Finishing off the prongs on this pair of lab-created Blue Sapphire earrings…
Blue Sapphire and sterling silver earrings,setting the prongs on the stones.
The 4mm faceted stones were set in pronged tube settings. I filed V-shaped galleries in the tubes between each prong, which allows light to enter the setting from underneath the stone to enhance its appearance and sparkle. The tube settings were then soldered onto a base plate, which in turn allows the posts to be soldered on.
Below are those 4mm lab-created faceted Blue Sapphire earrings completed, and you can more easily see the V-shaped gallery cuts made in the settings to allow more light to enter the stone from the underside before the base and posts were soldered on.
Blue Sapphire and sterling silver earrings, finished.
Tool steel bar stock and drill rod cut to size and ready to be annealed, ground and filed into shape.
Tool steel bar stock and drill rod cut to length for stamps and punches
I usually buy the W1 tool steel stock in 3-foot lengths from an outfit in Texas, but have used old bolts, broken files, screwdrivers and other sources of tool steel to make stamps out of in the past.
Chasing and repoussé punches being formed for use in various tasks
Some chasing and repoussé tools in the process of their making. After annealing if needed, the steel can be easily shaped as desired. I guess I really should say the steel can be shaped “more easily,” as elbow grease is always in short supply it seems, and the shaping process is definitely not a quick process at all if you want it done right.
Chasing and repoussé punches ready for hardening and tempering
Above are the finished chasing and repoussé punches after their forming has been completed and are now ready for the hardening, tempering and re-polishing stages.
The tool faces need to finely finished and polished, otherwise every micro-scratch or defect left on the face of the punch will be diligently transferred to the piece you’re working on with every blow of the hammer.
Sterling silver Pattern Wire stacker with Rainbow Moonstone cabochon
I used the same pretty, but delicate pattern wire from Rio Grande that I had used as a bezel border on the pendant, set with a Rainbow Moonstone as well.
(And unfortunately this close-up has the same poor lighting as the pendant close-up… photography just isn’t my “thing”. :-/ )
A sterling silver double-sided Christmas Tree charm
A WIP (Work In Progress) collage of a double-sided Christmas Tree charm I created to go with the Charm Bracelet I made for Kathy.
I used superglue to glue two pieces of sheet together, then cut out and formed the tree as a single piece, adding a bevel to both sides of the edge, and drilling a few holes that will later be darkened with patina.
I then superglued the tree to another piece of sheet that I cut out and formed to be a “base” for the tree, but a little larger than the tree to give it a border. Adding a little heat from the torch separates the pieces, which were then soldered together with the base layer in the middle, creating a “double-sided” charm.
I used a chasing tool to stamp rays on the base layer emanating from the star, stamped “.925” on the bottom edge of it on the backside, and drilled two more smaller holes completely through the charm to give it a little more play with the light shining through them, and augments the darker oxidized holes that only go through the tree to the base plate.
Sterling silver double-sided Christmas Tree charm close-up
Above is a closer shot of the double-sided Christmas Tree charm. Unfortunately you can’t see the light shining through the two smaller holes in this picture, but when you can, they really do add to the appearance of the charm very nicely I think… almost like little Christmas lights!
Back in 2014, when a friend at work told his wife about a couple jewelry pieces I had created, she asked if I might be able to provide her with some little charms stamped with Lotus and Om symbols for her to make bracelets with, as she was unhappy with the quality of the charms she was getting from an overseas supplier.
She sells stone-beaded bracelets with the charms attached at the various local craft fairs she attends, and was overjoyed at the quality in comparison to what she had been using before. This also opened the door for a few other projects I did for her (stacking rings and pendants).
The 10mm sterling discs are stamped with either of the two symbols on the front, “.925” stamped on the back at the bottom, a bale soldered on and jump ring included.
One of Kathy’s crafts is working with paper, creating greeting cards, albums, etc., and sometimes uses stamps by a maker named “Maymay Made It” in her work.
She loved one of the Cross stamps that came in one of Maymay’s sets, and wanted me to make a domed pendant with that style of cross on it, so what could be easier than using that very stamp on the pattern I use to pierce out the overlay piece?!
Sterling silver domed overlay Cross pendant
As the stamp has a “stitching” pattern on the interior, I drilled my starter hole between the stitching and outer lines. Then, after sawing out the cross, I cleaned it up along the stitch-lines and used that piece on the underside of the dome.
The oxidation turned out beautifully on this piece. Although it might not look like it in this photo, the patina from the liver of sulfur used in the overlay has a nice, consistent, dark gun metal gray from edge to edge.
Sterling silver domed overlay Cross pendant, front
Above is frontal shot of the domed overlay Cross pendant in sterling silver.
And below is a shot of the back of the domed overlay Cross pendant showing the piece that was cut out of the overlay layer, domed, then soldered onto the back. 🙂
A sterling silver Charm Bracelet I made for Kathy, Christmas (2015)…
A sterling silver Charm Bracelet
I not only alternated link sizes, but hammer-forged the smaller links so that they would increase the sparkle of the bracelet as well as link the charm links together.
She loved it (and of course I created a neat little charm to go with it), but perhaps the one thing she thought was coolest about it was that tiny little “.925” tag I made for it. 😉
That tag actually serves a dual purpose. The most obvious is to mark the bracelet as sterling silver, but it can also be used to assist with clasping the bracelet closed. It allows the wearer (or someone else) to grasp the tag and guide the closing O-ring into the spring-loaded lobster clasp, giving them a bigger target to work with than if they had to grasp the closing O-ring itself.
Check out the Christmas Tree Charm I created and had hanging off the bracelet when she opened the present that morning for pictures and information on that. No doubt I’ll see a lot more charms making their way to the bench in the future!
Here’s a set of forged cross pendant and earrings I made for Kathy back in 2014…
Forged sterling silver Cross pendant and earrings
Again, my photography is terribly poor, but they actually did turn out nicely. The pendant has the cross lay horizontally across the wearer’s breast plate.
By forging the sterling sheet with a ball-peen hammer on one side, and marking the patterns and sawing them out from the other side, you can create pieces that throw a lot of sparkle in the light. Solder on some O-rings to attach them to a chain or ear wires and you have a relatively easy project almost completed!
I did not make the ear wires however… she already had those factory-made ones on hand for her bead crafting, and the chain was purchased by the foot and only needed a clasp and O-ring soldered on after the pendant was attached.
Here’s another collage of work-in-progress shots I took of another pendant I created for a co-worker to give to his wife (the same person that I created the sterling silver Om overlay pendant and stacker ring for)…
Sterling silver Moonstone Moon Phase pendant, pierced base
He had given me a ring they had bought in Mexico that had been stamped with “.925” (indicating it was sterling silver), but in reality turned out to be plated brass, which even had the plating wearing away in spots, and a nickel silver bezel for the stone (none of which is real silver, and very illegal to sell as such, even in Mexico). Buyers beware, not everything for sell by beach walkers in Mexico is authentic!
They knew the metal wasn’t worth saving (I returned it to them for recycling anyway), but were wanting me to create a pendant or something with the stone, since at least that was real, and had a pretty flash. So, I figured I would take on the assignment and see what I could come up with.
The stone was a beautiful Rainbow Moonstone. When I removed it from its cheap bezel I found that the bottom of the stone was polished as well (likely from having been tumble-polished), but had just as much, if not more, flash as the top and I wanted to do something to show that off, too.
I had received some really pretty pattern wire in from Rio Grande and decided it would make for a great bezel border, so made a base pierced with moon phases (appropriate for a Moonstone belonging to someone that’s into meditative crystals and such, right?!), and inset it into the bezel and border. The pictures show the tight fit before soldering, as well as after the soldering and sanding cleanup.
The next step was to create a bale for the pendant. After giving it some thought, I chose to use a piece cut out of a small ingot I had poured, then drilled and filed it to shape, giving it three ridges with two valleys.
Sterling silver Moonstone Moon Phase pendant, creating the bail
These above shots show the ingot slice I used, and the bale after the drilling, rough and final shaping were done, and then fitting it to the pendant for a clean solder-job to come next.
You can also see a bit of the pattern wire design I chose for the border, though it really doesn’t “pop” until the piece is finished, oxidized, and the stone set and final polish done.
Below is another collage showing the finished piece. I wish my photography skills were better, but the piece turned out very well and has probably received the most “likes” on Instagram that I have had on any of my postings there to date.
Sterling silver Moonstone Moon Phase pendant and Moonstone stacker ring, top and bottom views
As the pattern wire was just about right for a light-weight stacker ring, and since the last pendant I had made for the co-worker to give to his wife included a stacker ring, I decided to do the same and even had a little 5mm Rainbow Moonstone to use on it, which makes for a perfect match to the pendant since they use the same type of stone and pattern wire.
Sterling silver Moonstone Moon Phase pendant, closer view of bezel
Not the best lighting by far (especially for showing off the moonstone’s flash), but above is a closer frontal shot of the completed Rainbow Moonstone pendant that the work-in-progress collage pictures covered.
A sterling silver domed overlay Hummingbird pendant I created for my mother-in-law. The disc started out just barely over 1″ in diameter (I traced the outline from one of my dog’s old tags I had laying around), and pierced the overlay using a 6/0 saw blade.
Above is another collage picture of the Hummingbird overlay pendant showing work-in-progress stages with the pattern glued onto the overlay piece, the top pierced piece and base layer sweat-soldered together, doming on the dapping block, the bale and jump ring ready to be soldered on, and the finished piece after oxidizing and final polishing.
