Adventures in Silversmithing

[kaliha]

His Lordship and I wasted hours yesterday trying to come up with a 140 character tweet containing exactly 50 ‘L’s for Stephen Fry. It’s harder that you think, unless you’re our friend Matt (he who is in a band) who did:

Lilly stutters. Took years to avow she l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-loved me!

It made me laugh. I don’t think that’s quite what the lovely Mr Fry is after though. I have submitted it for him though.

In other news I started my silversmithing course last night. It was well good.


Even with Sat Nav I managed to get lost finding the place the class was taking place. Now this is mostly due to the fact it’s not on the actual road listed in it’s address, it’s on a little close off that road and in the dark and the rain I didn’t see the tiny sign pointing to it. Fail.

Got there eventually though. It’s a mixed ability glass so there are people there who started the September course and are working on some lovely bits of jewellery (earrings to match a necklace, a gorgeous flower, a little silver jewellery box etc).

There were three of us who were starting from scratch, one girl who is doing it for fun and one girl who wanted to do it as a job.

We were given a basic hand tools safety run down and a short talk on silver and it’s properties before having a go at making a sterling silver ring.

1. First we had to cut an 8mm strip of sterling silver (works out at £2.50 of silver)
2. Next using a ring mandrel work out the size of the ring we were going to make (in my case based on a ring I wear on my index finger
3. Wrapped some iron wire around the mandrel in the right place to make a quick 'n' easy ring template.
4. Used that template to measure out the silver and mark it so that I know where to saw
5. Using a very fiddly jewellers saw to cut off the excess bit of silver
6. Using a ring mandrel and a leather mallet smack the silver into a vaguely round shape


7. Squidge the ring into a sort of oval and press the two edges together
8. Check that they join neatly
9. If you can see air or light in the join use a needle file to file down the edges, press back together and repeat until no light can be seen.

And that was the end of that class. We ran out of time, woes.

Next week I learn how to solder the silver together. It involves gas torches and all sorts of dangerous stuff. Including acid. I can't wait.

And here's some pictures of what I've made so far. (This is why I need a new camera you see.)


There's my little join. Look how nice and neat that is!

From the front. It's 8mm high and obviously needs a lot of filing and neatening up of the edges. I'll be doing that next week.

What the silver strip looks like. The blue stuff on the silver is a plastic film to protect the metal from scratching or marking.


From the top. Yes I know it's not round. It's not supposed to be. Not yet anyway.

Now I'm trawling eBay for all the various bits and pieces I need to buy now to build up my home silversmithing kit. And a couple of trips to Poundland too.

Comments

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

How exciting! Silversmithing!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I know! I like learning random new things.

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Jewellery making is awesome. I watch your progress with interest :)

this is blythe, lazily not logging in

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Jewellery kit: I have loads of random stuff, including some silver sheet, files, etc that in all honesty I won't be getting out of the cupboard ever again, so if I make a list for you do you want to see if there's anything you want?

Re: this is blythe, lazily not logging in

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

ooh! Yes please! Let me know how much you want for stuff too, because all this stuff isn't cheap.

Re: this is blythe, lazily not logging in

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Blythe says she will email you a list of things :D

Re: this is blythe, lazily not logging in

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Tell blythley thank you so much!

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

Oh - that's fantastic! I'm so excited for you, and a little jealous too...I adore silver, even more than gold, and you are now creating pretty things from it! Hooray!

I hope you continue to post many pictures of your adventures in silversmithing.

And I really like how the ring is shaping up!