Hinges

[Didi]

Hi Pat
I made this locket a while ago. It was trial and error, much swearing and it's not at all perfect. I think i fitted the hinge a minimum of 5 times. I wish I'd seen the video before I did it!!!
I fitted a 'washer' round the inside of both halves, this allowed enough metal to file the groove for the hinge which as you can see sits on the outside. I didn't know bearer tubes existed.
The clasp is a simple bit of bent wire that fits over the edge of the other half - not elegant I will admit but its lasted at least 2 years now.
At the time I had absolutely no specialised tools, no joint cutter or straight edge files, I didn't even know you could wire stuff together for soldering! it made it far more difficult but as you can see it worked. To be truthful I learnt so much doing this and I love it
Didi

[Patstone]

Didi that is lovely, when I started making mine it was in the last few weeks of the ten week course of one evening a week for two hours, so tuition was a bit limited, and I was trying to run before I could walk as usual. The tutor had never made hinges so it was a case of lets see who is wearing a locket and destroy it to see how it fits together. Well my daughter was attending the course as well, and guess who had the locket on. I copied it as best I could, but we ran out of time, as the class finished and at home we had no tools to complete. We both wanted to carry on with silver jewellery making so both have collected a lot of tools now, but time went on and I had put the locket in a "to do later" box. The other day I trying to get inspiration and saw the locket and thought about having a go at finishing it. I managed to get the hinge to stay soldered this time, and it has been a trial to say the least, but its stayed soldered. The next step is to put a silver pin through it as at the moment it has a piece of wire, but the hinge works although it looks very messy. I put a washer around inside mine too, but it was a bit too thin I think and I have to admit, not soldered on very well either. Did you pierce first and then dome or dome first then pierce?

[Didi]

Pat, ah, that would be another learning curve. Definitely dome first, pierce later. I can guarantee it will distort if you do it the other way round.

[Patstone]

Very clever, beautiful work.

Pat, ah, that would be another learning curve. Definitely dome first, pierce later. I can guarantee it will distort if you do it the other way round.

[caroleallen]

I'd be very happy with that Didi. Has it got stones set inside?

[Didi]

Yes,it's got 5 stones. I'm one of 5 sisters and there's one for each of us. Jolly fiddly to set and I made a bit if a mess polishing it to try and get the firestain off. All the resoldering I think, it was covered in the stuff!
Thanks for your comments
Didi