To make these earrings I first started out with 2 tiny circles of metal. There's this awesome cube that you slide a sheet of metal into. There are sharp edges so when you slide the bar into the hole and give a good strong whack with a rawhide mallet, you pop out a circle. Next there is a tool called a dapping die. You place the piece of flat metal into the depression in the cube and tap it spherical using a dapper. Drilled a tiny hole next into the top of my little domes. Cut wire I already had, soldered it in place through the hole. The bead was 1/2 drilled, so next step was using some epoxy glue to secure the post and dome to the bead. Filed the edges smooth, some polish, and voila, ball stud earrings.
PROJECT 15
This was a fun one. We were given a square piece of metal as a base, and a long rectangular piece called bezel wire, of fine silver rather than sterling. The first objective is to wrap the wire around the cabochon stone (flat back) to get the correct length needed. Next step we soldered the wire to the base. I melted mine at the seam. Woops. So, forging ahead I just cut myself a new bezel wire. Also ended up using a different piece of metal for my base. The pre-cut square given to us wasn't large enough around for what I wanted to do later on. Successfully soldered the bezel wire on my second try. Rather than just file all the edges completely down, I made a fun design using simple needle files (very handy those). Cut out, shaped, and soldered on the bale (what the chain threads through). Polish piece, and then finally place the stone in the setting (always the last thing to be done). When I tried to push the top edges of my bezel wire in I couldn't for the life of me get it. Took it over to Frank, who also tried, and commented on how hard it was. "Is this fine silver?" Ahhh, no. Fine silver is supposed to fold in like butter, sterling, not so much. Frank used a special dapping tool that goes into the flex shaft and that gives way more power to the tapping motion to push the bezel wire in.
PROJECT 16
No pictures, taking the rings from before and re-sizing again. Down 2 sizes.
PROJECT 17
No pictures, size up both rings 3/4 size.
PROJECT 18
Only needed to reshank one ring- I chose the prong setting ring.
PROJECT 19 & 20
Chain repairs #5 and 6. #5 was another box chain, easy peasy. #6 was similar to what is called an idiot's delight chain. Where my teacher cut the links for me to repair ended up actually soldering pretty easily after finally getting used to soldering really small spots with not too much solder. I can see how it would be a problem- using too much solder and you end up with solid links.
PROJECT 21
Called a prong plate. When it was first finished there were 11 prongs in total, and standing up more or less straight. Take a flat sheet of silver, solder on silver wire. Basic skill was to learn how to solder wires like that close together without melting the one you did before. I used up some prongs for a future project.
PROJECT 22
This was practice setting. We had to take the crown settings provided to us, solder them to the copper base, and then set the stone. A channel is cut into the top of each prong on its inner side. Place stone, bend prongs in. Round off the tips. Did 5 in total.
PROJECT 23
Simple 4 prong stud. Each crown does not come with a solid bottom. To fill it in, we had to create a ball of silver and solder that into the hole, then file flat. I used prong from the prong plate to create the beads (apply torch to wire until wire melts and balls up on its own). Next solder on the post to the back. Make setting shiny and pretty. Set stone in the same way as practiced. Remove any scratches, ensure sparkliness and call it done.
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