First Metal Forming Project

Metal Disc Cutter from Rio Grande

Yesterday was the metal forming class at Rio Grande.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out to be a great day.  I learned so much.   The tools they have to work with their are really top notch.  There were so many tools that I wanted to bring home.  My favorites were probably the disc cutter and the jump ring making setup they have.  I would love to have both of them, my penny bank just won’t cut it.  They are both a little pricy.

Copper Earring Project

The first class project we worked on was a couple pair of earrings.  The first pair were the copper earrings.  We started with a  piece of copper sheeting and cut out discs, 2 small discs and 2 large discs.  It was then up to the student how to make the earrings.  For the smal disc I decided on a smooth finish and used the doming block for it’s shape.  The larger discs I used a ballpen hammer to texture the disc.  I had never used a flex tool so that was a bit of a challenge in the beginning.  

The lesssons I learned on this project:

• Always measure the location of the drill holes.  One of the larger domes had the drill hole too low and the the discs overlap.
• Texture, drill and then shape a piece of metal.  On this pair I drilled first and after I textured, the drill holes were almost completely closed from stretching the metal.  I had to redrill the holes.

Sterling Silver Earring Project

The next pair of earrings were sterling silver earrings.  For this project the shapes were precut for everyone in the class.  We were given a round sterling disc and a somewhat rectangular shape sterling piece. 

On the disc I ran the disc through a metal corrugater.  This was kind of a cool tool too.  You place a piece of metal through two corrugated wheels and depending on the amount of tension  on the wheel will contol how deep the corrugated impressions are.  The disc was then placed in the domer for it’s shape.  On the relangular pieces  I used a goldsmith hammer to get the texture on the metal.

Both of these projects were great to get started with the metal forming.

The next project was a sterling silver petal choker, I’ll tell you all about it next time…..

Beads and Wire

It has been a little while since I have  posted.  I have been so busy, but I finally got some time to work on some pieces.  I have been working a little with wire wrapping and wire links.  The first piece is a set of earrings.  They are made from sodalite dangle stones and wrapped with copper wire and copper wire fishhook findings.

Copper and Sodalite Earrings

The next piece is a Jade necklace and bracelet set.  I used wire to create the bead links.  The jade beads are etched with a noveau desgin and the links are made with silver wire and wire findings.  The pendant is a jade pendant with a silver bail. 

Etched Jade Necklace

Jade Pendant

Etched Jade Bracelet