This week marked the end of the Spring quarter of classes at the Workhouse Metalsmithing class, taught by Dana Evans. Let's take a look at the projects students completed:
This hinged bracelet beauty was made by Daphne. She is a continuing student, a metalsmith for about a year now, and has continually taken up the call for challenging herself technically. Daphne loves to etch, as do many of the students, but etching in and of itself ceases to be challenging (but never ceases to be fun!) technically after getting the hang of it. In this bracelet, after etching a stretch of sterling silver, Daphne cut up the piece into 4 sections. After studying the options, she decided on this wire and tube connection type, and proceeded to solder on tube sections to one side of her bracelet links, and a wire onto the other. The catch was made by soldering on a closed wire loop on one side, with a folded piece of metal on the other to link together. Each section was bent on a bracelet mandrel. This was definitely a learning exercise for her! Struggles came with soldering elements together at the correct heights to center the tubing, and joining the links. But you can see from this picture that the finished product was worth it! She now has to put on the finishing touches, but the hard work is done! Great job, Daphne!!!
Nicky completed the assembly of this ring in one morning! She sized and created a wire seat around the stone and soldered it onto a back plate. After trimming and cleaning that up, she then soldered onto the back the ring shank she created, as well as the spiral wire "prongs" that actually hold the stone in place. This is a fantastic piece, well- designed, and exceeded her expectations. Beautiful job, Nicky!!
These earrings by Barbara were her first stone set, too! She created the silver flower petal forms and the copper stars and then formed the petals and filed/sanded everything. Next she created the wire hangers that will hang from an earwire, and soldered those onto the backs of the stars in order to hide the solder joint, which of course must be silver. She then soldered on the petals, trying out the trivet for the first time in order to solder from underneath. Finally, after forming and soldering the stone bezels, she soldered them on, set the stones, and shined them up! Almost ready for an evening out- great job!
Gwen's bracelet was a fantastic exercise in soldering (and melting!) silver. She chose 2 sizes of wire stock- 18 ga. round and 16 ga. square, alternating. After carefully soldering all links together, she used a ring mandrel to round all the links out. She then gave a hammered-texture to half the links, created an s-clasp, and it was ready to wear home! Great job, Gwen!
This pendant by Angie was designed as an abstract exercise in collaging and soldering on elements. She cut and filed the sheet in this rounded triangle shape, then textured it with a hammer. After a few soldering operations of carefully laying elements out, she was happy with the compositions. She oxidized the piece, then tumbled it for shiny perfection. She made some jump rings for attachment to the chain and finished it up! Great job, Angie!
This pendant is also by Angie. She was so anxious to try etching- how cool! She textured the back copper piece and after struggling with ironing on the PNP paper to the metal, this beautiful etched piece resulted. A quick solder to the copper, holes punched and metal oxidized, and it's ready for a chain!
This was Maureen's first time setting a faceted stone- which has it's own set of issues. After etching this in acid, she soldered on a tube to the top for attachment to a chain. Then the bezel was formed, soldered, and a seat was created and also soldered on the inside. After soldering it to the etched piece, she was ready to carefully close the bezel on the stone- excellent job!
Nicky's pendant was created using a large stone. In order to conserve silver, she opted for a wire seat soldered inside the bezel instead of a backplate. The bail is also hand-made! She then soldered a wire piece on the bottom for the stone drops, and voila- all done! Great work!
Daphne's pendant was etched, but not using PNP paper. Instead, she coated the silver with nail polish and scratched away the dried polish with a sharp file, revealing the silver below, and creating her own original artwork. After soldering on the backing of copper and the stone bezel (using white-out to avoid having solder flow into the etched image) she then designed, created, and soldered on the handmade bail, furthering her "tree" theme. Excellent job!!
Great class, everyone- thanks so much!!
This ring by Gwen encorporated a Peruvian blue opal in a handmade bezel setting. She created her own design that was etched into the silver, then created the ring shank, soldered them all together, and called it done. Great work!
Gwen also created this pendant with an acid-etched tabbed front and tube ensemble that also included some etching. Gorgeous piece!
Angie's gorgeous ring featured a handmade bezel with stamping around the edge. Another great job!
Barbara soldered these large earrings many times before the bezels were completely soldered around and onto the copper. Worth the effort and difficulty of working with copper. Awesome job!!
These earrings by Gayle were her first stone-set project! She designed, cut, and bezel-set the turquoises. Great job!!
Daphne's malachite ring features a background of acid-etched silver. Very complimentary and stunning!
This is a particularly beautiful etched seahorse by Molly. I have a feeling there are more to come??! 
