was when I had the idea for the two ring (rings are my favourite piece of jewellery!) and Shaunee; the necklace. Sa Kor made a ring for herself too.

Like I mentioned earlier, Shaunee was too young to handle the tools and I, therefore ended up to be the craftsman to execute and materialize her design.

Let's take a closer look on the necklace.




As you can see from the pictures above, it's a pretty straightforward design. You have a big jump ring as the centrepiece of a sterling silver chain necklace. The focus is of course the centre piece. You have the two ends of the chain, a silver bead and small jump rings strung onto the big jump ring before it is being soldered together. Hanging from it is three small pendant of a moon, heart and star shape. and I really do mean that they are SMALL!

The pendants were so small that it was almost insane to actually saw it out from the metal sheet. I'm not saying that it can't be done but for a beginner, that's definitely some kind of challenge lor.

The prominant part of the design is the three pendants. So, it started with Shaunee sketching out the shapes of the pendants on a piece of paper. The paper was then taped onto the metal sheet as a guide to cut the shape out.




And then, the sawing began with a jeweller's saw!


Can you just see how insanely small it was?! o_O


Okay, the thing about the jeweller's saw is that it's not as daunting as those other types of saw because the 'teeth' of the saw is so small that you almost want to dismiss it. But then, you can't because if it can cut through metal sheet, it's not child's play. In other words, it's a very 'friendly' tool to use! LOL....

But, one major problem I had when using it is the blade kept breaking!




You see, the blade is so fine that it is so susceptible to breakage, especially when it is used for heavy duty work like sawing through metal. But then, it wasn't really a major problem after all because you can just easily replaced it. :P

Okay, fine. The more skillful ones will not break as much blade as I did. Hey, it was my first time handling a jeweller's saw and it was intensive labour work, I tell ya!

The end result.........




My fingers on the left felt like cramping after I was done sawing the three pendants. Although you have the bench pin to keep the metal sheet in place, you still need to hold the sheet down in place with the other hand for a better control when sawing.

And as you can see above, there was an added loop on top of each endant to act as the bail. I will of course not be sawing the hole in the loop. I would be an idiot to even bother to do so when there is the better option of drilling the hole through instead! :P

Remove the paper and the pendants are done!


I know the edges are a bit distorted but the shape was kinda distorted to begin with. :P


The next thing to do is to solder the small jump rings and then to put everything together in the order that the designer Shaunee wanted.




And so, I reckon this is the necklace that in a way cost me the stone setting lesson. You see, it's a rather straightforward design, one which doesn't really take a long time to make. Soldering itself is fast. The part which took up a good deal of the time is the sawing. It wouldn't have taken up the amount of time that I had for a skilled person though. Oh, well......

Oh, one more thing. You should also notice that the end necklace has this matte surface instead of the shiny smooth of the metal sheet that we see earlier on. That's because the necklace has been given a satin finish. It's one of the few finishes that you can give to sterling silver jewellery and this is done using the frosting wheel.

It gives the surface a frosted look, which I believe many called it the satin finish, although I don't know why they call it a satin finish when if you think about it, satin cloth has got a smooth and shiny surface. Hhhmmmm...., maybe a frosted finish a more aptly term?

Anyway, this is how a frosting wheel looks like.




This is a smaller version to be attached to a drill. There is also a bigger one that attaches to the grinder. The frosting wheel is actually made up of many steel bristles. What happens when you run the wheel is to have the steel bristles rotating and hitting onto the surface of the silver to give it that frosted look. Cool, huh?

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The ring that never was .....

One of the many things that I wanted to learn was stone setting and one of the more common setting that most beginners would learn is what is called the rub over setting.

This is an example of a rub over setting. The most common one you'll see at any Craft Shows or Fair. I'm guessing why it is so common is probably due to the fact of how cabochon is more accessible compared to cut stone. More accessible in the sense that not only is it more affordable but also easier to get? Well, that's just what I think anyway.


Picture courtesy of http://ringoblog.com


What you need for a rubover setting is a bezel strip; cut out in the precise length to wrap around the cabochon and a back plate as the basa of the setting and finally a cabochon, of course! The cabochone here is a round hematite cabochon.





And the you just solder everything together and then onto the ring.





Of course, don't take my words literally when I said solder everything together, like how you would bake a cake where you throw everything into the mixing bowl. That's not what I meant!

It involves one step after another which I unfortunately did not get to learn! Very obvious, isn't it? Otherwise I would have a nice hematite stone silver ring instead!

Ok, so here's one of the few dissapointments I had with this course. Yes, it's dissapointment with an 's' at the back which means there's more than one dissapointment. As though one is not bad enough, when I go on and think about it.... there's a few more. Okay, 3 to be precise.

The first one is the failure to complete the setting.

Now, exactly what went wrong?

I'm really not dissing anyone here but only evaluating the situation.

Nothing did. The reason why I didn't get to finish the setting was due to time constraint. Workshop was an 8 hours class with 1 hour lunch break, which means in essence it was only a 7 hours class. On the first day, we started at 10.00 am and ends at 6.00 p.m.

So, on the second day, which is also the last day, we opt to start class a little early considering it's some more than 2 hours drive back to Nottingham. We were thinking we could perhaps then finish early and then get back home early as well. So, we started at 8.00 a.m. which would mean that class should finish at 4.00 pm.

Here's the thing, I had in mind to make two pieces of ring. One with stone setting and the other one by making use of the 'spoilt' pieces in the metal clay class. And the Shaunee wanted this pendant necklace thingy, which ended up with me being the one making it for her since she's too young to handle the tools. That took up a lot of time already. The whole morning on the second day to be exact, when the second day I was having it in my mind allocated for me to do the setting and the second ring. I thought I would be able to complete it since the first ring was already soldered on the first day waiting to be set with the hematite and the design for the second ring was a simple one. What I did not take into account was that I need to make Shaunee's necklace as well and her necklace, although not very complicated in design, was very time consuming. I'll show it to you in the next post.

She did mention that we could still use the workroom after classes end but I never thought I would need to since I can be possibly doing the setting and second ring myself so I just shrugs it off. Had I known that I had to make Shaunee's necklace as well, which include a lot of sawing, I would have make use of the evening to get it done.

I'm not blaming Shaunee because it's not like making that necklace was a waste of my time. I learn some other stuffs from that necklace too. I merely regret the lack of communication which brought about the time mismanagement.

Now, more on the last day. You already know that Shaunee's necklace took up most of my time already and left me with not much time for my own. The biggest dissapointment is actually the fact that Yvonne refused to overrun the class. Well, we didn't request for it verbally but by implication I think we sort of get it. In a way, it was like, 'Ok, times's up. Bye bye.' She did not say that literally but that was how we felt.

Once the clock struck 4.00 in the afternoon, everyone stopped, Yvonne calculated the extra charges with Sa Kor and then we were sent to our room to pack up our things and we were already out of the front door the very next minute.

I'm giving her the benefit of doubt that she probably is thinking on our behalf that we need to travel far and therefore do not want to keep us back too long. But the other side of the coin is that, isn't the fact that we traveled so far to learn from you that you should at least make sure that we learn all that we have set out to learn before sending us off?

I mean, the previous two courses I attended; the glass bead making and metal clay classes, both overrun. With the glass bead making class, Diana told me that she already expected the class to overrun which is the norm already and Terry let me finish off with everything before I left.

Another difference between these two classes and Yvonne's is that the former was a bigger group of 6 to 7 students whereas the latter was a more personalized one to one method; two students to be precise since Shaunee can't be counted cuz she was only tagging along.

But then, I thought you get more personalized attention in one to one classes than group? To the contrary, I felt I get more personalised attention in the other two. Ok, so Diana had Sally helping her in a 7 students class and Terry had Kivi to help her in a 6 students class. But that still averages to 1 teacher to 3 students ratio. Isn't that similar to Yvonne's?

Maybe she's being professional by being punctual? But punctuality aside, doesn't ptofessionalism also calls for the completion of the syllabus, even more so when the students had already paid for it?

Stone setting was the first dissapointment because I've already informed her on my arrival that that was what I wanted to learn and I was told that we don't have time for that already. And because of 'We don't have time already', my second dissapointment was the part on polishing which was not explained at all.

The second ring was completed in time. What I'm left to do was only the setting of the hematite onto the first ring and polishing.

I mean, c'mmon.... how much more time would it take? The whole night?

I think she was even thinking of keeping back the hematite cabochon with the bezel strip and back plate. But I told her I think I want to try it out myself at home which she then lets me take home.

I seriously do not know how I was going to do it at that time but I just don't think I'm going back home with the amount I've paid with only a thin silver ring lor.

*shrugs*.....

I reckon I could still go around completing it with some research but if that's the case, what's the point of me attending the course in the first place? Get what I mean?

I definitely did not feel like I got the value for my money' worth. -_-

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Beginner's Silversmithing : Part V - I soldered my first ring!

I soldered my first ring! Yay! :D Some might think the band is a bit thin but I was thinking of a dainty design for this ring and hence the thinner band.

It was made from the square wire I made earlier on. If you think about it, most rings are made from half round wire, where the rounded side is the outside of the ring whereas the flat side the inside of the ring.

It never crosses my mind that rings were actually made from thicker wires, which is why I've always wondered what do people do with half round wires but after this, I know they are used mostly for ring bands!

It wasn't particularly difficult.

First, measure your ring size with a ring sizer.




Then, measure on the mandrel, the length of wire you will need.





Cut out the required length.



See that cone thing on the top right? That's the borax cone! A type of flux.


File off the edge to smoothen the corners of the square wire.





The square wires that we made earlier on will no doubt be a bit unpolished, so you'll need to polish it up a little. You can, of course just buy the ready made ones and even skip this step!

Then, knock the piece of wire with a raw hide hammer on the mandrel to shape it into a ring.





At this point, you need no worry about the size of the mandrel because the predetermined length of wire will end you with the right ring size irrespective of the size of the mandrel that you knock your ring into shape with. Get what I mean?

Erm, another way of explaining it would be perhaps.... a definitive circle size comes with a definitive perimeter? And the perimeter here is the predetermined length of wire that we have already cut out.

This is how the ring looks like after being shaped.





The next thing to do is to close the gap. That's where soldering comes in which is basically just to put some solder on the gap and then fire with a torch to melt the solder.

Okay, just imagine this. You have a closed jump ring. Even it's closed, there's still some kind of gap and let's face it, a soldered jump ring is no doubt a much stronger connection that a merely closed one.

So, imagine the solder as some kind of heat activated glue. I say it's heat activated glue cuz you can't solder without fire. :P

Of course the gap of the ring above was closed much nearer before it was being soldered.

Solder, if you ever come across, comes in strip and paste form. The strip form I was told is used for much stronger connections like a ring band and the paste for say, jump rings. You do not need to use a lot, just a bit will do. Solder is actually a form of alloy, so you need to be careful not to overuse it in case in might affect the silver content in your piece. (I think!)

Because of the alloy content, you will be expecting some firescale. But not to worry, just drop the ring into a "pickle pot".





Well, nothing scientific here. A "pickle pot" is just a pot containing pickle to clean the firescale. A pickle is normally an acidic solution and is a must for soldering work in jewellery making.

This is how the end product looks like.



Sorry for the overexposed picture! I forgotten to change the settings on my camera! :(


I'm not sure if you can see it clearly but anyway, I've marked in red for you the spot where it was soldered.

The ring was not polished because we ran out of time, which is also one of my dissatisfaction of this class which I was also quite unhappy about. I'll tell you in detail in the next post.

This ring however, is not in my possession anymore now.

When I showed it to mum upon my return, mum told me that she liked it. And since her birthday was just around the corner at that time, I gave it to her as a birthday present!

Well, I already know how to make it and I guess I could make myself another one later on. Although it meant a lot being the first ring I soldered but then I'm at ease knowing that it's in the safekeeping of mum. :)




Mum has been wearing it 24/7 for more than 2 months now. And I guess, the ring kinda polish itself through the ordinary wear. LOL..... XD

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Beginner's Silversmithing : Part IV - Twist 'O' Rings

Well, just a couple of other basic stuffs in silversmithing I guess....

1. Jump rings

I was also taught on how to make jump rings on the first class. To be honest, my heart sunk a little when Yvonne told me she's going to show me how to make jump rings. I mean, I've talked about this before; how you can make your own jump rings at home with tools you can probably find lying around your house. It's like..... why am I being shown stuffs that I already know? o_O

But of course I didn't say anything and just went along instead cuz I think it's probably going to be rude to say I don't need to know that cuz I think I already know it. Either way, it's still going to be a learning experience nonetheless; seeing how silversmiths do it. :P

There isn't much difference, really, from how you would do it at home.

Well, what was being done was to clamp a piece of mandrel with a long piece of wire wrapped around it a couple of rounds onto the bench clamp. Take note here that the wire is also clamped on together with the mandrel.






And then just wrap the wires around the mandrel and later on cut each individual jump ring out.





Well, they are not entirely the same. There however, are some subtle differences.

For one, silversmiths aren't too bothered about how the rings are being cut off.

Remember how I've mentioned before (scroll down to the cutting section) that I was bothered about the small creek in the closing of jump rings due to the way that a flush cutter cuts?

Why does it not matter to silversmiths? Well, because they solder all the rings. Silversmiths do not use unsoldered jump rings! LOL......

Another thing is the tension issue. Remember also I've mentioned that the hand wrapped coils tend to produce a minor discrepency in the sizes of the coils on the same mandrel? Both our hands simply can't exert a consistent pressure throughtout.

What's good about clamping one end of the wire is in evening out the tension as you wrap the coils around the mandrel. The same principle as coiling with a drill I guess.

I reckon silversmiths could also use a drill for that but then and again, I don't know, *shrugs* .... they are quite a traditional form of jewellery making.

The only electrical stuffs I saw in the workroom was a grinder, a big one where Yvonne grinds stone and a handheld one for the polishing job.

Yvonne did however showed me a trick in closing jump ring. Well, it was something that I've been doing all the while but hearing it coming out from Yvonne's mouth means that I was right in doing it that way. Haha! :P

I'll write a post on it later on.

2. Twisted wires

Now, this is more interesting.

Well, I know how this is done as well. In theory, of course; from what I read from books and magazines. But I was still excited to see how it's done in person, not that I'm expecting anything spectacular but yea, I was looking forward to this one!

It was very simple and straightforward. Fold a long piece of wire into two, clamp it onto the bench clamp. Slide a pin through the loop i.e. on the bend of the piece of wire and turn the pin around; either clockwise or anti-clockwise.





Well, ever since I read about it from a magazine, I've been thinking how you can do it without a bench clamp. Basically, you need something to hold onto the wire ends so that you can twist both strands of wire together from the other end. You need the wires to be hold on to at the other end so that you can have the right tension to twist both strands of wire evenly together; either a loosely or tightly. Although a bench pin is the next best thing, but at the back of my head, I just felt that there must be a way around it.

I mean....c'mmon, a bench pin? Is it even necessary? Well, unless you really do want to get into the whole silversmithing thing and set up your own workbench, then, yeah. A bench pin is the next best thing after a bench clamp.

Well, I'm not lor.

But then, guess what? From this class, I was actually inspired to come up with a way to make twisted wire. Perfect tension! ;) Well, okay, maybe not perfect.....perfect might be too strong of a word already. Heheh! Let's just say the outcome was satisfactory. I'll be writing a post on that a bit later too.

But that's not the most interesting part. The most interesting part is what you can do with the twisted wires. I'm not exactly talking about projects that you can do with it but rather the different effects you can create with the wires.

Like the old saying goes, picture speaks a thousand words. Haha! Not exactly the best phrase to use here but will do for now. ;P

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Tadah!

Okay, these are bits cut off from the twisties that we made. I'll explain to you how each is created.

1. Tight twisty. I've just mentioned earlier on about how you can twist the wires together either loosely or tightly but you need them to be even.

2. Loose twisty. Do you see what I mean now?

3. I think this is just so cool! It does look rather familiar doesn't it? Well, it does, to me! I've seen designs like this a lot in jewellery shop. Not so much in silver but gold. Try taking a wild guess how this was done.

Did you manage to guess it?

I've mentioned the method before.

Still no idea?

Remember this?



Yeah, when we were making square wires. You run the twisty through it and you get number 3!

Cool, huh?

Although this is only a beginner's class but it was fun watching all the techniques first hand. It's somewhat like the lampworking experience. Because you've seen how things are actually done, when you see the end product, it gives you a sense of in-the-know for knowing how things are actually made and you come to appreciate them more.

4. This is a piece of twisted wire intertwined with a thicker single strand wire.

5. Ditto but this was done a bit more loosely. I can't recall exactly how no.4 and 5 was done already since you need the loop on one end to hold the pin. I don't think it's folding the two; a piece of twisted wire and a single strand, together cuz then you would have four strands intertwined together when it's only two here. Hhhhhmmmmm......

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