May 2009

I think I have made great progress in my silver work.

I finished the second ring and in between the Thursday classes, I was playing with Viking Knit.  These hands hate to be idle!

I had found some instructions for VK on-line and thought I would give it a try. I made two bracelet: one that was just plain VK with 24 g sterling silver wire, and the second was made with the same wire but I worked some small garnet beads into the knit. I took both down to class to show Diane, who was leading the class and she ask me [ME!!] to teach a class in VK. WOW, and several of the ladies said they wanted to learn it too.

OMG, I feel so …… YIPEEEEEE, people like my work and want to learn from me [and I have only been at this for 4 months!]This still has to be all be sorted out and maybe I will do it in the fall as I have a very busy summer.

And why will my summer will be busy?

Anything used for a long time occasionally needs repair. Your car probably gets regular maintenance but every once in a while, it just breaks and you get it fixed, your house sometimes needs some repairs and even jewelry also has to get fixed, it can just wear out. As can we!

Well, I have to go for some minor repairs too. It’s not critical or serious and this is not frivolus either. It seems that sometime in the past year I have torn my right rotator cuff. (That’s the tendon and ball and socket in shoulder). I also have a bone spur which has compounded the problem. Being left handed, this is a strange situation as it is normally torn in the dominant arm; I have not been throwing 100 mph baseballs either.

There are so many things I can’t do or have had to stop doing.  I can’t do any cab cutting; long hours at the computer gives me hours of pain; putting on T-shirts is hard. Basically any movement that raises my hand above the shoulder causes and OW! Thankfully, soldering does not cause pain and my husband has been helping me wind coils so I could continue to make some chains.

This Wednesday is the day I am getting fixed. Then a week in a sling, then a week of limited use and by mid-June I will be into the physical therapy. And just about this time the Del Mar (San Diego) fair will start.

I am a member of the Volunteers for Minerals and we have a booth at the Del Mar fair in the Gem & Mineral building.  I am working the booth every Saturday, all day, while the fair is open. (Yes, these days I will also be in a sling to make sure I don’t lift anything to heavy) IF you come to the fair on a Saturday, please come by and say hello as I would love to meet some of you.

I love working the fair and talking the little kids who LOVE LOVE LOVE rocks, minerals, fossils, and any sparkly and who’s parents just don’t get it. I hear things like “Oh no, not another rock!” or “Why do you want that? It’s not even pretty”. I then make an effort to talk about science and encouraging their kids as if they are good at it maybe - just maybe, the might get a scholarship for college OR (gosh) a great career and a great salary. Amazingly, that’s when I see the light go on! Somewhere in there, I try to drop that I am an engineer, have two degree’s and make more money than my husband. This is really important if the child, who wants the mineral, is a young girl. That is really has an impact!

I know I am taking a bit of left turn at this point and it does not have much to do with metal smithing or jewelry BUT I am very saddened by the state of education here in California and many parents who do not take an interest in their child’s education let alone encouraging other interests.  If a kid want to collect rocks, then let them! If they want to make jewelry versus them playing soccer well, then let them, as one day they might have a career they enjoy and not a just a job they hate.

I am done now ;=)

Thanks!

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After I took the mount out of the pickle pot, I then soldered on the shank, back into the pickle pot it went and then I put it in the vibra-ora-torium, before I set the stone to make it really sparkle.

On Tuesday evening, I was ready to mount the stone. And then… we noticed I had missed soldering down one of the arms on the shank. D!@*n !!!!! Back into my office and I had it soldered in less than 5 minutes but it was then time for another round of pickle and tumbling

It is now, 9:30 on Satuday morning, and not only has the stone been mounted, it has been photographed and sent off to Elisa who emailed back a big OOOHHHHHH! I think she likes it.

So here it is, ALL DONE

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Thursday night was the second part of the ring class.

I was able to finish the first one which has the jade cab.

It is now proudly parked on my right hand.

I hope to finish off the Sugalite this week, as I just took the ring out of the pickle pot - The balls and twisted wire are now soldered around the bezel.  The second ring is supposed to be for Eliza of Scotland though I am liking the mount and the Sugalite sooo much she might not get it!

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Last week, I started a 3 session class at the Palomar Gem and Mineral and Gem Club http://palomargem.legendearth.com/.  This class is focused on making a ring using a bezel set cab and double half round wire for the shank.  In this class we are not placing the cab and silver setting on top of the shank, but working it into the shank.

In the first class most of us completed our bezel and soldering it to the base plate (if there is another name for this, I don’t know what it is, sorry).  The next step was to determine our ring size and cut the length for the shank. The actual length of the shank that is to be used is determined by taking the circumference of the ring size needed plus the thickness of the wire gauge then from this length you have to subtract the “length” or actual width of the silver setting for the cab as the setting becomes part of the shank.

But wait, we don’t know what the setting width will be yet. Why? - Well we have soldered the bezel to the backing but we have not trimmed the backing to be flush with the bezel and that is because we are adding  some decoration. I am putting some silver balls and twisted wire/rope around the outside of my bezel. Once that is done, I can cut away the excess silver.

Below  is a picture of the staged work. Yes, the over achiever in me is making two rings at once.

So this Thursday I shall be soldering down the rope, balls and cutting
away the extra silver around the bezel.  More pictures later in the
week.

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I have been working my way through Making Silver Chains: simple techniques, beautiful designs by Glen Waszek, and as I made each chain my soldering has gotten better: less messy (too much solder, bumps, voids, small gaps) and I am not soldering 2 or more links together or having to re-solder a link; and the time it takes to make a chain is shorter  not that one should rush it but all these little issues add up.

One of the first big ticket tools I bough soon after I started this journey was a Koil Cutter from Dave Arnes. This is one of the best investments I have made so far. If you still hand saw your links from coils you really have to get one of these set ups. I also bought the hand winder with the basic mandrel set. I have then supplemented the mandrels which are in .5 mm increments with bamboo knitting needles – double pointed needles to be exact. Why? A) Knitting needles can be found in .25mm increments. B) Bamboo allows for easy cutting and modification C) Double pointed (which are for socks) are the perfect length for winding coils on!

As I was saying….The instructions from the chain book are very easy to understand and the chains progress from easy to harder and more complex. The one problem I have is that the wire size for each project is listed as gauge size (ie 20g) but the physical size (in mm) is not the true gauge size, in either gauge system. The wire being used for the chains is an exact metric size. This difference does not affect some of the simpler chains but when you get to the more complex chains (loop-in-loop, idiots delight) it does matter.  To resolve this problem, I have taken the wire size and the winding mandrel size – both of which are in millimeters, from the book and calculated the actual aspect ratio of the link. I then use this aspect ratio to see if the true wire gauge and mandrel size should be adjusted.  The advantage of calculating the aspect ratio fore each chain also makes it easier when I want to change wire gauge and still keep the proportions of the chain.  [The programmer in me has built spread sheet so I convert from Aspect Ratio to Wire/Mandrel sizes by just a few key strokes!]

So what chains have I done?

Here they are in order, from left to right: Basic Trace Chain; Fetter and Link; Elongated Trace Chain;  Loop-in Loop and Wiggly - though I call it rosette. ( you will see some of these in the pictures of my pendants)

I am skipping the curb chains cause I just don’t like the look of them.

My next chain (s) will be the “Fancy” chapter. After that I hope to move onto the Classical Loop in Loop book.

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I have been trying to finish a few projects so here is another flurry of pictures

This is my first silver mounted cab. There was a class down at the Palomar club in March, which ran for 4 weeks. We started off with the basics: Make a bezel, pickling, saw/cut the backing, soldering down the bezel to the back, filing to shape, adding a bale, mounting the stone and of course polishing.

I don’t really know what type of agate/jasper this is but it was very hard to cut but despite that, it is now one of my favorites. I have a few extra pieces left, from the same slab so I can’t decide to sell the cabs or maybe make a few more pendants and then sell them on.

.

Because, I made my first pendant in 2 weeks, I had more than enough time to make this one next. The cab is Verisite that I bought at the San Diego show and cabbed.

Oh - and I made the chain tooo! I finished this one at home over the weekend.

Now, my real goal was to mount a cab that finished when I bought it.  It was polished on all sides and had a flat top. I wanted to put the bezel on the top, and have the cab, hang down below it.   I traced the outer diameter of the flat top, made the bezel, cut the plate to just hang a bit over the bezel like a funny “top hat”. Then I put a ring on the top so I could hang it from a chain.

I call this one “Mezzalluna”.  It is on a fetter and link chain that I made as well.

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