Silversmithing Adventures

Black Onyx and Silver Ring

As many of you may already know I've been taking classes in silversmithing for the past several weeks.  I just concluded my instruction and want to share everything I've done with my new skills!

First off, my instructor Nancie Roark is fantastic! She's a wonderful teacher, so positive and upbeat, and she also makes very unique pieces of jewelry.  Here is a picture of her studio in Franklin, TN.  She has so much space in her garage turned studio, as she frequently has students working with her there.  She also teaches at Vanderbilt.

In the many hours spent in this space I learned how to solder metal together, anneal metal to form into rings and cuffs, create a bezel setting, set a stone, saw shapes out of silver, and all of the tools and materials that are necessary for silversmithing.  

The first project we worked on was a long large chain necklace, I formed all of the circles out of wire, soldered them together, filed them, hammered them, and then Nancie polished them for me in her tumbler.  The necklace ended up being four feet long! The purpose of that being so I could get plenty of practice soldering.  It's not an everyday necklace, but it was the perfect accessory to my little black dress at my friend Madushi's bachelorette party!



Next we started on my ring, I learned how to make a custom bezel setting for a black onyx cabachon.  What I did was bend fine silver around the cabachon (stone without a hole that is flat on one side and rounded on the other), solder it to make a continuous oval, and then sweat solder the oval onto a piece of sterling silver.

Next, I had to saw out the oval shape to complete the bezel setting.  Then I formed the ring out of heavy gauge sterling silver by annealing it.  Annealing is the process of heating up metal to an almost melting point and then quenching it in water in order soften it up so you can bend it.  The metal for the ring was so thick I couldn't cut it with my wire cutters so I had to saw it and then file it down so that the bezel set flush against it. 

The last step was to tumble the ring (without the stone in it) to get it nice and shiny, and finally set the stone.  Here is the finished product:

The last project we worked on was a cuff.  There were far less steps in making the cuff than the ring or necklace.  First we just started with a sheet of heavy gauge sterling silver, sawed out a 1 1/2" by 5 1/2" rectangle with rounded edges.  Then I filed down the sides so they weren't sharp, hammered one side to give it texture, annealed it and formed it.  To finish it off, we tumbled it to give it a nice polish.

Because I enjoyed my classes so much, I've decided to set up my studio so I can do silversmithing at home.  It's much more condensed than Nancie's and I still have a few more tools to purchase before it's complete, but here's a picture of what I've got so far:

I've made a couple of earrings in my little silversmithing studio since I got it set up, and it's been quite enjoyable.  I'm especially happy with the way the Mermaid Necklace turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and reading a little about what's going on in my world.  If you would like to see additional pieces I've made please visit my etsy shop or become a facebook fan:

www.etsy.com/shop/jomariejewelry

www.facebook.com/jomariejewelry