Year: 2010

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The Process

Lately I have been making a lot more things than I usually do. Chains, bracelets, head badges (lots of head badges), earrings, pendants, you name it I have been trying it lately. While my work is not always that good, its getting better. I have been trying a lot of new stuff (at least for me). Tube riveting, etching, found objects, forging, chain making, all sorts of new things.

Working on some bike chain stuff

Its been amazing. I am really starting to enjoy the process. Making jewelry is not so much about skill as it is about forcing yourself to be patient. You can’t rush, rushing almost guarantees failure. I have been enjoying the sanding, and the filing, and the assembling of this little part that goes into that little part. I have been enjoying all the sawing and the copper dust, and well…the whole process.

I have found myself staring at every piece of jewelry I see now. Looking at trees differently. Seeing patterns in places I used to just see roads. I mean I am still crap at making stuff, but at least I am starting to appreciate other really well made things. You will never appreciate jewelry until you try to make something, then you realize just how stunningly hard this shit can be sometimes.

As the little pieces of stuff pile up before me, I feel a little twinge that I might be getting just a bit better at this stuff, and it makes me happy. Now I just have to keep making as much stuff as I can and hope that I can manage to eek out a bit more improvement, cause I still got a long way to go.

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Working In Thick Steel

Its a super huge pain in the ass, but cutting really thick steel is possible with a jewelers saw. I have cut several R’s and H’s for a local bicycle maker Royal H.

Its especially hard to keep a straight line when working with this thick steel, and you will break about a million blades but the results look nice and are durable as hell, so much so that they can be welded.

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Working On Some Tree Silhouette Head Badges

Its really hot, and all the copper dust is mixing with my sweat and turning my hands green. I like to sit and work on these in one continuous cut, it takes about two hours and my back gets very sore from hunching over, but if I take a break or do it in more than one cut they never seem to come out as good as if I just power though…

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Silver And Shell Pendant

The silver wire took a long time to wrap delicately around the “bones” of the pendant, with special care spend on spacing and making sure each one is well adjusted. The shell had been weathered to a fine polish which really looks good when combined with the silver. I am happy how this came out as it was my first attempt at anything like this. I will be making more of these in the future. It is also nice because I really like to pick things up off the ground and put them in my pocket and I have a bucket of little nick nacks that I need to do something with.

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Chain Examples

Previously I talked about how to make jump rings for chains (part 1 and 2), below are a couple more examples of chain patterns.

14g copper on the left 18g aluminum on the right

double double pattern on the top, Inca Puno pattern on the bottom

The type of chain you make is basically dependent on two features the thickness of the wire, and the size of the thing you wrap it around (mandrel). If your wire is too thick, or your mandrel too small you wouldn’t be able to do a complicated pattern (like the aluminum chain above), similarly if your wire is too thin, or mandrel too big your chain will be all floppy and not look good.