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.
