by Thierry

A Leaf Bracelet with a Topaz Gemstone – A last minute request from Bel, who wanted a bracelet made for her friend’s birthday. I chose to make a leaf bracelet as I have never done one before. So why make one, when you can make two for twice the price. The process is rather simple. Take a long strip of silver, fold it in half flat lengthwise, texture it with a hammer on both sides, then open it back up. An easy process in principle but neatly folding the strip is not straight forward; and texturing at an angle is challenging. I added a topaz gemstone to enlighten the piece. Not a bad result for a first attempt and I was very popular at the club, happily banging to my heart’s content.

Below are samples of what has been achieved by one of our newer members in one month at the club, amazing job Lisa, love the enthusiasm.

I made the bracelet first and have learnt some great techniques.  Would have embossed it a little bit heavier and there’s a couple of solder joints that annoy me but overall happy with the result.  Moved on to the other bracelet but extended it longer doing a single figure 8 and then a double link.  Haven’t added a closing clasp yet.  Might cut it and turn it into a couple of smaller bracelets or smaller necklace for my granddaughter.  Possibly a toggle end or S shape clasp ….. to be continued lol.  From the chain I got great experience with how much solder to use (don’t enjoy removing solder) and now feel confident soldering thinner gauge.   Made a quick ring with filing,  70% happy with that one.  Should have filed the middle line crisper only using the very end of the rats tail file.  Made mistake of using more of the file.   Not quite centred too.   Went home and did it after class.  We remember our mistakes.

by Carol Money

Project 25 from Alan Revere’s “Professional Jewelry Making” Book

As many of you know I have been working my way through this book over the last couple of years. I have posted a few of the completed projects as I have finished them and a few of you will have seen me working on this latest one over the last few weeks.  These are my 2nd and 3rd hinges ever and I was really pleased with the way they turned out, although setting them up literally took hours.  The hardest part in the whole process was soldering on the small cap.  With lots of help from Fiona I practiced using the Smith Little Torch until I finally managed to solder the cap (we are talking about 15 to 20 attempts).

by Marie-Ann Coyle

Aussie Metal Clay is an Australian company and the owner Ros Bailey makes all the clays from silvers to base metals in many colours. Kim Booklass is the Senior Instructor, clay tester and clay designer. They have a web site and Facebook presence.

This is a different way of achieving an item in silver whether it is 99% or Sterling silver or Argentium 960 silver.

The silver particles which are in a fine dust are mixed with a clay binder to create a malleable clay.

The clay can be sculpted, rolled out, textured, moulded, stamped or many other ways to be used.

• The Hummingbird pendant was cut out freehand. The clay was rolled to 3 cards thick (playing card thickness). I then cut and moulded the bird, flowers, and background. The pieces on the back and the bale were added when the front was dry.

The idea is to not let the clay dry too much but there is a wonderful product that AMC make called Clay Stay. This allows you to join pieces wet on wet, wet on dry and dry on dry.

The item must be completely dry and as this was a larger piece, I fired it in my jewellery kiln to the firing schedule for the 999 and my kiln settings.

• The Frog pendant was made using the clay to push into a mould which is my own handmade mould, then adding the leaves, texturing the wood and adding the bale and pieces to the back.

I fired both these pieces at the same time with another pendant.

As each kiln is different it is recommended to make a test strip and fire to make sure it is fully sintered (silver hardness).

Smaller pieces can be torch fired but there is a specific method to do this.

This is a fairly simple explanation and if you want more information please go to their web site and look at the tutorials on offer. Press on the Australian Flag!

by Mary

Examples only – not perfect -we learn by doing!!