Making Jewelry Storybook--Lines Bracelet

 What was it?

The last posting of what I had on the bench, I asked you to guess what it was I was making. I finished it and finally took some photos of it. You see the teaser below? It's a bracelet, all right!

This is how I made it

First, I started with a bracelet blank; a strip of 16 gauge silver that is 6" long. I took pieces of wire and formed them into various shapes, and melted some scrap silver into balls. You can see most of this laid out on the charcoal block. If you're wondering what the white crud is that's all over the metal, it's a flux that prevents firescale. Sterling is notorious for taking up cupric oxide and it leaves a nasty purplish stain in the metal if you don't take steps to prevent it from forming.

All the wires are sanded so they'll sit flush on the bracelet blank. The wires are soldered on a few at a time, with cleaning baths in pickle in between solderings, and of course, more flux to prevent firescale before soldering again.

Here you can see the wires all soldered and the form pre-polished, before filing and forming the blank into the bracelet.

And now the purdy...

I love the movement of the lines on the bracelet, and how that movement changes, depending on which angle it's viewed. You can go to this link to see a few more pictures of the Flowing Lines bracelet from different angles:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88543681/flowing-lines-sterling-silver-cuff

Thanks for stopping by to read! You can find more stories on Making Jewelry Storybook posts. Learn how handmade jewelry goes from sheet and wire to be fabricated into volumetric and gorgeous jewelry.

Copyright 2011 by Katherine Palochak