Hallmarked Napkin Rings

[ps_bond]

On the upside, it's faster and there's no seam.
Downside is increased cost and having to keep more stock on hand.

No pun intended

[Patstone]

How can you advertise it as hand made if all you do is compile stuff. Its as bad as buying findings.

[ps_bond]

A valid point, but where do you draw the line? Did you mine the silver ore? No? Well, you didn't make it then... It gets a bit like Carl Sagan's recipe for apple pie: First, you create the universe.

For some things I do, tubing would have a valid place -



Some would be more tricky, but still doable -



And some would be right out -



For the first one, I made up a ring before adding the rails and then the setting.
The amber I reticulated sheet before bending it as a part shank & soldered it onto the bezel mount.
The last one... A bit more involved.

If I'd used tube for the first, is it really any less handmade? It'd give the customer a better (for some definitions of better) product as there would be no solder line to tarnish (it'd also have cut down on the amount of firestain I had to scrub out). Or should I have cut the ring from a solid block? Admittedly if I was doing that I'd use wax - and getting it cast would move it further from being handmade - or would it?

What about tube settings?

You can go mad worrying about these things

[Dennis]

Aw don't be cross with them Pat, we all use some ready-mades. For instance I can't bear to make my own scrolls unless I have to and my bought ear wires have much better double notches than I can make. Also I've never attempted my own barrel catch, although Sylvia Wickes shows you how.

Happy New Year, Dennis.

[ShinyLauren]

Why do you guys buy blanks, thought you would have made them from sheet or wire.

If I'm doing a d-shape, oval or fine round ring, I make them from wire, but with a chunky flat band, or heavy halo ring, it's just so much easier to buy the blanks, rather than spend hours (and infuriating my neighbours) hammering away on a triblet.

[ShinyLauren]

If it's any help Carole, I find them cheaper than wedding ring blanks, and I love being able to choose the width. I have no problems taking them up half a size for between sizes either.

Thanks George - I haven't gotten around to the maths yet! The tubing comes in a much wider range of sizes than Cookies' heavyweight flat blanks do too.

[mizgeorge]

How can you advertise it as hand made if all you do is compile stuff. Its as bad as buying findings.

Personally, I'm delighted that people do buy findings....

There are times when I simply prefer seamless tube. I don't see it as any difference to buying small gauges of tube for setting stones. I can make my own very well, but the time/cost equation doesn't always add up the right way. Like Dennis, I also buy scrolls and sprung clasps. I don't always make the glass beads and cabs I use in my work myself either, and I certainly have no lapidary skills.

I'd also add that there are some very talented assemblers out there, and many are no less makers of handmade than those of us that fabricate from scratch every time. Obviously I'm not talking about buying a charm and putting it on a chain and calling it a handmade necklace, but (for example) those who string or seedbead well, with pleasing colour, balance and shape are often highly skilled artisans, and pieces made using these techniques, as well as others, are surely as handmade as my metal bits.

[Patstone]

Point taken and I am sorry if I offended anyone, not intentional. I have been to numerous craft fairs and it is obvious that all the rings have been bought and the findings too, and just compiled, and I have had one person asking why my jewellery is more expensive than theirs, and why I dont make fifty different colours in the same style. So I get a bit miffed when someone pertains to "make" jewellery, when all they do is put it together. I am not talking about clasps and things that are very difficult and time consuming to make, I am talking about the production line stuff that some people class as handmade.

[ps_bond]

I know what you mean. Where do you stand on someone having 10s-100s of the same design cast? Sure, they made the first one and there's some casting clean-up, but how far is it from handmade?

I knew someone nearby who had elements of her jewellery cast - flowers, mostly - which she'd then assemble. But again, she'd done the work to get the elements right...

As for hammering metal into shape - that's something I thoroughly enjoy, so wouldn't be so inclined to use blanks personally. Whether it is time efficient is another matter. But it is fun.

[Patstone]

George, I didnt mean beaders or the skill that comes with it, I was talking about the basic jewellers skills, making rings, bezels and the other types of settings. As you know my skills in that department are very limited but at least I try hard to make the parts involved, and as time goes by I am getting better at it. I can understand people buying findings and ring blanks and bezels but they "hand compile" it, not hand make.