Jewellery Making Supplies Blog

Looking for the hottest summer trends? You’re in the right place. From vintage inspired to bold graphic prints, we’ve rounded up the key looks for next season. Blog article written by Joanna Varney.

It’s finally upon us.  Opening in the UK this May, The Great Gatsby which celebrates the glorious excess of the 1920s has been largely responsible for an emerging trend for all things ‘flapper’ for what seems like an age now. As the film opens the trend will undoubtedly peak so don’t write off those bejewelled headpieces just yet! Look out for pearls in abundance alongside multi functional brooches using delicate imagery of flowers, feathers and insects. And don’t forget the all important tassels and fringing which were so abundant during this era. Anyone still in any doubt as to the influence of the 20s today simply needs to take a look around your nearest high street or shopping centre. It has been and still is huge!

Strong, clean cut Art Deco imagery has come through with great significance this season, alongside powerful tribal inspired designs which have been prevalent for a few years now.  The two actually seem to merge quite well together which is surprising. There are masses and masses of Inca inspired collars and cuffs to choose from and the scale is huge.  Some stores are even displaying their neckpieces on coat hangers they are that big! Without a doubt, the ‘must have’ jewellery item this year has got to be the statement necklace.

Of course the other big story in jewellery this year has been the spike. Be it hard metallic studs or slightly more subtle triangles, it is a shape which lends itself particularly well to neckpieces in either repeater, collar like styles or stand alone pendants.

In terms of colour, I have not seen so much of the Emerald (Pantone colour of the year) as I would have expected. Instead, the colour coming through most strongly is the tangerine/orange colour of 2012. (Perhaps Pantone were a little ahead of their time!). Often softened with monochrome, hot tones of coral, orange and peach are high profile in most of the fashion conscious retailers.

Monochrome has become a classic combo which enjoys reinvention year after year and this summer is no exception. Bold stripes and prints are the order of the day and provide a cooling backdrop to some of the other jaw dropping hues available at the moment. Neon’s, particularly yellow, pink and blue are strong in accessories and are generally sports themed and clean cut. For most people over 20, neon’s are dangerous territory and I think retailers have realised that in the main, their buying public are not as brave as some of the celebrities pictured in neon yellow at the beginning of the year. Accessories (jewellery included) are a safe way in to this trend for all those non-teens!

Finally a word on summer florals. Many of us like to indulge in something a little lighter and brighter to wear on our long awaited summer holidays. (Male and female) So you would expect to see floral sarongs and haiwaiin shirts a plenty as you stroll around the shops. But this year floral prints have quite literally exploded onto fashion and accessories and not in a literal depiction. No, this year things are a little more ‘chemically enhanced’ (for want of a better description) but to great effect. Blurred and smudged, distorted and fanciful, these are not so much shrinking violets but shouting from the rooftops loud and proud!

In fact ‘loud and proud’ is quite an apt way to sum up this summers’ trends and that includes jewellery and accessories as well as clothes. There are so many strong design elements around this year that it’s almost as though they are all fighting against each other for the limelight. Taken in its entirety, it is far too overpowering, but it is packed full of inspiration and ideas for anyone wanting to design.

We gave our Cooksongold blogger a PMC Super Starter Kit to have a play with. Take a look at what she made and how she made it!

Precious Metal Clay or PMC is a material made up of tiny particles of metal which is combined with water and a binding agent. The resulting clay can be manipulated using basic tools and then fired using a blowtorch or kiln. During this process the water and binder are burnt away allowing the metal particles to fuse together to form a solid metal object. This can then be finished as you would any piece of jewellery made in the conventional way.

The main benefit of PMC is its moulding capability allowing you to create patterns and forms which would be highly labour intensive using traditional techniques. The clay itself can be a little tricky to use at first, but by following a few golden rules you will find your results will improve quite quickly.

You will need: 1 x PMC Super Starter Kit (containing 9g PMC3, Instructions, Badger Balm, Butane torch, Circle Cutter, Jump Rings, Metal Burnisher, Necklace Cord, Paintbrush, Roller and Spacer Set, Rubber Block, Stainless Steel Brush, Straw, Sand Paper, Teflon Sheet, Texture Mats, Rubber Shaping Tool, Torch Firing Block, Tweezers,  3 x fireproof gems and a work mat.

You will also need Butane Fuel for your torch, pliers and a timing device (a watch or phone will suffice)

1. Lay out your Teflon sheet, roller and Texture Mats and rub each with a layer of Badger Balm. (Use your rubber shaping tool to push the balm into the crevices in the texture mats to ensure the clay can be easily released).
2. Place your mat on top of the grid and roll out the clay. Try to ensure your clay has a smooth surface as any cracks will be difficult to remove afterwards. Don’t roll the clay too thinly as it will become difficult to handle. (You can place the two spacer sheets either side of your clay to act as a level guide).
3. Take your texture mat, position on the clay and press down firmly and evenly. Pull the mat upwards in a swift movement and check that your imprint is clear and defined. (If it doesn’t look too great simply reroll the clay and try again, but you will need to work relatively quickly)
4. Take your circle cutter and apply a layer of Badger balm to the leading edge. Position on your patterned clay and again press down firmly and evenly, twist and pull out. Replace any excess clay back in the packet and seal. Gently remove the clay from the cutter. (the rubber shaping tool is good for this)
5. Take your straw and apply Badger Balm to the cutting edge. Position on the clay where you would like your hole for the jump ring to be and push down firmly, twist and pull out. (You will need to leave  at least 3mm clearance from the edge of the piece and remember the material will shrink during firing)
6. Then you need to position your stones. Pick them up using either the tweezers provided or a piece of blue tack and place onto your design. Push them down gently so that the edges are just below the surface of the clay.
7. At this point your pendant is essentially complete, but take some time to touch up any marks or cracks using a little water with the paintbrush provided. This has a fantastic smoothing effect and can reduce the time you have to spend sanding.
8.  Allow the pendant to dry. This will take a few hours but can be speeded up by using a hairdryer.Once dry, sand any rough edges as well as the back. Make sure the stones are clean. (At this stage the piece is still quite delicate so you will need to take care.)
9.  Once dry, sand any rough edges as well as the back. Make sure the stones are clean. (At this stage the piece is still quite delicate so you will need to take care.)
10. If your piece is smaller than a fifty pence piece it can be torch fired. If not it will need to be heated in a kiln at 700 degrees C for 10minutes. Place the pendant onto the heat resistant block and gently heat using the torch. Take care to keep the torch moving evenly across the piece to maintain a pale orange glow and don’t allow it to get too hot. If this happens move the torch away. You will see a flame appear at first which is the binder burning away, this will then subside to reveal the orange glow you are after. Maintain this heat for a minimum of two minutes. (this will need to be timed , don’t guess)
11. After heating allow to cool naturally or quench in water.

12. Once cooled your pendant can now be polished using either the Stainless Steel brush on the rubber block or the burnishing tool. (The brush will give a dull, quite subtle polish and is relatively quick, where as the burnisher will achieve a much brighter, whiter finish but takes more time. If you have a barrel polisher you could also use this.

13. Finally open a jump ring with some pliers, thread though the hole in the pendant and close again. Your pendant can then be suspended onto a chain or the cord provided and is ready to wear.

I will be honest, I didn’t find using PMC as easy as I imagined it to be. The clay is extremely sticky and because of this it shows every mark and line, plus it will also distort very easily. For beginners, I would recommend starting with polymer clay such as FIMO to help build up your skill. However the finish you can achieve using texture is fascinating and this is where it really comes into its own. You will definitely want to purchase extra clay in addition to what’s in the kit, because once you start, you will not want to stop!!

A ‘How To’ guide by guest blogger Lydia Niziblian.

A lady came to me with an antique heart-shaped amethyst that had been cut by a relative who was an amateur faceter.  It was very unevenly cut, but of great sentimental value.  It needed a handmade setting, and I thought a double gallery setting would be perfect, as it would hold the deep stone, and make the most of its colour.  Armed with some tips from the Cookson Gold forum, I was off!

Equipment: Torch, flux, brush, pickle, pliers, bench stake, hammer, piercing saw, needle files, emery paper.

Materials: Sterling silver wire, silver solder of varying grades.

Using 1.0mm sterling silver wire, I formed the first shape. This fit just under the girdle of the stone.  When the stone is placed on top of the shape, it should sit neatly, with no gaps apparent between the edge of the stone and the silver.

When I was happy with the shape, I cut the wire. Then I double checked the seat of the stone   before soldering with hard solder. I then hammered it flat on my bench stake to make it as even as possible.

Now the smaller shaped heart needed to be made. I formed this for the lowermost point of the stone to sit in.  If you sit the stone in the larger piece, make sure the smaller piece will seat the bottom of the stone, without the stone protruding through.  As before, it was cut, soldered with hard solder, and hammered flat for as even a seat as  possible.

I then made  a cross with two lengths of wire.  I left plenty of length, as these were going to form the prongs that held the stone in place.  I soldered them at the cross point.   I then placed the smaller of the two hearts onto the cross.  This was soldered into place using medium solder.

Using a piercing saw, I cut the cross away from the centre of the heart, and filed the edges smooth.  Then it was time to place the second supporting heart.  It was a little fiddly, but by angling the prong  arms correctly, the heart sat neatly with even spacing below.  I soldered it in place with medium solder.  A little binding wire might be good insurance against any movement during soldering here!

Once the soldering was complete, I double checked the seat of the stone.

Once I had had a look at the stone in place, I could mark and trim the prongs to a more workable length.

I then used easy solder and soldered the setting onto the ring shank I had made.

Again I tested the seat of the stone, before marking and trimming the prongs to my desired final length, and pickling the piece.

With a marker pen, I marked where the prongs needed to bend over the stone.  With the stone out, I used a triangular needle file to carefully file a tiny notch at this point on each prong.  Finally, the prong ends were shaped and filed smooth and the ring cleaned and polished thoroughly.

With the stone in position, and the ring held in a ring clamp, I carefully bent the prongs over.Moving each a little at a time ensures the stone stays tight and central throughout.  You can see that despite the uneven cut of the stone’s girdle, it was seated firmly, and held securely.

On Wednesday jewellery Amy Logan hosted a live Q&A on our Facebook page. We had some many great questions that we thought we would post an article so that these great tips aren’t lost in the depths of our timeline. Thank you once again to everyone who took part, it was so great to chat to you all!

Question: I’m having a little bit of trouble deciding with which thickness of saw blades I should be using. Do you have any advice or tips I could you?

Answer: My favourite saw blade grade is 3/0 as I like to use a thin grade. Most tutors will advise that you use a 2/0 as it is right in the middle and good for most thicknesses. One tip you can use is that three teeth of the blade should cover the thickness of the metal you are using.

Question: Can you tell me if the eco silver from Cooksongold can be sold and stamped as .925 sterling silver and what are there any advantages and disadvantages of using it?

Answer: Eco silver is the same alloy make up as standard .925 but the great thing about it is that it’s 100% recycled. This means that for customers concerned about the environment there is a fab ‘greener’ solution for them. You will find that working with Ecosilver is exactly the same so you won’t need to change your making process.

Question: I need to do some very delicate soldering, is there anything I can buy to help me keep the flame very same and thin? I keep making mistakes with a regular torch.

Answer: For delicate items I actually love to use a hand torch – they are not very powerful which will work to your advantage with thin silver. Have you also tried rolling down your solder? If you make it super thin it melts much quicker meaning you don’t need to heat the piece for as long, this reduces the risk of melting and the chance of any fire stain.

Question: Do you have any tips for working with/soldering brass? Someone told me the fumes are toxic but I can’t find any information regarding that online! Also what is the best way to pickle it?

 Answer: It is most probably the flux often used to solder Brass that they are referring to -generally these can be quite toxic. I would recommend that you use the Borax as this is basically a mineral ground up and compressed into a cone. I would still say you should be working a well ventilated area but it is definitely much safer. Then I would go for the Picklean Safety Pickle as it is a food grade material and also much safer than other pickle powders. Ideally needs to be warm – if you can’t splash out on a pickle unit I would suggest a bain-marie type set up to help with a more constant temperature.

Question: I’ve been working with silver plated copper wire and have just started with sterling silver. I’m finding it very soft, is there anything I can do to strengthen it? And is there a breaking point with sterling silver wire and if so, how will I know when I’m near it?

Answer: There is a breaking point at which you can crack silver when you have work hardened it. Here’s an example: if you are raising a bowl, the metal gets harder the more it is hammered, this is because the silver is being squashed as its being stretched. You will be able to tell from the feel and the ‘spring’ in the silver – if you are unsure its best to anneal before continuing so you don’t damage the silver. Hammering is the simplest way to harden silver. If you are using wire – for example you have just soldered on earring pins you will find the wire is quite pliable. One of the best ways I find is to place the item in a barrelling machine and tumble it for a couple of hours – it will come out shiny and with a nice springy back to the earring.

Question: I have just started out and no idea what grade wet and dry to start with. Don’t really want to order one of each, can you help?

Answer: For best results it is good practice to go through each grade – however, you can skip a few. So depending on the scratches you are trying to remove you may not need a very coarse paper one to start as you will actually be putting in more scratches than you are removing. A good grade to start with for deeply scratched metal is 240 for lighter scratches I tend to start at around 400.

Yesterday our in house silversmith Laura Golbourne hosted a live Q&A on our Facebook page. We had some many great questions that we thought we would post an article so that these great tips aren’t lost in the depths of our timeline. Thank you once again to everyone who took part, it was so great to chat to you all!

Question: I’m having trouble with how much silver sheet to buy for a bangle, how do I go about sizes?

Answer: Depending on what you are doing I would suggest a thickness of 0.9mm to 1mm for a standard bangle and then you need to decide on how wide to go. Think about if you would like a really chunky piece or something more slender. As for the length I would close your hand as tightly as possible and measure the distance across as this will give you the diameter you need. Standard bangles are generally 8cm in diameter so you would need to times this by PI (3.14) to get the circumference and therefore length needed which in this case would be about 25 cm.

Question: I would like to make a bowl, but how do I get it so that it is 8cm in diameter and about 5cms high…?

Answer:  To get the size disc you will need to add the height and the diameter together. In this case you will want a 13cm disc to start and make a template of the cross section you wish to work to as your raising it up.

Question: Sometimes when I solder fine silver wire (the wire is usually rolled into a loose mesh) to sterling silver sheet using solder paste the fine silver gets a yellow stain. Any idea what this is and how I can avoid it?

Answer: This sounds like tarnish staining. Have you left the piece in the pickle long enough to take off all the oxide? If this is not the case you might need to get a fine tool to get in there and clean the surface off.

Question: I need to know how hot to keep my pickle solution. After using the pickle the jump rings are coming out as if they are stripped, does this suggest that my jump rings aren’t sterling silver after all?

Answer: I usually keep my solution at about 40 – 50 degrees temp so that my pieces will clean quickly. If the solution is stripping the items this might suggest that the solution is too hot and also too strong. How do the pieces look when they come out? If they are still silver if so this would suggest they are sterling, if not they may be plated!

Question: I am going through the process of registering a hallmark, I am hoping to use the marks initially as a focal point of my designs, mainly on the outer side of rings (between 3 and 6mm in width) – size J was my thought – any advice? Also I’m wondering which assay office to register with? Any guidance would be great!

Answer: If there is an assay office within walking/driving distance to you I would register there, this way if you’re in a hurry for your things you won’t have to always wait for posting. Some people like the leopard mark that the London assay office use but I’m with Birmingham as this is where I’m based which is the anchor. I think size J sounds perfect for the size of rings you are making!

Question: I’m trying to make a bracelet with small pieces of wire, through a pearl and looped at each end of the wire (rosary style). The wire can only be 0.5 mm but this seems too soft. Can you suggest the best kind of silver wire to use?

Answer: If you’re finding it a bit too soft I would recommend our hard or half-hard wire.

Question: I struggle with my display pieces tarnishing really fast, the atmosphere is very moist and salty where I live, I have used anti tarnish pads etc, but is there anything else I can do to slow it down or anything I can use on my pieces?

Answer: We have just introduced a new range of products called town talk. When I’m at a show I always take along a anti-tarnish impregnated cloth and my silver dip. This will help to keep the pieces nice and shiny whilst at the show. You will need to wash off the silver dip so this might be best done the night before the show and have the cloth with you to help brighten up during the day.

Question: I am trying to make a bezel setting for a cabochon but can’t get the silver bezel soldered onto the back plate. It is a medium size cabochon (~30mm X 25mm), I am using easy solder and plenty of flux on the back plate. I only have hand torches to work with – I am trying the impossible?

Answer: It is a little tricky sometimes with slightly larger items to get your hand torch to do the job easily however; I think this should be able to work. Make sure that all your surfaces and solder are nice and clean as well as fluxed. You will probably need to get the piece as hot as possible all over and then focus the flame in one place. Once you have one piece flowing you will find by moving the flame a little it should be hot enough for the next one and so on.

Make sure you tune in on Facebook next Wednesday between 1-2pm for our next live Q&A session!

A review of ‘The Jeweler’s Bench Reference’ by Harold O’Connor.

‘An essential purchase for anyone looking to improve and perfect their working techniques.’

I have found this book to be quite surprising in a number of ways. When it arrived in the post I was a little taken aback as to how small it actually was.  I removed the layers of outer packaging to reveal a tiny little ring bound text with stiff plastic covers which measured a very meagre 11.5 x 18cm!! Surprise number one.

On my initial flick through the book I discovered a complete lack of any sort of narrative. There is no introduction, but instead a paragraph about how the book is intended to be used, along with some information about the author. Following this is a list of other available books and then you are straight into the text without warning. To be honest I expected chapters or at least some clear division between subjects but this is not how this book works. Surprise number two!

The subjects covered in this book are simply arranged in a list format, with one running into the other barely pausing for breath.  If you go back to the contents page, (Design, Parts, Stone setting, Rolling, Annealing, Sawing and Filing, Soldering, Alloying, Casting, Repousse and Etching,  Coloring, Enameling, Reticulation, Mokume, Plating, Photo Etching, Flexshaft, Finishing, Tools, Chemicals and Materials, Commission Charts, Measurement Conversions, Index)the list is there with corresponding page numbers but there is literally no more explanation than that. It is when you read the ‘About this Book’ paragraph that the penny really drops.

This is a book about efficiency. It is essentially a professional jeweller’s notebook which contains those nuggets of information which will help to encourage best working practise. It is intended to be kept either at the bench or in the tool box and is jam packed with information and formulas that will help you to work in a more precise and accurate way. There are no glossy photos, just simple line drawings which can be a little hard to read in places and much of the technical data takes time to absorb. Also many of the techniques are quite advanced so I would suggest that this is not really suitable for a beginner. But for a person looking to improve and perfect, this would be ideal.

I was pleasantly surprised to read about some of the less documented topics in metalwork such as Alloying, Rolling and Photo Etching (if a little baffled in places!) Never before have I read a book which covers Alloying in such detail. O’Connor actually describes how you can turn 14k gold into 18k gold (no he’s not an Alchemist!) and has also included a table which details the metal composition in grams, of every colour of precious metal! A step too far for some I’m sure but fascinating none the less.

For me some of the most useful information was in the Design section right at the beginning of the book. Things like: Finding the proper length of a Ring Blank and Computing the Amount of Metal Needed to Make a Constructed Object. This is basic but essential information that you need to hand if like me you can’t remember formulas easily.

To sum up I would say that this is not a book for someone looking for a leisurely read. What it is though, is a hardworking, ‘go to’ bench reference notebook (as the title would suggest) that you will turn to again and again and again and is an essential purchase for anyone looking to improve and perfect their working techniques.

Take a look at this New Forumla Art Clay review  by guest blogger Sarah from Oberon Jewellery.

I have worked with PMC, Art Clay Silver 650 and Art Clay Silver Slow dry in the past, 650 being my favourite. I’m on a very limited budget so don’t have a kiln, I hob fire then re-fire with a blow torch having found that that gives a much stronger finish.

I have to say I was very excited about using the new clay. I did three designs to test different aspects of the clay, one very simple design to test the overall finish, one design that needed lots of drilling to test the strength and lastly one design that was layered and complex to test the workability.

The Sketches…

Templates all cut out and ready to go…let the fun begin!

And what fun it is!  I have always preferred the workability of 650, oddly I find it stays workable longer than slow dry. The new clay works beautifully wet, doesn’t get that crispy thing going on around the edges if you take too long rolling it out, this was particularly good for the pristine roll out needed for the Ray. In addition it was also very flexible for the more complex tattoo style bird that was multiple layers of clay. I did treat myself to some of the new paste too, to glue and finish the pieces before firing. I found the paste a little too ‘sticky’ so to speak but this was easily sorted with a quick spritz of water, it left a lovely finish but was definitely less easy to work with than the 650 paste. Although the clay stays workable for a good length of time it didn’t take too long to dry to a point that you could start finishing it with files and sandpaper. It reacted well to using the little hot plate I had too the speed up the drying of filling and paste that was needed on the bird prior to filing. The ray needed very little finishing, just a quick file and sand to smooth the edges and was much less fragile than the 650. It also drilled really well on all the holes needed in the articulated lizard, only one crack and that was wholly stupidity on my part! The clay worked so nicely for the birds layers (five in all), not too floppy so it sort of caved in but kept its form well whilst letting me fiddle around with it. Filing and sanding were a dream and gave a beautiful finish as you can see…

Prior to finishing…

All finished and ready to fire…

Once they were all finished it was time to fire, they hob fired perfectly (for ten minutes), no little bubbles popping up and very few splits in the layers that needed filing and refiring. I then did my usual three minute peachy glow torch fire, the skinny bits seemed a little less prone to starting to melt which was great on the ray and the tail of the lizard.

Firing…

Next is a quick brush down with a wire brush and a dunk in the liver of sulphur for patina… This looks horrific, taking fabulous shiny pieces and turning them pitch black….

Oops!

I also decided to test how well Keum Boo worked using the lizard for this (obviously prior to brushing and liver of sulphur). This I think was slightly easier, the gold seemed to adhere with slightly less hassle and work and the results looked good.

The only real negative I could find was it did not seem to polish up quite as well after turning black. I certainly found it harder to get a good clean shine, it was a flatter surface to work with but removing the excess patina was really hard. That said once it was done it came up beautifully. The other thing that may be link to that was the silver seems harder which in most ways is a good thing, it didn’t scratch as easily if I slipped with the burnisher (and if it did scratch it was harder to get rid of!) either. Re-drilling any holes to enlarge them was harder but the pieces definitely felt sturdier, again good with those long tails.

All ready to turn into actual jewellery…

So all in all it’s a big thumbs up for the New Formula Art Clay (a little extra polishing is no bad thing, great for the bingo wings…) and thank you so much for letting me review the product.

A 4.75 stars from me, well to be honest a 5 star review as I would rather all the plusses than the one minor minus.

www.oberonjewellery.com

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