Gold With Silver.

[Dennis]

I admire Keum boo, but for me the foil is too fragile and unpredictable. So I use very thin wires, or slices of 18ct yellow (my favourite colour) wire or tube, soldered onto fine silver sheet with tiny fragments of hard solder. Then I roll-texture it using nylon mesh meant for curtaining, which you can still buy in 10cm lengths from John Lewis.

Here are some bugs adapted from my book of insects, made from a stock of this material. The weevil, which I kept for myself, has a 1.4mm threaded post with a knurled nut to retain it, as shown in ‘The Flip Side Of Brooches’. Most people don’t like great fat posts, so on the others I added a simple 0.8mm stainless steel pin, soldered on vertically into a dimple with easy solder and then bent down. This had plenty of spring left in it and I improvised a small catch from 2.0x 0.5mm silver strip.

Although it may not be sound in theory, my experiments showed that the strongest joint for stainless steel wire using easy solder was achieved with a mixture of Easy flux and Tenacity No.5 flux in water. Dennis.

[snow_imp]

I love insect jewellery and those are spectacular! Thanks for showing them and telling us a bit about making them.

[AlexandraBuckle]

Wow! Those are fab!

[fi79]

Wow! I don't like bugs but those are brilliant. Maybe someday......

[LydiaNiz]

gorgeous Dennis! I have a friend named (well - nicknamed Weevil) who would kill for that!

[Dennis]

Well last winter I got followed around Sainsbury by a man who wanted to buy it from me. Maybe it was him?

[LydiaNiz]

'tis a lady, so i don't think so (unless it was her other half!)
That's a good compliment though!

[JudyC]

Beautifully reproduced Dennis. When I saw the picture I figured someone who knew insects did them.
Cheers
Judy