Tag Archive | "Silversmithing"

Soar…

Friday, June 25, 2010

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Rather than having New Year’s resolutions that are quickly broken, my friends & I choose one word as a way of setting intention for the whole year. It is a word that inspires and resonates….that calls you into being. My friend, Mindful Mimi, mentioned she was inspired by both the words “Create” & “Soar”. I [...]

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Sterling Silver Flower Bead

Thursday, January 18, 2007

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I recently tried my hand at another sterling silver fabricated hollow bead. The flower design was drawn free-hand on a sheet of 20-gauge metal. The metal was then sawed out, filed, domed, soldered, sanded & polished to a high shine.  There are a few rough spots where my torch was a bit too hot for [...]

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Sterling Silver Chunky Chain

Friday, December 15, 2006

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This was the latest project I made in my silversmithing class. The chain is made from 14 & 16-gauge sterling silver wire. All links are soldered closed with every other link made of twisted wire. The toggle was also hand-made by soldering jump rings to a piece of square wire (see picture below). Quick instructions: [...]

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Designing in silver & polymer clay…

Monday, August 14, 2006

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Well – I finally made the project that I set out to do when I began silversmithing classes a couple of months ago. I have been wanting to combine silver & polymer clay for some time & am fascinated by how amazingly beautiful it can look when done right. Of course, this isn’t one of [...]

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An exercise in soldering…

Saturday, July 15, 2006

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With a stroke of luck, I finished the sterling silver necklace I’ve been working on for the past 6 weeks in my final silversmithing class. This piece was made entirely from sterling silver wire. It involved soldering 42 handmade jump rings to 21 strips of measured wire. The “dogbones” were formed to shape, then soldered [...]

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My first sterling silver fabricated pendant…

Friday, May 26, 2006

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Tonight was the last session of my beginner fabrication (silversmithing) class & I was able to complete one more piece of jewelry. A week ago, I picked up a wonderful stone cabachon at a local gem/bead store, the Rock Barrell. The stone is called “painted jasper”, and this particular cabachon had such a unique & [...]

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Silversmithing class project #3!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

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As promised, here is a pic of my last project from my silversmithing class…a large stone-set bezel ring (and I do mean large!) At one point, I overheated the metal and thought I might be showing you a picture of a big slumped silver mess…but luckily all was salvaged. Thank goodness for ring mandrels & [...]

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Project #2 complete!

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

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It started with two 1″ squares of sterling silver. Six hours & about 8 saw blades later… I ended up with these. *LOL* They were fun to make, and I learned a lot about sawing, filing, soldering & polishing. Lesson 1: There is a reason that jeweler’s saw blades come in packs of 12…especially if [...]

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My first ring…

Sunday, April 30, 2006

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Well, amazingly enough, I managed NOT to set the studio on fire with the gas torch. I had a lot of help from my teach, but here’s the result from my first fabrication (silvermithing) project. It’s certainly not perfect… but it’s handmade with TLC. And yes, I realize I spent beacoup bucks on a class [...]

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