Brooch pin help

Hi,

I have been asked to make a brooch out of a piece of sea pottery. The idea is to make a bezel from sterling silver and attach the brooch pin to the backplate. The part I'm unsure about is the best way to do the brooch fitting. I've read through a few forum posts and have come to the conclusion I need to get the stainless steel wire for strength, but how to attach it to the bezel back?

I have found these: http://www.cooksongold.com/Findings/...prcode-NVR-004

And these: http://www.cooksongold.com/Findings/...prcode-NVR-050

Are these the right things to assemble the pin fitting or are there better ones? Am I right in thinking I need to rivet the coiled wire into the fichu joint? I haven't ever riveted anything before, is this going to be too challenging?

Any advice very gratefully received!

Yes if you buy those, then you bend one end of the pin wire to as small a closed loop as you can to fit the joint and fix it with a silver rivet. The loop does not need soldering.

Alternatively you can easily make your own hook for a catch and a U-shape for a hinge.

A good source of wire is here: https://www.kcsmith.co.uk/product/08...-r600a00800pc7.

0.8mm round is a good size to have and once drawn through the fingers a few times to straighten it, will be stiff enough for a brooch pin. My picture shows a shawl pin with home made findings. Dennis.

Thank you Dennis. I have ordered some of the wires from the source you suggested (the postage was more than my order total though!). The part I'm most concerned about is the riveting - is this quite easy if I practise first on some scrap or is there an easier way of fixing the wire in do you think? I had seen something suggesting using tube instead of the fichu joint - do you think that would be better for a relative beginner?

For all riveting the secret is to have the rivet fitting snugly. So ideally you would enlarge the hole to slightly undersize and then finish with a broach to get a good fit. ( http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery...prcode-999-510 ).

It is also worth having some 4" electronic callipers, to confirm sizes, as throughout your career you will find that nothing is exactly the size advertised. These are available for around £10 on line.

You can certainly use say, 1.2mm tube for rivets. Simply ensure there is 1.0mm protruding on each side and then open each end bit by bit using a fine scriber with a wriggling action and finally by light hammering.

It is also worth learning to use solid rivets by looking for the various U-Tube demonstrations. If you get stuck, call for help here. Dennis.

I'm sure I will call for help! I have watched quite a few demos of it being done and even bought a riveting hammer but not felt confident enough to actually attempt it yet! Thanks for the link to the broach set, I have just put it in my basket :) I have a set of the electronic callipers and use them everyday, I don't think I could manage without them. Well, looks like I'm going to be learning to rivet next week, thanks for the advice :)