Jewelry Artist Report

Write a 300 word write up on a jewelry artist of your choosing.  You also need to include at least 5 images of the artist’s work.  The jewelry artist can be whomever you like, but all of the jewelry needs to be handmade by this artist.  Your write up can include the following information:

Information about the artist (you may not be able to find all of this information about every artist, but these are some ideas to include) :

• Where does this artist work? (geographical location as well as where their studio is, do they work from their home, at an artist's collective, etc.)
• What is the inspiration for this artist's work?
• What materials does this artist use?
• What techniques do they use?  Do you recognize any techniques or processes in their work?
• How did they get into their line of work?  Where did they go to school/get their training?
• Where has this artist shown/sold their work?  How do they advertise/market their work?

Reaction to the artists work:

• Do you like the artists work, why or why not?
• What do you like about the artist's work?  
• Why did you choose to write about this specific artist?
• Does their work inspire any ideas for you?

Write ups should be in MLA format with all of your sources cited.  Don't forget to proof read and spell check your document!!

Submissions will be due through this assignment on Google Classroom

Riveting Project

For this project, you will be creating a piece using cold connections, in this case, rivets.  Riveting is a process used in many different industries from furniture design, to metal fabrication, architecture, and even in clothing.  Riveting is a way to attach two pieces of metal using a physical object, rather than heat or adhesive.  We will be using metal tubing for our rivets.


The requirements for this project are:
- 3 or more layers
- At least one rivet
- Can be any function (necklace, bracelet, earrings [if you are doing earrings the minimum is two layers per earring], pin, anklet, hair clip, belt buckle, key chain, money clip, etc)
- Must utilize etching, rolling mill texture, or stamping texture


Some ideas to make your project more interesting:
- Rivets can be used to create moving parts, kinetic art is interesting and can be interactive for the wearer
- Mixed metals work well with cold connections (using two or more different types of metal in your project)
- You need at least 1 rivet incorporated into your design, but you can also solder any elements on that make more sense to solder


Ideas for inspiration:
- Steampunk design elements
- Architecture
- Futuristic objects (robots, etc)
- Animals with moving parts


Craftsmanship Goals:
- Free of saw, file, and sanding marks
- Cleanly etched or textured
- No excess solder if you have any pieces soldered in this project
- Rivets are well executed:

• Too long of rivets and hammering too hard will cause rivets to split
• Too short of rivets will lead to messy looking rivets and are not as secure
• You also want to make sure your rivets aren't too close to any of your edges, or it looks messy with the rivet going off the edge
• Drill holes for riveting must be pretty large, so plan accordingly

Artist Inspired Etching

Artist Inspired Etching Project

For this project, you will be utilizing etching for texture to draw a design based on another artist's work.  The artist could be a musician, a film maker, an author, a visual artist, graphic designer, etc. You will use imagery from a piece of work from the artist to create an etched piece of jewelry.  The requirements for the project are as follows:

• Your project must be inspired by another artists work (that does not mean copying their work) - a song, a poem, a book, a film, a logo design, etc
• You must incorporate soldering or riveting, using at least 2 layers
• Your edges must be altered - meaning, you can't just etch a design on a square, your overall shape should be something that makes sense with your design
• must be functional - could be a ring, pendant, brooch, bracelet, earrings, etc
• You must use patina to make your etching stand out

Craftsmanship Goals:

• Free of file, saw, and sanding marks
• Free of excess solder
• Clean, full solder seams on layers/findings (ring band, pin back, etc)
• Etching is clean and well executed

Copper Ring Project

For this project, you will be creating a ring with a wire band and a sheet metal “focal point”.  You will be learning 3 different soldering techniques with this project using the torches.  These three techniques will include:

• Soldering two pieces of 14 gauge copper wire together to create a band for the ring
• Soldering two pieces of sheet metal together for the focal point
• Soldering the focal point to the wire band

The focal point can be any subject you choose, but you must meet the following criteria:

• It must be made out of two separate pieces of sheet metal that are soldering together, the two pieces must be layered together (for example, the wing of a bird could be soldered on top of the body)
• You must either utilize negative space or texture to create some visual interest

Some ideas for your focal point:

Flowers, Imagery from a hobby (i.e – Sports, music, theater, technology), Geometric Shapes, Product Symbols or team logos, Animals

Craftsmanship Goals:

• Free of saw and file marks
• Patina Polished Consistently
• Full solder seems on all soldering opperations
• No excess solder on surfaces – any solder overflow should be sanded off fully

Past Examples:

Nature Inspired Brass Pendant

Jewelry Design

Nature Inspired Brass Pendant

Project summary:

For this project, you will be creating a pendant out of brass that is inspired from an object from nature.  The goal is to create a visually balanced piece of jewelry by using shape and texture to achieve asymmetrical balance.

Criteria:

• You must create at least 10 sketches to perfect your design before beginning your pendant
• Your overall shape must be asymmetrical
• You must have one or more negative spaces
• You must utilize surface texture (with stamping tools or the rolling mill)
• You will create a chain that is 18-22 inches, and utilizes a repeating pattern of links.  You must utilize jump rings in your chain
• You will use patina to make your texture stand out

Craftsmanship goals:

• Your piece will be free of saw and file marks.  The best way to achieve this is to work slowly and carefully while sawing, it will save you TONS of time (and frustration) in the long run.  Spending time on the beginning steps will insure that your craftsmanship of higher grade quality
• Your patina will be polished off evenly and well enough to make the texture stand out.  The best way to achieve this is to not touch the surface of your pendant once you begin the patina/polishing process
• Your chain will be sturdy and well made.  The best way to achieve this is to use the proper gauge of metal for links, and to make sure that you properly close all links

Due Date: Friday 9/22 at the end of class

You must turn in the physical project, as well as a photo taken in our light box room.  I will be demonstrating how to take these pictures.  You will also be including a self evaluation on your blog with the picture of your project.

Past Examples:

Notes on Demos

Jewelry Demo Notes

Image Transfers

• On tracing paper, trace the outline and negative space of your design only (do not trace your texture, or you will confuse yourself).  Use pencil and press fairly hard when tracing
• Use clear scotch tape to cover your entire design.  Overlap each piece of tape at least 1/8"
• Rub the tape with your finger
• Peel the tape off, and your design will be transferred on the tape.  You will use this tape transfer on your piece of metal to guide your sawing.  It will be much easier to peel the tape off if you fold the end of the tape over before putting each strip of tape down
• Keep this tape on until you sand your piece, it will protect the surface of your metal

Sawing

• Make sure the teeth are pointing down and out
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• Make sure the blade is taught. It should make a nice "ping" sound when you pluck it. If it isn't taught, it will not cut properly and is more likely to break.
• Make sure the blade is vertical at all times. The frame should be held at a right angle to your body, and you should saw in a straight up-and-down motion. Don't angle or tilt the blade. 
• Use long, even strokes, not short, choppy ones. 
• Move the piece, not the saw. For example, if you're sawing a circle, turn the material into the saw instead of trying to maneuver the saw around the material. 
• Keep your grip light. The sawing motion should come from your elbow, not your wrist. 
• Always wear eye protection. Saw blades break often and can cause serious injury. 

Drilling - 

• Tie long hair back
• Wear a face shield
• Always center punch your metal before drilling (use a steel block underneath your piece, a hammer, and a center punch to make an indent for the drill to rest in - make sure you do the center punch mark at least 1/16" away from all edges, even for a negative space)
• Hold your piece securely on the wooden blocks
• Make sure the drill bit is in the center punch indent before starting the drill
• SLOWLY step on the pedal to make the drill start up, apply firm pressure with the drill, and keep the drill speed very low to avoid overheating - this actually is a more effective way of drilling your metal as well
• For negative spaces, after you have your hole drilled, slide your piece onto the saw blade in your saw frame, put tension on your saw blade, now you can saw out your negative space

Filling –

• Use the proper shaped file to make sure that you are making complete contact with the edge - you will definitely need to use more than one shape of file to get to certain areas of the edges
• Start by filing at a 90 degree angle, straight up and down, while your piece is on your bench pin
• Work with the shape of your piece (don't just move the file up and down on one part at a time) this will help you maintain the shape of your piece and you will not create marks from the file
• The files only work in one direction - from the tip of the file to the handle, so if you're filing from the top of the piece, move the file down to make it work, if you're filing from underneath, move the file up to make it work
• Once all of your edges are entirely smoothed out at a 90 degree angle, you will bevel the edges.  To bevel you use all of the same tips/techniques above, but file at less of an angle, to round the edges off.

Sanding –

Do the following steps, in this order, for each grit of sand paper. Do all 4 steps with the first grit of sandpaper before moving on to the next grit.

• Sand the edges.  The most efficient way to do this is to create a sanding stick using a popsicle stick masking tape
• Sand the negative spaces. Cover the back of a sheet of sandpaper with masking tape, cut into small strips.  Put your piece in your bench clamp (don't tighten too hard or you will dent/scratch your piece), and use the strips to sand in your negative spaces.  You can also use your clamp to hold your piece to sand any part of the edges you were unable to get with the sanding stick.
• Sand the back surface. Sand on a piece of scrap paper to prevent scratching the other side.  Hold your piece down firmly and carefully sand in one direction so that all sanding marks are going the same way. Avoid over-sanding the front or back surface with the coarser grits of sand paper (220 or 320).  Make sure you are keeping your scrap paper clean and free of loose sandpaper dust to avoid scratching the other side.  
• Sand the front surface.

• You will 5 different grits of sandpaper you will use, 220, 320, 400, 600, and 1500.  Do each of the four steps with 220, before moving on to 320. Also, make sure edges are sanded properly before doing any sanding on the surface.  

Texture –

Stamping: 

• Practice on scrap metal first.  Once you texture your piece you cannot undo it, so make sure the texture you have planned is going to work the way you want it to.
• You can mark your piece with sharpie to indicate where you want your texture to be 
• Use the flat side of a chasing hammer, a center punch (for dots), or other texture tool (letters, lines, etc.) put your piece on a steel block, and strike the texture tool fairly hard with the hammer.  Make sure you are holding the texture tool completely vertical to ensure you don't slip and that you get the entire shape stamped onto your piece.
• You can also use the round end of a ball peen hammer to create hammer texture all over a piece, make sure you do this on a steel block. This is an effect generally applied all over a piece, rather than on certain areas. 

Rolling Mill:

• Use thin wire (18-24 gauge).  I recommend nickel, since it is the hardest metal we work with
• Carefully bend the wire to the shape you want on your piece.  You can use multiple pieces, just make sure they don't cross one another (if you want two lines on your piece that cross, you have to roll them in the rolling mill separately
• Tape the wire down with masking tape.  Try to avoid using too much tape, but fully cover the piece of wire with the tape and press securely around the wire to make sure your tape doesn't peel up when using the rolling mill. Also - DO NOT fold the tape on the back side of your piece - you need to be able to see the back surface of the metal
• Using the rolling mill needs be done very carefully and methodically.  Rushing the step with the rolling mill can completely ruin all of the hard work you've already put into your piece.
• For the small rolling mill- move the plates apart by turning the top wheel clockwise, and to move them together, turn counter-clockwise. 
• For the large rolling mill - turn the top wheel counter clockwise to move apart, and clockwise to move together.
• Start with the rolling mill plates far apart - you will be rolling your piece through these plates and if you start with them too close together, it will cause your wires to move, and can even flatten and mis-shape your piece
• Turn the side crank as you place your piece at the edge of the plates to roll your piece through
• Each time you roll your piece through, tighten the plates by 1/2-1 notch on the gear. Repeat this process until you start to feel a very subtle resistance when rolling your piece through (if done properly, this may take up to 15-20 times - or even more)
• Once you start to see a faint line appear on the back of your piece, carefully lift the edge of the tape up to peek under the wire.  If you see a clear imprint of the wire, you should be all set, if you cannot see a clear imprint, continue tightening the plates and roll your piece through a couple more times
• Don't be afraid to ask for Ms. Behr's help when using the rolling mill, this is an expensive tool, and can do some really awesome stuff, but can also really ruin your piece if not used properly

Chain Making – 

Using the proper gauge of wire is the key to success with chain making - remember, the larger the number, the smaller the wire (for example, 24 gauge is much smaller than 16 gauge - most wire is measured in increments of two - although there are a couple of odd numbered wire gauges as well)

Jump Rings:

• Use a jump ring mandrel (anything round and steel can be used as a jump ring mandrel pretty much - I've even heard of some people using wooden dowels as jump ring mandrels)
• If your jump ring mandrel is smaller than the handle of a needle file, you can use 18 gauge(or if using something really tiny, I do have even smaller wire gauges). 
• If your mandrel is larger than the handle of a file, then you will use 16 gauge.  The bigger your mandrel, the thicker the wire you want to use.  
• The only two exceptions to the gauge measurements above are if you are doubling up jump rings (you still don't want to make too large of links too small of a gauge), or if you are soldering each of your links closed
• Wrap as tight of a coil as possible on your jump ring mandrel
• Put your mandrel in your bench clamp, and saw at an angle so that you only saw through the top half of your coil
• Put the whole coil, mandrel and all in the bench clamp to help keep the coil more secure
• Slide the mandrel back so that just a ring or two are hanging off the end of the mandrel to make it much easier to saw
• Pro tip - turn your saw blade upside down to make it easier to saw - so that the teeth are facing upwards. This helps because when you are sawing, it is pressing the ring you’re sawing into the coil rather than pulling it down, creating more resistance when you are sawing

S-Links:

• Use 18 gauge (usually - and for the sake of our pendant project - but for really delicate chains you could go thinner, and for more heavy-duty chains you can use thicker)
• Use ¾ “ – 1 ¼ “ of wire
• File the ends until you completely file off the pinch mark the wire cutters leave. Hold the file perpendicular to the wire when filing and hold the wire right at the end you are filing so you don't bend the wire
• Use Round nose pliers and make a loop on one end, using your hands to wrap the wire around the pliers (don't grip too hard and use the pliers to bend the wire, or you will end up denting up your wire).  Make a loop in the opposite direction on the other side

Eye-Hooks:

• Use ¾ “ – 1 ¼ “ of 18 gauge wire
• Do all of the above steps.  However, when you are making your loops, you will break the neck of the loop - so that the loop is centered on the link, rather than coming off of the side of the link

Bead Links:

• Use ¾ “ – 1 ¼ “ of 18 gauge wire
• Do the same steps as s-links and eye hooks, but before making your second loop, put a bead on the wire, then make your second loop

Spiral Links:

• Use 1 ½ “- 2 ½ “ of 18 gauge wire
• Make a small loop on one end of the wire.  Twist the wire around the loop until you have the desired size spiral.  Repeat on the other end in the opposite direction

Forged Links:

• Use 3/4"-1" of 14 gauge wire
• File the ends of the piece of wire
• Straighten the wire with a rawhide mallet
• Hammer both ends of the wire flat with a steel hammer (the hammering should be tapered - flatter on the ends than the middle, leave a small part of the middle un-hammered
• Sand the hammered ends of the wire
• Drill small holes in the hammered end of the wire

Making Clasps – 

Hook Clasp:

• Use 2-3” of 14 gauge wire (if you chain is very delicate, you can use 16 gauge)
• Make a loop on one end and break the neck
• Use a rawhide mallet to straighten rest of the piece wire on a steel block.  Try twisting the wire, holding it by the loop, and hammering with the mallet as you twist to help straighten it
• Use a forging hammer – a hammer that has a flat, clean surface and a steel block to flatten the end 1/3 of the straight part of the wire (on the opposite end of the loop).  The loop should be flat on the steel block as you are forging (your forging will be parallel with the loop, not perpendicular to it).  The goal is to have your forging tapered – the tip should be flatter than the center
• Sand the forged part of the wire, make sure you get all hammer marks out with 220 before sanding with the other grits.  You should also sand the edges and the tip of the forged end of the wire.
• Using round nose pliers, grab the wire with the very tip of the pliers, right where your forging starts. Fold the wire in half, so that the forged tip doesn’t go past the inside edge of the loop on the other end

Toggle Clasp:

• On one end of you chain, you will use a soldered, large jump ring. Use 16 gauge
• To solder the jump ring shut, use flux and a small piece of solder on top of the seam. Heat the jump ring until the solder melts, it should melt right into the seam, if it doesn’t, your seam was not closed tight enough
• On the other end, you need to make the toggle part – using 14 gauge, and 18 gauge
• The 14 gauge piece will be a straight piece of wire.  Make the wire at least 1 ½ times the size of the diameter of the jump ring for the other side.  If you start with it larger, you can always trim it down when finished
• The 18 gauge piece will be a very small jump ring.  Using wire cutters, cut the jump ring so that you have at least ½ - ¾ of the jump ring left, file the ends of it so they’re flat
• Solder the 18 gauge partial jump ring to the middle of the 14 gauge straight piece of wire
• To solder these pieces together, flux them, and then simply line them up so that there’s no gap between them, place a solder chip on top of where the two pieces meet, and heat up until the solder melts
• For more delicate chains, you can size all of these gauge measurements down 1 gauge

Patina/Polishing –

• Scrub your piece with pumice – make sure you thoroughly scrub both sides  of the metal (for sheet metal pieces, hold by the edge only, so you don’t get finger prints on the surface)
• Rinse off the pumice
• Drop your piece in the container of patina, leave it in just until it turns black – this should only take a few seconds
• Take your piece out of the patina with the copper tongs
• Rinse off the patina
• While your piece is still wet, and without touching the surface (on sheet metal), use a polishing pad to quickly polish off the patina until you get your desired color/shine

Ring Sizing –

• Use the ring sizers to find the size for whichever finger you plan to have your ring fit
• Use the standard ring size (should be a number like 7 or 7- [the dash {-} after a number means it is a half size] do not use the larger number like 17.3 - if you see a number like this on your ring size, look on the other size of the ring)
• Use the ring size chart to find your measurement for your wire - the first column on the right is where you find your ring size, then look under that row in the 14 gauge column. We will be using 14 gauge (AWG) wire for our bands
• Take your measurement (in millimeters [mm]) and subtract 5mm from that number. For example - if your ring size is 7- (7.5), and the measurement on the chart is 60.3mm, then your ring measurement for this project will be 55.3mm.  We subtract 5mm because this ring size chart is for a solid band ring - if we were simply making a band that we were soldering shut, we would use these measurements, but we need to include our focal point (the sheet metal design on top) as part of the measurement for this project.
• Cut two pieces of 14 gauge wire at the proper length for your ring size
• File the ends until you entirely remove the pinch mark from the wire cutters
• Straighten the pieces of wire with a rawhide mallet until there are no gaps at all between the two wires when you put them together
• If you want to do a split band, put a SLIGHT curve in the pieces of wire, if you prefer to do a solid band, skip this step
• Solder the two wires together (see below)

Ring Size Chart:

Soldering Overview –

• There are different types of solder that melt at different temperatures - Hard solder melts at the highest temperature, then medium, then easy, then extra-easy melts at the lowest temperature.  When soldering multiple times on one piece, always start with hard solder, so that each additional time you solder on that piece, you move down one solder type (for example - on your ring, solder the layers together using hard solder, and then solder the band to the ring using medium).  This will help you avoid re-melting solder thats already holding something else together
• Always pumice and paint flux on your metal before doing ANY and ALL soldering.  Flux slows down the process of your metal oxidizing, and will actually allow the solder chips to attach themselves to the surface of your metal with they melt
• Always pickle after using the torch - this cleans the oxidation off of your metal, if you skip this step things will not solder properly.  This even applies if you are soldering multiple times on one piece - pickle between each step of soldering.  After pickling, make sure to neutralize, rinse, and then pumice your piece to make sure all the loosened up oxidation comes off the surface
• Make sure you dry your flux with the torch (or let it air dry - but this takes a while) by slowly introducing the heat to your metal - quickly move the torch across the surface of your piece for about 1 second, and then let it cool for 5 seconds by keeping the torch away from the metal - just let the flame aim at rocks in the soldering pan

Soldering wire to wire (ring band) –

• Once you have your ring sized, the soldering is quite simple, start out by making sure your metal is clean (pumice well)
• For a split band, cut 2-3 small solder chips, for a solid band, cut 5-7 small solder chips.  We are using hard solder for this process
• Flux both pieces of wire well
• Set the fluxed wire on the charcoal soldering block, and then use tweezers to place solder 

Prepping your ring band for soldering to the focal point (AFTER SOLDERING THE WIRES TOGETHER) -

• Make your ring round, by sliding your ring size onto the ring stake
• Move the ring sizer out of the way, and make your ring round right where your ring size fits.  Use a rawhide mallet to help shape the ring properly
• Use a piece of 220 sand paper on your table, hold the ring so that the tips of the wire are facing down, sand the tips down in a figure-8 motion until the end of the band is very flat and stands up easily on its own. The more/better you sand, the easier soldering the band on will be – this is a tricky step, so take your time to properly circle-8 sand 

Sweat Soldering –

• Use hard solder, and make your solder chips small
• You will almost always start by attaching the solder chips to the BACK SIDE of the TOP LAYER.  There are very few exceptions to this.  
• You will need to space the solder chips about 1/16"-1/8" apart from each other.  Space them out evenly all around the piece of metal.  The number and size of solder chips you will need will depend on the size of the piece.  If you only have part of the layers overlapping, make sure that you only melt solder chips where the two layers will be overlapping.
• You will only be PARTIALLY MELTING the solder chips, just until they attach themselves to the surface of the metal
• Once you have partially melted your solder chips, pickle this top layer 
• Flux both layers, you do not need additional solder chips, they are already on the back side of the top layer
• Put the two layers together
• Reheat your piece with the torch - for this step, you need to get your metal really hot – with copper it will turn cherry red.  If you look closely, you are watching for a thin silver line appear around the edge of the top layer - this is a solder seam.  The other thing to look for is for your top layer to subtly drop down as the chips melt. You can help the pieces fully attach by using tweezers to press the top layer down as the solder is melting

Soldering wire to sheet metal (band to focal point) –

• Flux all pieces (the focal point and the band)
• Place your focal point face down on the charcoal block
• Use the 3^rdhand tweezers to hold the band up, and adjust them until the tips of the band are flush with the back of the focal point – there should be no gaps between the wire and sheet metal whatsoever, or it will not properly solder
• Once you have the band set up – carefully place your solder chips in place. 
• You will be using medium solder for this step, if you are doing a split band, you will need 4 small pieces, if your band is fully soldered, you will need two slightly larger pieces.
• Aim the torch right at the center of the ring to start – heat it at an angle so that you don’t heat the band too much and accidently remelt the solder in the band – if you do this you will usually have to re-make your band
• Once the solder starts to melt, aim the torch at the outsides of where the band meets the focal point, this will pull the solder under the band to properly attach the band to the focal point

Etching –

• Let Ms. Behr know when you will be etching a piece before she cuts you metal – you will need a thicker gauge of metal for etching and it will need to be slightly larger than your design
• Start by spray painting your piece of metal – you will etch before anything else, even before sawing
• When you spray paint for etching, it is imperative that you spray in VERY light coats – the first couple of coats should just look like speckles, and it should take at least 3-4 coats to fully cover the metal.  Let the paint dry between each coat of paint at least 5 minutes.  After the last coat, let it dry until it is completely cured and not at all sticky
• Image transfers for etching are a little different.  
• You should have your whole drawing, etched lines and all, on your tracing paper.  Make sure your drawing is drawn dark on the tracing paper.  
• Flip the tracing paper over to the back, and cover the whole back of the drawing with pencil.  Make sure to color in a few different directions to insure that you have a full coat of pencil on the back.  
• Flip the tracing paper back over and place it so that your drawing is in the middle of your piece of spray painted metal. Hold securely in place, and trace back over all of your lines with pencil.  This will transfer the pencil you colored on the back onto the spray paint
• Once you have your image transferred on the spray paint, use a center punch to scratch the spray paint only where you want your lines etched – do not trace the outline! The goal of this step is to just remove the spray paint where your etching is, not to actually scratch the design into the metal
• Seal off the back of the metal with packing tape – you will fold the tape around all 4 edges of the front of the piece as well, making sure to not cover up the parts you are etching – this is important to not cover up the design otherwise the etching process won’t work.
• Give the piece to Ms. Behr to etch – it will soak in a very strong acid solution that will eat away at the metal where you scratched into the spray paint – the spray paint and packing tape act as a resist everywhere else.  It has to soak in the acid for 2-4 hours, so expect to get your piece back at least 1 day later
• When your piece is in the white tub in the sink, it is done etching.  You can now remove the packing tape and scrub the spray paint off with 220 sandpaper.  You will then do the same process you would to another piece – do a tape image transfer and begin sawing

Riveting –

• Drill holes in all layers, wherever you want your rivet to be.  Make sure that you leave enough room around the hole so that you don’t get too close to the edge, and so that your rivet doesn’t flare out past the edge. 
•  You will need to drill with a larger drill bit than usual. It will be very difficult to drill with this size drill bit.  It helps to drill with the normal, smaller drill bit first, and then drill through the holes with the larger drill bit
• If you have multiple rivets holding two pieces together, you must drill all holes in the top layer, and then, line the layers up, to mark for your holes in the back layer.  Drill JUST ONE HOLE IN THE BACK LAYER.  Do the first rivet, and then you can center punch and drill the rest of your holes – otherwise, your layers will never line up well enough to do the rivets
• If the tubing doesn’t fit in your drill holes, use a round file to file the drill holes until the tubing fits
• Cut the tubing for your rivets with a saw and the tubing cutter jig. Your tubing should stick out about the thickness of two pieces of metal on both sides.  If your tubing is too short, the rivet won’t work, if it is too long, then it will split.
• If your rivet is too long or short, you can drill it out, using the riveting drill bit by drilling through the center of the tubing.  Be carefully to hold your piece securely, as the layers can move and scratch each other while drilling out a rivet.  The rivet should come right out after drilling through it
• Put your cut tubing in the drill holes, and set your piece on a steel block
• Using a cone riveting tool, put the tip in the hole of the tubing, and hammer the rivet twice (hammering too soft will not do anything to the rivet, but hammering too hard will cause splitting on your rivet)
• Flip your piece over and repeat on back side.  Every two hammer strikes, flip your piece over.  Repeat this several times, until your tubing is flared like a funnel (should take about 5-10 times on both sides to get the optimal flare)
• Using a ball riveting tool, repeat the same process just a couple of times, until the rivet starts to flatten out a little bit (2-3 times on both sides should do).  
• If you want a kinetic (moving) rivet, continue to test the movement of the rivet each time you hammer it on this step – it should be pretty hard to move the rivet at first, the more you move it, the more it’ll loosen up, but don’t over hammer it if you want your rivet to move
• Finish your rivet by using the flat end of a forging hammer, very carefully gently tap the rivet with the hammer (make sure you hit it vertically, if you hammer at an angle you could get hammer marks around the rivet). Avoid over-working your rivet and hammering it too flat, it should be slightly raised and rounded looking

Enameling –

Dry Sifting: 

• Make sure to fully sand your piece, and pumice it to prepare it for enameling
• Drill any holes you want for hanging BEFORE enameling – you will not be able to drill afterwards.  I usually drill a larger hole, like the riveting size drill bit, otherwise you can potentially enamel over your hole, ruining your piece
• Wear a face mask while dry sifting, you are working with a fine powdered glass, and it can cause serious respiratory problems if inhaled
• A dry sifted piece should always be counter enameled – that means enameled on both sides
• Always doallof your enameling to the back side first, and then the front side
• Always do a clear coat before doing any color, if you want color on the back, do a clear coat on the back, fire it, then your color on the back and fire it.  Then do the clear on the front, fire it, and lastly, your color on the front before your final firing.  You can do more than one coat of color on the front if the color isn’t as intense as you’d like, but try not to enamel too thick
• Don’t enamel too thick on the back, or it will drip and can potentially ruin the kiln, and can also ruin your jewelry piece
• Prep your workspace, you’ll need: 
• Respirator mask
• several magazine pages, stacked
• a sifter
• a paint brush
• a cup of water
• enamel adhesive
• transparent clear enamel
• your desired color of dry enamel
• a dry and wet paper towel

The process:

• Set your piece, face down on the magazine pages
• Put your sifter on the magazine pages too.  Prep your sifter by dumping a small layer of enamel in it, for a small piece, all you need is enough to cover the bottom of the sifter
• Paint a coat of enamel adhesive on your piece, try to avoid painting too much enamel adhesive on, or your will waste a lot of enamel because it will stick to the adhesive on the magazine page.  It will also make your piece much more difficult to pick up
• If your piece is not properly sanded or pumiced, the enamel adhesive will quickly crawl away from the edges, you may need to re-sand if this happens
• Hold the sifter about 6 inches above your piece, and move around slowly in a circular motion above your piece, you can either tap the edge of the sifting cup, or move your fingernail along the ridges of the handle to help the enamel come out.  Put just enough enamel on to cover it, it should be thinner than the thickness of the actual metal.  Try to sift as even of a coat as you can.  If you put too much on, pick it up, knock off the excess, and then rinse in the sink and do this step over
• Use the spatula to slide under your piece to pick it up. Grab your piece off the spatula, handling CAREFULLY by the edges. Wipe the excess enamel off the edge and the back of the metal. Any enamel left on the other side of the metal will cause discoloration
• Always use a piece of wire to clean out the drill hole after sifting each coat of enamel
• Put your piece on a trivet, and put the trivet on a firing screen
• Make sure your piece is sitting very secure on the trivet – if you have an odd shaped piece, you may want to figure out which trivet to use and how it best sits on a trivet before enameling, so you don’t deal with it tipping off the trivet
• Use the firing fork to pick up the firing screen with your trivet on it, open the kiln and carefully place right in the middle of the kiln, quickly, but carefully close the door of the kiln. Try to have the kiln open for as little time as possible to avoid letting out too much heat. 
• Fire for 1-1 ½ minutes.  If you open the door after a minute and don’t see your piece glowing red, close the door and fire for another 30 seconds to a minute. Never fire for longer than 2 minutes, if it takes that long for your enamel to melt, the kiln is not hot enough. 
• When you first open the door, you are looking for your firing screen, trivet, and piece to blend in with the red color of the inside of the kiln, if it looks black, it is not done firing, quickly close the door and continue to fire
• Once your piece has finished firing, pull it out the kiln with the firing fork, and place on the white bricks to the right of the kiln. Let it cool fully to room temperature (About 10 minutes) before putting in the pickle.  Pickle and pumice between each coat of enamel.  Make sure you rinse the pumice off really well before doing your next coat

Keep it clean:

• Before firing your piece, dump the excess enamel back into the container from the sifter and from the magazine page (after you get your piece on the trivet)
• Always throw away your magazine page when changing colors – do NOT reuse these pages, or you will contaminate the colors, ruining them for others – enamels are not cheap and once a different color gets mixed in, it is impossible to get it out
• Rinse your brush well, the enamel adhesive will ruin the brushes
• Do all of your cleanup before firing your piece – keep this area clean out of respect for the supplies and your classmates health – It is easy to get sidetracked and forget to clean once you walk away from this area to fire your piece.  It is not healthy to have airborne enamel in the classroom. The longer that the enamel sits out on the table, the dirtier it gets and the more likely it is to become airborne. 

The stages of firing: 

• Orange peel – under fired.  If your piece has the texture of an orange peel or sugar, quickly close the door to let it finish firing
• Glossy/Water – If your piece has a very glossy, smooth, almost wet look, it is properly fired 
• Over fired – If your edges are darkened and the enamel is crawling away from the edge, it is over fired – this means the kiln was either too hot, or you left it in the kiln for too long, or a combination of both

Champlevé: 

Prep your workspace, you’ll need: 

• several magazine pages, stacked
• a paint brush
• a cup of water
• wet transparent clear enamel
• your desired color of wet enamel(s)
• a paper towel

• Champlevé is a process of etching a design, and then filling the etched design with enamel
• When doing an etching for champlevé, you will use a much thicker gauge of metal, so it can get etched deep enough to have room for at least two coats of enamel.  It is also helpful to have larger areas etched out, thin lines will be near impossible to enamel inside of
• Prep your piece for enameling by sawing, filing, sanding, drilling, etc.  Often times, the etchant leaves a gross residue in your etched areas, so if you see any discoloration inside of your etching you need to get rid of this before enameling.  Pickle your piece for about 15-20 minutes, then pumice thoroughly to get rid of the residue. If it still looks discolored try pickling for longer and re-pumice it
• Make sure you use the wet version of the enamels, these are in the baby food jars.  Make sure there is a little bit of water in the jar – you can always add a little water if it is dried up
• Using a small paint brush, scoop some enamel from the jar, and carefully dab the enamel into your etched areas.  Use the surface tension of water to get an even coat.  I often pack the enamel into an etched area without much water and try to get it as even as possible, then add a few drops of water with my paintbrush to help even the coat out
• If you get too much enamel up in the bristles of the brush, rinse your brush and wipe it dry before continuing to enamel, otherwise the brush will not have as fine of a tip, which will make precision difficult
• Do a clear coat first, you want to make sure to get a decent clear coat, otherwise your color will not turn out.  Make sure you have a full, even coat, but don’t over fill the etching, or you won’t have room for your color. Fire it. After you do your clear coat, pickle, pumice, and then do your color coat. You can do different colors in different etched parts of your piece, just avoid contaminating colors, rinse your brush well before using a new color
• Once you have finished packing enamel into all of your etching, let it dry fully.  Make sure to use a dry brush to wipe off any enamel that is outside of your etched area before firing. To speed up the drying time, you can put your piece on a trivet, on a firing screen and set it on top of the kiln and the enamel will dry very quickly
• Fire your piece using the same instructions for dry sifting
• Pickle and pumice your piece between coats

Bails – 

A bail is another method for hanging a pendant

Horseshoe Bail:

• If your pendant is small, use 18-16 gauge, if it is larger, use 14 gauge
• Cut a piece of the proper gauge of wire, about 3/4"-1" long
• File the ends flat
• Use round nose pliers to pend the wire into the shape of a horseshoe
• Hammer just the very ends of the wire flat
• Sand the hammered part of the wire to remove any hammer marks
• Solder it down to the back of your pendant by putting it in place with flux, placing a solder chip on both sides so that it is touching both the wire and the sheet metal
• Use the torch to melt the solder chip, it should flow right underneath the bail, but you may need to gently press the ends of the bail down with tweezers when heating it

Bezel Setting – 

• Must be done on a cabochon (a cabochon is a stone that is flat on the back, and rounded on the top)
• If you are using your own stone, unless it is the exact size needed for a pre-made bezel cup, you can make your own bezel
• Drill a hole or do any other soldering before soldering on the bezel or bezel cup – bezel is made of silver and melts at a very low temperature, this will help you avoid melting when soldering down the bezel

To make your own bezel:

• You will need to create a backing piece for your bezel setting – the piece should be at least slightly larger than your stone, you can always make the backing smaller once you have the bezel setting soldered down, but if you backing is too small, it will not work. 
• I recommend at least doing your filing on your edges and sand the surface of the backing piece before soldering down the bezel, it is also helpful to sand your edges, unless you are trying to make the edges flush with your stone setting.  
• Drill a hole or do any other soldering before soldering on the bezel – the bezel is made of silver and melts at a very low temperature, this will help you avoid melting when soldering
• Make your bezel 
• Wrap the bezel wire around your stone, make sure that you wrap it tightly around
• Make a mark where the seam should be, make it just a millimeter longer than you need it
• Cut your bezel to size, double check that you cut it the right size. File the ends of the bezel completely flat to get a clean seam
• Bend the bezel out of shape – make it the shape of a capital letter “D” – The flat side should have the seem right in the middle. 
• Place a solder chip on the inside of the seam
• Use medium or hard solder, 
• Using a very small flame, make sure the solder fully fills in the seam, but avoid over heating or it can melt
• Pickle the bezel
• Shape the bezel to your stone
• Solder the bezel to the back plate – 
• Make sure there are no gaps between the bezel and the back plate
• Flux it and place the solder chips all around the inside of the bezel cup so that the solder chips are touching both the bezel and the sheet metal
• Use easy solder
• Solder chips should be about 1/16” - 1/8” apart, placed all the way around the bezel
• Pickle the piece.  Double check that there are no gaps once it’s pickled – any gaps need to be filled in or your stone will not set properly.  Use extra easy solder if you need to do any more soldering
• Clean up your piece by doing any sanding or filing if you want to true up your edges, just be very careful as to not bend the bezel when you are working with it
• Patina and polish your piece
• Set the stone inside the bezel
• Using the bezel setting tools, start with the rocker bezel and gently press the bezel using  a rocking motion at 12 o clock, then 6 o clock, then 3, then 9.  Keep doing opposite sides until you have it as smoothed out as you can get with this tool, using the rocking motion to help smooth things out.  Switch to the burnishing bezel setting tool to finish smoothing it out by burnishing (rubbing) back and forth all the way around the bezel

Tab/Prong Setting – 

You can use tabs or prongs to set stones, enameled pieces, or found objects like sea glass

Tabs are made of thin sheet metal

• Cut out pieces that are twice the height of the piece you want to set
• One end of the piece should be flat, and the other end that is going to show on top can have a shape cut into it (rounded, triangular, etc)
• Sand the edges and surface of the tabs
• Bend the tabs at a 90 degree angle, so that the shaped end sticks up over the top of the piece you want to set when you slide the tab underneath your object
• Solder the tabs down to your piece one at a tape – place them correctly by putting your object down on the metal, use a center punch to scratch a line at the edge of the piece so you know where they need to be soldered
• For prongs, use 14, 16, or 18 gauge wire to do the same thing, except you need to forge the end of the wire that will be soldered down so you have a secure solder seam.  Make sure the other end has a nicely filed end, I like to usually round it off to give it a softer look