Jewellery course - class #4

Can't believe my jewellery course is coming to an end, there were only 5 classes in the course and as I'm writting to you about the 4th that means there's only 1 more to go. Boooo!

As I told you last week I managed to make a head start on a project of my own design. Oh yes, I now like to believe I have jewellery design skills, step aside Dinny Hall, here I come ;)

So last week I cut out a round shape and left you wondering what I would manipulate this into





I used a special dome mould and hammer set to make this into half ball shape. It was remarkably easy really, the saw to cut out the circles was very versatile so it's easy to create a round shape and it was as simple as bish-bash-bosh to turn a circle into a dome.

It was a little trickier to cut out smaller circles but with the help of some sand paper I eventually manipulated the jaggered flat metal into a smooth edged round dome...



Do you know my plan yet????

So it would seem that the cutting out and shaping was the easy bit as from here on in I needed much more tutor support as whilst my fellow students made beautiful bangles and rings I had my sights on much more complex 3D structure which will be a pendant. Maybe a little ambitious for this "beginners" course but hey it's the best way to learn.

So, out came the soldering tools, the pickle and of course the protective eye wear and off we went.

First I soldered what will become the front of the pendant, before then pickling and cooling and then soldering a loop on the back.





And here is the, almost, finished article....just a bit more sandpapering and polishing to do next week et voilà.





Now those of you who have been reading carefully you will have noticed I cut out quite a few circles but have only used 2. Well my plan had been to put lots of the domes in the middle, but I was sooooo please with just the single inner that I didn't want to add any more so I didn't. I've still got one week left so might use the extra ones in a "here's one I made earlier" type exercise.

Now you may be wondering what that hole is in the back of the pendant shown above. Well, apparently once a dome is nicely soldered and sealed there is a serious rise of explosion if the surface is reheated. As I needed to solder on the loop to hang this I was advised to drill a little hole so the whole thing didn't explode. Not a risk I was willing to take.

I'm really really pleased with this and looking forward to wearing it.