Amanda's Jewellery

Coiled Coil Bead

2012-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

I cannot talk about the coiled coil bead (my own term) without first mentioning I first saw this technique on the jewellery of Connie Fox from www.jatayu.com. After thoroughly devouring the education section of her website, I found a free tutorial from Connie Fox on how to make her bangle style with the beautiful feature bead made entirely of wire.

The photo left is the bracelet straight from Connie Fox's "Elegant Twisted Bangle Bracelet" featured on the tutorial link page at Jewelry Making Daily by Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. The tutorial was originally split over two months so in two parts.

Part one features how to make the "coiled focal bead" opposite the fancy hook. As it is on the Jewelry Making Daily website, it requires you to register first, which is free. Part One Link here.

Part two features the actual bangle construction and creation of her "swan hook" as Connie Fox calls it. Part Two Link here

Here is the bangle I crafted while following Connie Fox's tutorial - literally one of my first wire worked pieces ever! It was a rough attempt, done in copper which is inexpensive to practice with, using what I had on hand. But I definitely learned the technique!

It was a fun tutorial and I also learned how to pre-twist my own wire using my husband's cordless drill.. Here is a video (which is selling their own special bit) to show the concept. However, I just twist the ends of the wires together and tighten that into the drill chuck and twist away.

The coiled bead technique was enough to whet my appetite for wire working bracelets for a long time and I have continued to construct these bangle style bracelets as they are just so addictive.

The coiled coil bead just adds a strong visual section that creates a lot of textual interest. Playing with different wires such as round wire (photo left) or half round wire (photo right) or even twisted coiling wire gives very different feeling coiled beads.

It is a great way to hide trouble areas, errant wires or just fill in space on a project.

While Connie Fox works in rather thicker gauges of wire, the technique works perfectly well with thinner gauge of wire for a more delicate look. Eventually as I delved deeper into the different styles of wire working artists, I aw amazing coiled beads in miniature by a group in the US. After careful inspection of their photos, I realised that the coiled bead technique was used in the construction of their fancier looking beads - just done with much finer wires and more core wires held together inside the coil.

I had to learn this technique, but the group in the US would not teach their techniques. I revere engineered and with trial and error, and the understanding from Connie Fox's tutorial, I worked it out. The finer technique is a coiling wire wrapped around 3 core wires - all of which is done carefully to keep the wire work tidy and neat. Hard to do when all wires are under 0.6 mm (24) gauge! This bead can be seen on the left side of the copper and amethyst pendant photographed right.

What you don't see now is a couple of wires hidden inside the coiled bead I didn't know exactly HOW to terminate! All directed up behind the pendant and terminated neatly.

I created a free tutorial on how to do the more complicated coiled coil bead with the multiple core wires. While recently teaching a workshop on this tutorial at the December 2011 Retreat for the Aussie Beading Retreats , I was asked "why use 3 small core wires?" as we were all fumbling with 5 wire jelly fish like projects. Imagine the core wires done in copper with the outer coiling wire done in a really fine sterling silver wire. With the final larger wire filling in the gaps a brass or gold wire. If you can visualise, you would have copper peeking out between sterling silver and a final twist of gold here and there to help marry up all three metals in one project. Or have those core wires be from the many different coloured wires now available on the market! This is one of those tutorials I strongly recommend to learn, then really explore with a lot of different materials.

My Coiled Coil Bead tutorial link here

I would love for you to share your coiled bead you create from this tutorial!

I have tried to link back all borrowed photos to the original place. Unmarked photos are of my own work from my website www.yourjewellery.com

Happy Wiring!

Creating a Bail for a Pendant

2011-12-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, it is important to measure around the clasp of the chain you will use for your pendant to dictate the circumference required for your bail. Before you start bail construction. If you have a special clasp you want to slide in and out, then:

Bail Circumference
Measure around the clasp with a soft measuring tape the minimum length required to comfortably slide the clasp in and out and then that should give you the length of X-wrap to make before creating the loop.

Basic Bail Construction
The basic concept of the bail is to craft about 3 cm (1.25 inch) OR REQUIRED LENGTH BASED ON YOUR CLASP MEASUREMENT of the X Wrap. Then bend the wrap around a small round object until the start of the bail section touches the beginning. Use some of the coiling wire to secure the loop closed.

Don't worry, as I am typing this article out, I have decided to do a separate tutorial on how to create a basic bail - where you can feature any preferred wrap. For now I will show examples of what I have done in the past.

Creating a bail is often something I forgot to think about when I started creating pendants. Hence they became a single core wire coiled and looped around from the front of a setting to the back and anchored securely.

The trouble with this technique is when you have a beautiful complicated pendant, sometimes that simple style of bail seems a bit of a wimp out! Although the last end of the bail can help secure a stone in place if you find the setting is still a bit loose.

An amazing tutorial by wire artist Remy Heath of Studio Heath teaches a great way of doing a bail built into the structure of her complicated woven pendants. I love her tutorials but it does end up giving you many wire ends you have to terminate somewhere and still end up with a tidy looking project which does not suite a small, simple design.

My favourite wrap to use as a bail is the X-Wrap Weave (my free tutorial link here) as it creates a very complicated yet pretty bail to add elegance to any project.

Here is an example of the X wrap as a bail. In this pendant, I actually started with the bail first. I took a long length of 0.8 mm (American 20) gauge wire and bent it in half around the flat needle nose plier teeth. Then crafted 2.5 cm (1 inch) length of Xwrap weave and bent that around a thin knitting needle to make a complete loop.

I tucked the two ends back through the top of the bent start and then continued with the rest of the project.

It is also important to plan if you wish to have the back of the pendant sit flush to the body, or at angles. In this pendant, the bail will rest against the body and slant the stone down at an angle. It was done as it captured the better angle of the mosaic opal front better.

Another example of the X Wrap as a bail constructed in the middle of the Bezel Setting Tutorial on my site. For this bail, I literally started with the bail first and then continued with the top half and then bottom half of the bezel setting technique to trap the lapis lazuli cabuchon.

Right in the middle of the bezel setting core wire, bend it into a perfect U shape around one tooth of the flat needle nose pliers. Then execute 3 cm (1.25 in) of the X Wrap. Continue with the top half of the bezel setting.

After that is finished, bend the X wrap bail around a round object until it creates a complete loop, and use part of the thinner wire to secure the start and end of the Xwrap bail together. Then continue with the bottom half of the bezel setting. I prefer to bend the bail towards the back side of the pendant as sometimes the connection is not so seamless, as you can see in the back side photo of the same lapiz lazuli pendant.

Notice this bail sits higher in the back and leans up over the top of the stone. This particular bail was made so the back of the pendant would sit flush to the body.

For the bail in the circular pendant, the bail core wire came from the start and the finishing end of the outer circle. I took a length of sterling 1.0 mm (US 18) gauge wire and created a perfect circle around a pvc pipe and overlapped the start and end by .5 cm (about 0.25 inch). Then bent both ends of the wire 90 degree angle to the circle plane.

0.4 mm gauge wire was then used to coil once completely around the entire circle - ensuring to coil between the 5 mm gap to fix it in place. Then I did 3 cm of X wrap on the bail and bent it towards the back.

This pendant features the smallest stone I have been able to set yet, a 7 mm x 5 mm faceted pear shape green sapphire stone. I used coated copper wire from an electronic enthusiast hobby supply store so it will not tarnish.

The bail core wire was 0.8 mm gauge and coiling wire 0.4 mm gauge. The bail wires became part of the spirals and coiled curly decoration to hide some of the uglier anchoring sites underneath. The bezel setting core wire was thinner 0.6 mm gauge.

Sometimes it is easier to trap the stone separately from the bail section and literally sew the two individual components together with wire at the end.

In the orange pendant photographed, I literally crafted the whole pendant in 3 separate sections. The bail top is a coiled wire section bent in the middle to create the large loop held shut by additional wire (so the loop will not open up again). The second section is the individual stone in its bezel setting wrap. The third section was the large coiled bead on the bottom.

I then literally used 0.3 mm gauge wire, and the spiral ends linked together of Bail and large coil bead sections, together in the end.

A photo of the back shows more of the wire stitching. It also shows the back side of the bail. You can just see one section of the twisted coiling wire that looped around securing the bail loop closed.

Hopefully by now you see that crafting the bail can be so much more than just buying a manufactured finding, or just a plain loop of wire. I have only shown a few ways I have crafted bails - you are only limited by your imagination!

Happy wiring!

X Wrap Wire Weave

2011-12-27T14:28:00.000-08:00

X Wrap Wire Weave

The X Wrap Link

Ever needed to hide an area in wire work, or just wanted to fill in a large gap with some interesting pattern? Here is an easy way to do just that, the x-wrap (named by me for the X shape produced in the middle of the wires) is a variation on the figure 8 used in the double coil weave to produce a more open, lacy look.

The tutorial is free and contains close up photos to show exactly what is happening over 3 full pages. It is a stunning weave that makes a beautiful bail.

I did not invent this wrap, but figured out how to do it and wish to share it for the rest of the wiring community. My tutorials tend to share techniques rather than patterns. One tip is to start the practice piece on a key ring which would end up being a sample for you to refer back to in the future. In a recent class I taught with the Aussie Beading Retreat group, we covered 4 of the wraps on my tutorial page and started each new wrap on the same key chain - which became a master sample key from which people can refer to in the future when planning the next project.

The X Wrap definitely is a great wrap to add to your wire techniques. The important part is that the core wire needs to be slightly thicker than the coiling wire. You can use just about any gauge wire (that you can work with), just keep in mind that thinner core wires means that the bail can be squished out of shape more easily.

This is my favourite wire wrap for bail construction now - discussed in a separate post link here.

Happy Wiring!

2011-09-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Double Coil Weave

Ever wanted to figure out how to connect a few wires together to bring them to another side in your project? The double coil weave is a handy, pretty way to add texture to a couple of wires. Great to use doubled over as a bail as well!

This tutorial will show you how to create the coil with step by step photos and tips on how to hold the wire. Better yet, it's free!

http://www.web4business.com.au/amandasjewellery/images/tutorial_double%20coil.pdf

2011-09-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

Wire Working Notes

Introducing my tutorials page is up and running, and actually has some tutorials ready to go!

http://www.web4business.com.au/amandasjewellery/AKTutorials.htm

Over the next few posts I will discuss what each tutorial covers, today I will start with the General Notes Article.

http://www.web4business.com.au/amandasjewellery/images/tutorial_General%20Notes.pdf

The Notes are also a companion guide to all of my tutorials, starting with a list of terminology I use in my articles and tutorials with definitions and reasoning behind my madness.

I have condensed the wire properties information and wire working tips available in my blog and various other media I teach from into one file for quick reference. This is data that has taken me since 2003 to learn the hard way - slogging through many different articles, library books and trial and error (and a few pricked fingers).

The article starts off with a thorough look into wire properties such as shapes available and how to read the measurements when purchasing from an online shop. Gauge is shown complete with a chart for quick reference. There is an introduction to understanding why wire becomes brittle and breaks and a guide to wire hardness. Most importantly, you will learn how to choose the correct wire for the job expected.

Then the article goes on to include a few short tutorials on ways to handle wire as you work on bigger projects. I show how to start a new core wire into an existing project, when sometimes you just need a wire right there. It is also shown how to keep your work tidy, begin and end new weaving or coiling wires and keep tension consistent while coiling.

Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of wire working, it's very addicting!

Basic Loop, Wrapped Loop Tutorials

2011-07-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

This week I want to put the limelight on an amazing designer, Lorri Ely of www.making-jewelry.com, who has put all of her hard earned knowledge about beaded jewellery basics on her website for free. And what a website, she explores stringing techniques, earring makings, even how to sell your jewellery in various venues and tips on running a jewellery business.

This is a site I wholeheartedly wish was available when I started making jewellery over 20 years ago! But then again, the internet was not what it is these days either.

Basic Loops
The most basic wire working is the basic loop. This is literally a circle at the end of the wire with which to connect the wire to anything such as an earring finding, or attach a new wire to a project. The earrings to the left are some I have created only using basic loops.

But what if you do not know how to create this technique?

Lorri has written clear, easy to follow instruction for doing a basic loop complete with good photos. And read her tips on using round needle nose pliers!

Wrapped Loops
Her longer instructions on how to make a wrapped loop beaded chain strand again are filled with great tips on how to hold your hands and what to do with everything.

Her instructions cover how to make the basic wrapped loop and then go on to show how to make a wrapped loop strand like the piece I have created photographed to the left.

The wrapped loop is a very elegant and secure technique to use, but one which I recommend is best practiced 20 - 40 times before creating any jewellery.

In order to snug down wire ends on the wrapped loop after clipping waste with wire cutters, use the flat needle nose pliers (tips are more slender for tight spaces) and turn the pliers in the same direction as the wrapped coil. Repeat until you cannot feel the wire tip any more poking out.

A third pertinent wire tutorial that Lorri has featured is what do to with those danged top sideways drilled beads that are so pretty! How to wrap a briolette is one of the most frustrating techniques to master and her instructions and photographs make it all the easier to learn.

Take the time if you are new to beading to really go through Lorri's website - it is an amazing treasure trove of hints, techniques and project ideas. There is a free online community as well.

Keep on beading!

Starting a New Coiling Wire

2011-07-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

This week is a step by step instruction for working with wire.

Often you are doing a coil and run out of the coiling wire before you are ready.

Don't fret, it is easy to learn how to make a seamless join between two wires in this situation.

As it is a step by step, I have made an instructable for the process:

Link is here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Start-New-Thin-Coil-Wire/

Wire Physical Descriptions

2011-07-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

Chapter two in a series of Sterling and copper wire properties and how to work with it. In a previous post we discussed the work hardening properties of wire. This article will cover the physical description of wire shapes and sizes.

If you want to find out more about my jewellery, visit my website at www.yourjewellery.com
or view my growing collection of free instructables at www.instructables.com under the user ID of Amandajewls. Here is one to make a basic head pin to get you started.

Wire Gauges

Wire is sold in different thicknesses called gauge, which refers to the profile of a cross section of the solid wire. The Standard Wire Gauge, a British system used in Australia, works on a metric system of gauging based on the measure of the solid wire diameter (not perimeter or circumference) in millimeters.

America uses an even numbers based numbering system (American Wire Gauge) that refers to the times the wire has been pulled through a drawplate to “draw it down” for thinner thickness. So the higher the number of gauge in the American system, the thinner the wire.

In the Australian market a working knowledge of both metric and American system is necessary when purchasing wire.

Quick Comparison Chart

Standard Wire Gauge (SWG)	American Wire Gauge (AWG)
0.3 mm	30
0.4 mm	26
0.5 mm	24
0.6 mm	22
0.7 mm
0.8 mm	20
0.9 mm
1.0 mm	18
1.25 mm	16
1.63 mm	14
2 mm	12

The online store "Bulk Wire" has a fabulous all encompassing Wire Gauge chart with explanations located here: http://www.bulkwire.com/wiregauge.asp

Wire Shape

Wire can be purchased in a wide variety of shapes, which can best suit the needs of a project. The shape refers to the profile of a cross section of the wire.

These shapes include round, oval, half round (semi-circle), square, rectangle, double half round, beaded (looks like continuous balls) and even elaborate filigree wires.

For half round, the measurements are often given with two measures formatted like "2.0 mm x 0.9 mm". The first number refers to the flat side, the width. The second number refers to the height of the top most curved portion. So in the example, our half round wire is 2 mm wide and 0.9 mm tall - so more of a half oval than half circle.

When searching for wire online, it is highly suggested to have a calipers ruler and samples of a variety of gauges in front of you for reference.

Wire can come in fancier shapes as well, each with their own specific uses.

Embossed strips are strips of metal that have been sent through a press mill forcing a pattern onto one side. These are perfect for adding immediate, complex texture to projects such as ring shanks or bracelets. Thin embossed strips can even be used to act as fancy jump rings on necklace chains.

Gallery wire strips have a fancy base with pointy spikes - almost like a fancy comb. This is used in bezel settings with the top spikes folded over to set the stone. I have not used this as I have found from ready bought jewellery with this type of setting, the spikes catch my clothes easily.

Bezel strips are plain or lightly textured strips of varying height and very thin metal used in bezel settings. The strips are thin enough to enable the top to fold in on a stone to set it into a piece of jewellery. Left is a plain bezel strip.

Bezel strips can come fancy as well. The "bottom" is usually straight while the other end has a pattern. The photo left here shows a wavy edged bezel strip. It is important to note that with the fancier bezel strips, you can only grind away the already flat side to adjust the height of the strip or the patterned side will be ruined.

You can also buy round and square hollow tubes of metal in many different diameters. Again the measurements of the tube will have two such as "1.5 mm OD x 0.9 mm ID".

First what do those initials (other than MM) mean? OD means the Outer Diameter of the tube.
ID is the Inner Diameter of the tube.

So in this example, our tube has the outer diameter of 1.5 mm and the inner diameter of 0.9 mm. But how thick is the tube??? That is important if you need a tube thick enough to become a tube setting for a round stone. A little maths is in order:

(OD - ID) / 2 = the thickness of the tube wall.

In our example above, that is:
1.5 mm - 0.9 mm = 0.6 mm / 2 = 0.3 mm. So the wall of the tube is about 0.3 mm (30 AWG) gauge. Pretty thin.

To get a good understanding of what shapes, sizes and textures are available I suggest going to an online shop that sells wire goods and just search through their product pages. Window shopping - but I call it research! A great shop I use is A and E Metals in Sydney, NSW, Australia: www.aemetals.com.au

Wire Properties - Work Hardening

2011-06-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

I have written a series of articles covering some basic how to's and general information on working with wire and sheet metal so will post excerpts of the article here for free hopefully once a week.

Also during this time, some exciting fun technique tutorials will be available for sale on my website in a month time, so about August 2011.

The blog notes will be a companion for most of my tutorials and offer the absolute novice some really good solid know how for working with wire work. Stuff it took me several years to learn through trial and error.

I have written these articles for you to use but if you use the information or wish to cite, please give credit where credit is due and reference my website www.yourjewellery.com. - Amanda Katz

Metal Qualities

The most common metals to work with in jewellery are brass, copper, silver and gold but each metal has different qualities that endure or repel the jeweler. These qualities are hardness/softness which affects ability to cut, bend and manipulate. In ease of working without soldering the metals are easy to hardest as follow: fine silver, sterling silver, copper, gold then brass. Economics often dictates what metal is chosen for a design as well.

Wire Technique

Hardness

Wire comes in three rates of hardness that equates to work hardening and annealing of wire before it is sold. As you work with wire, it gets work hardened, or the molecules in the wire line up more rigidly thus making the piece of wire less flexible and more brittle.

Work hardening happens by moving the metal around such as cutting, hammering, coiling or bending and even light filing. Work hardened metal is necessary for a project requiring stiffness like the pin on a brooch or for supporting a heavy weight like a heavy necklace with a large focal bead. One disadvantage of overworking the wire is eventually it becomes brittle and will snap with too much force.

When wire becomes too work hardened, a flame from a torch or even the kitchen gas stove is applied until the metal becomes a light pink (not red) and quenched in water. By applying high temperature evenly to the wire, it allows the molecules to loosen up which returns the wire to a bendable, softer form to work with again. One side effect of working wire with flame (such as sterling silver) is that the surface becomes covered with fire scale which requires pickling, sanding back and then polished up again either by hand or in a tumbler filled with steel shot. Thus when planning a project, it is better to plan ahead to know what hardness of wire is required before diving into the deep end.

Commercial wire is available in three hardnesses: Dead soft, half hard and full hard.

Dead soft means the wire is recently annealed, therefore is very flexible and soft to bend. There will be quite a bit of manipulation left in dead soft before it becomes brittle thus is best for wire coiling and weaving free hand sculptures or setting stones without solder. Dead soft is extremely easy to bend without much force so is unsuitable to supporting heavy weighted beads.

Half hard means the wire has been worked enough to give it a small amount of stiffness. It requires more force to bend than dead soft so is suitable for weight bearing projects, jump rings, and chain mail in thicker gauges. Thin gauges of half hard can still open by force of project weight though.

Full hard has been work hardened to the point that a considerable amount of pressure is required to manipulate the wire. Very suitable for heavy weight support, ear wires and projects where just a few bends in the stiff wire is necessary. Because full hard has already work hardened, it will become brittle quickly. Full hard is good for wire ring shanks, support frames for wire wrapping and jump rings in finer gauges.

Choosing the wire required is important in the planning stages of a project. Using the right stiffness of wire is important also to reduce strain on the hands, as coiling full hard by hand around a mandrel would be a much harder task force wise versus using dead soft wire.

Copper and sterling silver wire both have about the same work hardening properties, similar dead soft feels right on up to brittle breaking point when overworked. Brass wire tends to be stiffer even after annealing and will achieve overworked breaking point much quicker than copper or sterling silver in the same project. Fine silver, being 99.9% pure silver starts off dead soft and after much work hardening will possibly achieve half hard but will never become brittle to breaking point.

Next Week: Wire Gauge

Foray into 3D PMC Mould Making

2011-01-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

In 2008 I took a fabulous Precious Metal Clay Workshop with Rose Marie Christison in South Denver, Colorado who conducts these workshops in her own studio. I would highly recommend doing a course with her to get a solid knowledge and confidence for working with PMC. She teaches more than just pmc, have a look on her website is www.rosiesriginals.com

This article is my discovery of how to create a precious metal clay mould for an organic odd shaped item; mine being the stick that is left after the palm seeds have fallen off. This will not cover how to use Precious Metal Clay, rather how to test your moulds to ensure the desired effect is reached before destroying clay!

As with everything, have your work station set up neat with all items you will require to make the process easy. Spend the time getting to know every tool, chemical and rehearse the order before hand. Also, when creating the two halves, you want them to overlap and have some quirky ridges so the halves won't slide around when you are trying to mould the precious metal clay.

Items required:

2 part silicon quick and cold temp setting putty
Unusual organic found object
Ounce/Gram Scales (if you wish to be precise)
Olive Oil
Plastic Wrap
Clay, plasticine, etc (children's clay/dough of any sort that results in a smooth surface will suffice)
Ruler or flat hard object

Create First Half of Mould

Read your compound instructions carefully and don't throw them away like I did! There will be a set "mixing time" and then the compound will start setting - be very aware of this and do a few test balls first while watching a second hand on a clock to know how the compound works.

At first I was having trouble as the mould compound was setting looking like a kitchen sponge, which made my mould rough and lost a lot of detail. The sponge look can result for a few reasons
a) the two parts are NOT very close in amount (weigh them!)
b) OR your mould compound is too old and has gone off (who would have thought rubber can have a shelf life!)
c) OR You are mixing the two parts for too long and the compound is trying to set
d) OR each part is not at its optimal temperature for use
e) or a mixture of all 4 reasons.

Mine was a mix of reasons a, c and e so after some more test runs I figured out that I couldn't mix past 20 seconds, had to warm up the separate parts for a while and "eyeballing" the amounts didn't work for me.

After your mould compound is mixed, lay it out into a nice long half circle that is deeper than your object. Carefully press the found object in HALF WAY INTO THE MOULD. Using a flat plastic ruler can help press the object evenly into the moulding compound. You have one chance to get it right and cannot fiddle with the object while the mould is setting so resist the urge to lift the object out right away.

Lightly press a finger nail into the base of the mould to test the setting process. The mould is set when the fingernail mark no longer stays in the mould. After the mould is set you can take out the found object - be careful if it is a dry stick so that it doesn't break making the second half of casting difficult.

Cast the Top Half of the Mould

Lay a single small sheet of plastic wrap (Saran Wrap) entirely over the bottom half of the mould. This will prevent the second mould section sticking to the bottom half. (I learned the hard way.)

Carefully put the found object back into the bottom half of the mould until it sits snugly in place.

Mix more compound together than for the bottom half and place over the object so:
a) completely covers found object without gaps
b) top half slightly overlaps the bottom edges of the bottom half of the mould

Once the top half is squarely seated, leave it alone until the mould is completely set.

Ensure that top half will "lock" down onto bottom half with the overlapping portions so that the mould will not slide when casting the pmc. If not, recast the top half.

Test the Mould

COAT ALL PARTS OF THE MOULD WITH OLIVE OIL! This will keep any clay from sticking to your mould.

Testing the mould with a cheap clay, plastacine, polymer clay or even playdough (as I used here) lets you know if you are happy with the mould detail of the found object without wasting precious metal clay. It also will give you an idea of the volume of pmc required with minimal wastage.

You can see that I did not coat the mould with olive oil before squishing the test clay. Your clay can stick to the mould if not coated, ruining the casting.

I rolled the clay into a little round strip which was a little bigger than the original section of stick and pressed it into half of the mould. In the photos to the right you can see how the top half of the mould has a little cap that will fit over one end of the bottom.

Press the two halfs together until firmly fitted together. Carefully lift out the test clay from both sides of the mould.

If you're happy with the results, clean the mould of any of the test clay, recoat with olive oil and go for it in Precious Metal Clay!

Planning Your Work with Drawings

2010-07-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

As I was working on photos for the butterfly post, I got to thinking how much I am beginning to rely on drawings for pieces I am planning. I draw much like a 8 year old but the point is that I do get my ideas on paper which helps me plan how I will construct pieces.

I have begun to work on a doodle shorthand that is pretty much unique to me, as probably I am the only one who can make heads or tails of it but those doodles help remind me when I look back through my ideas notebook days or months later.

One of the biggest challenges I have found is how to get what is in my head down on paper as I am not an exact artist at best when it comes to paper and pencil.

First I thought about what I am trying to doodle. I know how to do geometric shapes and can even draw a fairly good circle when given a template and half an hour. But how do you notate a coiled spring, or a coiled, coiled spring (much less remember WHAT that referred to?).

I had a look at some of my existing wire worked pieces to see what kind of patterns are in them, then tried to represent them somehow in a quick way on paper with pencil. I've ended up, with a little practice and patience and a lot of balled up paper, with a fairly quick doodle shorthand that I can use to get down my ideas. You can even build up a "ME Shorthand" dictionary by printing photos of the wire worked sections and the unique doodle next to them that you use to represent those patterns. Just sit back and have fun playing, and allow yourself to be a little silly. My personal favourite doodle is the crazy lightening bolt notation I use to represent twisted wire coils as seen in the second photo row below.

I'm not sure if it is important for me to show you my own doodle, the samples below are fair examples, but the important thing is to take the time and play with what you can do at your own level of drawing expertise.

Below are a few pieces that I drew before actually constructing, and the final piece is pretty similar to the drawing.

ORBITAL

TWISTED 1

TWISTED 2

FILLIGREE BUTTERFLY

USE THE MUSE 11 BETTLE

UNFINISHED TURQUOISE NECKLACE

Leave comments if you would like me to put up my own notation dictionary.

Making a Filigree Butterfly

2010-07-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

PLANNING STAGE

I was asked to create a sturdy filigree butterfly with aquamarine and blue sapphire, and had no idea where to start but loved the idea of this challenge. The first step was to agree on a design with the client so we both understood what the dimensions and style would be when finished. I perused jewellery magazines from my collection (always save your old beading mags!) and found 3 variations to inspire doodles. Here is what I came up with and sent to the client.

The client chose a symmetrical version of the middle butterfly so I worked on the image in Photoshop and added a few other features for the final doodle.

Then stones were chosen, I usually show a coin for reference to gauge size, as photos just are so hard to picture in real life.

At this point I had to find the doodle that best fit the actual size of the stone, so in Word I copied the photo into a single page in varying sizes and printed out. Then just matched the butterfly that fit the stones best. As the client did not have a preconceived idea of how big the broach should be, the butterfly size was determined by this stage.

Then I used the correctly scaled drawing to make all of the individual wire components of the piece. This is important to do as when the soldering process starts it works more efficiently to have everything ready at hand to go. I also constructed the two bezels for the two stones to build around too.

When making each component, I carefully filed all ends to ensure there would be no sharp, scratchy points after soldering as trying to fit files into tight corners after construction is finished is difficult at best to do without marking the whole piece. Holding each component individually gave me greater access to all these points. I also buffed to get rid of scratches left by my pliers and just tried to make sure each wire component was as shiny, smooth and clean as possible before soldering began.

I had to decide now in which order to construct the piece. I put the project on hold and went back to the Internet to watch the professionals at work.

In the photo above the bottom wing inner spirals are not created. As the aquamarine crystal bezel would take up room I opted to leave the components open for planning later on. I ended up creating these in situ while doing the final soldering phase (see photo below). The bottom wing had room for 1 spiral on each side of the bezel, so I used 1 long wire bent in half to really make that middle body join strong. (Note, top wire of top wing is one wire, outer part of bottom wing is 1 piece of wire and inner part of bottom wing is one wire.)

STUDY STAGE

Of course my first visit was straight to my www.beadingforum.com.au friends in the metal working section and got the BEST free “see it as it is built” by Jeanne Rhodes-Moen on her website http://www.jeannius.com/evolution/index.htm Ms. Rhodes-Moen has kindly done an intense step by step photographic journey of how she creates a pendant complete with how she sets up her work space, has everything placed and the actual order in which her pendant is created. I kept coming back to this page time and time again when I would get to the next step in my own creation. I also borrowed the book “Silver Threads, Making Wire Filigree Jewelry” (http://www.silverthreadsfiligree.com) by Jeanne Rhodes-Moen to peruse several filigree projects for gaining insight and confidence.

On Youtube there were a lot of links that came up on the search "making filligree". There is a short documentary on Greek filigree work, which isn’t step by step, but just watching how they go about filling in the gaps and soldering the individual pieces together was informational. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCEY-p53Woo Made me very jealous of that solid marble slab worktop onto which they can solder directly as well!

Another set of videos were a 3 part free youtube demonstration by jeanniusdesigns (http://www.youtube.com/user/jeanniusdesigns) on how to utilize a pick for soldering while creating 3D filigree pendant. Somehow I wasn’t surprised to find that jeanniusdesigns was also Jeanne Rhodes-Moen. This video set is amazingly detailed with her techniques, which gave me the confidence to go ahead on my own filigree adventure. In this video set, the artist opened my eyes wide as she soldered gold-filled wire into her sterling silver pendant!

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diZYnxTLNEE&feature=related

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FPc9ljzy7s&feature=related

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYKkwSGbhqU

SOLDERING STAGE

I ended up getting too engrossed in the construction to take step-by-step photos of my butterfly like in Ms. Rhodes-Moen’s Evolution page. I really felt I was soldering by the seat of my pants at times hoping that the new join would melt before previously done joins melted first. Just a note that I only used hard solder during the whole construction of my butterfly. I made sure I had a very flat surface to work on which kept the butterfly flat too in case other joins melted accidentally. The only time I used easy solder was to attach the pin mechanism on the back at the very end. Darn near melted those antennae during the process!

Here is the order in how I soldered the butterfly together (left and right sides at same time):

1. Soldered the 4 outer top-wing spiral tails together as one piece.

2. Soldered the inner 2 spirals of top-wing together.

3. Soldered the bottom wing 3 components finished (outer wire, top spiral and bezel setting) at the top only.

I then worked on the top wing using my fingers, files and pliers:

1. Worked the spiral fittings of the 4-spiral piece and filed until there were clean joins to all other spirals and the upper wing bar.

2. Worked on the inner 2-wire piece until it snugged up against the 4-spiral piece and met in the middle for clean connection to the bottom wing AND to the top wing wire.

3. Placed all 5 top wing pieces (top bar, 4 components) together tightly and soldered where ever one component touched another. This step took a few firings as I kept adding solder to more wire connections as I fiddled with the whole thing to see where a wire may move. Keep up this step until the top wing is a solid unmoving piece.

BOTTOM WING

1. Worked with pliers, hands and files the spirals inside the bottom wing until they touched each other AND the bezel. Figured out there was too much space at the bottom and had to insert a few wires on each side to make bottom piece solid. You could say I winged it. (joke drum roll)

2. Keep soldering joins until it is one solid piece!

3. I curled the newly inserted wire ends (see photo below).

CONNECT EVERYTHING

1. I set the head bezel, top wing and bottom wing components up against each other until it was all touching, balanced and looking good and then used tons of solder on all of the joins. If an old join melts that's okay because you have the filligree piece on a nice flat surface so nothing melts out of place.

2. Make sure everything has enough points of contact joins (the more wires you join together, the stronger the filligree piece becomes).

3. Put big balls over the ugly, busy joins. Do this by putting flattened pieces of solder UNDER the ball where it will sit. Often though there is enough solder in the larger joins that the ball will stick if the join is reheated.

ANTENNAE

1. I melted one set of antennae.

2. Attached second set just above head bezel.

3. Worked ends so that they bend back and over and set on top of top wing and then soldered the joins.

4. Nearly melted half the second antennae during that process.

It ALWAYS amazes me how that yucky, cruddy piece of yellow and black stuff cleans up so pretty.

WHAT I LEARNED

I learned a few things during this process that made the soldering process easier from watching the above information:

Invest in the right tools to do the job at hand. I bought a wire-soldering screen, which would allow me to solder from underneath and bind items together securely. I purchased a proper smooth non-pitted fire tile so I had a good surface to work on instead of my hebel bricks that tend to get stuck to heated parts of my pieces.

Have a plan! Have a drawing of what you intend to create and study it for where a stronger wire may be needed to create a sturdier item. I found, after studying my drawing, that a strong bar along the top of the wings that is all one bent piece would help give the pin overall strength. At the end it really did make a difference, as those wings were unbendable!

Let newly soldered joins cool by air as quenching can make the join break, especially if you didn't use quite enough solder.

Use your drawing in real size to help create all wire pieces needed before you start soldering. This will make the final soldering process go much quicker.

Go slowly. Go slow when making wire components and when soldering!

When creating the individual components so that symmetry is achieved when creating a mirror image on both sides. Clean up all marks and pointy, scratchy ends as created.

Plan where to place bezels and make sure the bezels are tall enough to work efficiently. Often you need to attach wire to a bezel – and all of us know what a hassle it is when you solder to a bezel only to have it joined to something tall that makes the bezel NOT bend over the stone!

Study other people’s videos before diving in.

You can make your own twisted wire rather than buying it twisted.

Filigree work is easiest on flat surfaces. In the case of a ring, construct it flat and then curve it when all filigree work is done.

Good luck in your own filigree adventure!

HABRAS Disks for Polishing Metal jewellery after Pickling

2010-01-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

The above photo is taken from the website: http://texadentalsupplies.com/resources/habras_discs1.jpg

I have been taught how to solder silver, create rings, and make bezels. The rest of what I have learned to create has been purely trial and error and researching for free information on the Internet. Sometimes there is a LOT of information, and sometimes I’m stuck. I was only taught how to use sand paper and my hands to finish polishing my projects, which works fine if you are creating a 2 dimensional flat piece without any bumps, texture or attachments. I have moved beyond and wish to explore the 3D world with my jewellery – and I have found myself lacking in the polishing skills necessary to bring these pieces to true beauty. Let’s face it, round disks of sand paper attached to my flexible shaft device just don’t do the polishing process justice!

After getting a design request for these earrings photographed here, I imagined 1.25 mm silver wire in an open, orbit-like spiral with 18 karat gold balls. I created them and then realized: how the heck am I going to polish these puppies with sand paper and hands OR sand paper on my flexible shaft device?? I left the earrings sitting in my workshop for 3 months while I did some serious Internet research on different attachments that can be attached to my Dremel to make the polishing process easier. (Okay, I was afraid to solder the Bezellite TM settings too in case I melted them but that’s a whole other story.)

Here is what I found. A dental tool creating company, Hatho in Denmark, has realized their products are also perfect for jewelers. I am featuring the HASBRAS Discs of my own free will and have not been paid to rate this product (wishI were though!) ; they just make polishing so much easier! There is a product information sheet with great photos and measurement descriptions so here is the link, as I don’t believe in re-inventing the wheel. Simply stated they are polishing disks made with harder than metal micro-abrasion particles embedded into rubber/acrylic wheels to be used on a flexible shaft device. The range is colour coded as follows: Course (yellow), Medium (dark pink), Fine (blue), Very fine (light pink), High Shine (light yellow/peach), High Glossing (lime green). They have other polishing products to attach to flexible shaft devices with entirely different colour coding systems that has neither bearing nor relation to this product. Maybe we should make a suggestion for them to unify their lines!

These discs are available for individual purchase with and without the mandrels attached. After talking to my jewellery supplier manager at House of Jewellery in Sydney, he convinced me to take the original set (Kit 19) where all ratings are included each pre-mounted on their own mandrels. It was dear but after putting the set through its paces I am very relieved I spent the money as it saved me a lot of fiddling time between each polishing stage. The mandrels are entirely re-usable so next time I can just purchase the discs only when the current ones wear out. My jewellery supplier manager suggested that if used with care (not shoving the entire disc down to the mandrel in exceedingly tight fitting spaces or having the RPM too high) these discs should last over a year at an amateur jeweler’s work pace. While the box label in the package suggests 10,000 rpm on the flexible shaft device, the info sheet on the Hasbro disk Pro suggests 5,000 rpm, which is what I used. It is suggested to use at least 4 of these discs at a time.

I tried taking comparison photos at each polishing stage of the earrings in the above sketch. Either due to poor lighting, or bad photography I don’t think my photos really show much difference visually however, each wheel certainly left (or erased) their mark on the earrings as I polished through the range.

Actually Polishing The Earrings – 40 minutes total

I will just say here I probably am not the world’s most efficient polisher at the best of times. It takes me about 1.5 hours to do a small, simple pendant by hand. The earrings would have been 3 hours!

I first took the pickled earrings out and used the course wheel at 5,000 rpm. It took me about 8 minutes for both earrings to see a difference and make sure that the application was even. It was fantastic as I could angle these little bristles to get in between the spirals, tight up around the gold ball and all over each side of the Bezelite ™ setting for an even affect. The course was similar to a scratching finish of 400 grit sand paper and was very effective at taking a little off at a time but didn’t take long to get rid of the bumps and extra solder. I was a little surprised as the wheels look and feel so smooth but the scratched surface looked quite rough, consistent but rough.

Then I moved to the medium wheel. Again, it took me no more than 7 minutes to see a difference on both sides of both earrings. I am already in love with these polishing wheels by now. I could now see the difference between the courser scratches and see where the wheel had been – but after comparing the scratches still seemed rather rough – like 600 grit sand paper.

Next was, obviously, the Fine wheel. This time it was 2 minutes per earring. The finish afterwards was like 1,000 grit sand paper. This brush is enough to give a very pleasing matt finish to a project. I don’t think I gave this stage as much effort as I should have as I could still see a few scratches from the previous stage – but wanted to get these earrings done!

With the Very fine wheel I began to see the high polish effects of these wheels. If I didn’t pay attention I could still leave scratches the surface that I noticed, but this would give an exceedingly fine matt finish to a project. I spent about 5 minutes for both earrings to try and get rid of the two stages ago scratches and it did a good job!

I stopped with the High Shining wheel as this, to me, was the equivalent of using compound to polish. I spent a little more time going over every surface carefully and am extremely pleased with the finished effect. Definitely equivalent to a mirror finish. I can imagine the high glossing further finishes off this final polish mirror finish.

The pros, absolutely no compound was needed to polish these earrings. No cleaning necessary between each polishing stage. Not a lot of loss of silver either through the whole polishing process as the dust below was minimal at best. A single standard item takes me about 1.5 hours to polish by hand and usually it’s more of a glossy matt finish at the end. I was done with two intricate (by my standards) earrings in 40 minutes with a mirror polish.

WOW!

And wear and tear on the disks even with the small spaces of the Bezellite TM setting is: they are a little dirty but the bristles look totally intact and not worn at all.

The Muse is Revealed!

2009-08-14T06:22:00.001-07:00

I know it's a little hard to see. I will see if I can get a bigger one soon. I've hand made a PMC stick that is a flower base. The cut up flower petals was the muse - used to be a circle pendant which I cut into 4 sections and - made into a flower. The flower part is a pin and the beetle is a pin so I have two separate pins here that work together.

I also used ndeble (mispelled I know) weave to make the purple calcyx for the flower.
The little story here is there is a beetle that lives on a special flower (hence the similarities in their patterns) with the seed pod.

My beetle pin with wings that echo the pattern on the shell pendant. The body is bead woven in peyote stitch like an amulet bag and the insides has clove oil so the beetle is a bit of clove smell. The shell part is bead embroidered with a little wire work for the antennae.

I won an award on the Muse contest! Here is the website for the winner's page:
http://www.thebeadersmuse.com/winners2/

I was awarded the "handmade components" award for my pin. And I can finally post photos of my entry!

Good night!

Amanda

Abused Amused Muse

2009-07-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

So I know it's been a while since my last post but I've been busy! One of the most exciting things I've done is join the contest "Use the Muse” hosted by the talented Scarlett Lanson, the Bead Maven, of the Beaders Muse website. The challenge to “Use the Muse” is to use beads from a preselected kit of which one element, the muse, is hidden from sight until it is Deadline Day to post entries. The rules enable the entrant to use as many or little beads from the kit but they must Use the Muse in order to be eligible to enter the contest. Use this link to see a photo of the Use the Muse kit and contest entry rules: http://www.thebeadersmuse.com/use-the-muse-contest2/.

So there are a bunch of us out there that know what the Muse is this year but we aren’t telling or showing! ‘Cause doing that gets you disqualified.

The kits are sponsored this year by Artbeads.com and Rainbows of Light with a gorgeous spectrum of peacock purples, blues and many sparkly Swarovski crystals and pearls. I just couldn’t resist these colours as they are all my favourites so why fight the battle.

When I received my kit in the mail I immediately had to have a fab play – so many possibilities! The Muse truly is stunning but me being me I had to abuse my Muse. The poor thing is lying in pieces trying to recover on my work bench (aka a Tupperware container next to the TV) as I can never leave things alone. So far I have used my coping saw and the DH’s bench drill on the Muse. I like doing things like this though – evil laughter.

So here are a few sneak peak sketches at what I have in mind. I’m thinking flowers and bugs. I don’t know why but those bugs keep haunting me (time to fumigate our house?) so bugs it is. So far I’m using seed bead embroidery as Right Angle Weave and Brick Stitch have both failed in what I want to achieve. By the end a bug will have a few different weaving techniques including embroidery and odd stitch peyote. Probably a few more too that I just don’t know what they are called.

I will also use some wire working skills on a flower, maybe some metal working skills depending on how frustrated I get. Certainly more embroidery and French wire floral techniques too.

And in the end I’ll probably end up with 2 long stranded necklaces on simple tiger tail. Who knows? I certainly can say that the Muse as struck my imagination, amused me, and been abused by me so far!

Hand Carved Lion Cross Pendant

2009-07-02T19:05:00.001-07:00

I was approached via internet by a client to create this fantastic lion pendant in 3d relief sterling silver. The drawing is the client's own art work and created a big challenge for me given that I've usually done my wax carving from my own images. Well away we go!

I quickly decided to work on the head and the cross portions separately, so if I stuff up it's only half of the whole! I had to start on the head because that face fascinated me.

I started by producing a whole sheet of the left image in exact dimensions (2.5 inches x 1.5 inches) multiple times to use as line drawings on the wax tablet. Then I started by literally cutting the lines of the face through the paper onto the wax - with many images to start anew with once one image got too shredded.

Once I was satisfied with the line drawing emerging on the wax I started the difficult part - removing the wax that doesn't belong. I spent a lot of time (4 months!) doing this slowly, methodically and carefully to ensure I got it right the first time. Here is a first draft of the head. The sides were still about 3 mm thick (mouth being closer to 4 mm) and the client wanted the mane thinner. So more careful carving.

The best part of this carving wax is that it's opaque and, when held to light, you can compare the shades of green to see where it is thin or thick. Here is the final head carving held so the client could see how it was made thinner. The head is really cool at this point.

So the next task was to do the cross. Now given how complicated the head is, I was actually dreading the cross more because although it appears simple (all straight lines) I was more apprehensive about this shape because it demanded perfect hand control to achieve symmetry. To create the curves I used the bench drill and various bit sizes and then carved the points after this. I used a lot of line grids to help control the symmetry at this point. It then sat like this for over a month while I tried to figure out how I was going to make the points of the cross at a 45 degree angle meeting on the edge like a V, or a wedge. My technical minded husband gave me a good idea that worked a charm. Use the angled side of a plastic ruler as the slope there is about 45 degrees AND gives me a hard straight edge to use as a template! Eureka! After this point the pendant wax carving process went along very smoothly.

After getting everything done, I melted the join between the cross and the head to create this final wax carving mold for the casting company. One thing I've learned over the last few projects is that the more I make the wax nice and smooth, the more smooth my casting will be. So I used an old bedsheet to smooth away all scratches.

Here's the casting (after a bit of clean up) before I put the star sapphire in a bezel setting and finalised the bail.

And here is the final pendant compared to the original drawing again!

I'm really pleased with the end results and look forward now to other original works like this one!

Turk's Head Knot Ring

2008-07-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted on my blog but I've tried a new technique inspired by the metal working turk's head knot guru Loren Damewood on http://www.golden-knots.com/

It has been a very long journey since I first saw Loren's website and then started searching the internet frantically to find out how to do this elusive knot (see below for where I found tutorials). I made about 4 leather knots to get the feel of the technique before trying it in silver wire. the above photographed ring is 0.8 mm gauge sterling silver wire and is a single strand of wire passed through the knot twice.

Here's some things I've learned on the way:
1. Gauge of wire discussion. This 0.8 gauge was too thick. Even for fine silver I reckon. Use 0.6 gauge maximum and you can go down quite thin to do more pass throughs. I found the 24 gauge (what's that, 0.4?) was too thin for a loose ring, that would need to be a really tight ring.

2. Ring size: These rings act like Chinese finger traps - if you open the lattice up the ring gets taller and thinner, if you squish it down it gets shorter and wider. If I were to anneal my ring I could potentially squish it down to 1 cm tall and a size 7, or M. I could open it up and make it smaller too. This is the good thing about these rings if you don't solder it all together - they are adjustable by plus or minus 1 ring size!

3. Mandrel versus ring size versus how much wire to cut? The 16 mm dowel mandrel gave me a size 6, or L ring that is 1.5 cm tall on my finger. The 19 mm dowel mandrel would give you a size 9, or like P, that would be 1.5 cm tall on the finger. On golden_knot (see below for web address) there is a good page there that he uses geometry to figure out wire length to cut for what ring size. I cut 2 meters here and ended up with half a meter left after the double pass on my ring.

4. Drilling holes spacing on mandrel: the further apart the two peg rows are, the more lacey and open your ring is going to be. this also means that a lacier, taller ring will adjust better to say plus 2 or even 3 ring sizes more. In a wire that stiffins up nicely, that's okay. But with fine silver or thin gauge wire you will find your ring bending out of shape, ring size a lot.

5. Number of passes: This is up to you. If you're going to do one pass only, use sterling silver or a wire that will be stiffened so that your final ring doesn't distort at the end. If doing multiple passes, like on golden_knot (see below) then you will want to use fine silver and a thinner gauge.

5A. If you will be doing multiple passes around your mandrel, do not use tight tension on your first pass around the knot or this will warp how your second and third passes will sit nicely. Let it be a little loose so that on the second pass there is space above and below your pegs to lay the second row of wire nicely. My ring looks wonky a bit because I pulled way too tight the first pass around the knot (so my second row wants to sit parallel to my first pass, not snugly next to.)

How to do the Knot:

Get to know this knot first. The Turk's Head knot is fun and incredibly varied. I'm still trying to figure out the underlying over and under pattern but - aside that there are two three resources I found um... (forgetting word again) can't do without them... INDISPENSIBLE!!!

First http://www.golden-knots.com/ He is the god of doing metal work and turk's knots. He gives a LOT of information on what makes up the knot, the terminology and is very free with showing different knots in string - but very stingy with the metal tips. Read through all of his information so you can become knowledgeable about the knot structure and what's going on.

Now how a turk's head would transfer to wire. On www.Youtube.com, donbscout has done a fantastic series of 9 videos to teach you how to do a 7 bight, 6 lead turk's head knot using his "recipe" book he is advertising here. It's great because it transfers directly to wire and tells you where you're supposed to go under and over and what pins to go to.

Write down donbscout's instructions.

However, while donbscout uses a square template jig, you need a round jig for a ring - do a trip to your local hardware store (gotta love them!) for 19 mm diameter wooden dowling and 16 mm wooden dowling and a 1.2 or 1.3 drill bit.

Here is how you make your wooden dowel mandrel: http://www.mailleartisans.org/board/...c=9438&forum=1 (please note this is a 5 bight, 9 lead ring. Just adjust the number of lines on your paper to equal 7 instead if using donbscout's instructions.)

The idea is the holes you drill into the doweling needs to be the same size as the wire you have to stick in. I drilled with a 1.2 bit and poked 1.25 (14 guage?) copper wire as pegs, snug but can take them out again.

Now refer to http://www.mailleartisans.org/articl....cgi?key=20054 for someone's tutorial on actually doing a turk's head ring in wire. This person has used the same number of pegs from donbscout's tutorial on youtube. So you see the necessity to view all these resources.

You really will find a combination of referring to all three above resources helps set out understanding of how to do multiple passes through a knot rather than doing 3 separate wires at once.

If you try, email me a photo I'd love to see!

Wax Carved Signet Rings

2008-03-01T02:05:00.000-08:00

A friend approached me to see if I could create a signet ring for his sons when they turned 18 with a specific design on top that holds special meaning. We chatted about what type of techniques he was thinking of (wire working, bead weaving, etc.) and we settled on doing the lost wax casting process. I had never done this before so, with that in mind, my friend approved a few doodles and away I went.

The first thing I did was to look on the web to see what is already out there in wax carving advice and found two great sites at Ganoksin and some tips by Jason Bellchamber: http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/ajm-wax-carving-basics.htm
and
http://www.bellchamber.net/Publication/Tips%20for%20Carving%20wax.htm

I carefully did a 2D drawing on X and Y axis (ack, I'm actually using some geometry???) 1:1 scale and, when I was finally satisfied with symmetry and size I started transferring the axis marks onto the ring wax form I would carve. I felt like a drafter doing this as I hardly ever actually plan/draw anything out before attacking the jewellery creating process. The hardest part was as I started filing away the parts I didn't want, I still had to re-draw my axis markings as I went to ensure symmetry was maintained.

It took quite a while and a LOT of filing away wax until I was happy with the shape. Using silver working knowledge I filed the wax like I would preparing for final polish - start with the very rough and work down to the finest sand grit. I had to jump down to the workshop downstairs and "borrow" files from the DH (usually forgetting to return them!). I was pretty happy with the end result on both rings. It is a little creepy to see my first major attempt at creating sculpture of any sort actually emerge from the blob of wax!

A major part of the pattern my client wanted was a cross / plus sign through the middle of the ring top. After consulting with the engraver I had found to do the final letters and then with Chem Gold who would do the wax casting, I decided it was easier for me to put the lines down into the wax rather than sterling silver or pay for the engraver to do it for me. That took quite a bit of doing to get the channels smooth as I did not have needle files yet, only a wax scalpel pack.

When the sterling silver rings came back to me I was thrilled. I could see every file mark I had left, every little scratch and dent that had been on my wax moulds. And the cross channels were beautiful! This may seem like complaining but it's astounding how exact the lost wax casting technique is transferring detail from the wax to the final product. Any future ring I will definitely spend more time sanding the wax mould to a high shine! The rings had burrs I needed to file off but they were splendid - I had not known what to expect and was very pleased to say the least. I had to work on the ring insides to get the size right (I had worried about the shrinkage and kept the rings thicker than necessary to compensate) so again borrowed the DH's half round file for quite some time to resize the rings.

In the end, the rings were identical but with being hand made had enough uniqueness from the other to make them individual. The engraver I found in Chatswood, Roy from Prestige Shoe repair in Westfield Shopping Centre, did an amazing FREEHAND job of the letters and my client was very happy with the results.

A cool side note, I was grocery shopping one day and at the checkout stand (one of 8 I could have chosen to go through) this ring was ringing my sale through his register! (Yes, I tend to associate people with their jewellery!) It felt really weird and I blurted out that I had made that ring - turned out it was the older son who had just celebrated his 18th birthday! What a small world we live in.

Wax Carving

2008-02-28T01:25:00.000-08:00

I have been approached to create a ring with a logo that is from the game Command and Conquer of the bad guys, the Nod. It is a scorpion's tail in a somewhat superman like shield shape. It is an exciting commission as it gives me a second chance to do something I've always wanted to do - carve wax for casting.

Having the right materials is important. For a recent silver working class I had just bought needle files and from a previous wax carving project I already had the wax scalpel kit. Now I needed to figure out what kind of wax to use.

After jotting down a few ideas I called my local jewellery stuff supplier, House of Jewellery in Sydney, and chatted with the extremely so helpful staff who listed to what I wanted to do and then were able to suggest the best wax products to purchase - as I have absolutely no idea about this stuff except it burns well in candles!

So after receiving my multi-pack of wax tablets, I first photographed my original doodle and then inserted it into word multiple times in different scale sizes. Then after printing it out I figured out the particular size/scale needed and cut out the scorpion segment shapes with really small scissors. After taping the little picture onto the wax I used a pin to lightly score the scorpion tail segments and the shield shape. Then it was a process of carving away the bits I didn't need while trying to protect the segments. I found that I ended up using the half round tapered needle file the most for this project. Here is what I came up with in the wax against a bright light. It's a good way to see if you are carving the relief the same thickness I've found as thicker will show as darker green. I left the recessed areas rather rough in texture on purpose. All up I would say I spent about 5 hours creating this wax mould.

So after cleaning up the wax piece, my client said there is a potential to sell a few more of these within her community so I sent my wax carving off to Chem Gold in Sydney to create a mould and the two sterling silver castings. I first received the mould and one casting and, when I called Chem Gold to order the second casting, they kindly paid for the postage without prompting! What great customer service! The casting came back looking fantastic with a large burr and it took me about 2 hours per ring to get the "button" as I took to calling them cleaned up and straight enough for soldering onto the ring bases.

After cleaning, filing and leveling the top of the casting I then had to figure out how to create two individualised ring bases. My client wanted one for herself so I wanted to create a more feminine looking ring base and she required an adjustable band for her son (it's his birthday present) so he can wear it as long as he's interested. The original ring she showed me was a very heavy signet ring look so I played with using asymmetrical bands, then settled on creating a V shaped ring base using half round sterling silver wire 3 mm x 2 mm for her that was soldered together at the bottom of the finger and then curved out to touch the top and bottom of the ring top. For the son's ring I cut out a 6 mm band from .06 mm sterling silver sheet and created asymmetrical tabs that would line up when curved.

After cleaning and polishing the rings I used a liquid Liver of Sulfur agent to darken the recess around the scorpion's tail. It was a very satisfying project to undertake!