Beautifully done. Did you follow Revere? I also love the catch. Very clever
Beautifully done. Did you follow Revere? I also love the catch. Very clever
Wow that's a beauty, really love it, so much patience :-) the clasp is great too.
Self teaching with the memory span of a gold fish
As Promised, photos of construction. Didn't take as many as I could have done but I'm sure you can fill in the gaps.
First, wind two strands on 0.8mm wire clock wise around a mandrel, A handy nail worked for me. You will need to repeat the exercise winding anti clockwise. Winding double wire means you have the correct gap between the coils of each spring so they interlock.
I found it easier to keep winding until I'd run out of wire and then snip the coil into the correct lengths
Snuggle one clockwise spring next to an anticlockwise spring and feed a length of .8mm wire down inside the interlocking part.
IMG_1313.jpg (15.6 KB)
Photo attachments went a bit loopy then - sorry
Didi
I found it easier to fit about a dozen springs together, stand them on edge (supported by one of James' excellent clasps) and solder them like a little production line. The turn it over and o the other side. It was really important to use TINY snips of hard solder and make sure you only solder one spring to one pin! I used the pick method of soldering. Balancing solder chips on wire really didn't work at all.
Once you've done the whole length it looks like this
The you file down the edges, taking off the little pokey pins and any flapping edges of springs. You could leave it like that but I wanted it tidier. I punched out hundreds of little discs from 0.3mm sheet. The alternative was to hand pierce them but I just couldn't face that. Unfortunately the discs were a tiny bit too large so I couldn't solder them directly over each pin. I had to jiggle them around so they fitted together. Not all the pins have a disc on the top but they are all covered..
I sweat soldered little blobs on the underside of each disc, positioned them over the fluxed ends of the coils and heated until they just nestled into place. Again be very careful that you don't solder the wrong bits together. I used copious amounts of tippex to make sure solder didn't flow over an adjoining coil.
Didi
I made the clasp, again not my own design, but watching a YouTube video entitled 'fabricating a silver mesh bracelet'. I looked at the photos I took but honestly the video is better!
Didi
My OH refers to the Revere book as 'Jewellers porn" I can be found reading it a lot.
That looks fantastic, and although I can't confess to being able to figure out how it all fits together, it's technically a great accomplishment too I'm sure. As per others comments, I think the clasp is very clever too!
Nick
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