This is a cuff I created for my first project in a jewelry class. I learned a lot, and turned out fairly happy with the end result, although the lessons learned made me happier. The idea was to reticulate some silver, but I didn’t realize reticulation silver is different from sterling – Lesson #1. I took some bench dust and balls of silver, fused them to the sterling, then ran them through the rolling mill to flatten for the “moonscape” effect. (Lesson #2 – I NEED a rolling mill – what a super cool tool!!) Then I domed the silver piece slightly. Next I drilled pilot holes and sawed star shapes into the copper – freehand (Lesson #3 Freehand is for OTHER people. BAD idea) Soldering the metal (don’t remember the gauge but it is heavy duty – Lesson #4 keep production notes on ALL pieces) together was problematic, as the school’s acetylene torches didn’t seem to give me the heat I needed, even ran two at a time. We finally fired up the oxy-acetylene torch that was “too hot” for everyone else and I felt like a brain surgeon – flame being 6500* and the size of a thread. (Lesson #5 I ran out and bought the super-scooby Smith Little Torch kit that I’ve been contemplating for a year. Better tools=happier smith.) The plan was to run a heavy gauge sterling wire around the piece, but I kept burning it up, no matter what torch I used. The copper piece took so long to heat up that the wire just kept melting on me. After 6 tries and numerous curses I recalibrated the plan (Lesson #6 um… Silver melts at lower temp. than copper – SURELY I’ve read that somewhere!) I could have used lighter copper, or tried again, but was running out of time, so it is what it is. Not, I’m pretty sure, the lesson I was supposed to have learned there – smiths I admire would have stayed late, redid the cuff, did whatever to ensure the original version happened. I took the class specifically to get over 8 years of torch phobia – achieving greater torch abilities would have dovetailed right in. Instead I settled. Get over it.
My next step was to patina the copper a deep ethereal blue using ammonia in a sealed container – and here’s where it got interesting. Because of the repeated and I mean REPEATED heating of the copper (??), even though it was pickled clean it didn’t pick up ANY patina – remained copper colored. Instead, the SILVER turned blue (I have read that was an impossible color to create on silver – light blue that is). After much head scratching, the instructor and I decided it must be the bench filings – instead of pure silver, I had used mixed dust, including copper and gold fill – they must have
reacted with the ammonia. Last step – I textured the copper for a “weatherbeaten” look – basically because I’m lazy and I HATE polishing, but also because it seemed to go with the piece.
Well, that’s my cuff. The last lesson learned? Lesson #7 – cuff bracelets are UNCOMFORTABLE – or maybe they just need to be extra long to fit my large bones. I’ll know with the next one.]]>