Life after.... What?: Silver work and random thoughts

I think I am suffering form the effects of the dog days of summer... I really have a deep desire to take lots of lazy siestas and sit around with a cool drink. Heck I don't even feel like cooking, and I love to cook. Thankfully the wife is a former culinary professional, and at this very moment is putting those skills to good use and making what smells to be a fabulous dinner! Man how spoiled am I?

I also think I am suffering a bit from vacationitis, with my first real vacation in about 3 or 4 years only a week away. We are planning on heading up to the cool Colorado mountains for a week, and I fully plan on just getting my mind of work, kicking back and enjoying the scenery and savoring the feeling of complete uselessness!

Made a bit more jewelry this past week (actually I am quite a bit behind posting on the jewelry front too, as I have failed to update this weekly as I should have been, and am about four or five pieces behind!) but I figure on skipping ahead and posting a set of simple earrings that made last night.

This set started out as a copy of a set my Grandmother made quite a few years ago. She found them in a box of projects she had not completed, and decided to finish them up, and have me make something similar. I started to make an exact replica of her set, but felt I preferred a little different shape so started deviating from the original pattern. As this set is made as a free form shape cut from sheet silver, it is very difficult to make both pieces match. The solution to this is to use a nifty piece of modern technology called double sided carpet tape. You cut out a square slightly larger then the size of the finished piece and tape them together so you are able to cut thru the two pieces at the same time. I had to saw the shape out, cut the hole in the middle of the pieces, and then file the edges smooth. After I get the one set smooth, I had to peel the two sections apart, remove all the tape, and do my polishing work. This polishing is very easy, as there is no firescale as I have not exposed any of the pieces to heat.

Once I finished the initial polish work and removed the majority of the tool scratches, I made two matching jump rings, and soldered those onto the top side of the part. With this completed, I again polished, removing the very small amount of firescale that formed in the soldering step. I next formed the curve shape of the two pieces using a shallow wooden dapping block and dapper to form the curve.

Once I was satisfied with the shape of the curve, I once again polished the piece this time with the rouge (finish polish) and attached the inner silver bead on a earring end post.