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This is where I make stuff... sometimes it's not scrap!

Cheapy drop leaf table, my semi-portable home-built jeweller's workbench and tons of sunlight.

Tools

Ever since I started working with silver I've been meaning to buy a Thor rawhide/copper faced hammer but been put off by the price... today I saw one in the shop and thought what the hell.

I'm a self confessed tool junkie and Thor make the best soft faced mallets in the world. Quality tools will last a lifetime and even though it was an expensive hammer, I don't think I'll have to buy another one.

Another Ring

Haven't posted for a while so I thought I better put something up.

I'm working on a how-to post but I haven't taken all of the photos yet so in the meantime, here's another ring.

5mm Half round polished then filed.

Some Sketches

I found some concept drawings in an old sketchbook and thought they should live here... Not sure about some of the ideas but hey, that's what sketches are for.

One Ring to... that's all I know, I haven't seen the movie!

My soldering could be better, I've not had a lot of practice at it so I'm making some rings to improve my skills with the torch.

I wanted to say thank you to a friend for helping me move house and for braving a particular Swedish furniture store with me last holiday weekend (1 hour of queuing, thank god they have hot-dogs!) so I made this...


5mm x 1.2mm thick plain Sterling Silver band. It's not perfect but it's a start.

From start to finish it took just over an hour, it weighs about 3.5g so the material cost is about $3.15. That's the great thing about silver, with a bit of time, effort and skill, you can make something beautiful that doesn't cost a lot of money. I can't remember the last time a $3.15 present made someone smile so much :)

How to...

I thought I'd post some pics of how I made the bracelet in the previous entry.



This started off as Ø0.9mm Sterling Silver round wire which I wound around a 6mm mandrel (Knitting needles make great mandrels and you can get them very cheaply from charity shops).


The coil of wire is wrapped in tape and using a jeweller's saw then I start to cut through the coil to make rings.

Lots of rings!

As the rings are cut from a long coil, they are helical in shape so they need to be tweaked with pliers to make them flat, then squeezed to ensure they stay closed then twisted open so they can be joined - this is by far the longest part of the process... it's not the most interesting part either!



The weave for this bracelet starts off as a basic Chain Mail weave called 4-in-1. So called because there are 4 outer links joined by one central link. Then the outer 2 links are folded up into a 3 sided box shape and held together by a link on the top, making a folded box chain. This shortens the 4-in-1 chain by a factor of approximately 1/4 so if the 4-in-1 chain starts off at 100mm, the folded box chain will be 75mm long.

Chain was finished off with a lobster clasp attached with smaller double links which I neglected to take a picture of. The approximate size of the box chain with ID6mm links is 8mm square so it needs a sturdy wrist to look good.

Fit for purpose...

I made a chain bracelet as a Christmas present for a friend but it didn't work, the weave was too big for her wrist and it looked out of place.

It wasn't a bad item, it just didn't suit the person it was made for. I design things for a living and one of the most important elements of any design is the end user, I made something without any real thought for the end user and surprisingly it didn't work. Lesson learned!

First blog entry... EEEK!

So, I've had this blog sitting here doing nothing since I first heard about Blogger... Now I've decided it's probably time to start doing something with it!

Inspired by my crafty friend Nikki's excellent blog, I figured this might be a good outlet to show off my creative side.

When I get a bit of spare time, I like to make things out of silver, often I make shiny expensive scrap metal but sometimes, just sometimes I make things that turn out OK! I currently make simple rings and chains but as my skills progress I hope the things I make can live up to the ideas in my head.