08.12.2024 T is for...

The chain - with my Mom's gold hoops

Trombone (links) and t-bars.

I finished my summer classes at ACC the end of July, and the promptly went on vacation (more about that another time) - but in my catch up last month I promised a full post about making the chain, so here it is.

You might recall that when I wrote about this chain, I mentioned I had been eyeing vintage trombone chains (so called because their long, oval links look like trombone slides) for some time.  

They are expensive - and what I really wanted (and had not found) - was one that was primarily silver.

With almost an entire semester in front of me, and experience making a simpler chain in my spring semester class I decided that this was going to be my focus for the summer session. 

Prototyping in copper

Given the cost of the metals (the gold for 15 small links was over $500) my instructor encouraged me to make a prototype in copper before placing any orders.  I did, and that process helped me determine not only how much metal to buy, but also what size wire to use for the links.  

I definitely wanted a substantial chain, but not so heavy that I couldn't wear it comfortably.  I settled on 12 gauge wire for the large oval links, and 14 gauge wire for the small round links (in both silver and gold).

Having determined how long I wanted my chain and how much wire I would need, I placed my order and got to work.

Side note: wire gauges are standardized based on the amount of electrical current they can carry - and they date back to the 19th century.  Both gold and silver wire CAN conduct current, but because of their relative value, they are not generally used.  Most modern electrical wiring is copper, but all wiring - whether or not it is used for jewelry - follows the same gauge measurements.

Six feet of wire, reduced to links

It takes a lot of wire to make chain.  

I ordered a little over six feet of wire (five feet of silver and just over a foot of gold) in order to make a 20 inch necklace.  I formed the oval rings using pliers, and the circular ones on a jump ring maker (yay for all the toys in the ACC Jewelry Department).

Each circular ring used about an inch of wire, and the oval rings took just over two inches.

Once the links were formed and shaped, they needed to be soldered.

In the tumbler to polish

The silver ovals and gold circles were all soldered closed, and then I connected the links - one at a time - by soldering the silver circles between the oval and gold links.  Getting all the links connected was an accomplishment, but I was by no means close to finished.

There was a lot of clean up to do - extra solder had to be sanded off each joint (there are a total of 60 solder joints in the chain).  Sanding was followed by additional pre-polishing and finally, after the chain was assembled - including the clasps - it went into the tumbler.

The second part of the project was making a t-bar.  I styled my chain after vintage watch chains - with swivel clasps on each end - which often had t-bars to hold the pocket watch chain in a buttonhole.

T-bar components - unassembled

My classmates were making a toggle clasp for a bracelet -  I modified the assignment to make a larger toggle to hang pendant style from my chain.  

Throughout the semester, our instructor had been saying that all the skills we were building would be required - and tested - in the making of the toggle.  She was not wrong.  

Even with a substantial amount of soldering experience, making the t-bar was a challenge!

Fabricating the t-bar required fitting small jump rings on the center of the bar, and soldering all the pieces together to create a long barbell with a center bail.

The chain and t-bar

With a little help - and quite of bit of patience - I completed the t-bar as well as the chain and I'm really enjoying wearing it.  

I'll be going back to class in a few weeks, and for the first time since I started taking classes (almost 10 years ago) the goal won't be to actually make anything.  Instead, I'm going to be taking stone setting which involves learned to take pre-cast settings and modify them to accommodate faceted stones.

After two semesters of fabrication review I'm ready to focus on learning something completely new.

I'll still have access to the benches and all the wonderful tools at ACC, so I imagine I will continue to make things for myself (and maybe others) - but I won't be adding to my jewelry collection in quite the same way.  I will, however, continue to post and write about what I'm learning.

Between now and a stone setting post, I'll be sharing our recent vacation in Santa Fe.

Until next time.

02.16.23 Forging Ahead

About those rings...

since we saw the kids in DC last weekend - our first trip back since the fall - I figured today would be a good time to post.

The wedding was absolutely the highlight - and in many ways the saving grace - of 2022.

Our son and daughter in law worked so hard to make sure everyone had a part - and by the end of the week we were all one big family - 

although most of us had never met before.

Not quite a year ago (March 2022), we went to DC to visit and start planning the big event; standing on the balcony of the wedding venue, they asked me to make their wedding rings.  

In hindsight I don't know why I hesitated - even for a moment - because it was so much fun; and now a piece of me (and my heart) is with them every day.

I reached out to my friend and teacher, De Pastel, and we set up a schedule to work together on the rings.  I also gave the kids some assignments...go try on some rings, see what they liked, and to get their ring sizes.

We were supposed to travel early in the summer, to meet our son's future in-laws and while we were there I was going to get an impression of the engagement ring to make sure that when I made my daughter in law's wedding band, it would be a perfect fit.  

The trip never happened, so I sent instructions and the thermoplastic to DC without me, and the US mail took care of getting it back and forth.

With the size information and their metal choices - 14 K gold, yellow for him, palladium white for her - De and I got to work.

The rings were made through a process called forging - basically beating the metal into submission. I started with ring stock - 2 mm half round for her ring, and 6 mm comfort fit for his - which, with De's guidance, I carefully measured and cut to the appropriate length.

We started with the smaller, easier ring - shaping it on a mandrel, heating it when it became work hardened, and hammering and heating again, until it began to form a circle.

The next step was to make the ends meet. The first one went pretty quickly, but I'll admit, that my arms were sore at the end of the day because it was a whole lot of work to bend a piece of solid gold 6 mm wire.

Despite being tired, I was very satisfied that after a few hours at De's bench. With her instruction and supervision, what I had in front of me was beginning to look a lot like a pair of wedding bands.

Clearly - they weren't finished - but there was no question left in my mind that I was going to have them done in plenty of time for the wedding.

Everything about making the rings brought me joy.  

Being back at a bench, with tools in my hands, time with De (including a couple of wonderful P. Terry's lunches during our sessions), and knowing that once they put them on, my kids would wear them out into the world as symbols of their love and commitment.

I went back to De's studio for a second day to finish the work.  At the end of the first day, the bands were round-ish...but "ish" was not what we were going for...the goal was perfection.  De's years of experience and eagle eye were invaluable as I continued to shape and size the rings before cleaning and polishing them.

I'm not sure I've ever been more proud of my work - there were no uneven edges, no seams or even tiny specks of solder visible - just continuous, shiny, gold rings.

I sent pictures, but the kids didn't actually see the rings until just a couple of days before the wedding.  Fortunately, they had been very good about getting their hands sized properly, and we were very careful in our measurement.

The result - perfect fits on both bands!

While the rings were for them, the process was a gift for me.  Time at the bench and with De reminded me how much joy there is in making things...

...especially when those things are special, one of a kind pieces of jewelry (inspired by the one of a kind people they were made for).

The only thing better than visits with my kids...is seeing the rings on their hands when I do.

Until next time.

08.19.19 One Step at a Time

Now that I am mostly done traveling, I am determined to spend more time in the studio - but not just making pieces to fill the Esty shop - I want to work to improve and expand my skill set.  At the top of that list is working with gold.

After having some successes adding granules to pendants (both in my kinetics class with De, and on my own), I had a pretty epic fail.

Combining gold with argentium silver in a single piece is complex process because the two metals have different specific gravities and fusing/melting points. 

In my first attempt to solder a 14K bezel to an argentium back plate, the differences between the metals got the best of me, and the gold actually sank through the silver (good thing Rio Grande recycles scrap metal). I learned some things - which was good - and I will come back to it.  However, for the time being I've decided to focus my work with gold on things that are a little less complicated.

Two things I'd never done before were create a step bezel for a faceted stone or create prongs out of wire (I did create prongs for a faceted stone in a wax class - but that's a completely different process).


I had recently acquired a great faceted turquoise, but because it was not a cabochon, I couldn't make a flat setting, so I built a step bezel.

A step bezel has two pieces of bezel wire - one inside the other - to create a cushion or "step" to created a seat for the pavilion (the pointed underside of a faceted stone).  I made two oval bezels, and then soldered them both to the back plate.




Since the stone didn't have a flat back, it wasn't really suited to a cut out on the pendant; so I went more of a hollow form look that would echo my two tone kinetic earrings.  Instead of gold granules, I chose make prongs using the same 18K gold wire that I used for the earrings.

To solder the prongs on to the bezel, I secured the setting in Kate Wolf soldering clay, used a third arm to hold the prong in place, and worked carefully to avoid melting the small gold wire.




With several deep breaths, and De at my side, I successfully soldered all three prongs on without melting any of them - and then used the same process (clay and a third arm) to solder a jump ring for the bail to the top of the pendant.


The rest of the process was very similar to finishing any other bezel set pendant - except that I used a prong pusher in addition to a regular bezel setting tool.


I'm pleased with the outcome, and the pendant looks great with my hollow form earrings.  However, since pierced backs are kind of my design signature, I'm going to stick to working primarily with flat backed stones.

It's nice to have a couple of options - prongs and granules - for adding small amounts of gold to my pieces, and I imagine that I will get more comfortable with the process as I do more.

Until next time.

05.20.19 Gold Rush! Kinetic Jewelry 2.0, Part 3

With the hollow forms completed - including making sure the tubing and wires for hanging were the proper length - it was time to start thinking about embellishing the silver teardrops with granules of 18K gold.

At $1,300 an ounce, I didn't just snip off some of my gold wire and fire up the torch...no...I started by getting some comparably sized (20 gauge) copper wire, and experimenting.





I cut pieces of copper wire to different lengths and started playing around with the placement of granules on each side of the form.

I settled on an arrangement that corresponded to my original sketches; a larger, flattened single granule on one side, and three smaller ones along the bottom curve of the opposite side.


I wanted to use the gold granules on both sides of the earrings, so that when the forms spun on the interior rivet wires (the kinetic part) the details on each side might - or might not - match at any given moment.

Once I was happy with the placement, I cut up my gold wire, balled it up into granules, and with De looking over my shoulder, I lit my torch and fused the granules to both sides of each hollow form.



As luck would have it - Melissa, from the Creative Side staff, was in the studio taking photos and video - so I have a short clip of the forms spinning on their rivets, with the gold on both sides.

I was thrilled with the finished earrings, still had some gold - and time - left before the class ended...so I decided to make a simple pendant and add gold granules.

Photo credit: CSJA

I bought a small, oval turquoise from the stone case at Creative Side - I didn't want to invest a lot, in the event it didn't turn out well - and got started.

I built the setting with argentium silver, just like every other pendant I make, and under De's patient supervision, fused the gold granules down to front of the bezel.

The order of assembling a piece of jewelry is always important, because when both fusing and soldering, the fusing has to be done first (because it is as a higher temperature); adding gold simply means that there is another set of metal temperatures to consider.

In keeping with the spirit of the class I put a riveted bail with - gold wire - on the top of the pendant, and was left with just enough gold for one more small granule. I couldn't NOT use that last bit of gold, so I flipped the pendant over, and gave the cactus cut out a flower.

The granule on the back had to be soldered - so as not to melt the joints on the rest of the piece - and gave me the opportunity to work with gold solder in addition to fusing.

In case it's not obvious - I love taking classes at Creative Side...I love making shiny new things, I love learning new techniques, and I really love spending time with the fabulous people - instructors and other students - that make it such a special place.

I'm going to take a break from making and blogging in June, but will be back in early July.

Until then...have fun, stay hydrated and wear sunscreen.

04.22.19 Ellipsis... Kinetic Jewelry 2.0, Part 1

Three dots, why on earth would I write a blog post based on ...?

I promise, it will make sense, bear with me.

This is six inches of 18 karat gold wire (24 karat gold is 99%, 18 is 75% - alloyed with other metals) - I paid almost $60 for it. Now, that may not sound like a lot of money - but for $60 I can buy ALMOST 100 FEET of the same size argentium silver wire.

That's because the price of an ounce of pure silver hovers around $15-16 right now, and an ounce of pure gold will set you back around $1,300.

So, why did I buy six inches of gold wire, and what does it have to do with dots?

Well - I bought it because I signed up to take another advanced concepts and mechanisms (kinetic jewelry) class with one of my favorite teachers, De Pastel, and I told her I wanted to try using gold...making small granules (essentially dots) to fuse on to pieces of silver jewelry.

However, before I start describing this year's class, I feel like I need to review a little history.

De and Hannah Wilson were my instructors for Fabrication 201 at Creative Side, which I took three years ago! One of the projects was making hollow form jewelry, and I made what are maybe my favorite pair of class earrings (it's a tough call, but I wear these a lot) - teardrops with tube set black spinels.

Then, last year for my birthday I took De's kinetic jewelry class. I learned a lot...including that there was so much more to learn, so when signed up for the class again this year, I approached it a little differently.

Previously, I made a pair of gyroscope-like earrings that had a rivet through a tube that allowed them to spin.  This year - I wanted to put a tube inside of a hollow form, so the whole thing would spin...and I wanted to embellish the pieces with gold granules.



I started sketching my ideas, which included making fused hollow forms with argentium (something I had not done before) and putting a group of three dots on the earrings. I sent my sketches to De, and was delighted when I received an enthusiastic response!

So...

I ordered six inches of gold wire from Rio and got ready to start class, which I will write about in detail in upcoming posts.

Until next time.