learning to string pearls

So you might look at this pic and think, big deal, a pearl bracelet, the big deal is it’s really hard to make!!!! I took a pearl knotting class last night, and developed a whole new appreciation for stringing beads.

First of all, you’re not just stringing beads, you’re making knots between each, and while you’re making the knot, you’r holding the other bead back with tweezers, then you push the knot back with the tweezers too.

But before that, you have to stretch the silk thread so it’s not all wonky and then you have to drill a bigger hole into the two end pearls because the thread has to go thru twice in those, underwater! So you’re holding this tiny bead underwater in a bowl and you’re sticking an electric tool, the drill, in it! And it’s slippery! and your fingers are like a few millimeters away from the drill bit!

Then you gotta get the gimp on, which is the shinier looking loops attached to the clasp, its actually coiled wire, and every time the teacher said gimp I kept thinking of Pulp Fiction…and then I had a vision of the gimp wearing a pearl necklace…scary!

Anyways, there was only 45 minutes left in class and I only had 4 beads strung! At one point I had to start all over cuz the thread developed a knot that I couldn’t undo. But I managed to finish it. There really is an art to stringing beads!

the hands take a beating making jewelry!

We learned how to make tube riveted metal beads in class on Saturday at Veberod Gem Gallery. It was cool to learn how to make my own beads, but super hard!!! Because after you dome the circle shape, you gotta drill a bigger hole through the middle so the tube will fit, and you have to hold the tiny piece between your fingers and the metal gets crazy hot when you’re drilling it!

Then when you’re riveting the tube, it’s really hard to do it without making the tube crooked, need lots of practice! I used the same rolling mill technique to get the textures, you can see my paper cut out on the right top corner of third pic. I’m really enjoying doing that and I plan on spending a lot more time making intricate cut outs for the metal, it’s very satisfying seeing a finished looking pattern come out!

getting ready to saw all the brass pieces

This is still for the textured panel bracelet class, but I wanted to make some new pieces for it because the others were a bit too wide and would jut out when connected together on the wrist. The dark lines are sharpie marks so I can follow the lines better when sawing. I’m really enjoying making cutouts for them and want to develop this technique further. It’s just like when I’m cutting out paper for a shadow puppet!

enjoying experimenting with hanging chains in different ways

The pic above is of a necklace I made a few days ago. Kumari took a nice long nap, almost 4 hours!!! Once I have more skill with creating my own brass pieces, I’m looking forward to using my own handcut and designed ones for the necklaces.

this is the other one I made during her nap

the top right prong, there's a mark where I was drilling the hole because the ring moved but at least it didn't break open!

Had a great class yesterday! Learned how to make a prong ring, it was all about a ring for setting an irregular shaped stone. Mine is a rough ruby, uncut.

I started out with a brass rod, then hammered it til it became wide, then annealed it to make it bendable and soldered it together, then drilled 4 holes in the ring to attach the prongs, then soldered those and trimmed them before setting the stone….the red you see on the brass is copper, when you heat brass, the copper comes to the surface, so you have to sand it back down to the brass, bottom pic is my finished piece, which I still have to sand a bit, I really enjoyed making it, and it’s only the second project I’ve actually finished in class!

I wasn't really a fan of prong set rings before but I really enjoyed making this and looking forward to making more!

My latest class project from last night, a textured panel bracelet that we’re making. Normally I draw organic shapes, but since I’m cutting them out with an exacto knife I made more geometric ones.

This class is for practicing sheet metal techniques, like the rolling mill again, also sawing shapes and riveting (you can see my bad riveting job on the two pieces at the ends). I also didn’t challenge myself with the sawing, just stuck with rectangles, but next week in class I think I’ll try to do some more unique shapes.

proof of my bad riveting job

some more proof

first test through the rolling mill

I learned how to use the rolling mill in class earlier this month, where you can put a texture on the metal. I made cut outs with paper for the texture. Above is my first test, super fun! It’s cool that I can combine my drawing with jewelry! The top of pic is the piece of paper I cut out. The project today was texturing the metal with the rolling mill (you put the texture material over the metal and roll it through these heavy metal mills) and then setting a stone between two pieces of metal by riveting.

I’m taking the class at Veberod Gem Gallery. The teacher there, Tai Salisbury, is awesome! She’s super supportive and a great teacher. I’m so glad I found them, it was really hard to find a place for jewelry metalsmithing classes.

second test through the rolling mill, I like how the paper left it's own texture too. I'm gonna cut a shape out and drill holes where the raised circles are to hang chain.

Unfortunately, brass is a harder metal, so a lot goes into using it with the rolling mill. The teacher, Tai, said I have to first heat it with the torch till it’s glowing red, then submerge it in water right away to freeze the molecules, then put it in a pickling solution to clean it up (its all covered in black from heating up). The copper in brass comes to the surface from the heat so you have to sand it back down to get to the brass. So its more work than other metals but I love brass!

finished project

I know, the stone doesn’t really seem like it belongs there, but that was what we were learning, how to set a stone between two plates of metal with rivets (the four circular hammered bits). The teacher said I didn’t have to put the stone but I wanted to learn the skill.Riveting is a way of connecting metal together without using heat, just metal wire going through the holes of the two metal plates and then being hammered to keep it in place.

I really enjoyed making this! I also drilled 5 holes (and this time it didn’t spin around!) on either side of the back plate so I could have it hung on numerous chains, but I really wanted to wear it right away so I just hung it from the top two.

here's a side view so you can see how it's connected, the only thing keeping the stone in place is the brass plates connected by the rivets, which is made out of brass wire.

I finished my first silversmithing class a few weeks ago, we learned how to saw shapes out of metal, the pic above is of me getting ready to saw out my shapes, you can see the outline of the shapes on the brass sheet. You take a metal stick called a scribe, which has a fine point at the end, to draw your shapes.

This is very exciting to me because even without the element of heat and the use of only minimal tools, I can cut out shapes, finish them, and drill holes in them to use for my jewelry! This wooden piece clamped onto the table is used for support to cut metal and also to drill metal, which is why there’s so many holes on top.

The pic above was our project. So this is what I learned to do in the silversmithing class: we learned to saw shapes out of sheets of metal, and then I learned to set a stone in a bezel and solder it onto the cut out shape. I actually didn’t cut this shape, I had cut out some brass oval shapes, but then when I placed the stone on it, it just looked like an eyeball, so I used one of their precut copper pieces cuz we were running out of time.

I felt like Steve Martin in The Jerk, seriously, so clumsy! When I was soldering the silver bezel cup to the copper, it went flying onto the ground and melted the carpet! So now they have a diamond shaped black hole and an oval one. Our work stations faced each other, so the woman working across from me moved to another station, I was like, “you’re scared of me, aren’t you?” and she said “yes!”. Then, when I was drilling the holes, my metal piece spuna around around and flew across the room! sigh…hopefully I’ll get more proficient at this!

I made the necklace above from pieces I repurposed from old jewelry from the thrift store. Made me realize that even though I’m getting brass elements from suppliers now, I should still look for old jewelry, the stuff I take apart has shapes that make me create things I might not have otherwise….

I love this one, I'm hoping I can find more brass bars like these four, this exact size