I'm fairly new to jewellery making and I'm still getting my head around a lot of things. At the moment, I'm mainly making silver rings and bangles, but my next step will be cuttlefish casting (I think).
This is going to sound like a silly question, but how would I go about creating a 'loop' (not sure if there is a technical term for this) for a charm to go onto a necklace for instance?
Hi Emma, the loop is called a jump ring. You can buy them from Cookson in various sizes, either already closed, or open.
If you only need a few, you can also make them by annealing suitable wire and winding it around a steel rod. To standardise them, I have bought a cheap set of ordinary twist drills and use the shafts to make a tight coil. Then you cut in a straight line along one side with a fine saw blade and end up with a little pile of rings, ready for soldering.
You sound as if at this stage you could do with a simple book describing tools techniques and projects. There is nothing better
than Two In One Manuals Jewellery by Madeline Coles. It is out of print now, but well worth getting a second hand copy. Dennis.
You have two choices- if you want the loop in the plane of the item as you press it into the cuttlefish then it can exist in your master. If you want it out of plane (as in the example you show) then you will need to have a flat space in the master and then drill a hole through it.
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