Monthly Archives: February 2017

Earrings

Reticulation

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I’m finding lots of inspiration with the reticulated silver I’ve been working with this week-now that I have a process for getting good (most of the time) results.  It works well with so many designs and pairs great with my stash of semi precious gemstones and rocks.  Here are a few that I did:

Raw garnets with garnet bead
Variscite stone
Spinner Earrings
Amethyst Earrings

The metal is fairly tough once it’s done, and bending is almost impossible so no curves on small pieces.  However, it’s easy to add bezel settings to and with care, will let you solder on top without turning the thing into a puddle of silver. This one has a hematite stone on it:

If you have silver scraps sitting around, try this and see what you come up with, it’s a great way to create some truly unique components! Here is a great You Tube tutorial that walks you through the process…Happy reticulating!

 

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Catching Up

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I began a course late last Fall and after months of interruptions, finally have the pendant finished! This was a real learning curve for me, learning how to work with multi levels of silver, bezel setting, and soldering techniques that nearly drove me batty…and  also did some stamping that has opened up some exciting possibilities.  Thanks Leslie Kail Villarreal for guiding us through this session with such spectacular results!

In the Shop

What a difference a day makes…

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I can see my shop out there-just can’t get to it…we got blessed again last night with another 2′ of snow.

Yesterday
Today
Last May

So in the meantime, here is a piece I finished before the real white stuff arrived:

This is a 2″ agate I cut, leaving the one edge rough and textured.  Putting it into a setting was a bit of a challenge because I wanted light to come through as much as possible, and not to cover the textured side.  After weeks of sitting on my bench, this is what I came up with-it’s not perfect but I love it!  The silver setting took some doing with multiple attachments, using every gauge of solder I own, but everything came out intact including the silver balls, wire prongs, heart and bail-whew! Learned a lot and have some great ideas of what to do with the rest of the cabochons I have sitting in this box:

Cabs

Time to go do some shovelling..

 

 

 

In the Shop, necklace

Riding the ragged edge of disaster…..

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While most the countryside is being greatly inconvenienced by our late winter weather, I hate to say it, but I’m enjoying every minute of it.  The roads are a mess and going anywhere is a challenge-but as long as I can make the 30 feet out to the shop, I’m happy-like really happy!♥♥♥

I had an earring design in mind and thought a textured silver circle would be a perfect component-but was looking for something other than etched silver.  It’s been a long time since I did any reticulation (melting silver scraps onto copper), so decided this was the weekend to revisit the process.

This article by Kaelin Cordis likens the process to “riding the ragged edge of disaster”..and she’s absolutely spot on. One second too long with the torch in one spot means you have a hole right through the back plate, and a “cooked” mess. Too little heat gives a mediocre texture.  Somewhere in the middle is where the magic happens– So here were the results of finding that sweet spot :

I set a hematite cabochon into one, and a garnet in another, pretty happy with the way these turned out-unpredictable but today was a good day!..and I only “cooked ” the first piece.