More module 3

So, this post has only one project but I am soooo excited about it. Still working in wax. This was a wax carve-out. Basically carving an image/design into the wax. Back in my last semester in college my final senior "thesis" of sorts was a series of pen and ink drawings that were abstractions of a coiled snake. Here's just one of the 10 I had made:

To start I drew out a new design. We reduced the image down to the size I wanted for my pendent. After gluing the piece of paper onto a flat block of wax I poked holes into it deep into the wax in order to get an outline of all the details in the image. After peeling the paper off there was just a lot of carving to do. Since I wanted to increase the 3-dimensionality of the piece I carved it so that the pendent would be domed. Then I needed to hollow out the back. When I considered that design done I weighed the wax and did the conversion factor to see how much silver I would need- 43.5 grams of silver. IE a fuckton. So, more thinning out of the wax form was called for. When I finished, the calculation came out to 32.5 grams, so, MUCH better, but still a lot. For casting I had to add on a network of sprues for the metal to flow through the entire piece and attach it to a base:

Apparently I took the picture before I added the last 2 sprues (one on either side of the pink wax).
After all of that added wax- the piece came out to needing about 42 grams of silver. We did a process known as investing, which is creating a plaster mold of the wax. A steel cylinder is placed into the rubber base and looks like this. The plaster is then poured into the cylinder and allowed to cure. After, you pry the rubber base off and now have a hole for the wax to melt out of when placed into the oven. Next is the actual casting, which is awesome.
Had to saw off the entire sprue system. Normal polishing involves two steps: zam compound which is more of a burnisher and takes away metal, and step two is the rouge compound which really buffs a piece up and does not take off any metal. I took my piece and zammed it. Then, I went and got the silver-black which is a sulfur mixture that antiques silver. I got the entire piece nice and black, made sure to get into every crevice. Then I rouged up the piece and left certain areas in the piece antiqued. This makes the piece look even more defined. Gives it character:

I forgot to mention that I also carved out a little wax form for the bale to hold the pendent. Polished it up the same way as the pendent itself. Drilled a hole into each piece and connected them with a jump ring. The chain is from another necklace.
Here's the back of the piece all hollowed out. Had the texture in the wax and it came out just like I wanted. What's fun is having hollowed it out, it's not a smooth interior- it looks like the outside inversed:

So, there you have it!

Cont. Module 3

So, I've been very bad and it's been a long time since my last post. I can't remember as well how each project was done, so descriptions will probably be shorter. Enjoy though!

PROJECT 41

As I had mentioned in my last post, this ring was the same casting as in project 36. This time we had to use triangular stones. There is a term "trillian" although those stones have more of a bowed out side than straight edge. Basically the same process as before. Made one wall thinner. Then cut in seats, a little tricky based on how far apart you want the stones to be. Tap over the thinned out wall. Bevel the edge of the thicker wall and tap that one as well. Rather than just leave the shape as is, I went for something different and filed to follow the outside edges of the end stones.

PROJECT 42

This type of setting is called a half bezel. Started off with soldering a sheet into a tube shape. Bent/hammered into shape to fit the stone. Cut the half circle shapes into the sides. We had a choice of making this into a pendent or a ring, so I made a nice shank and soldered the bezel into it. Because the metal of the bezel is so thick, it's not a simple fold over job like with a regular bezel. It's more like channel setting. Had to cut seats into the sides, thin out one wall to tap over, and bevel the edge of the other wall to be able to tap in that side. I actually had an oops moment when working on this piece. The shank I made was a little too thin at the seam. When I was tapping over one of the walls, the shank snapped at its solder seam. I tried to re-solder without taking my stone out, but the heat cracked it in the end. So I had to take the stone out and reset. But, it came out alright anyway.

PROJECT 43

This was just practice to learn how to do pave. I think we used 2.5 mm stones. Basic strategy is to etch lines on the flat surface and mark out even placement of the stones. Drill holes where each stone is to be set. Then using a ball-bur made the hole wide and deep enough to fit the stone. Used a heart bur to cut a seat low enough so that the girdle of the stone sat just below the surface of the metal. Then using a beading tool, push the metal into little beads around the edges of the stones to hold them in place. The inside edge of the triangle was made smooth and angled in by a rubber wheel. The rim of the edge was ridged by a tool called mill-grain.

PROJECT 44

The process of this project was called bead and bright cut. This was just practice, hence, the copper. Basic idea was to first drill a hole and bur out a space for the stone, then cut into the silver angled in until you're left with the "prongs" that will eventually hold the stone. A lot more steps than I felt was necessary went into creating those flat angled sides, but so it goes. Setting involved putting the stone in and making sure it was low enough. Used the beading tool again to push the metal into a bead over the edge of the stone. Mill grained the edges of the square.

PROJECT 45

 












This is called an eternity band. Essentially used the bead and bright cut technique only into a ring band. It was good practice.

I'm done with writing down project numbers. Anyway, I started on learning how to make wax patterns.
Basic 'D' Blank

Initial Ring (decided I might as well just write my name out already)

I actually got to cast this one, so, here's the finished product:

Scroll Ring

 












Signet Ring

Build Up

I had a lapidary workshop, which is learning how to cab stones (make into the cabochon shape). These are my pretty babies:

This was day one's product. We were just learning how, so I went through all the steps on just the one. I did however begin to draw the shapes out on the other pieces of agate I wanted to work on and get the rough cut out of the slabs.
Kind of makes you think of Grand Canyon or any other mountain-desert area.





Day 2 was a little more productive. Completed two cabs and fully cut out the shapes of the other stones I wanted to work on.


It's snow falling on cedars!












Day 3- the rest of the stones I worked on, rather than doing each one all the way through, I went step by step through all of them at a time. I also skipped a step involving "gluing" the cab to a stick to make it easier to hold as you grind away the sharp edges and smooth the stone out. It involved sacrificing some fingernails, but it was totally worth it!!
I call this one the Eye of Sauron. I'm a dork, you know it.

A little more egg shaped than the others.

The following pictures are two sides to the same stone, so, a double-cab:

I liked the hint of yellow glowing in the center.









 So, yeh, this was a very very productive workshop.








And now, to show some of the pieces of jewelry that I've made on my own time. Tuesday nights and Friday afternoons we're allowed to stay late and work on projects not related to schoolwork. I started getting into working with copper. Piercing the pieces, and then blow-torching the bitches up to get awesome coloration in the metal. And because of that firing, the colors don't oxidize and turn dark. Only one piece has started to do that- the swirl design. It's because the top layer was textured and non-torched copper exposed to the air will turn dark.

This is a cloak pin. It needed to be heavy enough to hold my cloak together, so the metal is pretty thick. But check out that red background! Two layers of copper were used. The top, pierced layer, was domed out before I soldered it to the base.
This was the first piece I discovered the firing technique for. Because the metal was so thick, I was having a hard time soldering the dome to the base with my tiny torch. So I took it into the back room and used the torch normally used for melting down metal. For the solder to finally flow, the metal ended up getting quite hot (turning hot metal red), and then I quenched it. What came out of it was all these awesome colors.

Again, two layers of metal. Top is pierced, soldered to a base. Every time I do a different piece, the colors come out different.

Once again, domed and pierced soldered to a base.

There's another circle on the other side of the center circle that you can't see. Wrist cuff. It looks like leather until you see it really up close. The beads are silver.

Module 3

PROJECT 39

This is the 9 crown cluster project. We could either attach it to a ring or make a bale and have it as a pendant. I obviously went the route of ring. Anyway, to begin we were given 9 crowns. I can't find a picture of the tool we used, mostly because I don't know what it's called- but we were given a tool that holds the crowns in place upside down so we can solder them together. Started off with soldering 3 rows of 3 crowns. The shape of this holder is concave. When held right side up, the crowns then look curved, center crown being taller than the one on either side. Placed the 3 rows of crowns back on the tool and soldered them together. Rolled out a simple band, added lines that wrapped around the band so it wasn't entirely plain. Soldered the cluster of crowns to the band. The prongs that we were given had seats pre-cut into them. So, I put all my stones in, and, because of some imperfections in how I soldered the crowns together, some of the stones looked crooked and awkward. Then, while setting, broke half a prong. Salvaged it by using a ton of soft solder to build the tip back up. Because of the awkward sitting of some stones, had to take them out, cut the seats in certain prongs down a bit, reset, gave a final polish, and called it done. Didn't think I would like such a bling-y ring, but it's kind of awesome.

PROJECT 40

This is another exercise in channel setting, this time using baguette czs. For this one in particular, one side wall was filed to about half its thickness. The other untouched wall had the notches cut into it for each stone. Because of the shape of a baguette we had to cut a sort of v-shaped channel into the metal for the stones' tapered edges to rest in. Like the other channel setting, popped the stones into place. I kind of broke a few when trying to get them in... That's the other thing- each stone is sliiiiiiiiightly different in size and you need to put the larger ones in the center. You break it, you need to find another stone similar in size, and we are talking fractions of a mm. But it actually makes a huuuuuuge difference. Also, in real world situations, I would not have the benefit of a whole slew of stones to pick from to set. I might be given stones by a client to set, and I had better NOT break them. Yeh. Going to need a little more practice obviously. After putting the stones in place very carefully used a hammer and tool to tap the thinned wall over the stones so that they would now be held in place. If set well, the stones will not wobble (mine didn't wobble. Woot!! God, now wobble is in my head and sounds weird. Wobble wobble wobble...). Next, filed away any scratch marks, and made sure that metal looked straight from a front view. Final polish and call it done. This ring in particular, although the stones are set nicely and actually sit straight, the band kinda sucks. The casting of this metal was not such a great casting- too much porosity in the metal, porosity meaning little tiny bubbles of air in the metal. In some cases when it's only one or two bubbles and they're not too deep, you can file them away. There is also a tool that can be used with the flex shaft that pushes metal into the holes- you'd still need to be careful in burnishing because burnishing takes metal away and not much is pushed into the holes in the metal. In this case, nearly the entire ring has little tiny air bubbles.



So, after this I started project 41 which had the same casting shape as project 36. This time though we are to use triangular stones. I cleaned up the ring all nice and shiny but suspended work on the ring to complete a commissioned necklace:

This, I'm really proud of. I recycled old jewelry. Took the metal, melted it all down into 3 pieces. Took longer than you would think to roll them flat to the thickness I wanted- about .5 mm, a little larger. Need to constantly reheat the metal or else it gets too hard to work with. The pieces on the end are actually one piece of metal rather than cutting 3 small ovals and soldering them together. I hammered them so each oval would be convex. The 3 individual pieces that hold stones took also a lot of work. There is filigree work in there as well which can be time consuming. All in all it was 41 hours of work from start to finish.
Basically, this is the reason why I decided to go down this path. To be able to take silver that was an ingot, roll out, cut, and pound it into submission- and have this come out of it, there is immense satisfaction. Even though I'm an amateur, I consider myself a jeweler now. I love my design, but I can't see the piece without seeing its flaws. It drives me a little crazy. Can't work on it anymore though- it's been shipped off and hopefully they will love it as much as I cared about making it. To get a better look, click on the picture.

Finishing Up Module 2 and a Little Something Special

So, I finally have some good pictures up of my jewelry. Thank the macro setting on my digital camera for that. And thank Ginger for telling me about it! Some pieces I couldn't redo, like the ring with the 4 stone crown settings. That and my first copper band, which has been totally transformed. This was its in between stage:

PROJECT 32

This project was creating a bypass ring with a marquise setting. We had to create the shank ourselves. First step was creating the actual band, then we hammered flat the half of the band that had the solder seam. After that we had to saw the band back open. I decided to change the design we were given and folded the arms of the band in opposite directions and filed into points. I was kind of inspired by the letter alef. This was the first piece I actually sat and drew out a few designs finally coming up with this one before actually making it. A lot of what I've done before has just been organic as I go. Next step was soldering the marquise setting between the arms. Polish and set. Definitely proud of this one.

PROJECT 33

This little number is called a gypsy setting. It was pretty awesome. Check out the mirror finish! Anyway, we were given a raw casting to work on. File off the sprue, give it a good cleaning up. In order to make it appear as if the stone is embedded in the metal: we filed around the edge of the setting to create something like a built in bezel wire. Very carefully tap the metal over the edge of stone. After that we filed to make everything smooth, and then polishing galore. Short but sweet project.

PROJECT 34

With this one we had to learn how to create a plain band to match an existing one and solder them together without soldering them completely together. We also had to solder in the crown and set the stone after polishing.

PROJECT 35

I'm not sure why Frank my teacher had me do this project instead of setting the crowns onto the free-form butterfly/flower ring thing. But in any case, rather than do that I had to make my own band and solder on the 3 crowns and then set. There was some repronging and retipping done. Sizing up and then reshanking as well. With all the heating up of the band after setting the stones, because of resizing, etc, they got a little frosty. Meh.

PROJECT 36

This was another wax casting we had to work with. I had fun working on the band. It was originally flat all the way around but instead I filed into the band to continue that curving indentation leaving a rim about the same thickness as the top of the ring. I also added texture to give it that frosted look. The next part of our task was to set the stones in what is called a channel setting. Had to carve notches into each side of the insides of the ring and pop the stones in. Totally had issues with it, mostly with creating the notches. But after finally setting the stones in, the rest was easier. Carefully tapped the metal around the stones so that they overlapped the tiniest bit with the stones. Filed the edges even. Was fairly pleased with the final product.

PROJECT 37

This one I'm also proud of. Wax casting that we were given to clean up and polish just like the other. This time we had to set these itty bitty stones. Applied the same notching principle from the straight channel to the bar channel setting. It's really pretty and simple. One of the few castings we've been given that I actually like as is, no alterations on my part.
Hardly worth mentioning but we had 2 chain repairs. Simple cable and curb link chains. I believe the curb link I worked on was a bit smaller.

PROJECT 38

This final project for module 2 was to do another cabochon bezel set pendent. I was given a second stone by a fellow student since she was using one of her own real stones for setting as opposed to the one they supply us with. I traded hers in so I could get one that matched with mine. Simple design. To get the texture I used what's called a ball bur. You just let it grind into the metal to create the hammered/dimpled look. I used two sizes, one larger and one much smaller. The head of the tool looks like a little pencil marking it's so small.

Here's something a little extra. We had a filigree workshop that was optional. People who've paid for modules 1-6 don't need to pay extra so I signed up. Amazing amazing class. I've always loved filigree but even more so now that I know how to make it. Not going to give descriptions on how they were made, just enjoy the pics:

Off On A Tangent

Soooooo, taking a departure from the jewelry for a moment to share with you this most awesome weekend I just came back from. I went to an SCA event. In a nutshell, medieval/renaissance reenactment. You camp out, watch fighting, check out merchant's row and enjoy the general merriment making in the evenings. Did I mention we all get dressed up in period garb? I made my own cloak! Definitely uneven in some places and my hem is absolutely laughable, but it's my cloak and I'm totally stoked that it's something I made. I don't think I actually have a picture of me in the cloak.
Here's a picture of our encampment Rivenoak:

Our tents are in the center of the picture. The guy on the left is John, friend and fellow jewelry student.

We arrived Friday, in our mundane clothes, set up camp and eventually got into our costumes. Dinner happened and after dinner came the partying. There were drums and belly dancers and a little singing. Drinks and merriment all around.
Saturday was pretty awesome. Woke up, had breakfast, took a stroll down merchants row. Court was held. Basically at court there is swearing fealty to the king and queen and the realm. Also, passing off duties and titles from the retiree to the new person. Many huzzahs were shouted.

In the above picture the king was about to hand out to I believe they were his "personal" warriors, these coins that he had helped to fabricate to honor some people. The warriors went around displaying them before returning them to the king.
Fighting began around lunchtime. And by fighting I mean the tournament for declaring the new king for the next year. In a small field men fight one on one in the 4 corners. It eventually gets down to the final two and whoever wins is king. Awesome. Hopefully this link will work. RCA fighting
The occasional pauses in fighting are to determine which blows landed and caused "wounds".
Going back, after court before fighting was a demonstration of alectryomancy, or as they put it: ouija-chicken:














This was the practice of divination using the chicken to pick out letters to create a word. Needless to say, can't imagine it being very helpful. The chicken picked out FDRJX in answer to the question of who would win the tournament for king.
Saturday night there was more food, delicious homemade mead, homemade root beer, drums, dancers and some very naughty songs. Sung after the kiddies went off to bed.
Sunday was basically breaking up camp and going home back to the real world.
Probably the most fun I've had in a while.