Silver and felt necklaces... the sequel!

In Autumn 2008 I started developing some ideas for a series of sterling silver and embellished felt necklaces during my jewellerymaking evening class.  I wrote about the first prototype here, but never got around to finishing the other pieces I started.  In fact, I confess that I all but forgot about my selection of silver pendant bases that I had made that were hiding in my metalsmithing workbox.

Well, they finally made it to the top of my projects list again, (I have to admit that actually I've been a bit scared to finish them, as working with silver always seems terribly serious!) and I have made two more prototypes:  'Quezacotl' and 'Materia'  (if anyone can make the Otaku link to those names then I'll sort you out with a special prize :P).

I sawed sheet silver into a tag shape, filed the corners to gently round them, and then added a matte brushed texture and an asymmetrical hammer texture pattern.  Then I made the bezel settings from tiny strips of thinner silver sheet and soldered them onto the base tag.  The pieces of felt are made with silk hankie fibre, and embellished with tiny glass beads and hand embroidery stitches.

'Quezacotl'

I'm still not totally sure about jewellery photos featuring live models, but I wasn't sure how else to best show the necklace's scale...

And here's 'Materia':

My first silver necklace!

I finished my first project in my metalsmithing evening class: a necklace in silver and felt.  The whole process of silversmithing is so time-consuming and physical - gives me a whole new appreciation of jewellery I see in shops.  

For this necklace I wanted to somehow combine felt and embroidery with silver.  My teacher at the class had shown us how to make stone settings (like those used in rings or brooches) - and I thought maybe I could use the same technique to create a place for felt on a piece of jewellery.

The finished piece!

I decided straight off that I would just make the main part of the necklace - chain is a nightmare to make, and there's no way I could make the delicate sort of chain that I wanted.  So, I bought in raw silver chain and finished the ends myself (but that comes a bit later... first, the main part!).

To make the main part, first I sawed out a piece of silver, and textured it with hammer marks.  To make the 'setting' I used a narrow, long, and thinner piece of silver which I shaped into a circle and then soldered on to the silver 'base'.  (This really is a quick summary, and doesn't give a true picture of the complexity of the soldering, or the time spent waiting for the silver to enjoy an acid bath, or the filing.... oh, the filing!)  

On this photo you can see the hammered texture, as well as the solder join on the setting ring.  I brushed the silver with a metal brush, and also sandpaper, to get a more matte effect on the metal. 

I already had a piece of turquoise felt I had made, that I had in mind to use, so I added a few French Knot embroidery stitches to it, and some tiny glass beads and freshwater pearl beads too.  Then I cut it to size, and glued it into position in the setting (usually, with stone settings, the metal of the setting ring is gently and subtly bent over the stone to hold it in place - but in this case that wouldn't have been any use due to the flexibility of the felt).

Then all that was left was to drill tiny holes in the top corners to take circular jump rings, so that I could attach the chain.

It was difficult to decide whether to round off the corners or leave them more sharp.  In the end I opted for sharp corners, but I'll try something different with my next project.  

I started working on my next pieces at last week's class - I'm sticking with the idea of 'setting' a piece of felt, but this time I'm trying to make earrings and a couple of different pendant necklaces.  Futher posts on this to follow!

Jewellery-making evening class - part 1!

Thursday night was the first night of my new jewellery-making evening class, courtesy of Edinburgh city council. It's held in the metalwork rooms of a secondary school (wish I had been able to do that at school!!) not too far from where I live. There's a small group of us, about 12, and we all have varying degrees of experience, which makes for an interesting mix. Some have never tried jewellery making at all, some like me have done a wee bit and want to learn more, and then there are some who obviously do the evening class every term, and came laden with very impressive and professional-looking tool boxes!


Our teacher has been a jewellery-maker for many years, and is very relaxed, and was happy for different people in the class to be getting on with various different things. We talked about what I had tried already at the Summer School, and then my teacher suggested trying to make my first ring. I decided to use some copper I had to try it out (copper isn't fantastic for rings, as it tends to make your skin go green! - but it is relatively cheap and easy to work with).



First I had to size my finger, to work out the circumference of the piece of metal strip that would be shaped into the ring. We decided to try a thick band, which meant adding an extra couple of millimeters (as thick rings always feel tighter than thin ones).

So, I cut a strip of copper to size, and then added some surface texture using hammer marks. Then, using half round/flat pliers, I gradually shaped the metal into a rough ring shape, eventually getting the two edges to meet as truly as possible. Next, we soldered the edges together (still a bit scared of the soldering torch - this time we used disposable hand torches rather than blow torches - but I still find myself heating it too gingerly) - the teacher helped me put some welly into it, and the joint eventually soldered ok.

Once the ring had been quenched in water, and soaked in the pickle to get rid of the oxidised layer, it was time to shape it more finely on a ring mandrel (a big long tapered piece of steel) using a hammer, making sure to shape it evenly all around. Last of all came the filing and polishing to get the edges smooth and a shine on the surface.

It was really satisfying to finish something within the 2 hours of the class, and I really like the breadth of the ring on my finger (and it actually fits!). I also like how the texture has turned out to look a bit like Birch bark. Looking forward to next week's class!

Jewellery making summer school~!

Today was the last day of my week-long summer school in jewellery-making and metalsmithing, at the Leith School of Art here in Edinburgh. Typing is a bit sore thanks to the saw cut on my thumb (one of many!) but there are so many things to tell, I will persevere!

The course ran 9.30am-4.30pm Monday - Friday. We were a small group of 10 students, with a range of previous knowledge and ability - a real mix of people and backgrounds, which was nice.

A bit about Leith School of Art
Embarrasingly enough I hadn't heard about this place until I was searching for a summer school to go on, back in the spring (even though I used to live in Leith!!). It's a small art school, that runs evening classes, foundation courses, summer schools etc. The school is situated in an old church in Leith, and the building is great - lots of the original features have been kept, including the gothic arch doors and stained glass. There was a really nice atmosphere around the place, and it was busy with two other summer schools running concurrently to mine.

The course itself...
Our tutor was Jenny Deans, a local jeweller who trained at the ECA and now teaches part time at the school. She was helped out by Jo, who is another jeweller and currently artist in residence at ECA. They were both young, enthusiastic, really knowledgable, and above all, patient! The atmosphere was really relaxed and informal, which was a really good environment to learn and try out new things.

The first day, Jenny took us through a lot of the basic tools and techniques. We learned about using saws, files, hammers, mallets, pliars, drills and punches, as well as the essential techniques of annealing (basically softening metal so it can be shaped and textured) and soldering.

I was really amazed at all the different skills needed to produce something that when finished looks quite simple - and also how physical the whole process is - from getting hot and sweaty with the blow torches for annealing and soldering, to sawing (including fingers!), to hammering (including thumbs!), to filing. It takes a lot of elbow grease, but as a result finishing a piece is really satisfying. For most of Monday we played around with ideas and tried out all the techniques.

By Tuesday, we began to think about the actual pieces we wanted to work on for the rest of the week. We were pretty much given free reign to do what we liked, within the constraints of the available equipment (and our limited ability!!), but that still left plenty of options.

I decided to focus on trying to find ways to mix textiles/threads and metal for my pieces. I wanted to find out how feasible it is, and to see whether this is something that has potential for me to explore further, either at home or in future classes.

We were given the choice of working in unlimited brass or copper, or limited amounts of silver (due to the expense). I decided to try out all three, but to leave silver until last so I could hopefully improve my skills before dealing with the expensive stuff.

Project 1 - Copper and kumihimo brooch

Before the course started, my main ideas had been to incorporate my kumihimo braids into a piece somehow. I wanted to show off the colours and textures of a braid against a very different background.

I really liked the colour of the copper metal we were given to work with, and thought that some of my braids worked in beautiful Sassalynne copper/teal threads would work really well with the copper metal.

I decided to try a brooch piece, where I could experiment with different surface textures on the metal, as well as being able to incorporate 3 different braids, learn how to make a brooch finding, and practice cutting and filing circular pieces of metal (very difficult!). I experimented with a few different ideas before coming up with the final version.

I annealed 3 pieces of copper, and then sawed out 3 circles, each smaller than the last, using a metal compass to trace the shape. Then I hammered the metal to give it surface texture - each circle with a different hammer to give the specific texture. Then I cut out more holes for the braids to be wound through. After that, the metal had to be annealed again, to soften it enough so that I could shape the circles into concave shapes. Once annealed and shaped, I hand drilled tiny holes in each disc so I could sew them all together. Then, finally, the last thing was to make and attach the brooch finding - essentially a needle and catch. This was by far the hardest thing I did all week (I found the soldering really difficult) and seemed amazingly complicated for something so ostensibly simple. With a lot of help from Jo, the assistant, we managed the difficult job of soldering onto a curved surface, and we shaped some stainless steel wire, which I filed to a point at the end, into the pin.

Once the hard bit was done, all that remained was to thread in the braids, and then sew the three discs together. It was a lot larger than I expected when it was finished, but I really like the colour combination and the different textures.

Project 2 - Felt and brass necklace
For my next piece, I wanted to incorporate something I had felted/beaded. I thought the simplest thing to start off with would be just to 'frame' the piece of felt in metal. I discussed it with Jo, who suggested sealing the frame with handmade rivets to hold everything in place. I decided to try working with brass this time - hard work!! Brass is much harder to saw than copper, and by this point my arms were getting really sore!

I cut a piece of felt I had made into a rectangular shape, and annealed, cut, and texture a brass back, and front 'frame' to sandwich it. The sandwich was sealed with handmade rivets of copper tubing in each of the for corners. The riveting was a really long process - 4 tiny 7mm lengths of copper tubing had to be annealed, then passed though tiny drilled holes in each of the corners. Then I had to open out the tubing with a scribe tool, to widen it and make the 'rivet' effect. I found this really difficult to do uniformly and delicately, so consequently the rivets in the finished piece were not quite as neat as I wanted! I hope this won't be so obvious when the piece is being worn though, as hopefully attention will mainly be drawn to the texture and colour of the felt.

After that, all that was left was to make jump rings to pass through the rivets, so that a chain could be attached (I didn't make the chain!!).


Project 3 - various earrings
After I had finished the necklace, I still had some time to make a few pairs of earrings, and to try out working with silver. I had the idea of using threads in geometric or woven patterns, to give added colour and again texture. The silver was really nice and easy to work with compared to the brass. The most difficult part was making the earwires for the earrings - surprisingly hard to get two exactly the same (and I need a lot more practice!).

*-~-*

I was really pleased that, over the course of the week, I had the time and opportunity to try out working with all the different metals, and to try a bit of all the techniques Jenny showed us. I was really surprised by how physical all the work was, and at the end of every day we were all exhausted! Overall it was a really interesting experience. Although I think some of the techniques and equipment aren't really feasible for me to use at home (acid baths and blow torches with cheeky cats? I think not!), it has given me a taste for how felt and braids could be combined, so maybe I'll follow it up with an evening class to explore that further.

At the end of today's class, we had an exhibition, where our class, and the other two classes all showed our work to each other. It was really interesting to see how different each person's ideas and approach were - there were some really lovely pieces made by other people in the class. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (this slightly blurry picture was taken with my phone!), but Jenny and Jo took lots of photos - I'll post more of them here once I get them.