Making Jewelry Storybook--Black Onyx Bracelet

 

Black Onyx Bracelet

Black onyx bracelet with filigree wires

To start the bracelet, several wires are soldered together. A setting is made and placed between the wires and soldered into place.



 The setting for the stone is inserted



The filigree wires are made by twisting two round wires together, then flattening them on two sides. This gives the appearance of scallops. The wires are soldered into place. Boy, it's time to clean the schmutz off my soldering block!

 



The filigree wires are inserted

The bracelet is formed into its final shape. The ends are rounded and the file work is done. It's ready for a prepolish and setting the stone.

 



The bracelet is bent into a cuff shape

 

 

This is another view of the finished piece on the back side. You notice that the back plate of the stone setting has hearts embossed on it?

 



The back side of the bracelet 

Here's a snowflake obsidian bracelet that's similar, but with more filigree wires.

Snowflake obsidian bracelet

 



Side view

This is the back side of the obsidian bracelet, where I've cut out a spray of flowers. Just a special little touch known to the owner.



The back side of the snowflake obsidian bracelet

Black stones always go very well with silver because of the high contrast between the silver and the black. Silver is considered to be one of the whitest precious metals.

Making Jewelry Storybook--Pearl Tiara

I've been making tiaras lately, for no particular reason other than it seemed like a fun thing to do. It's a nice brain break. So here's the first tiara, made with South Sea shell pearls and sterling silver.

Make the base

The base wire is twisted and attachments are added at each end for a keeper chain. It also lets a veil be attached and can be used as anchor points with hair pins.

Add the pearl posts

Soldering the pearl posts on

Drill the pearls

Drilling the shell pearls. Steady hands needed!

Finished tiara

Shell pearls on graduated posts, everything polished to a high shine

This is what I call a half-crown tiara. It looks fabulous on someone's head! I'm waiting for one of my daughters to come visit so I can take a photo of it on a head. I tried photographing it on my head, but between trying to keep it balanced on my head (got a little problem with my hair falling out right now), holding the camera and trying to locate the shutter button, the result was that I looked like the village idiot.

This tiara might still be available for sale in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/156710409/wedding-tiara-of-sterling-silver-and?ref=listing-shop-header-0
Plus (bonus!) you get to see more pictures of it.

If you liked reading about how this piece was made, you can see other pieces being made in my other blog postings of Making Jewelry Storybook.

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

Making Jewelry Storybook--Baroque Ammolite Pendant

A lapidary from Canada gave me some gorgeous free form (baroque) ammolite for some help I had given to him on making a concha repousse' die. There are only a few places in the world that have ammolite. Ammolite is the opalized form of ammonite. Ammonite is the fossilized form of a cephalopod of the Cretaceous period. They looked very much like a nautilus. The opalization occurs mostly in the greens and reds, but occasional flashes of bright cobalt blue are also visible.

The one I chose to work with was a large piece. I wanted to make a setting that was in keeping with the ancient properties of the ammolite, and I wanted something to bring out the color, and balance the shape.

After sketching out the basic idea, I began playing with some things that might accomplish this.

What I started with

I chose some pine needle castings for their strong linear forms and some chrome diopsides in various hues to accent the green in the ammolite. I had to make some tube settings by soldering together some telescoping tubing since I didn't have the right size of tubing.

Taking shape!

Here you see the tubing soldered together and cut into settings, ready for the seats for the stones' girdles to be cut. I've arranged the pieces loosely to approximate how the final setting will look.

Ta-da!

Here's the finished piece that I've put on my Etsy website. Gorgeous, isn't it? This is why I like working with pretty stones.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/84214251/ammolite-pendant-in-sterling-silver-fit

Thanks for the stones Gerry--they are absolutely lovely! (And I still think I got the better part of the deal.)

If you've enjoyed the step-by-step story of how a piece of jewelry is made, look for similar stories in the "Making Jewelry Storybook" sections.

Copyright 2011 by Katherine Palochak

Making Jewelry Storybook--Honking Big Amethyst Pendant

I thought people might be interested in the steps taken for making studio jewelry. I'm not trying to do a tutorial, but rather to show how a piece begins its life through a storybook style of how it comes to be. So here's the first story:

No fancy photos here, just shot off my bench as I'm working. This one began with a stone that I picked up from a gem show. You can see some of the other amethysts at this particular show, including the one featured below at this link: http://jazznjewelry.blogspot.com/2011/05/stone-shopping-at-gem-shows.html

The honking big amethyst

So here's the stone. It's a big honking amethyst that's over 20 carats, beautiful saturated royal purple color with flashes of violet. Its cut is nice, but because of its size, it has to be set carefully so the point doesn't make contact with someone's skin. You can see a substantial bezel that I've made sitting right behind the amethyst.

Here you see the bezel with a shoulder bearing soldered in. The bearing will support the amethyst.

Adding the details

Now you see the setting made with some scroll work and it has been cut out of the background sheet and pre-polished.

And here's the finished pendant with a generous hidden bail.

It has since gone to a gallery in Laramie, WY. The owner's wife was more than helpful in helping him choose what to put in, and this was the first piece she glommed onto.

If you've enjoyed the step-by-step story of how a piece of jewelry is made, look for similar stories in the "Making Jewelry Storybook" sections.

Copyright 2011 by Katherine Palochak