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!

Start of Intro. to Metalsmithing Class

Last night started the first of five introductory classes to metalsmithing! The students learned how to use their torch and how to solder!

These are Lizzy's first pair of earrings! She cut out the square backplates from 24 gauge silver, then formed the spirals. Careful to get them flat, the spirals were then soldered onto the back plate, oxidized, buffed and the earwires bent into earrings.

Daphne chose to make a gorgeous pendant. She layered a teardrop shape of silver onto another larger teardrop shape, soldered them together, then formed and soldered a wire spiral to finish it off. She then drilled a hole for a bail, oxidized and buffed, and her work of art was done!

Laura made an I.D. bracelet of her daughter's name and birthdate. She stamped, soldered on the decorative wire, bent the ends, and attached some commercial toggles. She plans to attach some leather straps to the toggles to attach to her wrist.

Nice job everyone!

Learn How to Solder in An Evening

Last night's class "Learn How to Solder in An Evening" produced some AMAZING projects in a very short time! These students have NEVER soldered before, but you wouldn't know it looking at their projects. Each student created a band ring using textured wire, and then chose either a pendant, pin, earring or bracelet project- they all chose earrings! They worked hard to get them to match as close as possible and they all created works of art!

These earrings are by Susan, a painter at the Workhouse. She sketched out her idea, cut out matching pieces of 24-ga. sterling silver sheet, sanded, formed the spiral earwires, and soldered them onto the sheet. She then buffed the earrings and formed the earwires. Nice job!

These projects are by Rhea. She too traced her design onto sheet and cut the shapes out using bench shears, then carefully formed the spirals and soldered them onto the sheet. She also textured the sterling sheet before soldering to create some real visual interest.

These beauties by Roxan were created by cutting out triangular pieces of sheet and forming spirals out of wire to be soldered on top. The end of the spirals were balled up for visual interest. After soldering with medium solder, the earwires were soldered on back with easy solder as not to re-melt the solder on front. After buffing and bending the earwires, they're ready-to-wear!

Lorraine's earrings have almost a calligraphic look to them- she, too, formed the wire into a decorative shape and soldered it onto the sheet. After buffing and polishing, she bent the earwires into shape and wore her new earrings home!

Congratulations to all the students for producing such nice projects- no disasters, whew!

Last Class in the Series

Last night was the last class in the 9-week marathon beginning metalworking class at the Lorton Workhouse taught by Dana Evans. Students had many classes canceled due to the crazy snowy weather we had this winter but perservered and made some amazing projects!

This 2 inch wide panel was made by Tara. It's a work-in-progress, but she did manage to get all her soldering done in one class period. Last week she designed and cut out all the silver and copper pieces in the assemblage, including saw-piercing and stamping. This week she textured, soldered, oxidized, buffed and bent the panel on a bracelet mandrel. She'll finish the piece by riveting it onto a leather cuff on all 4 corners, adding a closure and calling it done. It's a really well-designed and well-done, graphic and bold piece!

Monique experimented with keum-boo this week! Keum-boo is an ancient technique of using a hotplate at 800 degrees to fuse thin gold foil onto silver. She may have singed some eyebrows in the process, but her stepdaughters will love their new star and XO (hugs and kisses) pendants!

Sharon created a fast bezel-set stone pendant this week- what a gorgeous eye-catching stone set simply, as not to compete for attention, in silver. She's also working on a chain to hang it from. Can't wait to see the final project complete!

Thanks to all my wonderful students for letting me "learn on the job" for my first teaching experience. You've been great guinea pigs!

Next week: "Learn to Solder in an Evening" projects!

Flurry of Finished Projects

This week produced a FLURRY of finished projects in Dana Evans' Beginning Metalsmithing class and Chain-making class at the Lorton Workhouse in Lorton, Virginia.


This gorgeous ring by Sharon features a Koroit boulder opal stone from Australia set in a handmade, unique and one-of-a-kind setting. The beginning metalsmiths produced their first bezel-set stone project this week! Sharon created the bezel out of bezel wire, soldered it closed (after many attempts!!!!!) and then soldered it to the silver base sheet. She then artistically arranged the silver wires to complement the internal design of the stone and soldered on a ring shank. She then oxidized and closed the bezel, and gave it a last buffing with fine sandpaper before calling it done!

This organic collage was done by Tara. It is completely original and comes directly from her sketchbook. She cut out, textured, and shaped the copper flowers and soldered them onto a base sheet of sterling that she also cut-out and textured. Sterling silver vines were also soldered onto the base sheet and the whole piece was oxidized and buffed to bring out the texture and contrast. A gorgeous and unusual piece!

This ring by Monique also is her first bezel project. She chose an Imperial Jasper stone cabochon and wanted to compliment the internal movement of the stone by creating an undulating pattern of sterling silver wires and balls. She created the bezel wall and then soldered it and the wires in stages onto the base sheet.

After creating and soldering on a ring shank, closing the bezel, and MUCH polishing, this beauty is done!

This delicate and beautiful chain by Joan is the last project in the chain-making class. This required no soldering, which pleased the students very much! 2" lengths of 20 gauge wire were bent and balled up, then folded and linked to create this deceptively simple chain. Joan even created the clasp! Nice work!

Susan created this intricately patterned and beautiful ring. A blue glass stone with flecks of gold, blue and black features in this ring bordered by a gorgeous twist wire which Susan soldered around the brass bezel which is also soldered to the base sheet. She then created the ring shank out of the same patterned twist wire soldered between 2 plain round wires, soldered it onto the back, trimmed up the base sheet, polished, and set the stone. Lovely!

This ring by Tara features a white-based triangular opal in the center whose fire is not fully captured by these pictures. She then designed a petal pattern specifically around the stone in 2 layers, all soldered on top of each other. After spending some time forming the ring shank and soldering it on, she polished the tips of the petals, oxidized and buffed, and set the stone.

Tara's ring is large and has a great presence. The oxidation contrasts very effectively against the white stone. Nice job!

This is a cloak pin by Casteen. It's a rather large pin and took her some time to make! Because it's large, she combined soldering with wire-wrapping to attach all her parts. She soldered stone bezels and wire loops onto silver, copper, and brass "leaves", and then used the soldered-on wire to wire-wrap at the ends of the large square copper wire support. She then tumbled the piece to add some shine, added the pin stem, set the stones and took a much-deserved break!

This is Monique's collage pendant. She used a mixed-metal look to add interest and contrast. A square copper wire was soldered on to a textured silver back sheet, and a brass "knot" and silver ball were also soldered on. A bezel was created for a citrine nugget, soldered on, and the whole piece was shined to PERFECTION before the stone was set and bail added. Did I mention how nice and shiny this piece was!?







All the students have worked so hard on technique and design. It hasn't been easy! Next week- final projects for the Winter session!

More Examples of Student Work

This week in the Lorton Workhouse Beginning Metalsmithing class taught by Dana Evans features some completed projects by Casteen:

This lovely hairstick was created by cutting, forming, soldering and bezel setting. A complimentary patina was created by using liver of sulfur. This beautiful collage illustrates how much creativity can be expressed by learning just a few skills and throwing caution to the wind!

This is an earlier work by Casteen in which she soldered different components together in silver and copper, and then completed it by creating and soldering a hand-made pin back onto the back side.

Stay tuned next week for more completed projects!

Continuing Hard Work

Last night's class work hard learning for the first time how to construct bezels. Students worked on continuing projects and some new projects, too. Take a look:


This is Casteen's finished ring. She started and finished in one night! She sized the bezel to the stone, soldered it closed, then soldered it to a base sheet of silver. Below, you can see the decorative ring shank she designed in silver wire and then soldered to the back. Very nice!

Back view of Casteen's ring.

Susan finished her "labor of love" pin last night too. She followed a sketch she'd done of a collage of hearts- and cut out each one separately in silver, brass and copper, before soldering them to a base sheet of silver. She then trimmed the back sheet and soldered on a handmade pin back to the backside. This pin is about 2-1/2" long.

Stay tuned next week for more finished projects!