SOLID GOLD DINOSAUR!!!

And by solid gold I of course mean brass.
In retrospect maybe not the best design for a small boy to play with.......
But it looks great mounted on his door.



I also brought home the earrings and pendant from last week and another new pendant, I will photograph and post them too when I get a chance, hopefully this afternoon.

Nothing new to show from last weeks class....

It was a great class and all, I actually made two simple pendants, a pair of earrings and I cut almost half way through another much more complicated pendant. However, the simple stuff needs some finishing, and I'm seriously considering drilling some holes and attaching some crystals. I guess I'll just wait and see where the spirit takes me on Wednesday. It will be my last fabrication class, but...... I can rent bench space now!!! Woooooooo! This means that I've been deemed skilled enough to safely use the equipment independently (Like the oxy/propane torch , the big scary buffer, and the drills....) and I will do so in the beginning of May. I might actually even make something for sale!!!
On a sadder note, I seem to have lost the first pendant I made. I don't know how it happened, but it's nowhere to be found :( I'm pretty sure it's in the apartment somewhere so hopefully it will turn up soon.

Ring-Ring! ..hello who's there? It's a success! :)

Huzzah!
I set three stones!
It was so stressful, I wouldn't be surprised if it took years off my life! My teacher said she was proud of me! I also used the big scary buffer (It's not as scary as I thought) to make my ring super shinny.
It's not *perfect*.
In fact, I can tell you exactly where all the flaws are.....
But I won't ;)

Success!

So class last night was great! I melted two jump rings (ops!) Lesson learned. I finished my earrings! They are super light and very wearable. (I have always disliked wearing heavy earrings.) It was really difficult to work with such thin metal but totally worth it. They have great movement which I can't really show in a photo so you'll have to take my word for it.
Ta-Da!



And I've been told (big surprise) That I can't work with my diamonds (I have three lovely ones) until I have successfully done a setting three times with zircons. So next week I'm going to start learning how to do a Gypsy setting. I'm planning to make a silver ring with three zircons. Hopefully I will be successful!

Silversmithing tonight!

I've been looking forward to tonight since last Wednesday!!
I realized the other day how much I have learned when I was trying to explain to a friend the process of making a bezel setting.....
So my latest project (as you may have guessed from the photo I posted last week) is a pair of tear drop layered dangle earrings. At the time I wanted to make them super light and wearable. Which meant that I had to roll out a thick sheet of metal to get something thinner to work with. Well it was warping so much I had to anneal it, and my teacher standing behind at the roller was starting to sound a bit like Scotty telling me the metal can't take much more of this......"Geezes Sarah, seriously soon you'll be working with tinfoil!"
Do you have any idea how hard it is to file and polish tinfoil?!! Good thing I have a light touch...
The shapes are not exact, which is to be expected with hand cut designs. Earrings are especially hard as they have to be pretty close....
I expect tonight to be more of the same, filing sanding and polishing. I have no idea what the attachment process will entail, but my plan is to finish these earrings tonight and figure out what I will start on next week :) I have too many ideas and pages of designs!!!

Farbication level two

So what did you get accomplished this evening?
Here's what I did:

I'm really enjoying this!

When I grow up I want to be a Goldsmith!

For now I'll settle for amateur silver smith....
As the Internet has already probably told you, I've opened a jewelry store over on Etsy, and joined forces with Jen over at Pássaro Bobo.
What the Internet may not have told you is that I've successfully completed my level one Silversmith at the devil's work shop, and will be starting level two at the end of February!! (Huzzah, it's so exciting!)
The first course was a fabrications course, and it was mostly just filing and sanding and buffing. Ha ha no just joking, there was other stuff too.
By the end of it I have completed three pendants and one ring!


I don't actually have photo of the ring....should do something about that I guess.
Anyways, When I have finished level two I will be allowed to rent bench space there and make really pretty things to sell (which I fully intend to do!)