Living the Family Motto and My Hollow Beads

I started on project number five, learning how to make hollow silver beads, last week, and planned on finishing up the project quickly so I could start working on creating a bracelet with a set stone. Finishing up should have been fairly easy, as I had already completed all the forming, soldering and filing, and just had to polish the beads. Polishing is performed on a rotary polisher which runs at around 3300 RPM, and beads tend to be small and difficult to hold onto with just your fingers, so when polishing I was taught to thread the bead onto a stiff wire (in this case a straightened out part of a paper clip) and carefully keep the bead up against the polishing wheel. I was nearly done with the first bead, and had just glanced up for a second when the bead popped off of the wire and shot off into the corner of the workshop!

I saw the bead as it flew thru the air, and managed to quickly locate the bead behind a box of rocks. I considered myself quite lucky, as my grandparents workshop is full of interesting rocks, tools, and other nic-nacs which provide lots of little nooks and crannies for little beads to hide. My grandmother chuckled, and reminded me to always put a little bend in the ends of the wire to prevent the bead from flying off. I did as I was told and quickly finished polishing up the bead. I started working on the second one, and found myself having to switch the direction of the bead around on the wire to remove some of the touch firescale. I guess at some point in the process I failed to remember to kink the wire, and sure enough, right as I was finishing up the bead, off it sailed into the distance. This one I had no idea where it went, and try as I might, I was unable to find it.

Of course my grandmother thought this was quite amusing, and stated that I was sure living up to my grandfather's famously sarcastic family motto; "Never learn from your experience, its more fun to make the same mistakes twice!" I guess I know what he means now!

Anyway, I ended up making a second bead to replace the lost one, and found that I was quite a bit faster making this bead then I had been the last time I tried. I mounted the beads onto sterling wire, and hung a nice turquoise bead (to match the ring from last week) on a decorative end post below the hollow bead to create a nice pair of dangle ear rings.

Sterling silver hollow beads with hand cut turquoise tube beads

Its been one of those weird weeks, where it is really long, but at the same time the days are flying by. I haven't managed to get much done at work as I have been in so many meetings and dealing with little fires that seem to keep popping up. I really am ready for the weekend!

Split Shank Ring

Next project was actually a two week project. Started last week, and finished this week, so I would have a chance to properly size the ring (for the wife) before I mounted the stone. The project was a split shank ring, meaning the shank (the band) is cut into multiple filaments where it attaches to the setting. I had to make the shank, bezel and shot for the ring, and bevel and set the stone.

Sterling Silver and Turquoise cab

I also started working on hand made hollow silver beads to match this ring. Those were fairly difficult to make, especially due to not wanting to dip the beads into the pickling solution (aka the acid solution that helps eat away some of the firescale that is formed when heating the metal) as the hollow interior would retain some of the acid, and could eventually corrode from the inside out. As a result, I had to let them air cool, and not only am I not patient enough for that (amazing how hot something that you heat up to 1200 degrees stays after 5 minutes,) but I also had to do quite a bit more polishing to remove the firescale from the beads.

Hope all of you got your taxes finished up, and have recovered from that freak cold spell last week!

Silversmithing and other news...

Finally went over and took my third silversmithing lesson today. We got a bit delayed, as my grandfather fell and broke his hip last week, but he is now home, resting fairly comfortably, and life is starting to return back to normal. Sat down with my grandma, and worked on my third project, setting a stone in silver. This project is a real challenge, as working with stone and silver is a challenge, as you have to work on precisely fitting bezel stock and stone together, all while closely managing your heat and tools to prevent damaging the stone or the bezel stock.

Rhodonite cab set in sterling silver.

The bead work around the outside of the stone actually has to be soldered on before you can set the stone. If you were to try to heat the stone to the temperatures required to flow the solder, you would likely experience cracks in either the stone or the silver due to the differences in material expansion when exposed to heat.

One of the new processes I used was to set the stone in the bezel. You use a rocker tool and burnisher to push, smooth and stretch the bezel metal into place. The bezel material is actually a very thin strip of 99% pure silver, which makes it extremely flexible and malleable. The burnishing tool basically smooths and stretches the silver into position, and allows for a smooth intersection between rock and silver.

Anyway, I am sure I have bored you enough with the technical details... If you like what you see, please let me know! I would love to hear your feedback on these projects...

In other news, the wife went to Idaho to visit her sister, so I am getting to do the bachelor thing for the next few days, so I figure the next few days might consist of a lot of beer and baseball!