Make your own Jewelry Tools

I am not the type of person to make my own tools.
My first jewelry class was at the College of Marin north of San Francisco.
If it weren't for my teacher I might have given up on jewelry.
I'm really mad I can't remember his name, he was so cool.
All you had to do was try. It was all about learning.

If you have a jewelers saw, a vise, a dremel and a coat hanger you can make this tool.
Well you don't need a dremel, but the tool you are making will be a dremel bit.

Straighten out your coat hanger enough where you can cut an inch and a half off (using your jewelers saw).
okay now put that wire standing up in a vise.
Using your jewelers saw cut about 1/2 an inch right through the middle.
You now have a sander bit for your dremel.




You can buy a larger version from a supply place. However I find them a bit too long and wonky.
So I modify it by cutting off about a half inch from the bottom of the bit.



Once you put the bit into your dremel you will need a piece of sandpaper to fit the bit. The little bit made with the coat hanger is great for sandpaper scraps. You put the sandpaper in with some extra hanging out the end. Slowly depress your foot pedal on the dremel to make sure you have the right direction and the sandpaper facing the right way. It will curl up to make a nice round sander.




The last pic might look a little strange considering my hand isn't holding the dremel.
I needed that hand to take the picture!

One of the best tools ever.
If you can figure out ways to lessen the time you spend finishing the better.
Your rings will always be comfortable if you finish the inside.

Next up Make your own Sanding sticks!




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Jewelry Making Tips - My Bench Skin

ok back to spreading the jewelry making tips and tricks....

after a few years of no jewelry making,
I spent 4 days cleaning my bench area
(and creating a pile of crap in front of it)
I got rid of all the 'stuff' I never used,
moved things around and made it more efficient.

Ok so today's tip...

I use a BENCH SKIN that I made from a piece of leather and grommets.
I hang it from hooks beneath my bench to catch all the silver filings and scrap,
and a few bounced gems or anything else I have butter fingers on.
It's large enough to have the front lay in my lap as I saw.
When I'm not sawing I can fold it back into itself a bit and it's out of my way.
I used the smooth side up so it's easy to use an index card to lift the silver filings and into my 'scrap' bag.



I've used other people's setups where they have a drawer that catches the filings.
However I sit extremely low in comparison to other people and I would constantly hit my elbow on that darn drawer! So this works well for me. Plus my bench was handmade for me by a friend so it's not your standard setup.

A word on my collection of scrap filings...
anyone who makes things out of gold or silver should (and most likely does) save all scrap because IT'S VALUABLE! We save it and trade it back in to get MONEY or CREDIT! I hold on to it until silver prices skyrocket then I send it in to my favorite jewelry supply shop There are other places to refine your metal if you don't want to set up an account at Rio Grande.

So to anyone who buys ECO FRIENDLY METAL thinking they are doing the right thing you have a great intention but are being bamboozled by savvy sellers hitting that emotional ecological button of yours. We all reuse metals as much as possible but we don't own refineries so no one can say where their specific sheet or wire or ingot came from.
It's my greatest pet peeve when I run across someone selling under this guise.
The more you know, the better decisions you can make.

next up
sawing tips and tricks






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Jewelers stump DONE!

Ok folks I did it on the cheap and here's how it went down.
I bought it off ebay for 40 bucks- black walnut stump.
They sent it parcel post.
Yes the postal person was like WTF did you order?
So I have a raw tree stump with cracks in it.
After much research online and a very nice man's advice I put it in the oven for 3 hours at 170 degrees to kill any bugs.  Then left it there to cool off.
Then I polyurethaned the bottom and sides, a couple of coats each.
I left the top raw.
I had my dad help me screw in the stake holder with some deck screws or something.
Notice my lack of construction knowledge....

and that is the story of how to do a jewelers stump on the cheap.
You can choose to buy perfectly kiln dried ones for 200 bucks and up.
Black Maple is beautiful and one of the hardest woods, so if you're looking to carve into your stump use Maple.  Hopefully with this addition I will give a longer life to my bench which is maple and made by my good friend Louis in Albuquerque.

Oh I also bought two vibration mats from MicroMark to try to keep from busting my tiles up from the terrazzo floor from the 1950's -a bad tiling job.

Now if anyone has any hints on keeping rust off of my stakes and mandrels please comment.
Any questions hit me up I'm all about sharing info.

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the dreaded firescale

See those darker spots around my stamp and towards the top?
That my friend is fire-scale.
Know it, recognize it, learn to get rid of it,
if you want a mirror polish on your piece.

What causes fire-scale?
Firescale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Firescale, also known as firestain, is a red or purple stain that appears on mixtures of silver and copper, such as sterling silver. At high temperatures, oxygen mixes with the copper to form cuprous oxide and then cupric oxide. Attempts to reduce this problem usually involve replacing oxygen with another gas such as hydrogen or ammonia.

With a very high copper content, this may appear on gold mixtures.

A fire scale is a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of metal when a blacksmith heats a tool.

Fire scale commonly occurs during the soldering process in jewelery manufacture, for example soldering a bale onto a finished pendant. The stain can only be removed with further polishing, or removal of affected metal.

** I like to file or sand out my firescale
As you see in the picture below.



total drag but you gotta do it if you want it to look sharp.

Why not use Argentinium?
Because I don't have any and silver is at 34 bucks.
I'm not a fan of Argentinium.
Its stiffer than good old 925,
have to use lower solder on it.



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Get that Design on Silver- a guide to piercing sorta

A tried and true way to keep that design on your silver...
Some people use a scribe and scratch a line in or use a marker.
Not me.
I need a good visual contrast to see where I'm sawing.
Get your design on paper. Cut it close to the design.
Get your RUBBER CEMENT. Coat the paper and also the piece of silver with the glue.
WAIT. Let it dry up some.
Stick the two together.
WAIT.
Now you have a good stick of your design on metal that you can cut through.
When your done peel off the paper and run the rubber cement off.

See all those holes?
I made them.
First drill a tiny hole in each area you will be cutting out.
Next (the biggest pain) is undo the top part
of your saw blade from your saw frame,
insert it in the hole and put the blade
BACK in the frame and close it.
This requires you to put the handle on your right
shoulder blade and push forward as you close
and tighten your saw frame.
WHY?
Because if you don't you will be snapping
saw blades left and right.
You will do this over and over for each hole.
What you see here is 3 hours of continuous work.
How many blades did I break?
NONE.
Am I done?
No.
When I take the paper off will it look great?
No.
Now you know why I hate piercing.
Instead of using a tiny file it's best and less time consuming to use your saw blade in the saw frame as a file.
Sawing is a good test of patience.


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Work progresses

If you haven't been following along the posts below
explain the start of these hand buildt pieces of jewelry...



I traced the outside of the form on a piece of silver
then cut it out, making it a little bigger than needed.
I then stamped in the quit date of my non-smoker friend!
The bottom mark 925 is for sterling silver,
and the lizard is my hallmark-
(it is also tattooed on the arch of my left foot).

OK there was some pounding with a rawhide mallet
to get the piece as flat as possible.
Stamping distorts the metal a little, and we need
this baby flat for soldering to the form.
filing, filing, sanding, sanding
you know the routine....

Until we have both pieces flat with no spaces.



Ta Da! I already soldered it.
I used medium solder, because I used
the higher melting HARD solder to make the form.
We don't want things coming undone.
I watched as the solder crept its way around the box.
Can't have any holes because I'm going to fill
this with some fun stuff with color...
that comes later.
I have to make an inside form which will use
math skills which my brain has forgotten,
or I'll just wing it.


What's this? 2nd project in progress



Re-soldered it, made some adjustments to the bottom form.
Sanded down the tops of the bezels,
then totally pulled a brainfart and took some metal
off from the inside of the bezel. (OUTSIDE! ALWAYS!)
Its ok I still think the bezels might be a bit too high.
Once I make a mistake I usually stop
because it means I'm getting tired.

Next step check the stones in the bezel,
using a piece of dental floss underneath each stone
so you can pop it back out to make any adjustments.
Oh and the black... I oxidized the piece.
You will understand once I polish it.
Stay tuned...


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making jewelry by hand aka construction

slow and steady wins the race right?

well we have the outside form soldered and solid
on Mr. Ciggyman.

Next part I really have to use my brain and be precise!

I hard soldered the whole thing
and somehow managed to balance the hoop
on some coat hanger bits and got that attached.

This is all silver- dirty but silver.

To bend the top I decided I was going
with the organic look, so I used a stamp
I made out of a nail instead of a separating disc.
I cut off the extra top so it no longer looks like a pagoda.

Meanwhile...

in case you didn't know I usually work
on a couple of pieces at the same time.
This is a druzy pearl necklace
I've been meaning to get done.

I really thought it was going well.
Watched the solder flow around the lower bezel,
trying to see it at the top.
Didn't want to melt those pearl bezels.
Dropped it in the pickle pot and thought
I was golden.

NOPE.

When I pulled it out of the pot
the two pearl bezels slid right off.

crap.

Sometimes when you solder your flux
acts like glue and until its been pickled
you won't know.
Gotta have those soldered down fully or they will
pull up when your setting your stone
and then my friend...
you are totally screwed.



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Jewelry making tools Sanding Board (Book)

Remember I said its VERY IMPORTANT to keep things straight and flat....
Well as you can see here I didn't have a very good soldering day.
That little bit of light coming from underneath?
Well thats not supposed to be there (kill me now)
So I need to make it flat.



Some filing and the easiest but slower way is sanding.
JEWELRY TIP ->

Make your own sanding board, seen below.



Might as well use 220 sandpaper,
because You will wear one side down to 400 in no time.
Yes I have sanding sticks also for small jobs.
I love my sanding book, and you will too.
If you make one.

(yes this is a continuation of popartmonkeys piece)

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Making Jewelry By Hand -It's More work than you Think

ok so here we go.....

Making jewelry by hand -also called construction.

As you can see I have a rather large sheet of silver,
and I want to make a rectangular box of sorts.
So I measure and mark my two outside walls
and then cut them out with my jewelers saw.

I use a very small blade, that way
when my cut line is not straight (which it never is)
I don't have that much to file down.



This is what we are making,
or attempting to make.

Original artwork done by Popartmonkey.
This is a commission piece,
which normally I don't do, but I like his work
and I'm very proud of him for quitting smoking.
On the back of the piece I will stamp his 'quit' date.



Time to cut apart what will be the outside walls.

I was taught to cut on the outside of the line,
but I try very hard to keep them as even as possible.
My brain is wired to cut outside the line.
My last boss could not understand this.
He'd say 'Cut on the line.'
I'd say 'Not gonna happen.'


What was one, now is two.

Whats all that junk on them?
Well like saw dust, that's silver dust.
See the tan thing below?
That's my bench skin which catches all the dust
and whatever else I might drop by accident.
Yes its a skin of some type of animal,
smooth side turned up so the dust won't get stuck.
I scoop up this dust and keep it in a plastic bag
in a coffee tin and when it gets heavy and I get poor,
I turn in my 'scrap' for a credit from my supplier.
This is what recycling silver means.

If you think buying from an eco-friendly jeweler
unless they are making things out of hemp,
you my friend are getting taken.
Silver is mined as is gold and copper.
So whether you got it first or recycled
it doesn't matter the deed has been done.



As I mentioned before I can't cut a straight line
so we file.....
Each side needs to be straight because later on
this will be VERY important.


I'm doing this in my lap which is my own technique
so I can get the most pressure on metal.
Its important to switch around the piece
so you don't end up filing some weird angle.
Oh yea. Been there done that.


Time to cut out the short ends
of my rectangle.


Oh No! They are too small!
I didn't add the thickness of the walls
to my measurements. Grrrrr!


This is where my too small pieces go
(see the arrow?)
Its my scrap box which can at times be very exciting.
But not today,
because I don't see any pre-made boxes in there.

So I go back and draw larger sides,
cut, file and hello outside form!


It still needs to be soldered but
that's another lesson for another day.
I still need to make an inside frame,
because the black line on his drawing
is included in this design.
So I need to make a space for it.


This is my poor finger.
Looks better now.
Don't expect to keep up a manicure
if your working with metals.
I swear my finger was aching,
so this is as far as we got today.

I'm expecting to rerun this scenario
to make the inner forms.
I won't bore you with that but
I'll keep posting my progress so you can see
what goes into making this piece by hand.




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In a pickle with Sparex

This is a post for people who make jewelry.

This is for those of us who wonder
'why does my pickle have brown crap in it?'
I'm here to answer that question.

See the can of Sparex NO. 2 on the left?
They have painted the inside with some junk
that inevitably flakes off into your granules of
Sodium Bisulfate, leaving the exposed iron can
rusting on the inside.
Your can of Sparex is now SPENT.

Now you need to call up your hazardous waste program
and learn how to dispose of 3/4 of a can.

Now what to do- no pickle for my pot?
You can go the pool PH option OR
you can buy new sparex from Otto Frei
in a PLASTIC CONTAINER! (shown on the right)
6 bucks people.

The shipping was going to cost more
so I tossed in a high temp soldering board.
*We will discuss what I'm doing with that later*



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Bezel Setting MY WAY

ok folks here we go...
this is how I set my bezels.
First off lets talk about tools.

Best thing I EVER bought was that bench pin with a hole in it.
Rio used to sell them but last time I looked I couldn't find them.
This is AWESOME- I also use it for my tube cutter.
*note you must be able to remove top of tool from bottom,
and re-screw them through the hole.
This gives you a free hand or two!

Now my ring holder tool- got it from Rio also.
Its from Egypt and it smelled when I first got it.
Comes with different plastic inserts for different sizes of rings.
You adjust it by using the screw at the top.



I do use a bezel pusher just to get the stone in there,
so it won't move around much on me.

Now for the poor mans trick
Instead of busting out $150 for a foredom hammerhead.
I took a nail and filed it down and sanded it and polished it.
This is now my cheap hammering piece.
I use a small ball peen hammer because it does the job.

Yes it does the job. It also may leave a few marks.
You just clean those up with small rubber discs.
piece o' cake.

ps. I think the onlything you can get now a days is
The GRS Benchmate- but you have to buy
the stone setters kit which is $300.



The only problem is I CANNOT for the life of me
unseat a stone, once its set.

my dirty little secret

In its full glory. My pile of crap.




took me 6 years to accumulate all this crap
and I had it hidden behind my bench!




ahh now that's clean (at least for me)...




it's not over yet... this is my soldering bench under there!

Fake names for Gems

It just irks me to no end
the listings I see of supposed 'gems' for sale.

How to tell what you're getting?

Here's a place to start http://www.houseofgems.com/newsletters/news11292004.htm

pay attention to the diamond category-
I've seen these advertised on etsy.

I'm not good at waiting ....

This is my very first EVER resin cast.
It took 2 days to complete.
I bought this book by Sherri Haab
"The Art of Resin Casting"
and then purchased the easy cast resin and a mold
from her website sherrihaab.com
I'm giving this book a thumbs up.
It's an easy read with tips that are truly helpful.
The 'Easy Cast' had no odor either (yay!)
the waiting was the only bummer
but I'm glad I did.

Tags: Sherri Haab knows her resins

*buffing tip

Today I was at the buffer trying to buff these small items.
The familiar burning sensation came to my fingertips.
I was told if I buffed enough,
I'd burn out the nerve endings
and it wouldn't hurt so much.
bah.
If it's a pendant hook a paperclip on it.
That way you can hang onto the clip,
rather than the hot piece.

the meaning of 925

I named my jewelry business after the stamping you find on sterling silver pieces- 925.
Silver is a soft metal. If you were to use 100 percent pure silver it would not hold a form well, other metals (alloys) are added to strengthen the durability.
Sterling silver is 92.5% silver with 7.5% alloy.
Some people mark their pieces with a 'sterling' stamp.
Its just a personal preference.
I'm into numbers, but I'm not a math person- go figure.