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Crafting Jewellery!
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items I learned the basics of working metal at my dad's knee. He's an old school blacksmith; he molds iron with fire and hammers, and when I was little I loved nothing more than hanging out in the smithy with him and fetching the tools he needed for the ne...
Sections
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Safety Equipment and Information
Tools
Materials
Equipment
How-To Guides for Cool Techniques
Inspiration
Safety Equipment and Information
Safety first! Jewellery making involves lots of potentially dangerous chemicals and tools, so it's worth learning how to protect yourself.
Obviously you need to protect your eyes while working at the bench. Sawing, hammering, drilling, whatever - lots of things involve tiny bits of sharp metal flying every which way. Protect your eyes!
Polycarbonate Safety Glasses
Safety is important. No loose flowing clothing, ensuring you have fire safety protocols and an extinguisher, and keeping good ventilation are all vital!
Safety In The Metalsmithing Studio - Working Silver
Learn about ventilation! Super important!
Ventilation
This is a no-brainer. You work with fire, you need a fire extinguisher. Do not skip this!
Garrison Dry Chemical Rechargeable Fire Extinguisher ...
Tools
The hand tools I use on a daily basis. Saws, files, burnishers and more.
Pliers are absolutely essential. There are dozens of types of pliers and tweezers and cutters that you will find a use for in the shop - this is a good starter set to build off of.
8 Piece Cutter/Plier/Tweezer Tool Set
Saw frames are another essential tool. You'll be using these every single day in a hundred different tasks. You'll also be breaking lots of saw blades - which come in different sizes for different techniques!
Jewelers Saw frame with Blade assortment, 12 each of 3/0, 2/0, 1/0 sizes
Cross-locking tweezers are your best friend. These suckers can be set up in a little vise, or rested against your soldering block- you don't have to hold them shut, just let them go and they'll hang on to whatever is in their jaws. Perfect for holdin...
Cross Locking Tweezer with Groove - Working Silver
Ring mandrells are incredibly useful tools. You use them for testing ring sizes, yes, but also for the process of making ring bands. Ring bands start off as flat pieces of metal that you have to bend into a triangle shape in order to solder them into...
Bead Landing™ Ring Mandrell
Ring Gauges are measuring tools that help you determine what your ring size is. This ensures you get an accurate measurement when crafting rings by hand. This, combined with a ring mandrell, can really help you ensure a good fit.
Ring Gauge by Bead Landing
You use steel blocks for all kinds of stuff in the metals studio. Stamping, forming, etc. They're basically a miniature anvil that you can carry around.
ImpressArt® Large Stamping Steel Block
Small butane torch, very similar to the one I use at my bench. No fuss, no muss, fairly reliable. Make sure you read safety manuals! Don't mess around with fire!
Iroda PT-200 Butane Torch, Blue
Nylon mallets are handy. If you hit metal with a metal hammer head, you will stretch and deform it badly. Using nylon, rubber or rawhide hammers is gentler, allowing you to form metal without damaging its surface or stretching it out of shape. Dead u...
Nylon Mallets
This is for cutting solder. When you solder metal, the goal is to use as little of it as is necessary to get the job done. As such, solder chips must be snipped as tiiiiny as you can. These snips should ONLY be used on solder, or they will dull and b...
Lightweight Metal Snips
Materials
Obviously if you're going to make jewellery, you need materials! I use silver and copper as my primary metals, but there's so much more out there to experiment with.
Sterling is my favourite metal to work with, bar none. It's versatile, it's gorgeous both in high polish and antiqued, and it makes a great base to embellish with stones and marriage of metal techniques. Can't get enough!
Sterling Silver Sheet - Working Silver
Sterling is my favourite. Wire is easy to work with, easy to solder and easy to make into gorgeous shapes. Remember, gauges for wire work backwards; 12 is thicker than 16. 20 and 22 are super thin. For reference, 20 gauge is usually what they use to ...
Sterling Silver Round Wire - Working Silver
Equipment
The big boys. These are your jeweller's bench, your flex shaft drill, your polishers, your pickle pots. All the big stuff you need that cost more, but last a lifetime.
This is a simple beginner's bench. It comes with the basics that you'll need to get started, such as a catch-drawer for metal dust and places to affix bench pins. I have one very similar to this.
Durston Classic Jewelers Workbench
When you make pickling solution for cleaning your metal, it helps to be able to keep it warm while you're using it. Crockpots make amazing pickle pots; it has a lid, it can be turned on and off, and it holds temperatures for a nice long time. Nothing...
Crockpot 4-Quart Classic Slow Cooker, Black
I make a lot of my pieces with texture and organic, rounded shapes. As such, a tumbler like this full of steel shot and a little bit of water and dish soap is the perfect finishing method. It polishes the final piece beautifully!
3 lb Rotary Tumbler
How-To Guides for Cool Techniques
Obviously there are so many neat things you can do, it's impossible to run out of creative new things to try. Please be careful about what you try, and always put safety first. Don't cast in your garage. Just…just don't.
Polishing and finishing is vital. You can't sell an unfinished piece, and without polishing it's going to look awful.
Polishing And Finishing For Jewellers And Silversmiths
Resin is such a cool way to make jewellery. I had a friend in college who made a whole line of rings based on her watercolour paintings. She'd do tiny little paintings, cut them to fit the bezel of a ring, and then cover it with clear resin to create...
How To Make Resin Jewellery: With Over 50 Inspirational Step-by-step Projects
I love gemstones! I find gold and diamonds boring as hell, but give me a piece made of silver and blue labradorite, and I'll lose my mind. So pretty! Settings can vary between simple bezels to elaborate prongs, and you can be super creative with how ...
Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker's Guide to Styles & Techniques
Inspiration
Inspiration sparks creativity, which helps you come up with stunning designs and new things to try. I've seen some really cool stuff out there that I can't wrap my mind around, but it makes for great springboards for your own designs! No stealing, ob...
I found my best and most creative inspiration in college by getting immersed in our art history lectures. No joke – I loved studying ancient Egyptian artwork, old Norse and Germanic works, beautiful Celtic pieces, you name it. Anything old and nature...
7000 Years of Jewellery
Misc Tools and Supplies
These are the bits and bobs you need to keep things going. Polishing compounds, buffs, saw blades, file brushes and the chemicals you need for different techniques.
You can't solder if you don't have solder! Silver solder has no lead, so you don't need to worry about poisoning yourself. Don't eat it, but still. Solder has a lower melting point than other alloys, so when heat is applied, it melts and runs between...
Silver Sheet Solder
You need flux to solder. This stuff does two things; one, it cleans the surface of the metal so solder can flow. Solder won't flow on a dirty surface. And two; it helps protect your metal from oxidizing under a torch flame. This stuff burns off easil...
Dandix Flux Paste 1.5oz
This is your pickling solution. This is what you use to make a mild acid for cleaning jewelry pieces after soldering. PLEASE read safety instructions! This is ACID! It is DANGEROUS and requires VENTILATION! Take it seriously, do not mess around. When...
Gesswein® Pickling Compound - 5 lbs.
Solderite soldering pads are what you place the piece on when you take a torch to it. They resist heat and won't burn. I stack two on top of each other inside a metal tray to create a fireproof area for soldering.
Solderite Soldering Pads