"It's like riding a bike... once you learn, you never forget" (for those of you that know me - that saying holds special meaning). Happily, the same holds true for jewelry design as well.
This week, I began my project - the creation of a silver cuff bracelet inspired by SF iron door gates. I took a piece of paper and cut the size I wanted for my bracelet, from there I redrew the design to fit within the space.
The first step was to build the frame of the bracelet. I chose to go with a thicker gauge wire for the frame than for the interior of the piece. I opted for the 10 gauge wire. Rather than trying to solder 4 pieces of wire together to form a rectangle, I used just 2 pieces of wire which were then each folded to form a letter "L" and by placing them together - create the rectangular frame. Adam showed me a technique he uses to ensure a 90 degree angle. First you saw a small triangular wedge where the corners will meet. Then you fold the pieces of the metal together until they meet. Since this first cut is not likely to get you to 90 degrees, you then simply take a saw blade and saw into the fold like in the picture.
After passing the blade a few times you are then able to close the gap more until you finally get to a 90 degree angle.
The next step was to solder both the corners I had just created as well and then solder the 2 "L" shaped pieces to eachother to create the rectangle. As a general rule of thumb, you will always start out with Hard solder, which has the highest melting temperature of the 3 types of solder with Medium being next, then Easy. I will be using Medium solder for the rest of my piece but am a bit concerned - because I have so many elements to solder in my design - each time you solder, there is a chance you will undo one of the previous joins.
The process for soldering is to add flux to the entire piece - this enables the solder to melt and to flow into the joins and also prevents the metal from oxidizing. You then heat the entire piece with the torch to dry the flux. Once the flux is dry, you can add the solder pieces to the places you want to join - in my case it was each corner of my rectangle. You then heat the piece up again until the solder melts and flows into the areas to be sealed.
Everytime you solder or even heat metal up with a torch - you need to quench it in a water bath. The next step is to put it into what's called a "pickle" which is a sulfuric acid bath that helps to clean the piece. After a few minutes in the bath, you then transfer it to a baking soda and water bath which neutralizes the acid - from there it goes into a plain water bath and you're ready to solder again.
After finishing my rectangle frame, I was ready to tackle the interior where most of the design and soldering will happen. I then went back to the original wire I had created from my first class and started to assemble my pieces. One of the challenges I quickly ran into was that it is extremely hard to make wire pieces straight. I used a raw hide mallet to hit the wire at the same time I was rolling it on a steel plate to do so, but then Adam, suggested we try another technique - brute force....here's a pic of him pulling, actually snapping it straight with all his strength. It worked and made my wire stick straight as well as shiny!
I am actually quite pleased with my progress as I can see the bracelet taking shape and form and I know I will love it. I hope that the soldering doesn't turn into too big of a challenge, but think I can probably apply something like yellow ocher which will protect the already joined pieces from coming apart with the heat.. I may try to do that.
As I went through the construction process - I started to remember some of what I love so much about the process itself. The challenge - seeing something that is difficult to create, but getting through each step takes you closer and you can feel the reward (the finished project) is near...it is very satisfying.
Acquiring the skill set takes time, and putting complex pieces together also takes time both to plan and to construct. Patience and dedication....not wanting for results instantly but knowing that with work, focus, and patience they will come guess that is what I am relearning this 2nd go around.
And here we are...looking good :)
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