Making simple Jewelry

[mossrose]

Do you still have any of the pieces that Crow sent you?

I do. A necklace and a pair of earrings.

[mossrose]

I do. A necklace and a pair of earrings.

My mistake. 2 necklaces, one is chocolate pearls, and the other is millefleur beads. With a Thirsty Possum charm on the clasp.

TP chocolate pearls.JPG

[mossrose]

TP millefleur.JPG

[mossrose]

My memory is really terrible. I have 3 tanzanite rings, not 2.



Here are my 3 tanzanite rings. My favourite one is on the right side. I love the setting. Sorry the lighting isn't great.

Rings a.jpg

[mossrose]

And my 2 emerald rings with the alexandrite in the middle box. The heirloom emerald is on the right.

Rings 2 a.jpg

[eider]

Your wife has excellent taste!

And you!

None of my jewelry has very large stones. The alexandrite is the biggest one. But I like the delicate ones I have. I expect the emeralds from my husband's great-grandmother would be the most valuable. It had 4 small square cut stones set in a line down the middle of a square, with tiny diamonds on both sides of the line. The square has been turned sideways and the setting is platinum.

Sadly, when it came into my possession, 2 of the emeralds had been lost, so we took it to a jeweller friend of ours who had it for months, looking for emeralds to replace the 2 lost ones. He found a single stone with the perfect matching colour, but it couldn’t be cut into 2 tiny squares, so we chose to leave it as one piece. It’s fine, the ring looks a bit odd, but I don’t mind, and I know my granddaughter won’t, either. I do expect that it’s lost quite a bit of it’s value, though.

If I remember I’ll take a picture of it later and post it.

Broken or bent claws lose stones so easily............ maybe you will find those two ideal stones for a repair, one day I cannot repair or solder jewelry properly, but I do enjoy little projects and have exchanged stones in rings before now.....

You mention that your emerald ring will have lost some value...... but not really. It's value doesn't have a number until the day that anybody wants to sell it, so it is priceless. I bought two gold wedding rings for my wife and placed both of them on her finger during the ceremony, a size m and a size n , and she did exactly the same for me in sizes x and y. Mine have absolutely no value at all........ I would get nothing for them because they are titanium bands and in 2005 a jeweler in a nearby town was selling off his titanium stock rings for about a fiver each. When I saw them in the shop window I wanted them immediately, because these were going to be the most valuable items that I could ever have, and worthless to anybody else. In old age my fingers have become fatter and I now where the y ring!

My wife gave me permission to show her tanzanites, the oval and octagon are 3.5cts and the small round and small oval are 1.1cts The trillion cut ring which leans against the tray wall has a synthetic stone...... and I placed that beside the genuine stones to show how good it is. And so today any person who might like to display a nice looking ring within their means can do so.

p1030076.jpg

[eider]

FWIU, insurance companies have been known to require owners to wear a high quality imitation of their real jewelry to big events.

Yes......... A much reduced premium as long as the owner doesn't take a thing in to high risk.

[eider]

My mistake. 2 necklaces, one is chocolate pearls, and the other is millefleur beads. With a Thirsty Possum charm on the clasp.

TP chocolate pearls.JPG

Wow! Chocolate pearls......... just....wow!

[eider]

And my 2 emerald rings with the alexandrite in the middle box. The heirloom emerald is on the right.

Rings 2 a.jpg

These ones and the tanzanites........ all lovely!

[mossrose]

And you!


Broken or bent claws lose stones so easily............ maybe you will find those two ideal stones for a repair, one day I cannot repair or solder jewelry properly, but I do enjoy little projects and have exchanged stones in rings before now.....

You mention that your emerald ring will have lost some value...... but not really. It's value doesn't have a number until the day that anybody wants to sell it, so it is priceless. I bought two gold wedding rings for my wife and placed both of them on her finger during the ceremony, a size m and a size n , and she did exactly the same for me in sizes x and y. Mine have absolutely no value at all........ I would get nothing for them because they are titanium bands and in 2005 a jeweler in a nearby town was selling off his titanium stock rings for about a fiver each. When I saw them in the shop window I wanted them immediately, because these were going to be the most valuable items that I could ever have, and worthless to anybody else. In old age my fingers have become fatter and I now where the y ring!

My wife gave me permission to show her tanzanites, the oval and octagon are 3.5cts and the small round and small oval are 1.1cts The trillion cut ring which leans against the tray wall has a synthetic stone...... and I placed that beside the genuine stones to show how good it is. And so today any person who might like to display a nice looking ring within their means can do so.

p1030076.jpg

Gorgeous!

[mossrose]

Wow! Chocolate pearls......... just....wow!

Crow, a member here and one of the staff, made those necklaces for me. I had knit her a scarf and she sent those as a thank you. She made lovely pieces. The possum charm was in honour of Tweb's own Thirsty Possum; you will have to do a search on the site to learn about him.

Sadly, Crow passed away a number of years ago. I am honoured to have these keepsakes that she so generously made for me.

[eider]

Crow, a member here and one of the staff, made those necklaces for me. I had knit her a scarf and she sent those as a thank you. She made lovely pieces. The possum charm was in honour of Tweb's own Thirsty Possum; you will have to do a search on the site to learn about him.

Sadly, Crow passed away a number of years ago. I am honoured to have these keepsakes that she so generously made for me.

I liked all your pictures, and the history behind the pieces. If you have any more pictures to offer then I would love to see them.

[eider]

I don't have a furnace, kiln or oven.
Because I usually melt tiny amounts of silver and copper, and very occasionally gold, I use a torch which can reach flame temperatures for brazing and to collect the heat I have a 5-brick 'cave' which can be set up or taken down easily.
I know that a metal is hot enough for casting because the molten surface begins to turn over and over, or 'rolling' as it is called. But the crucible cannot simply be lifted from the flame to the casting 'shell' and poured in to the sand impression ... the flame has to be kept upon the crucible all the way, even as the metal is being poured. Because of the speed required I can sometimes miss the casting hole, and so the casting shell is placed in a pan to catch any spilled metal.

The picture shows the top brick turned upwards, for melting lead and low temperature pewters, but if silver, gold or copper are being melted then that brick is turned down to hold the heat in more intensely.

P1030068.JPG

[mossrose]

I liked all your pictures, and the history behind the pieces. If you have any more pictures to offer then I would love to see them.

Well, thank you! I don’t have any more gem pictures to share, though.

And I’ve very much enjoyed seeing and hearing about your work!

[eider]

If I have made a ring pattern in ebony then I can use it repeatedly to caste silver rings in to its shape, but the ebony pattern can itself become a piece of jewelry because ebony is so strong, as shown in the centre rings of my picture. Ebony rings can really stand out! Ebony could be a protected wood now and its sale be banned just like rosewood is, but the very black hardwood shown in my pics comes from China and may be a quite different wood to the one grown in Africa.

I usually just keep ebony patterns for recasting, like the very large pattern shown on the left and cut to receive a 2 carat stone.

The ring pattern on the right has been made in laminated softwood, but this type of pattern is so weak that it can break during crafting. But since this pattern has somehow survived, my wife has asked me to caste it and craft it to receive a princess cut 7 mm stone. Preparing silver/gold rings for square-cut stones is very much more complicated, so I'll be practising the machining of square countersinks in a block of silver for some time before I'll be able to attempt that upon a caste ring........ I think I will need at least three tings if I am to succeed with one of them, or maybe I'll need more. We'll see.

P1030088.JPG