Final Class for Beginners

Last night's class was the last in the beginning metalsmith series. These students went from fearing the torch to: soldering, piercing, sawing, texturing, forming, oxidizing and finishing. Good job everyone!

This remarkable pin is by Daphne. It's quite large and is inspired by a piece that was featured on the cover of a jewelry magazine recently. Daphne accomplished this in only 2 weeks! She designed and produced stencils to cut out her silver and brass pieces, pierced/cut the designs out, and formed them concavely on a mandrel. She then created the back piece and soldered brass accent balls onto the front, as well as a spiral. She then soldered the front pieces together, then soldered that onto the backplate. Lastly, she created a pin stem for the back and soldered that on as well. To finish up, she oxidized the piece, then removed most of the finish save for the back plate and giving the front piece a nice satiny finish. Great job, Daphne!

This lovely bracelet was created by Lizzy. She also spent 2 weeks on this beauty. She coiled and cut loops from sterling wire and sterling twist wire, all 16 gauge, then soldered the links together step by step. She also hammered the round wire flat for contrast. Lastly, she created the decorative toggle with soldered accent, and tumbled the whole thing until shiny. Very elegant!

This lovely necklace is by Laura- she textured and cut out each rectangle, soldering on a design to the lower 2 pieces. She then coiled and cut out links, created a closure s-clasp, and joined everything together. All the pieces were tumbled shiny and the result is terrific!

Thanks to all the students- I had a great time helping you and seeing what you wanted to create!

Midway Through Beginning Metalsmithing

Last night's class produced some awesome finished projects!

This is Lizzy's "Globe" pendant. She designed then pierced and sawed out the globe in sterling silver and then soldered it and a wire border onto a copper backer sheet, which was also sawed out, pierced for a bail, and tumbled till it shined!

This is Daphne's pendant. She also sketched out her design, then pierced and sawed out the design, and hammered it for a nice textured finish.

Daphne made a beautiful bracelet out of 16-gauge sterling silver wire. Each link was coiled, cut, filed and soldered, before being hammered and tumbled for shine. She even made the S-link closure!

These fun wire earrings were made by Laura- she matched set a pair of 16-gauge wire squiggles, then soldered on some 20-gauge earwires, hammered and tumbled.

This beautiful rustic ring by Laura required piercing, sawing, texturing, soldering and tumbling. She also formed the ring on a mandrel to get it round, and soldered some gorgeous copper accent pieces on.

This is another view of Laura's ring.

Nice work everyone!