Silversmithing - Rhodocrosite and Sterling Silver Ring

Rhodocrosite and Sterling Silver Ring

Custom made ring for one of my friends. Ring was made for his wife's birthday, and he was so excited to give it to her he managed to make it to 12:01 AM!!

Silversmithing - Twisted Silver and Jade Earrings

Finished up another project last week, a nice pair of twisted silver wire and bezel set jade earrings. I kind of started out on this project not really having any idea of what I wanted to make, but I did know that I wanted to do something with a set of nice jade cabs that were laying around from an earlier project.

Twisted silver and Jade Earrings

Silversmithing - Topaz Pendant and Inlayed Earrings

Happy spring everyone!! Finally after a long and cold winter here in Omaha, we seem to have finally broken out of the cold weather and into the wonderful warm days of spring.
The birds are chirping, trees are blooming, the grass is green, and thunderheads are popping up all over the place. Its about time!

Still doings silversmithing, so wanted to share two projects that I recently completed. The first one is a faceted topaz stone in a silver prong setting. This is one of those projects that looks easy, but is much harder then it appears. Making the basket takes lots of delicate heat, steady hands, and most importantly patience and persistence. The prongs that hold the stone in place are very easy to melt (which I did do, requiring me to start all over on the prongs!)

Topaz and sterling silver pendant

The next project is a set of inlayed earrings. Inlay requires some lapidary work which my grandfather is quite skilled at. We have been working on cutting and shaping stones, and he felt that I needed a bit of a challenge of making a set of matched stones. I started out with a slab of azurite with malachite chunks, and cut and shaped the stones until the fit into the silver framework.

Inlay Azurite and Malachite Earrings

Silversmithing - Amethyst Pendant

Another little project that recently was completed. Sterling silver with Amethyst cab.


I will be posting an update on the Leah and Rachel sometime in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Inlayed Turquoise ear studs

Just a quick update of some silversmithing stuff... Recently I have been learning to cut rock, and how to do some basic inlay of rock into silver pieces. Grandma and Grandpa needed some actual production work for some of the places they sell jewelry, so I helped out to get them some stock.


These are 3mm silver ear studs with inlayed turquoise. Simple but very elegant!

Update from Omaha - 8-30-07

Just wanted to put up a quick update here as it has been a few days since we last posted. As you probably have read in Dad's post below, Britanie has departed Omaha for Harvard, which lead to quite the emotional day for all of us here in Omaha. We really felt like we had just got Brit back home, and here she was taking off again. We are very excited for her, and are very proud and happy that she decided to take the challenge of heading off to Harvard Law head on. We miss her already, but can't wait to hear all the adventures that Boston and HLS have to offer. She did ask me to put up her address so that people can write to her if they so desire:

Britanie Hall
5107 HLS Holmes Mail Center
Cambridge, MA 02138-5107

Leah had another good PT session, and we managed to get the arm all the way up to 120 degrees. Basically this is making the elbow go above the shoulder! She was also told that for around the house, she should not wear the sling, as she needed to start stretching the shoulder and elbow out, and letting the shoulder take a bit of weight, so it gets stronger as well. This is a pretty painful experience, but Leah is being tough, and manages to keep a brave face on.

We also had a visit with the neurovascular surgeon consultant here in Omaha to review the carotid injury. He felt that she could begin to move of of the coumadin and switch to baby aspirin. This is a good step, as now some of the bruises will begin to heal more quickly, and she can also stop having to go to the doctor a few times a week to get her blood checked. This does however mean that she will no longer be sporting sweet Snoopy or Sesame Street band aids on her fingers...

I did also start doing a little silversmith work again. Many of you are new readers to the blog, but I have been working with my Grandma and Grandpa Kunc to learn how to do some silversmithing from them. This was a way for me to spend some time with them, and also a way for me to express my creative side. Our weekly lessons grew to be something I loved to do, and was a wonderful treat for my grandparents. In an attempt to begin to establish a bit of normalcy, and also a good way to cheer up Grandma, I begin trying to keep my appointments with them, and last week restarted doing some silver work. I wanted to take the time to give a little thanks to Dee out there in Denver, so I decided to make a little project for her, that I hope she will enjoy as a small token of my gratitude for taking care of all of us while we have been out Denver. I made a simple pin of Chinese Turquoise set in sterling silver. I scribed a quick thank you from the Hall family, along with the year that we gave it to her. I will be sending this out to her with Leah's sister and brother in law when we see them tomorrow.

Chinese Turquoise in Sterling Silver Pin

Thanks again Dee, I hope you will enjoy this.

Be sure to check out Dad's update below, lots of good news about Rachel. We would like to once again thank everyone for their continued prayers, thoughts, and generous acts of love towards us and those out in Denver, Boston and Stillwater. All of your support makes it possible for us to be strong, and to continue down the long road to recovery. Thank you very much.

J
halljw@gmail.com

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.

Sterling silver with twisted silver bead

Angle showing curve...

Detail view.

P.S. Mom these are for you, although you might have to fight Leah for them, as she really likes them! I guess I know what I am making next week!

Bangle Part 2

I have to add that I also made a second bangle bracelet so the first one would be able to "bangle" against it. Made this one out of straight square wire, twisted and annealed. Very straight forward, very simple, yet very elegant...

I used the leftover pieces into another set of earrings, but that is a story for another day...

Oh and by the way... If any of you are interested in having something made for you, or are interested in something you have seen here on this blog, please let me know... I believe I will be taking orders!

More silver...

I seem to have missed updating the blog the last few weeks with my various silver projects. Leah and I have been very busy with lots of trips, weddings, and relatives, and I kind of got out of the habit of updating this blog...

Anyway, the next project I worked on was a set of bangle bracelets. For those of you that are not familiar with bangle bracelets, they are solid ring bracelets, usually fairly thin and made of metal so they will "bangle" as they move. Leah really likes bracelets, but is not able to wear the typical tight cuff style of bracelet, as it tends to make her feel quite claustrophobic. Bangle bracelets tend to be more loose, allowing the bracelet to move freely around the wrist.

I started out with a long strand of 20 gauge round silver wire, which i then folded in half. After folding it in half, I flattened two spots at the end of each wire for areas to attach tools. I put one end into the vice, and used a pair of vice grips on the other end. While pulling the wire away from the vice, i began to twist the metal so the two strands of wire began to interlace. I had to occasionally stop and anneal the wire, as the twisting motion can strain the metal causing it to break. After twisting the wire to a point where I was satisfied with the amount of twist, I annealed the wire one final time to relieve the stain, and set it aside. I next took a half dome 8 gauge wire that matched the length of my previously twisted wire, and flattened both ends. I then put the half dome wire and the twisted wire together into the vice, so the flat ends would be held together, and again began to twist. If done correctly, the half dome wire will twist around the twisted wire, creating a very nice pattern. Again there is a great deal of annealing and twisting, until I was satisfied with the result.

I next had to cut the flattened ends off of the twisted wires, and cut the combined twist into the length needed for the bangle. I formed the bracelet into a ring, and soldered the two ends together. This is difficult, as you want to match the ends together to make a seamless transition.

Anyway, enough talk, lets look at the final result.

Sterling Silver Bangle Bracelet

Detail of Bracelet

I had a little extra combo twist leftover, so i decided to make a set of matching earrings.

The final result is a set of earrings with matching bangle bracelet.

Details, Details, Details...

This next project started out as a quick little project to make a set of earrings (and give myself a respite from split rings.) We started out with an idea for a decorative delicate loop hanging from a simple stud earring, but as I started to work on the project, I decided to make something that would be a bit more elaborate.

I started out using a 16-18 gauge beaded wire, and formed two matching loops. Making matching sets out of a free form material like the beaded wire is always a bigger challenge then one expects, so the ideal way to work is to make matching elements of the final work before final assembling, as you are able to work on matching only one part, rather then the whole design.

I cut two sets of strips out of the 16-18 gauge beaded wire, one set for the larger loop, and a second shorter set for the top small loop. I formed the two sets of loops using round nose pliers and a mandrel, and aligned the ends so that the wire would leave a nice flat surface for attaching the joint.

At this point I noticed that the flat surface I had left looked like it was missing something, and while thinking about what I could do to fix this, I came across a small silver hollow bead that closely matched the beaded wire. I decided that I could solder the bead on to the loops so that it filled the gap on the flat surface, creating a joint that looked like it was a seamless part of the beaded wire loop. This bead also allowed me to make a simple jump ring to act as the joint. This made the joint far more elegant and clean looking then it would have with two intertwined jump rings. It was at this point that I felt the large loop was needing something more to detail it. I added an inner loop made of 22 gauge beaded wire, and then soldered that to the outside loop. Once the final loop was in place, I formed and installed the jump ring thru the beads, and found the dangle action on the earring to be what I was looking for. Finally I attached the ear post and polished.

This project required a lot of attention to detail, and by paying attention to the detail, I was able to come up with a very nice set of earrings.

Forged Silver Ring Bracelet

This next project was quite the challenge, and took me a few days to finish. I was also working on a repair job for a coworker, so my attention tended to be spread out between the two projects. This project was a lesson for me to learn how to make split jump rings and learn about forging techniques using a hammer and anvil. We started out with 16 gauge silver wire strip which I first annealed then rolled around a straight mandrel to create uniform rings connected in a coil. I then had to saw thru the coils, separating them into split rings. Next I had to straighten the rings so they created a smooth joint (lots of filing, annealing and gentle bending) when the split was soldered together using hard solder. (For those of you who may not remember, there are various grades of solder, ranging from eazy to hard, which offer different melting characteristics and strengths.)


I next had to take the individual rings and hammer them flat on two sides, while retaining the tubular section on two sides. This is a bigger challenge then it sounds, as you have to use a bit of force to flatten the ring, while not smashing your fingers. For the record, I only hit my finger once, and I did manage to not say anything that my Grandmother wouldn't approve of...

After I completed the forging of the main rings, I had to make more split rings for the connecting links between the main rings. I used 20 gauge wire formed into a coil using round nose pliers and then once again cut with the jeweler's saw. Grandma was a tough teacher here, and wouldn't let me use the short cut method of using the wire cutter, as that compresses the metal on one side of the cut, which distorts the shape of the ring, not allowing a smooth joint. I had to cut some of these rings into half, and file the ends until they matched the curve of the main ring at the area where I had retained the tubular section. I then soldered these ends to the main ring using medium solder. Note that I used medium solder here rather then the higher melting temperature hard solder, so as to not disturb the solder joint of the main ring.

When making chains or jewelry using rings, it is best to make them in sections called units. This allows you to modularly assemble the final product, and more easily manage tasks such as polishing and alignment. In this case I created units made up of two main rings and a small squared jump ring (made out of the rest of the jump rings I didn't cut in half) to connect them via the half rings on the main rings. To join these squared jump rings, I used eazy solder so as to not disturb the joints on the main rings.

After assembling a number of the units, I filed any rough spots off using various jeweler's files, and then polished the units. Polishing these units is tricky, and requires a great deal of concentration as the polishing wheel likes to grab the insides of the links and fling them away from you if you are not careful. After polishing the units up, I joined the links with more split jump rings, and added a large spring clasp that almost matched the main rings.


Sorry about the length of this post, but I have decided that perhaps I will use these posts as a bit of a design notebook to help reinforce the lessons and techniques I learned. Hope you don't mind. Please let me know what you think!

In other news, went out and took some pictures with the new camera this weekend. I will try to get some of them uploaded so I can share them with all of you.

More Silver..

Didn't get a chance to put these up before I went to Phoenix for my sister's graduation, as they were her graduation gift. Didn't really want to spoil the surprise. I guess she really likes them, as she has worn them quite a bit, and I have already recieved request for a pair from my cousin and other sister. I guess I will have to work on duplicating my efforts.

Sterling Silver Stud Earrings

Anyway, the project was a set of small stud earrings, using a disk, half dome, and beaded wire to make a nice ornate face. Started off cutting out two matching small discs from a silver plate, drilling a hole so i could get the saw thru the middle of the disc, and then cutting small half circles out of the discs. These holes serve two purposes, one to lighten the weight of the piece, and the second to provide a vent hole for all the solder and flux gases and pickle solution to escape when going thru the soldering process. Next I formed two half domes using the dapping tools, and sweat soldered the domes onto the backplate discs. I then used beaded wire and formed a decorative bezel around the the half dome. Added an earring stud, and then polished.

Simple yet very elegant in my opinion...

Kind of a hard thing to take a photo of... No matter what I got my reflection in there... Kinda turned out cool (totally unintentionally!)

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!

Silversmithing update

Went for my second lesson with my grandparents last week, and they had me making some actual projects. I promised some pictures of my work, so here they are.

First is a simple silver band with darkened bands. This project helped to not only teach me about how to measure, form, and decorate a ring. During this project, I learned about the annealing process, and how it helps to create a more malleable metal, and how to apply the annealing process to make working with the metal far easier. I also was required to cut / file decorative work marks on the band, and darken the metal using a patina chemical to give it a dark aged look in the recessed areas.

This was a good first project, but i can see it still requires some further work. My cutting / filing technique needs refining, and if I were to go back and do this same ring a second time, the results would be much cleaner and more consistent.

The second project I worked on was making a set of earrings for my wife Leah. This project was designed for me to be able to practice sweat soldering, forming of wire stock, and learning to make teardrop or bead stops. I feel the result is a wonderfully simple yet elegant set of earrings.

The project was made using sterling silver wire stock, sterling silver beads, and hand made Czech glass beads. The bead section is designed to be removable from the actual post loops and interchangeable with other bead colors and combinations.

Please excuse the quality of the photos... I haven't done much jewelry photography, so I am still working out the bugs...