One Man's Journey in Jewelry Making

Welcome, new followers!

2012-02-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome, new followers! I hope your visits here will prove to informative and perhaps entertaining.

Thanks, for visiting! And that goes for all.

John

Cold Connect using Micro-Fasteners

2012-02-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

A small selection of metal elements using micro fasteners to hold them together. Screws, washers, nuts. Brass, copper, aluminum, wire mesh. Flame patina, various textures.

Photo showing a few of the tools used for micro fastener cold connect. A few micro fasteners shown by the brush. When I'm working the tools aren't that neatly placed!

2012-02-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

I posted an entire photo on JewelryLessons. com and received a comment that it would be nice to have a close-up look at some of the elements. Rather than hoggong the galley at JL, I'm putting some closer views here.

Rolling Mill-Pattern Plates-Disc Cutter-Centering Dies

2012-02-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Shown in the photo are three examples of Bonny Doon Pattern Plate impressions on copper run through the mill. These are more experimental in nature rather than something actually planned for use in a piece of jewelry. I can use some areas of the impressions, but some pieces are scratched and will take some work to make the usable. The examples are on non-annealed 24 gauge copper. The pattern plates worked out pretty good, but next time I'll run some annealed metal to see how that turns out. Just couldn't wait any longer. Just had to try out the mill and the pattern plates.

The pattern plates are meant for 24 gauge metal and up to 14 gauge, the max for using a mill. A hydraulic is better for thinner metal.

Which brings up a point. When you try a new source of supply for base metal, order only a small amount. Check the metal when it arrives and if it is scratched, try another source. One well known supply company whose name I will not divulge, is rather careless in handling their metal stock and scratches, some deep, are the norm. As a result, they have lost me as a customer.

The photos show The Swanstrom Disc Cutter, the Center Positioning Dies and some examples of washers cut using the device.

On the one hand, I'm fairly pleased with the tool. On the other hand, well for one thing, I think it's over priced. But, it does make nice washers. There's a learning curve to using the tool. Isn't that always the case?

So, you punch a hole in a piece of metal, then use the centering die to center that hole in a larger punch hole to make the washer. Yup, verrry simple. Except that a couple things can go wrong. It's the old "oops!" factor that pops you one in the old snozzola when you're not looking.. You miscalculated and you didn't allow for enough metal for the larger piece, or you allowed for too much metal.

Solution: Select the outside diameter hole and position the metal for minimum waste, but not too much minimum. Tighten the tool down just enough to keep it level in the tool. Select the same size centering die and with a large point Sharpie marker, rub a little ink on the point of the die, drop the die into the hole, and Voila! you have a little dot. Release the metal from the cutter. Select the inside diameter of the washer to be, and use the dot plus your eyeball. to center the metal in that hole. Tighten the tool down firmly and punch out the hole. Move back to the outside diameter hole, insert the centering die and punch out the washer. No wasted metal. The tool does deliver a nice clean cut.

I used a urethane pad under the cutter, Bur Life on the punches and a two pound brass mallet..

Rolling Mill Idled

2012-02-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

No, there's nothing wrong with the mill. Some things came up and I didn't get the metal sawed and annealed, and readied to run through. Now, we are getting cold temperatures from the big snowstorm, so no work out in the garage where all the prep work goes on.

I did managed to put together a brace on the mill end of the bench. This will in turn create place to put a rack to hold some of the heavier hammers. In fact the whole bench will have to be rearranged in order to create a more sensible flow of work. Never make anything permanent, sooner or later you'll change it!

In the meantime, work continues putting together more cold connected metal pieces, and refining the process.

The New Rolling Mill Arrived

2012-01-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

Oh, Boy! The new Durston Mill is here! Can't help but be a little excited about that. First things first. I had to remove the old mill from it's place, and re-orient the stand I had built for it. It was big enough for the new mill and I used it for that. I will change the rollers in the old mill for wire work, make a new stand, and the find a place to put it.

This is package the mill came in. Looks nice doesn't it? Old mill in the background.

Opening the package, and there's the instructions. Read before going any further! O.K. Did that.

Package opened. First view of the mill after removing some of the foam packing.

With the help of strong wife, the mill is up on it's stand, but not yet fastened down. Handle attached with the Allen wrench.

Using a transfer pinch to mark where the mounting holes go. Punch does not come with the mill! Have to furnish your own.

Drilling the holes with 1/2 inch bit. Yeah, it looks crooked but that's because the drill bit is setting in a partially drilled hole and I have to use two hands to take the picture and can't hold the drill straight. It will all come out just fine in the end.

Bolted down. Rollers cleaned of the protective grease. We're all set to go! Yippee and Wahoo! Put a cover over it to keep off the dust. Tomorrow will be sawing and annealing day to get some metal ready to run through and give the mill a shakedown cruise.

One other little chore I must do it put some addition bracing on the bench under the mill as this mill is a deal heavier than the other one.

Rio Grande Big Sale

2012-01-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Rio Grande is having a sale and of course old John succumbed to the lure of lowered prices and completely blew the budget on a Durston rolling mill. A DRM F 100 R. So, what's wrong with the one I already have? Actually, nothing. The Durston will give me more accurate repeatable settings. With the one I have now, repeating an exact setting is rather hit and miss. Mostly miss. The new mill has greater width and greater gap capacity between the rollers.

A lot of time and work ahead to reconfigure the metalwork bench to accommodate the new mill. Plus cleaning off all the shipping oil that will be on the unit. The new mill will be about 40 pounds heavier than the other mill, so I will have a job getting the mill in place. I ain't that strong in the lifting department anymore. But, I will manage somehow.

Wire Rivets

2012-01-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

This week I explore wire rivets for cold connection jewelry elements. The photo shows the tools used. O the blue mat, upper left. the Speetog Plier/Clamp, flat-nose pliers. Below the pliers, a setting bur, No. 55 drill in mini-chuck, automatic center punch. Center, 8 inch No. 2 cut flat file and a No. 2 barrette needle file. Next: Two brass gauges, a short piece of 16 gauge wire, small Fretz riveting hammer No. 406, and a 1 inch bristle brush, to brush away filing and drilling debris.

Bottom, 4 inch square steel bench block, wood block, a small jar of liquid bur-life (I pour in about an eight inch depth, and use this to dip the end of the drill bit to lubricate it, and then drill), Xuron flush cutters. roll of 16 gauge wire.

Gauging the correct length of wire can be tricky. I use gauges made from brass sheet, as follows:

For an 18 gauge wire rivet, I punch a 1/4 inch hole in two pieces of 24 gauge brass sheet. You need two gauges to measure the end to end length of the rivet. The drill size for the rivet is a No. 60.

For a 16 gauge wire rivet, I punch a 1/4 inch hole in two pieces of 22 gauge brass sheet. Drill size for the rivet is a No. 55.

For a 14 gauge wire rivet, I punch 1/4 inch hole in two pieces of 20 gauge brass sheet. The drill size for the rivet is a No.52.

It doesn't have to be a 1/4 inch hole. This was the size already set-up in my punch.

If the metal distorts, whack it with a soft face hammer. I use my "go to" hammer for this. For accuracy, it's important to keep the metal flat.

The gauge example shown in the photo, shows the hole close to a corner of the sheet. After placing a rivet or two, depending on the size of the piece, you may find the other rivets, or parts of the elements, getting in the way of your gauge. Placing the hole near the corner of the gauge helps avoid this.

It is always a good idea to check your wire because there can be a slight difference in the diameter of the wire. Drill a right size hole in a piece of scrap metal and test the fit. Adjust accordingly. Having a full set of number drills is handy. You can always use the larger sizes to make decorative holes in an element.

Procedure:

1. Clamp the two parts of the piece tightly together. This is where the Speetog Plier/Clamp comes in handy. A ring clamp, or parallel jaw pliers can be substituted.

2. Center punch where the hole for the rivet is to be placed.

3. Place the element over a wood block and drill the hole with the appropriate size drill bit. 14 gauge wire, No.52, 16 gauge wire, No. 55, 18 gauge wire, No. 60. It is important to drill straight, avoid wobbling. I did not include 20 gauge wire as it can be more difficult to rivet. Drilling two or three pieces together at the same time will ensure the hole is accurate through all the pieces. I much prefer to use a drill press. That insures a straight hole and a much steadier feed rate of the drill into the metal.

4. Dress the hole with a setting bur, front and back, putting a little chamfer around the hole. Brush away debris. A larger size drill bit can also be used.

5. Using flush cutters, cut a off short length of wire, an inch or less. Short wire length works best for me. Many so-called flush cutters leave a tiny "pip" on the end of the wire. Square up one end of the wire with a file. Filing may leave a tiny bur on the edge which could make it difficult to get into the hole. Gently file round the end of the wire.

For the next steps, keep everything snug on the bench block.

6. Lay one of the gauges on steel bench block, hold the still clamped pieces to be riveted on top of the gauge, hole over hole.

7. Holding the wire in a pair of pliers, insert the filed end into the rivet hole. Make sure it goes all the way through and hits the bench block.

8. Insert the second gauge over the wire.

9. Lay the flush cutters flat against the top of second gauge, making sure all pieces are flat against one another, and cut the wire. Leave the gauge in place.

10. Carefully file the end of the wire removing any burs. Leaving the gauge in place will insure that you'll file just enough. Sometimes, you may find your wire cutter leaving more length than necessary. File the wire end until it even with the gauge.

11. Remove the top gauge and form the top of the rivet.

12. Turn the piece over, remove the bottom gauge, and finish forming bottom of rivet.

That is one way to do wire rivets.

Cold Connected Metal Elements

2012-01-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

Thought I would write up a little treatise on how I make the cold connected metal elements. This one deals with riveting using only the Crafted findings Rivet Tool. Other cold connection methods not covered are: handmade rivets, tabs, and micro bolts and nuts.

Above a photo of the bench with some metal pieces and some tools. In the lower right. there is a partially finished element, some rivets (not Crafted Findings), two have been cut to proper length with the cutters, two have not. Above the rivets is a playing card, cut in half, the two halves taped together, with a hole punched through. This is used as a gauge to cut the rivets to length.

Other photos with notations will appear in my Flickr Photostream.

Really BIG caveat! How I make them is not necessarily the right, correct, or precise way to do it. It's the way I do it. Wanted to make that absolutely crystal clear.

Basically, the elements consist of two or three pieces of different metals so there is a contrast of color. I use various gauges, 18, 20, 22, 24, brass, copper, aluminum and nickel silver (also known as german silver), and most everyone knows, there's no silver in it. I don't use any precious metals.

First, I use a.....

1. Jeweler's saw with appropriate blade to cut stock sheet metal down to manageable sizes. Small enough to go through my rolling mill.

2. No. 2 Flat file to remove burs.

3. Propane fueled torch for annealing metal.

4. Igniter.

5. Annealing pan, with pumice grains.

7. Pan of water to quench. I sometimes use ice water as this will help hold heat patina colors.

8. Paper towels to dry off the annealed metal.

Some of the metal pieces are selected for texturing, others left plain.

Second:

1. Manilla Folder, cut into pieces small enough to go through the mill.

2. Scissors or shears to cut the folder.

3. Various texturing materials. The manilla folder paper will put a nice texture on metal. Take two pieces of manilla and sandwich the metal between and run through the mill. Also, I used a piece of netting from an onion bag from the grocery, or a piece of brass mesh, 20 threads per inch.

4. Rolling mill.

Third:

1. Disc cutter.

2. Brass head mallet, 2 pounds.

3. Padding under the disc cutter. I use a 1/16 inch thick urethane pad. This protects the punches from damage.

4. Bur Lube to lubricate the punches.

After cutting the discs, some are run the mill to create a nice oval shape. Some are punched again in or near the middle with a smaller size punch, and then run through the mill. Different shapes can be made by varying the pressure of the rollers.

I sometimes heat the metal again with a torch of add more heat patina.

Fourth:

1. Metal Stamps, various styles to add texture to the plain discs.

2. Dual face hammer, brass and nylon.

3. Steel bench block.

4. Needle files. I use these to create notches in some small accent pieces

Some pieces are textured with various hammers. Ball peen, or the peen of a chasing hammer, texturing hammers, cross peen hammer. To hold small pieces in place on the bench block, I tape down a portion of the metal with some clear tape , stamp or texture the bare metal, and repeat the process on the other side.

I like to have a lot of different pieces laid out in front of me. Then I begin to pick and choose what pieces go well with one another, setting them aside, and repeating the selection process again and again. When I have several selected, I begin the assembly process.

Assembly:

1. Crafted Findings Rivet Tool and Rivets. 1/16 and 1/8 inch, copper, brass and aluminum.

2. Vise. I use the small Sine vise to hold the rivet tool.

3. The Speetog Plier Clamp. In place of this, parallel jaw pliers, ring clamp, or very strong fingers!

4. Flex-Shaft with No. 30 hand piece.

4. Fine point Sharpie pen.

5. Center punch.

6. No. 53, .063 inch drill bit, plus various other small size drills used to drill accent holes. A set of number drills 1 to 60 is handy to have. A 1/16 inch bit is the same size.

6. Wood block.

Why drill when the Riveting Tool has a punch for the rivet hole? Punching a hole through two or three pieces of metal with the tool's punch is difficult and could damage the punch.

To drill through two pieces of metal simultaneously. they must be securely clamped together. Taping the pieces doesn't always work, which is why the Speetog is so handy for this.

Drill over solid wood. Drilling over a hole in the wood produces burs on the backside of the piece.

Drill one hole for a rivet. Check the backside for burs and remove if need be. Then finish riveting. Then drill the next hole and rivet. One at a time until all rivets are finished.

If I use the tool's punch for a hole in a single layer of metal, I take a piece of card stock, like a 3 x 5 file card, with a narrow slot cut into it. When punching with the Rivet Tool, the metal piece can be hard to remove unless you reverse wind the punch bringing the metal up against the top of the tool. This can abrade the metal. By slipping the card onto the stem of the punch, over the metal, the metal won't be marred.

7. Small setting bur, about 5-6 mm. Used to put a chamfer around and neaten a hole drilled for a jump ring. Do this on both sides.

8. 1 inch PSA Mini Sanding Disc 220, for cleaning up any bur left from drilling.

9. Plastic tape. Cut small pieces of tape to hold a rivet. Place rivet head down on the sticky side.

10. Bead mat - if I drop a rivet, it won't bounce into the nether reaches and vanish.

11. Scissors to cut the tape.

12. Fine point tweezers.

13. Set the rivets with the Riveting Tool

When I use the tape method to carry and insert the rivet, I only partially seat the rivet with the rivet tool. Then I remove the tape and finish seating the rivet. Leaving the tape on can cause an incomplete riveting process.

14. Wood dapping block with oval depressions used to add a curve to the piece.

15. Fretz No. 7 hammer with interchangeable faces. I use the round face.

16. Pieces of paper towel to protect both the dapping block and the hammer face.

17. No. 2 file, 8 inch overall to clean up any uneven edges.

18. 3m bristle brushes to polish some areas

Questions, comments welcome.

New Followers and Rio Catalog

2012-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

I should pay more attention to the arrival of new followers. So, Welcome! Glad for your interest in the blog. Hope it proves to be entertaining and a little bit informative.

The GIGANTIC Rio Grande tool catalog arrived a few days ago, filled with just about everything imaginable. And, of course, I drooled over this and that, and, of course succumbed to the siren's lure and spent a ton on stuff I really didn't need. I may have to ask Rio to remove my name fro the mailing list in order to protect the budget.

In a couple days, I will post a little treatise on making cold connected metal elements. It won't be a slick professional tutorial, expertly written, like the ones in the slick magazines. But someone might get some good from it.

Go To Hammer

2012-01-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

We all have our personal favorite tools. This is a photo of my "Go To Hammer." I use this hammer more than any other. I use it for center punching, stamping, flattening and work hardening. Another favorite hammer is the little Fretz (No. 406), riveting hammer. There's a picture of it with other tools in an earlier post.

Pliers: When it comes to pliers, I find the Speetog indispensible. Too bad it's no longer made. Otto Frei does have a similar on, but it's pricey.

Files: It depends on what material I working with. Faux Bone™, I use No. 00 and No. 1 halfround Hablis for most of the roughing out work. For metal, an 8 inch overall length, Grobet No. 2 flat file, and for some areas, a Grobet No.2 Barrette needle file.

This hammer (some call it a mallet), has easily replaceable 5/8's inch faces, brass and nylon. It weighs around 5 oz. The head is about 2 5/8's inches long. Overall length, about 9 inches.

I didn't have any thing else ready to publish. Stock sheets of metal arrived, and I've been busy cutting them down to manageable sizes. Whole lotta sawing going on. More stuff arriving. Now to find places for it all! That's the problem with new materials and equipment.

I'll try to post something interesting next week next week

Just news

2012-01-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Cold, rainy day, no pictures to post. Did finish the metal elements necklace. Made about a dozen more metal elements, should be enough for another necklace. These are fun to make.

Worked out a system for using the Crafted Findings Rivet Tool. After either punching (single layer of metal), or drilling (multiple layers), the hole for a rivet, I snip off a small piece of Scotch packaging tape and place the rivet head down on the sticky side of the tape. Then I can maneuver the rivet to wherever it needs to go on the element without dropping it on the floor. With the rivet in place and taped down on the element, I can turn the element upside down and place it in the Rivet Tool and finish it. The Speetog plier clamp is a really big help, also. Especially when drilling through multiple layers of metal.

Ordered a ton of supplies. More metal, sheet, tube, wire, rivets. Epoxy clay (Milliput), Adirondack inks, enamels, copper etch, and the Minibrite cleaning system that Tele Formosa discusses on her blog. Thanks, Tela, for posting about it. Hope it works.

Mixed Metal Elements

2012-01-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

What I have been working on lately. Necklace elements of mixed metal. Copper, Brass and Aluminum.

Stamped out pieces with disc cutter, then some textured and elongated with rolling mill. Some pieces textured with nothing more than a sandwich of metal and two pieces cut from a manilla file folder. Others were textured with a piece cut from one of those netted onion sacks from the grocery, and others using a piece of brass screen. Parts of some elements textured with metal stamps. Some have been brushed with a Pumice 3M Radial Bristle Disc.

Fastened together with Crafted Findings Rivet Tool and various rivets. Figured out a way to use the rivet tool that works for me. Not exactly classic, but it works. The tool is held in the Sine Vise. This vise, at 8 pounds. stays put pretty well where ever I put it. With the hole punched and the proper size rivet selected, I place the rivet head down on a small piece of Scotch Packaging Tape. The rivet can be inserted in the hole in the metal element and turned upside down to be placed in the tool without fear of the rivet dropping to the floor and disappearing. After setting the rivet, the tape is removed. Absolutely brilliant! Ha, ha.

The different colors on the metal come from using a torch to form a heat patina.

I do apologize for the rather poor photography.

A New Year

2012-01-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

The old year has come and gone I hope the new year will a good year.

I will try to post some photos tomorrow of what I've be doing lately. I have a bit more time now, and maybe I will be able to post more often. Last year toward the end of the year, things weren't going too well and got behind on a lot of things.

Until tomorrow.

Season's Greetings

2011-12-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

Best wishes to all! Let us hope for a great new year in 2012!

I do regret not posting more than I have in the past. It is challenging to find time anymore to work on making jewelry.

I did find time to experiment with the Crafted Findings Rivet System tool and found that while the tool does work, it was very difficult for me to handle, and I probably would have spent less time by doing rivets to old fashioned way. The tool does work, and will do a nice job of setting both rivets and eyelets, but you do have to be very careful to get either rivet or eyelet exactly centered or you'll mess up. See example at right.

Notice the copper rivet upper left and the aluminum rivet upper right inside the brass ring. These got slightly offset when the flaring tool was used.

Anyway, I might get the hang of using to tool sooner or later. More likely later.

While not being totally satisfied with the piece, it looks just s good as some I've seen published by "experts" in the media. With a little touching up, it can be included in a metalwork necklace.

We had a nice warm day, for this time of year, yesterday, and I was able to find some time to work in the other "studio," the garage. Annealed some metal, and pounded out some disks, ran some through the mill, so I have a number of pieces to play with when I once again find the time.

New Toys

2011-11-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Pictured is the hard to find Speetog Plier Clamp, apparently manufactured in the United Kingdom in the 1940's. It is difficult to run down the exact facts about this unusual and interesting tool. I first saw one on John De rosier's blog several months ago, and I have been searching for one since then and finally found one on Ebay. Actually found two, but one seller wouldn't ship to the USA.

A similar tool can been obtained from Otto Frei, although at a much higher price.

The jaws of the original plier are serrated and need to be padded for jewelry work.

I asked John what he did to pad his Speetog's, and he kindly replied with instructions.

Below, the pliers with leather padded jaws. Affixed with Loctite epoxy weld. How's the grip on metal? Absolutely fantastic!

Pictured above is a Toolmaker's Sine Vise. The base measures 5 inches long, 2 inches wide, 3 and 3/8 inches high. Jaws open to 2 1/8 inches, and are 1 inch deep. Vise can be tilted to precise angle, thus the term "sine." It's hefty, weighing in at 8.5 pounds. Does a jewelry maker need one? Absolutely not. But when I saw one on Ebay at a good price; well, being a tool nut I couldn't pass it up.

Close up of a piece of copper wire being pounded into a rivet. Well, not really pounded, lightly tapped. The nice thing is that the vise is heavy enough not to move around when being used, and can be moved where ever needed. Sine vises are not meant for heavy work, so I think it will work out just fine.

What I am working on.....

2011-11-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

Lots of mistakes made on this piece. The horrid clasp is only temporary. I'm coloring the Faux Bone™ with acrylic paint and Gilder's Paste. When that's done, with the pieces cleaned up, I'll put a couple coats of Renaissance wax on them Then put it all together and hope for the best!

The bit of screen doesn't belong to this piece.

Gilder's Paste is kind of neat stuff. Best if slightly diluted with mineral spirits. I used Iris Blue on the back side of the bone, and on the edges. There's more left to do there. The acrylic is also slightly diluted, but with water. I can see some areas that need a bit color. Slow process.

Anyway, thanks for looking.

Explanation

2011-11-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I posted anything, and the reason is because I am the only vehicle operator in the immediate family. As a result, I have spent the last few weeks driving people to doctor's appointments, emergency room, hospital, rehab center. Anyone going to an emergency room in my neck of the woods will be in for a long, long wait before a doctor comes, and then long wait again.

As a result, I've done nothing in jewelry making, and I have no idea when I'll get back to it.

Scrap Copper Pipe Washers

2011-10-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Some followers of this blog may recall mention some time back about some scrap copper pipe I scrounged. The outside diameters are 3/8 and 3/4 inch.

The 3/4 inch pipe was annealed and the coloration comes from that process.

Random lengths were cut from each, and without regard to cutting exactly straight.

Then the cutoffs were placed in a dapping block, again without regard as to even dapping.

Next, the cutoffs were flattened with a small brass mallet, resulting in the odd shapes. Which was what I wanted. Perfectly round ones would be boring!

The bottom row washers are partially textured.

The smaller washers at the top and right came from cutting a longer piece off the 3/8 inch pipe. They have considerable, but interesting distortion.

An interesting experiment which, I think, hold some promise.

Update, again

2011-09-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Ah, me. Nothing to show. Been trying to get something put together but success is elusive. I have so many unfinished pieces lying around patiently waiting for me to get moving. Gah! It's pitiful!

A terrific jewelry artist, Ann Cahoon writes in Ganoskin about sawing myths, and it's worth a read. One myth she didn't write about is whether you should or should not relieve the tension on the saw blade when you have finished sawing for the day. Some say yes, others no. So who is right? Some say you should always fit the size of the blade to the thickness of the metal, other's disagree, saying using a finer blade will mean less filing afterwards.

Another thing. There's a myth about sawing thin metal. She doesn't touch on this, but there is a way to saw out intricate designs in thin gauge metal. I have not tried this, and it isn't original with me. It involves making a sandwich.

You need two pieces of thin wood, like doll furniture wood, your thin metal, 28, 30 gauge, wax paper, and a printed design. It goes like this, bottom wood, then wax paper. then metal, then wood, with your design glued on top of the top piece of wood. Tape the sandwich together so it won't move, drill access holes for the saw blade. Saw out all the interior spaces, then the outside. I repeat for emphasis: I have not tried this method!

Also, Charles Lewton-Brain discusses the use of "duct tape" at the bench. Confess, never thought of that as I thought it might leave residue behind. Tested using it to hold a pice of metal on bench block. Hah! No residue! And, it holds better than the ubiquitous painter's tape. One possible drawback, not every brand may be equal. Another, rolls are usually huge when new and take up space, something virtually non-existent in my cubby hole. Since it does work, I will find space somewhere.

DynastyLab continues with his torch series. Mentions a torch currently unavailable in the U.S. A "Bullfinch" brand. If you are interested, Google "bullfinch torch" and find it's available in Great Britain. I would bet you can find a company that would be glad to sell you one. Me, not interested. I am interested in the blowpipe torch sold by Fischer. I might be opening a can of worms for myself!

Update

2011-09-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Nothing to show for this week, but I have been busy using what time available to get some things done.

Spent the hard earned money on supplies, more copper sheet, 24 gauge. Amazing how fast you can go through a 12 x 12 inch sheet! Used up a entire sheet pounding out various sized discs and some misshapen washers. I may have devise something to get the hole centered in the punch as I don't seem to be a very good judge to get it right. Four washers out of eight, ah well, fifty percent, anyway. Ran some of the metal through the rolling mill for textures. Some of the discs will end up a bead caps. Others, don't know, yet. Got out the circle dividing template, marked centers, punched holes.

Did no further work on the anvil.

Paid a visit to Harbor Freight and bought some compartmented storage boxes. Little more pricey than the hobby shop, but better quality. You can never have too much storage! Ha!, you might know, no space left for the boxes.

Then, ordered several tins of Gilder's Paste. I really like this stuff! Lima Beads http://www.limabeads.com, has a good selection and best price. Plus, if you are an established customer, you might get 10% off your order, and if you're not in a big hurry, there's free shipping! There's some "how to use" instructions on the site. Check it out. Another way to add color to your metal, (copper and brass), polymer clay, and Faux Bone™.

Decided to buy a new book just out at the bookstore. "Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry", by Barbara Lewis.
Lewis has developed a technique using an ordinary Mapp gas or Propane fueled torch to fire enamel. No kiln needed. Great! Last thing I want is a kiln. Too rich for my blood, plus no place left to put one! Now that I've bought the book, guess I'll have to get some enamel and try the technique out and see what develops. Be awhile before I do that, spent all my pennies on the above stuff.

And, speaking of torches, checkout DynastyLab's blog, http://benchofanapprentice.blogspot.com and take a look at his "torch series". He has published two articles so far, more to come.

Finally, something I've been meaning to do for some time now, is mention another blog, "Jan and Shane Rogers Blog for Mixed Media Art and Jewelry." http://janrogers1968blogspot.com/ They've got more items on their blog than you can shake a stick at! Sorry to be so long in giving your well deserved recognition!

Next post, a week from now. Maybe I will have something to show, then.

Anvil, in progress

2011-09-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

After grinding, filing and some sanding, as you can see, some progress has been made. Been a lot of work to get it where it's at now. The one really deep ding on the bottom is just going to have to stay. Still a long way to go to get it finished. I'm going to set it aside for awhile and try to work on some jewelry.

Metal Stamp Holder --another scrap wood project

2011-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Two scrap wood blocks, glued, and bored with brad point wood drill bits, then glued onto a beveled wood block to tilt it forward. There are some open spots for additional stamps should they be obtained sometime in the future. I made it small because it is easier to handle that way.

Did more work on the anvil. It's coming along slowly. I might get it finished this weekend.

Anvil

2011-09-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an anvil I picked up on Ebay made from an old railroad iron. The top is 2 1/4 inches wide by 12 3/4 inches long, and is about 4 inches in height. I haven't looked up info on railroad irons, but this seems like it was originally narrow gauge rather than standard.

Today was relatively nice, so I went to work on the anvil. Whoever had it before me worked it over pretty good and as you can see it has a lot of dings. Some pretty deep. The top looked exactly like rusty bottom so there was quite of bit of work just to get the rust off. There's still a long way to go and some of the dings are just going to have to stay, being so deep. But, I think I can work around them.

I think the shape is pretty neat, and that's the main reason I bought it.

In between grinding away on the anvil, I decided to make a holder for some decorative metal stamps. But, I didn't have time to finish the project. I'll post a pic of that, ah well, sometime!

An oversight: I should pay more attention. I see there are new followers of the blog, so a belated welcome to you, and thanks.

Update

2011-09-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Company gone back home. Glad to see them come, glad to see them leave. Maybe that's a poor attitude to have, but grandchildren of 2 going on 3 and 3 going on 4, can wear you out in hurry! Boundless energy!

Now, September is here and maybe, just maybe we can enjoy some cooler weather. Summer has been a scorcher.

And, maybe I can get back to working again on some jewelry pieces. I'm going to switch gears a little and try to do more metal, and metal and faux bone together.

Here's a little tip beginning wire workers might like, and anyone else using wire wraps and jump rings. Sometimes, no matter how careful you may be, a little snag may show up. Take a piece of cotton, or cotton ball, and lightly swipe it over your jump rings and wraps. You'll soon know if something needs to be rectified, as the cotton will snag on it.

Probably Monday next, I'll have something worth showing.

Old, Dry, Cracked Bones

2011-08-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Previous post showed some cut out pieces of Faux Bone™ on the bench top. After hacking away on them during the week, below is the result.

Brown shoe polish for color, some wood beads and some of the heat treated copper jump rings and tube spacers. Strung on Greek leather cord. Marks cut in with a single edge razor blade. I have more control with this type of blade than the common craft knife.

A note to regular visitors. I'm taking some time off from posting. Thanks for visiting.

HEAT TREATED COPPER PIECES and CUT FAUX BONE PIECES

2011-08-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

The pieces in the photo were heated in an oven at 350º (F) for 20 minutes. It demonstrates that you can get some strange color on copper. Some turn silvery, others gold, and some with the red metallic color. These are just a few of hundreds of pieces. You just never know what will pop up.

Some Faux Bone pieces, cut, partially finish with the filing, more to be done. Last of the Atoll series in back. New Island pieces in center, saved cut-outs from the pieces in back, and free form pieces in front, all nine to eventually go on a necklace. Haven't a clue how they will be finished. I will just wing it as usual.

Missfickle beads have arrived from the good folks at Lima Beads. They are fantastic!

Stay well, make good stuff, and thanks for looking.

Some folks have to have music. I have to have Altoids, and the tins make good storage boxes.

CUTTING TUBING FOR NECKLACE SPACERS

2011-08-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

This how I do it, the method and the tools. There may be better ways, so you should not consider this the only or best way.

I use 1/8 inch diameter tubing to make the spacers, but the method applies to other sizes as well.

The tools:

The tube cutting jig I use is made by Pepe Tools. A medium cost range tool. It comes with a handle for hand held use, but I don't use it that way. Can be adjusted to cut lengths up to 13 cm. Has a little lever clamp to hold tubing in place while you cutting. Most suppliers will say it can't be used in a vise. Well, I disagree.

Vise. Most any small vise can be used. I use either a vise with a 1 inch wide jaw, or a Panavise with a 2 1/2 inch jaw. I prefer the latter. The jig can be mounted in the vise securely, leaving room for tightening or loosening the adjustment screw.

Jeweler's Saw Frame. I use a Grobet, with a 2 3/4 inch throat. Any other will work just fine. With the Grobet frame, you must really tighten down the thumb screws. I've failed to do this a couple times and ended up breaking brand new blade. Bummer! I have a German made frame as well, but it holds the Faux Bone™ blade, and I'm too lazy to change it. Why two different saw frames? Wanted to try both kinds out. I have no actual preference.

Saw blade. Size 4/0. The only brand of saw blade I have ever used are Rio Grande's Laser Gold brand. These blades seem to last a long time, but I have no way to compare them with other brands. I use 4/0 size because it doesn't leave very much of a bur on the ends of the tubes. The cutting length of this blade seems a little short, 2 3/4 inches. I don't know how this length compares with others.

Bee's wax. I use this to lubricate the blade by very lightly stroking the block of wax along the backside of the blade. I try, but sometimes forget, to lube the blade before every cut. This may be overdoing it, but I think it prolongs the life of the blade. The blade will eventually break no matter what you do, as metal fatigue sets in aftwer awhile and weakens the metal.

Tweezers, fine point. I'm cutting very short pieces from the tubing, 2, 3, 4 mm in length. Sometimes, more often than not, I need tweezers to remove the cut-off from the jig.

Good lighting. You always need good light.

Receptacle for the cut-offs.

Tumbler. I tumble the cut-offs with Lortone tumbler in water with a dash of Dawn dish detergent for an hour to polish them up a bit and minimize any tiny burs that might be left.

Sawing: I find fresh saw blades tend to be grabby in the metal until I've sawn five or six pieces, then the blade settles down, broken in, and the sawing becomes easier. I positioned the tube cutting jig so the sawing is horizontal, and I only use the weight of the saw frame for pressure on the metal. I have no frame of reference as to how fast I move the saw back and forth, but I guess it's somewhere between fast and slow.

I listen to the sound of the saw blade working through the metal. When the sound changes, softens, I know to slow down and go easy as I'm almost through the metal. I also know that if I don't, when the blade breaks through, it will drop and hit the bottom of the jig and bounce. This bounce can send the little cut-off flying out of the jig to who knows where and is lost. And, it's probably not good for the blade.

Well, now you know. Perhaps some who visit this blog will find this information useful. Thanks for taking time visit. Meanwhile, be well, stay happy and make great jewelry.

La Bench

2011-07-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

Little change of pace, a pic of my CLEAN! bench. In the past, things got really messy. Now I'm trying very hard to work neater, put things back in a certain spot, making them easier to find. Tools have been moved to be more accessible and those that aren't used as much are put away. A coil of 16 gauge brass wire is on the bench pin, cutters and pliers in a tray in the drawer. The little plastic cups (saved from the BBQ Joint), hold jump rings and tube spacers just recently cut. Pretty soon, the different batches will be tumbled, and some of the copper will be heat treated, some will receive some LOS. Those heavy duty Xuron cutters resting in the tray really work well for the heavier gauge wire.

My workplace is really tight. I couldn't back up far enough to show the whole bench.

I guess I have some sort of fixation on other people's workplaces. I love looking at them. Everyone is different.

A lot of jewelry makers like to listen to music, or the radio as the work. I am a complete opposite. I like silence. I have trouble concentrating if there is noise, music or otherwise. But, I do like music, and when I do listen to it, I don't want the distraction of anything else. Funny that way.

Next post probably a week from the date of this post.

In the meantime, stay well, have fun and make great jewelry.

Atoll No. 3

2011-07-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Another Atoll pendant, unfinished as usual. This time because I need to order some Missfickle beads from Lima Beads. Nice people there, at Lima Beads. I think those special patinated beads will work quite well, along with some heat treated copper spacers and jump rings. It will be strung on greek leather cord.

Fux Bone™, brass and copper rivets. Color, green acrylic paint, Iris blue Gilder's paste. Stone is ocean jasper, suspended from copper wire.

I guess I have some sort of passion for the South Pacific atolls. No two are alike, and many have unique fauna found no where else.

Heat treating copper

2011-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a tip from Robert Dancik, and I thought I would give it a try. Heat patina on copper.

Heat an oven to 350 degrees, put the copper wire in the oven and heat it for 15 to 20 minutes. Even though it's hot outside, and the oven does put extra pressure on the air conditioner, I just could resist trying this out.

I coiled the wire, and just for purely experimental purposes. put some of the spacers which I had cut from copper tubing, and some jump rings, in a little metal tray, and put everything in the oven. Set the time for twenty minutes. All well and good, except I got caught up in something and didn't here the timer go off. So, I don't have a clue how long the materials stayed in the oven. As it turned out, I don't think any harm was done, but the colors! Wow! They are hard to describe. There's gold, silver, a purplish silver, two-tones on some, bronze, and bright copper. Why didn't the pieces come out as one color, and why some with very little change? Mystery. I"m going to do some more experiments, but I'll wait for cooler outside temps.

Anyway, thought I would pass this on, maybe others will want to give this method a try.

Changed the bench pin to a larger surface which should help with the preliminary sawing. I will still need to make some little improvements on the larger pin. And, I need to reposition the bench pin as it is really too high for my comfort. Gah! So many things I need to do to make life easier!

Finally broke down and got an inexpensive filing block. If you ever buy one, better buy a bottle of rubber cement, as the block is not fixed to the base, which makes it useless, at least for my purposes. But it works fine now that block is cemented to the base. Very helpful adjunct to the bench.

And now, I have to make more jump rings and tube spacer's.

Desert Land™

2011-07-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Finally finished a piece!

Focal is Chohua Jasper affixed to a piece of Faux Bone™ and painted with acrylic paint. The other two stones are Paint Brush Jasper. Copper beads. Copper tube spacers and jump rings which have been heat treated so they come out with some variations in color.

New Stuff, New Toy

2011-07-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well, you know me, can't resist getting something new. In the can is Gliders Paste, Iris Blue, from Cool Tools. Nine different colors. Neat stuff, tested it out on some bone, and it looks like it's going to work quite well. It does come out much lighter than its appearance in the photo.

Below, also from Cool Tools, a micro engraver, Beadsmith brand. Powered by two AAA batteries. This little engraver works very nicely, and is much easier to handle than some of the larger ones. Small tip shown, there is also a larger tip. But, there's just one really big problem. My penmanship never was very good and my engraving/calligraphy skills are totally non-existent! No joke, but I can use the tool in other ways.

Still sawing spacers and making heavy wire jump rings. Brass, copper and aluminum. Someday, you'll see how I'm using them, together with the spacers cut from 1/8 inch tubing.

Want to see a picture of a studio to die for? Check out the latest issue of "Ornament" Volume 34, No. 4, and droll over Linda Threadgill's fabulous studio. Just wish there had been other views. I do like to see other folks work places. Several are shown on Ganoskin, but the photos are so small, it's hard to make out what's what in some of them.

Still hot here. I try to stay out of the heat as much as possible. Not nearly as tough as I once was.

HOT

2011-07-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

It is very hot here. Too hot to do much out in the garage where some of the equipment is kept. Made more jump rings and tube spacers. Now, I have to get into a "stringing" mode and get some of the pieces finished. I like to make the focal points and attendant pieces, I just don't like stringing. But, it has to be done sooner or later.

Still puttering with the step by step article. I'm on draft number twelve and it's still not right.

Have you had a chance to visit "The Bench of an Apprentice" ? If your into metal, there's some good information here. http://benchofanapprentice.blogspot.com

Nancy L T Hamilton is starting a new video series. Good information here also. http://nancylthamiton.com/

Judy Freyer Thompson over at Faux Bone™, http://fauxbone.wordpress.com/ , has a Crab Claw ring, and one other ring, in "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" exhibit on Ganoskin. http://www.ganoskin.com/gnkurl/beb
The exhibition is worth a look.

Thanks for your continued viewing.

Apologies

2011-07-09T11:48:00.001-07:00

I regret I have nothing to show this week. Maybe not even next week. Of all things, I ran out of some supplies of which I thought, mistakenly, there was more. Not so. Ordered more, but when they will arrive, anybody's guess.

I have been doing some work, drudge work, I don't especially enjoy, but has to be done. Made a bunch of jump rings, so there's good supply of those. Made a bunch of spacers from copper tubing and ran out of that. More to order. Gah! it's endless. Thought I had some brass. Nope. Very poor inventory management.

Found some of the copper beads had holes too small, spent a lot of time getting those fixed. Drudge work. Next week, more drudge work until the supplies arrive.

Atoll No. 2

2011-07-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

Atoll No. 2 partially finished.

Faux Bone™, Swarovski crystal pearls, creamrose and tahitian-look, copper wire rivets, palm trees scored in with X-acto knife, colored with green acrylic paint and light blue Prismacolor pencil on the interior and exterior.

Last posting for awhile, be sometime next week.

Thanks for your continued viewing.

Atoll No. 1

2011-06-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Start of a new series.

Faux Bone™, swarovski crystals, copper and brass rivets, copper wire, blue and green acrylic paint. Eventually, I'll hang it from some Greek cord.

Still sawing, filing and sanding

2011-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

I have started a new series using Faux Bone™. I haven't stopped with the Organics, but writing that step-by-step used up a lot of time. After setting that aside to sort of re-set the brain, I took a nearly full sheet of bone and drew out some designs and started sawing and sawing, sawing, ending with twenty pieces. I decided to saw all the pieces, one after other, rather than do one, finish it, then do another.

The shape of some of the pieces is different than any I had done before, and may be, in their own way, more interesting. We'll see.

After sawing all the pieces, I took a mini-drum sander and smoothed the edges. Now I have to decide how to finish them.

Then I retrieved the step-by-step, read it again and groaned. It won't do. Another re-write is called for, so it's back to the keypad for more typing. Maybe I'll get it right this time!

I doubt if I can post any photos until next mid-week. Too many things in the way right now.

Writing

2011-06-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

A friend has encouraged me to write a step by step article, so I have been busy writing and rewriting. The article, if published, won't be until sometime in 2012.

Now that I finished the final draft, I can get back to making some jewelry. Maybe I can get something finished by the weekend.

Organic 3

2011-06-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

Faux Bone™ Sawn, shaped, inlay of plumber's epoxy putty, textured, colored with burnt sienna acrylic paint, Renaissance Wax.

Frustration Dampeners

2011-06-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

Changing drill bits can be a hassle. There are no 3/32" shank drill bits which exactly match wire gauge sizes, so using a quick change hand piece is out. Using keyed chuck hand piece is the only option, leaving one with constantly adjusting to this size bit to that size bit. Shown are two different adapter chucks, both with 3/32" shanks. The one on the left is meant for bits No. 60 down to 80. The one on the right come with two chucks, for No. 60 on up to 48 (12 gauge). The adapter chucks aren't that expensive. I now have a full suite fitting wire gauges 12 through 26 gauge, including the 1/16" bit for certain eyelets and rivets.

I have placed them in individual plastic tubes and labeled them.

Thank you!

2011-06-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Galeriaaurus, Poland; & Kreativbua, Norway. Thank you, ladies, for continuing to cite my jewelry making efforts on your blogs. Thanks to both, viewers of this blog have increased dramatically.

Two more Organics are partially finished, and three more to start. I like to work on more than one at a time. I think it helps to get a fresh look at a piece after you've worked on it for awhile and then set it aside, out of sight, out of mind. I will end with seven of the Organics and move on to other things for awhile.

Organic 2, Complete

2011-06-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Upper photo shows the piece after heating and domed in a wood dapping block.

The completed piece with texture and color, Burnt Sienna Acrylic.

Hope you like it!

Organic 2, partial

2011-06-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Organic 2. Holes sawn and drilled, partially shaped by filing. Rivets installed. As you can see, there's still a lot of little crumbs which need to be removed. I may still add some more small holes.

Next step will probably be to heat the material and shape into a shallow dome. Then add texture and color.

Galeria Trendymania again

2011-06-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

To be fair to some of the other artists whose work I particularly like, they are, in no particular order:

Alabama, Ksenia Art, Extrano, Drakonaria. Aurus, Vigoart, 7Malin, Galeria Oko, Hannah Studio, Iza Malcyzk.

If you haven't taken a look, go ahead and do so. I'm sure you will find plenty to admire.

In Awe

2011-06-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

It is difficult for me to grasp, but I am in awe of the number hits this blog received yesterday! Amazing! Thanks to all who visited, and who may visit in the future.

Some much needed supplies of wire arrived yesterday, 1 pound spools and that means that I must soon put up a board with pegs to hold them. Ah gee, I will have to move the tool cabinet, no big deal as it is on rollers, but it also means moving the bench out away from the wall and moving the stump. The stump has become heavier and harder to move with all of the stuff it's carrying. An all day job for me.

Also arriving, one of Wubber's newest pliers, the wire looping one. It works absolutely great. Not that I can't make loops the old fashioned way, but these pliers make loops a cinch. One caveat, one size only. If you want bigger loops, you still have to do it the old way. I can see at sometime in the future, there may be a larger looper coming from Wubber's. We'll just have to wait and see.

Organic 2 is one quarter finished. For some strange reason, sawing it out was not fun, and I broke three blades. Had be something I was doing wrong. Maybe forcing the blade, white knuckle syndrome, take your pick. Ended up using a short, bent blade, and taking a lot of care not to get the blade in bind. That increased the sawing time considerably. Anyway, the sawing is done. The next step is cleaning up the holes. Then, I think I will put in some various size rivets, and then begin to shape the whole piece. After that, heat it up with a heat gun and form the piece on a wood dapping block.

Thanks for your continued interest.

More on the Organic piece

2011-06-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

I asked a friend of mine to critique the piece, and not pull any punches. If she thought it was not good, or could be improved to say so. She is a lot smarter than I am, a long time teacher of jewelry making and a writer of articles on jewelry making. Well, I can't tell how pleased I was when her critique was positive and encouraging. As a result of her report, I am planning several additional pieces along the same organic line, and I hope I will be able to finish one before the weekend and post it. I am very much taken by the nature illustrations by Ernst Haekel of tiny organisms, although reproducing these in faux bone or metal is far beyond my skill level. But, I can use some parts as inspiration to make something which looks organic. Let's hope I am successful!

Thank you new followers and to all who have been curious about my work.

Organic

2011-06-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Whole bunch of holes, drilled, sawed, filed, sanded, textured, colored with burnt sienna acrylic paint. Approximately 2.5 cm x 4.2 cm.

Tool Tray for Faux Bone™ Work

2011-06-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

Some things I like to keep neat on the bench. In back, a checkering file and a small Fretz riveting hammer. A center punch is kept in the little section in front of the hammer handle. I do not use the riveting hammer to strike the center punch. For that, I use a double head brass/nylon hammer. In front, left to right, Robert's swivel head shaping tool (actually a wax carving tool), which doesn't get much use, and a fine grit mini sanding drum, which gets a lot of use. Next are various files in various degrees of coarseness, a needle tool, triangular scraper, another needle file, flat # 2 that is sometimes used to neaten up the end of a rivet, an X-acto knife with the standard blade. In the last compartment on the right, an old typewriter cleaning brush for cleaning files, and a tool I found on the street that I've altered into a sort of scriber. I have no idea what use it was intended for originally. The white square in a piece of Faux Bone™.

Also, outside the tray, a woodworker's countersink drill bit. Used to chamfer drilled holes to neaten them up a bit. Playing cards with hole punched in them. Guide for cutting rivets to length.

Getting ready to cut another shape, a crescent, and showing more of the messy bench. Some other shapes and some ideas that didn't quite work out. Maybe someday I can save them from extinction and use them in another piece.

Next post will show the next major process in making a piece.

South Seas, almost complete

2011-06-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

Piece complete except for the ending and the clasp. Haven't decided what to do there.

The design of the necklace was inspired by a piece by Sydney Lynch, one of the artists featured in "Jewelry Design Challenge" edited by Linda Kopp.

Sydney used sterling silver tubing, all cut to the same length, South Seas uses copper tubing (from Metalliferous), random cut and textured, and treated with Cool Tools Patina Gel (LOS). With jump rings, by me. and copper beads from Blue Mud, strung on black greek leather cord from Monsterslayer.

Drops are all ocean jasper (most from Ebay sellers), on copper wire with balled ends.

One reason to put the ocean jasper beads on drops. Greek cord won't go through the holes. 18 gauge wire will rarely go through without re-drilling, and sometimes 20 gauge won't go through on long shape beads because the manufacturer's drills aren't long enough, so they drill part way from one end, the turn the bead and drill back, hoping the two drill holes meet. More often than not, they don't. What is really a strange thing is a bead with two different sized holes! 18 g fits one side, but only 20 g on the other. Strange. The long bead on the left had one end where a piece had cracked off. To even the end up I used an aluminum oxide cut-off wheel (with water) in flex-shaft. Took about 20 minutes, worth it to save a nicely patterned bead.

Cool Tool's Patina Get is great stuff to work with, still stinky though, as you might expect with liver of sulfur. Where lump los quickly loses it's effectiveness with exposure to air, you can leave Patina Gel container open and it doesn't degrade. Plus, it's much easier to get the strength of solution you desire, and it will work with cool water. Just slower working.

Thanks for taking a look.

Galeria Trendymania

2011-06-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

When I turn on the computer in the morning, Galeria Trendymania is usually the first site I visit. There is so much just simply superb work there in several different disciplines. The only thing about the site I don't like is that it's all Polish text and translation to English is often difficult to impossible, even with online dictionaries and translation services. I am able to figure out some of the text, but it is still a chore.

There is one jewelry artist whom I would like to take the opportunity to extol her work, and that is Fiann. It seems that in any medium she choses to work, she does a masterful job. Be it metalwork, metal clay, or polymer clay, it is all excellently done. If you visit the site, you can find her work under "Bizuteria", = Jewelry.

Fiann is not alone. There are many others deserving of praise. Check it out.

I guess I am getting old. My energy level has gone down considerably. I've been working on and off on one particular necklace which is giving me a lot of difficulty. Tomorrow, I will do some patination on some of the parts of the design, and after that, I may be able to finish getting it together.

Thanks for your patience.

South Seas

2011-05-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

The details:

Base, 1/4 inch Faux Bone™, one and five-eights inch 55º ellipse (approx.) outside. 13/16ths circle inside diameter, bottom of circle slightly scooped out with 1/4 inch, 320 grit mini-sanding drum. 24, 20 and 18 gauge copper wire rivet decoration. See note below.

Ocean Jasper nugget on 20 gauge, balled end copper wire with small copper bead caps. The bead caps were punched from 24 gauge annealed copper sheet with the micro punch. The ball end of the wire was immediately quenched in ice water, preserving the bright reddish pink color.

Edges were rough filed with the small half-round file you see in the accompanying photo, then gone over with a No. 2 cut half-round needle file. A fine grit mini-sanding drum was used to shape the interior. A No. 4 half-round needle file was also used on the outside perimeter of the ellipse to remove most of the saw marks.

Wet sanded with 320, 400 and 600 grit sand paper.

Blue tint added using aquamarine Prismacolor pencil and Golden Acrylic Interference Blue (Fine) paint.

Renaissance Wax over the entire piece and buffed.

Note: When using small gauge wire for rivets, you should adjust your thickness gauge accordingly in order to trim off the wire to the proper length. Otherwise, you can end up with more, or less, wire than needed. It is a good idea to use some of the scrap material to test out the different gauge wires. In this pendant piece, I elected to make the rivets flush with the surface. To do this I used a No. 4 cut flat needle file. Then sanded again.

Tip: There can be a slight variation in wire gauges. Use scrap faux bone. Select the proper size drill bit for the gauge, drill the hole. Use a triangular scraper to ream a countersink on both sides of the hole, or use a larger size drill bit. You may find it easier using a pin vise to hold the bit. Cut a small piece of wire, remove any burs on the cut ends with a small file, sanding stick, or cup bur. Hold the wire near the end with a pair of flat nose pliers and insert into the hole. If it refuses to go in, or slips in easily, then the hole is either too small or too big. There should be some resistance in getting the wire through the hole, but not so much the wire bends. Go to the next smaller or larger drill bit and try again. Complete the rivet. If it looks o.k., then test the next larger size. Mark your cut-off gauges with wire size.

Decide where you want the rivets placed, and drill all the holes.

Begin with the smallest gauge wire and do one rivet at a time. Then go to the next larger gauge, and so on.

Be careful when reaming (countersinking) the hole. Too much and the rivet won't fill in the countersink.

Still Alive

2011-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note to let all know that I haven't fallen off the edge of the world. You didn't know I live on Discworld did you?

The flood damage is cleared up on my part. The wife still has tons of material to go through.

I will post a photo of a piece very soon. Hope you like it.

Bad News

2011-04-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hello folks. I am sorry to inform you that I will not be posting for awhile. My wife and I have two units in a storage facility which, unfortunately were flooded, due to the torrential rains we have had, and a nearby creek over topped its banks, sending water into the entire facility.

My wife had a considerable amount of her artwork stored there, and we will be days of drying out her things. Ironically, while all the mats are gone, water color paper does survive! We just have to keep it from becoming stained and moldy. We think all of the frames survived, which is good. But thousands of dollars worth of matting is gone.

Hope to be back posting in a week or so.

Success!

2011-04-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Drrrrummm roll. please! Ol' John has actually finished a piece! Due to monsoon conditions, I won't be able to post a photo until the skies clear and there's enough light to take a picture. I like diffused daylight, no flash or artificial light, so the wait is on for decent light.

Weather

2011-04-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

This blog is supposed to be about my jewelry making efforts, but I must say the weather around here lately has been nothing but wet, wet, wet! Rain storms, thunder storms, three hailstorms so far, two in one day, and tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, and still more to come. We are, however, more fortunate than some who suffered the havoc of large hail and tornado damage.

Onward to what progress has been made in the la studio. I've set aside the Beach Combing piece for the time being. The time being when the inspirational muse thrums a few chords in my brain so I can finish the piece.

In the meantime, I have started a new piece which is about halfway finished. I should have it done by Wednesday/Thursday, and hopefully we will have a break in the weather and I can get a photo of it for your viewing pleasure. Plus I'll show the tools used and bore you with how I did it.

See you then.

Couple more items. The photo of the micro-punch might be misleading. If you look close, the top plate is not down firmly on the metal as it should be if actually stamping the metal. The punches can be used from either end and must be struck with a plastic or nylon head hammer.

Run across another blog which might be of interest if your working with metal.

http://benchofanapprentice.blogspot.com

Interesting and informative commentary there, check it out.

A New Tool

2011-04-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

This the Micro-Punch set from Micro-Mark. 9 punches, ranging from 1 mm to 5 mm in 0.5 mm increments.

The copper strip is 26 gauge and was annealed prior to punching out some small discs. Also, the punch was lubricated with Bur-Life. Although the punches are advertised as hardened, I take no chances and anneal and lubricate. I will say this, although small in size, the tool is precisely made. I doubt if I will ever use the tinier punches, but the four larger ones have potential.

I keep the set in an Altoids mint tin. It does not come in any kind of storage container other than a rather weak plastic bag.

Ceremonial Blade

2011-04-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

From scrap piece of Faux Bone™, acrylic paint, fetish is a small guinea feather, dyed chicken feather, tucked into a seed bead with a piece of balled end coper wire. Eventually be hung from black greek cord.

Still trying to finish the Beach Combing piece.

My remarks about the false copper wire elicited some responses from a manufacturing company in India, named GKon Electronics. Google apparently picks up on key words so word gets spread around. Sorry, I am a small, very small user of copper wire and have no room or resources for huge bulk orders. :-)

Set Back

2011-04-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Due to the impure copper wire, my projects are on hold until new copper wire comes arrives. The really bad part in that I will have to take some things apart and rework them, other pieces won't be salvageable, and will have to be trashed and remade.

Your patience is appreciated.

More on impure copper wire

2011-04-03T07:45:00.001-07:00

You cannot ball the ends of wire pieces using a torch with the impure copper wire if you're into that in your jewelry making.

Impure Copper Wire

2011-04-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

I have just discovered that impure copper wire is being sold in some craft stores. I had to stop and do some clean up at the bench and while picking up some copper wire cut offs that missed getting a little container I have for that purpose, that some of the wire stuck to pair of tweezers that happened to be magnetized. I checked some of the spools of copper wire with a magnet and the wire stuck to the magnet, indicating it was not pure copper as sold. Maybe this won't make a difference to you in your work, but it should.

P. S.

2011-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I knew I would forget something! Note to self, make notes.

Just a suggestion. You just got your piece of Faux Bone™ in the mail. Cut out about a two inch square of the material. Wet sand one side only, going from course to fine grits. Sanding one side allows you to get the feel of the results, and will help you grip the material for the next procedure.

With your file, rough shape one edge, then smooth in down, using the circular filing method as shown in the tutorial DVD, checking the results as you go. Sand this side.

Next, drill some holes of the appropriate size, and practice riveting.

Next, practice adding textures with craft knife, stamps, or other materials.

Practice adding color, with acrylic paint, shoe polish, alcohol based ink, color pencils.

Now you're ready for the big time and a finished one-of-a-kind piece that rocks!

Avoiding the Oops! Moment

2011-04-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Learning from my mistakes is part of what this blog is all about. I have no formal training in jewelry making. The result is that I often do things wrong, the hard way, or do something too soon, or too late, or forget entirely. I have an innate tendency to work without any clear aim as to what the final outcome will be.

Well, enough of that. let's get on to the title, "Avoiding the Oops! Moment."

Let us assume you have cut out the shape you want from a sheet of Faux Bone™, and you've shaped and sanded it. Next comes adding some decorative elements to the piece. You decide to add a spiral made from 16 gauge wire. Assuming you have read your wire gauge to drill bit size chart correctly, you have avoided an Oops! moment, and now you drill a hole to attach the spiral. If you stop the drill's rotation before withdrawing it from the material, you may have just created an Oops! moment. You have a stuck drill bit and likely a broken one, when you try to remove it.

Operations such as sawing and drilling create friction and friction means heat, and when you stop an operation, the material very quickly cools and seizes the saw blade or drill bit, tightly gipping it. It is almost impossible to saw out a shape without stopping somewhere. Mr. Dancik has a neat little trick to free the blade. A reason to obtain the DVD tutorial.

To continue with adding decorative elements. You attach the spiral. Now, you want to add some wire rivets to add interest. These rivets are to be flush with the surface. Mr. Dancik refers to these additions as "information." You decide these rivets are to be made from 20 gauge wire, drill the holes, insert a piece of wire into a hole and trim the wire to the appropriate length, using Mr. Dancik's two playing card trick.. Oops! Did you remember to make a tiny countersink around the top and bottom of the hole? Okay, now to make the rivet, first the top and now you the bottom. The first hammer blow sent wire down into the hole! Oops! What happened? The 16 gauge wire spiral held the piece up above the surface on the bench block or anvil, so there was no solid surface under the rivet. There is a way out, move to the edge of the bench block, but that can become a little tricky. The moral of the story, attach elements of different thickness in order of least thick first, most thick last.

Let's say you want to attach two half-drilled pearls, one on the outside and one on the inside of a piece where you have made an interior cut-out. You drill the appropriate holes for the wire stub where the pearls will be attached. If you did not measure the size of the pearls to see how much room you need to attach them, you just created an Oops! moment. I did just that and reported it below in New Elements in case you missed it.

Of course, you are not nearly as fumble-fingered as I am, but I mention this as it may be of help. Always, when using small items, work over a catch tray. Things have a way of getting away at the most inopportune moments and tiny little beads, nuts and screws, rivets, etc. hit the floor and bounce who knows where? I have a mandrel screw that has never shown up since I dropped it.

Hope I haven't bored you too much.

Saga of Faux Bone™ continues

2011-03-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pictures today. Cloudy, rainy. Maybe this weekend.

Still working on the Beach Combing piece. Making the various elements wasn't the real problem I am facing, it is assembling it into something that looks right.

The crooked little stick I mentioned previously turned out to be a piece of vine and is not usable, so that's out of the composition.

The cartouche (the spell checker doesn't like the spelling), piece mentioned earlier is on hold. I know what I would like to do with it, but it may be beyond my ability to pull off.

In the meantime, I'm starting to experiment with colored pencils on faux bone, specifically the recommended Prismacolor type. We already had a large selection on hand, so I didn't have to buy any additional ones. We had some other types, but they do not work very well at all.

Thanks to all who have been stopping by for a peek.

New Elements

2011-03-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Shown are some more elements which may or may not be added to the final piece. Things remain in flux as to what to add and what to leave out.

The pieces on the right and bottom were not meant to be as they are now. Here's why. You probably have heard the old adage, measure twice and cut once? In this case it was: Check your drill bit size twice before you drill. I have some half-drilled Swarovski pearls. These accept 20 gauge wire. So what do I do? Read this nice chart of drill to wire sizes from Nancy L T Hamilton I have taped to a shelf over the bench, wrong. So, instead of putting a No. 67 drill bit in the chuck, put a No. 60! Really bad move. No. 60 is for 18 gauge wire and the pearls, they aren't going fit. So I have to start over and ball the ends of 18 gauge and then with the aid of good old Zap - a - Gap glue, glue on some seed beads in place of the pearls. As a rule, though, you do need to use some kind of glue with half-drilled pearls, real or artificial.

Learn from my mistakes, folks. It's all part of what my blog is about.

One little thing I've found out, which may or may not be of help to anyone working with faux bone, is pre-sanding. There are few hard and fast rules about working with faux bone. In general, you draw out the design, saw, shape and then sand. In some cases, when working with a small piece, if I sand off the slick surface of the material, it is much easier for me to hang on to it. As I have mentioned before, I sometimes have to rely on a ring clamp or a vise to hold small pieces. My fingers just aren't strong enough anymore. You have to do what you have to do.

Speaking of sanding. There is a most informative nice little video on Ganoskin about an easy way to sand interior spaces that are hard to reach. A very neat solution to what is sometimes a vexing problem.

Found a nice little crooked stick when out on a walk today. A piece of that might just work in the Beachcombing piece. We shall see.

Next post in 2 - 3 days. Thanks for stopping by to see what's up with the journey.

Beachcombing (in progress) phase 4

2011-03-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Another addition to the mix of what eventually will become a necklace. This piece has been heat formed into a dome using a heat gun and a wood dapping block and punch. Lines drawn with an X-acto knife and patina is Paynes Gray acrylic paint. Paynes Gray has a bluish tint.

I will start work on some of the stringing. I may not post anything until Monday, so be patient.

Beachcombing (in progress) phase 3

2011-03-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Two more components to be added to the mix, which will eventually become a necklace. Both pieces were heated and then formed. The starfish measures about 7/8s inch across.

Beachcombing (in progress) phase 2

2011-03-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Unfinished Faux Bone™ sand dollar and a seashell shard.

The sand dollar is one inch in diameter, or 2.5 cm, and is 1/8th inch thick, or about 3 mm. The shard is about 1 and 1/2 inches long, or 40 mm, and is 1/16 inch thick, or about 1 1/2 mm. My measurements are only approximate.

The sand dollar has just a bit more detail to be added, then the patina. The shard is probably finished. I not sure that anything else needs to be done. The patina is orange acrylic paint with interference red acrylic paint over the entire piece. It isn't noticeable in the photo, but it gives a sort of nacre-like sheen to the piece.

The shard began as a sort of ellipse with one end rounded. I gripped one end in a pair of round nose pliers, heated the material with a heat gun, then gripped the other end in another pair of round nose pliers and twisted the piece.

Beachcombing (in progress)

2011-03-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

This was posted on JewelryLessons.com to show some other things one can do with Faux Bone.
The scratches and long lines are made with an X-acto craft knife. Nail sets used to make the circles. A checkering file was used to create the lines along the edge. The seed beads are on tiny steel veneer pins inserted into holes drilled into the edge with a No. 74 drill. The material is 1/8th inch thick at the beginning, now thinner all around the edge. Patina is burnt sienna acrylic paint.

The pendant is nearly finished and in the end there will be additional items added to the stringing to make the necklace complete.

Pendant 6

2011-03-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Finally finished something. Another pendant which I have no name for it. It is rather thrown together, with no clear idea as to what it should look like or represent when finished.

A number of techniques are involved here: From wire work, bead stringing, riveting, eyelet emplacement, texturing, etc.

Materials: Faux Bone™, brass wire and eyelets, seed beads, ocean jasper, Swarovski half-drilled pearl beads attached with Zap-A-Gap on wire posts, Golden red oxide acrylic paint, Spirit River light blue Unique Hair (a fishing fly-tying material.)

Pendant 5

2011-03-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Brain fried, unable to think of a better name for this piece. I guess that's because I'm not overly thrilled by it. Threading the beads on the wire was a real chore to get done. I don't believe I will do this kind of thing again. But you have to teach yourself what's good and easy, and what's difficult enough that you don't want to do it that way again.

Couple notes which may be of interest. The group of parallel lines on the side were made with a medium cut checkering file. You can turn the file 90˚ degrees and make a crosshatch, or 45˚ degrees to make a diamond pattern. Pretty neat tool. Bit on the expensive side, though.

The round brass dots are rivets set into the faux bone with a neat little tool from Crafted Findings. It is their Riveting System for 1/16th" Semi-tubular Rivets. It works really well.

Arrowhead

2011-03-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

Just as I thought. Cut the wire too short! Live and learn. Sometimes, making mistakes is the only way to learn.

Anyway, it isn't terribly bad, just not as good as it could have been. The rock look isn't too terrible either, but that's just my opinion. Again, I used Golden brand acrylic paint, Payne's Gray, Burnt Umber, Red Oxide, Quinacridone Magenta and Interference Red. The latter gave a little gloss to the finish. Rather than using the finger painting method, I used stencil brushes and daubed the paint onto the faux bone.

I keep telling myself to think ahead and hopefully not make mistakes. Ha! that'll be the day to remember!

More on Real Faux Bone and some of the tools I've been using.

2011-03-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Long winded title. I've started using "Real" in writing about faux bone to distinguish the "real" from other materials such as polymer clay. The arrowhead, previously shown in an earlier post, has been textured with a 3/16s inch round bur and the next step will be to drill holes for a copper wire spiral. One of the tag ends will a leg inserted in a drill hole and riveted. The other end will be a wrap around the top of the arrowhead, and then become a bail. I sure hope I left myself enough wire!

Here's a run down on the tools.

Fine point Sharpie pen. Jeweler's saw with Robert's special blade. Bench pin. Eight inch, half round wood rasp and a four inch half round rasp. The bur mentioned above, and a 3/4 inch diameter bristle brush, in a flex-shaft. The brush cleaned up some of the crumbs left in the depressions. A sanding stick with 30 micron grit. No. 67 twist drill bit. Triangular scraper to bevel the top and bottom of the drill holes. You could use a larger size drill bit to do the same job. This makes a seat for the rivet. The ubiquitous three pliers, round nose, flat nose, chain nose, and the flush cutter. Flat needle file, No. 2 cut to file the wire ends flat. The so-called flush cutter I have always leaves a little peak on the wire. Riveting hammer, small, almost teeny size. Save the fingers! Steel bench block. The two, hole punched playing cards (gauge for cutting the wire end to make the rivet). Various colors of acrylic paint, what ones I don't know as yet. Have to experiment to see what looks kinda rocky like.

Anyway, hope to finish it, tomorrow, sometime.

Also in the works, a cartouche shape (ha! the spell checker just went nuts!), which I will attempt to stamp something into the material. They won't be Egyptian, though.

Another Pendant

2011-03-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

Amazing! Two posts in one day!

Anyway, as sort of promised, a photo of a faux bone creation. Wonder if I'll ever get good at this?

Three inches overall height by one and one half wide. Sterling silver wire and beads, plain, old, ordinary craft store seed beads and one goldstone bead.

Drill/Wire Gauge Size Charts

2011-03-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

There are several places on the internet where you can find these helpful charts. Two of which I find particularly helpful can be found at:

www.nancylthamilton.com/

and,

www.monsterslayer.com

I use Nancy's more than the other. Nancy's doesn't show drill sizes for wire gauges smaller than 26. If you should ever need to find a drill for 28 gauge, or 30 gauge, Monsterslayer's chart does show them. 28 is a No. 83 and 30 is a No. 87. These sizes are available, but they are expensive. I don't know why an ordinary jewelry maker such as myself would ever need these sizes anyway.

Today it has turned cold. Winter has returned. So my efforts at improving my workspace goes on hold. Thus, I hope to finish a faux bone piece for your viewing pleasure, which, if I get enough natural light, I will put up either today or tomorrow. No promises as it is pretty dreary outside.

Pretty Day

2011-03-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

Today was a nice, warm, beautiful day. I elected to work outside, getting ready to plant a few flowers so naturally, didn't get a lot done on the bench improvements. Did make a shelf for the flex-shaft motor control to sit on, and out of the way. It won't be taking up room on the bench top where things can get pretty crowded. Also the flex-shaft chuck key now has a permanent site, where it is held in place with a magnet. If it gets tossed down in the catch drawer, it gets lost and I have to fish around amongst all the other tools to find it. Got all the electric cords for the flex-shaft motor control and the foot pedal captured. No more cords underfoot.

Some new twist drill bits came in today. Now I have a complete set of drill bits for various wire sizes, from 8 gauge down through 26 gauge. It's weird how the drill sizes match up to the wire gauge sizes. the drill size for 8 gauge is a No. 30 drill, and 26 gauge is either a No. 78 or a No. 79. The latter is due to some variation in size from one wire supplier to another. I'm guessing that it may be due to a new die, or one that's worn and probably needs to be replaced, or it could be a difference in tension on the wire when drawn through the die. I dunno, you tell me.

Another Faux Bone Pendant

2011-02-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, I don't know about this one. It's different, but I made a lot of mistakes in getting it done. Top is to the left with a curled wire bale underneath. Approx. 3 7/16's x 3/4 inch or 8.7 x 1.9 cm. Sterling silver rivets, copper spacer beads with Robert's brass rivets to hold the spacer beads. I originally had it hanging from a wire wrap loop. Didn't like the look. Had to put a rivet in the hole. No round wire the right size, so had to take a piece of 14 gauge square wire, put that in a pin vise and hammer a portion round to fit the hole. Unnecessary amount of work, which comes from not thinking ahead. Plus, I probably used too much acrylic paint. Oh, well. Live and learn. Got to make mistakes to learn. If you can that is.

O.K., going to stop working with the jewelry making for awhile. Have to make some additional bench improvements. I'm thinking I might have some more faux bone pieces done sometime week after next.

Hey, I'm Famous!

2011-02-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, not really, but it was so nice of Judy Freyer Thompson to feature me on her blog Musings.

http://networkedblogs.com/eOr5z

Thanks, Judy

Interested in real faux bone, check out her blog.

Two Pendants

2011-02-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

These are not the ones I had intended to post. The one on the right is from left over scrap from another project which is currently unfinished. It sort of resembles an ancient pottery shard. This piece has no shaping from filing. I am showing this to illustrate that depending on what the end results you want the piece to be, you don't have to shape the material with a file. All the shaping was done with the saw, and a triangular scraper. And the standard sanding sequence. Markings with an X-acto knife blade and a awl. In addition to the burnt sienna paint, I used a bit of pyrrole orange.

The piece on the left uses Robert Dancik's brass rivets, available from Crackerdog Designs.

Both will eventually be strung with Greek leather cord.

Correction

2011-02-23T11:03:00.000-08:00

Judy Freyer Thompson, of Crackerdog Designs pointed out that I had misspelled Robert Dancik's name. Good grief, I'm usually better at proof reading than that. Not only did I misspell Robert's name, I found I had made other errors. I think I've got them all corrected. My apologies to Mr. Dancik and to all who follow or view this blog.

On another matter, the piece I was hoping to post tomorrow, well old John goofed. I will have to start all over. Maybe I can finish another piece and post it on Friday.

What's new?

2011-02-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

A new faux bone project is in the works and if everything goes according to plan, I hope to post it sometime next week. Can't give a definite date. It isn't a straight forward project, at least not for me. It has involved some nerve-wracking drilling and until I start completing the project, I won't know if I drilled it correctly or not. In the meantime, I completed the sanding on two other pieces. I have a tendency to get tired of working on one piece at a time so I switch over to another and work on that for awhile. I knew a writer who did that. Always had a half dozen different stories going on at the same time.

Anyway, check back toward the end of the week.

Copper and Faux Bone Pendant

2011-02-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Here, at last, is my "so - so" effort at producing something with faux bone. Below I take you through the steps and tools which I used to make the pendant,

The materials used are: Faux Bone (available from Crackerdog Designs). one eight inch thick, and Copper Wire, 12 and 20 gauge. The 12 gauge was annealed prior to use in this design.

As I take you through the steps which I took to make this pendant, I will also discuss the tools used.

I began by drawing out a design shape on the faux bone with the Sharpie, then drew a rectangle around the shape.

Using a Jeweler's Saw Frame, adjustable, 5 1/2 inch throat, equipped with Robert Dancik's special faux bone fine tooth saw blade. along with a Bench pin with a "V" slot, I cut out the rectangle with the saw. Then I cut out the design shape. It's easier to manipulate the saw around a design on a smaller piece.

After cleaning away the crumbs left by sawing, I used a Half-round, Coarse Cut Files (bastard cut), 8 inch cut length, to refine the shape and bevel the edges all around the piece. Then switched to a smaller 4 inch finer cut Half-round Mill File. Actually, the file selection depends somewhat on the size and shape of the pieces your working on. Filing will create a lot of crumbs. You may want to wear an apron and have a wastebasket handy.

As I filed away, I used an old Toothbrush to clean the crumbs from the file.

After getting the shape refined, I did use a Triangular scraper, very lightly to clean up some spots.

The next step was sanding. Sanding produces a kind of softness to the surface. Using pieces of Wet and Dry Sandpaper, 240, 320 400, & 600 grits, soaked in container of water, progressively sanded the piece. After sanding with the 600 grit, following Mr. Dancik'ss instructions, turned the 600 grit paper over and used the back side to further polish the surface, then vigorously rubbed the piece on my pants leg.

The next step was to decide how I would add various decorative elements and texturing treatments to the piece. Believe me, it wasn't easy with so many different kinds available. I confess I dithered for quite some time trying to decide what to do.

Finally, I decided to add rivets and wire spirals, then decide where to place them. The rivets would be made from both 24 gauge and 12 gauge wire. The 20 gauge would also be used to make the spirals. The spirals would have two legs which will be used to affix them to the pendant. Or are these tails? Using a pair of Flush Cutters I cut off a twelve inch length of wire. Using a pair of Round Nose Pliers, made the beginning of the spiral about 1/2 inch from one end of the wire. This 1/2 inch will be bent down to form a leg which will be inserted into a hole in the faux bone. Then finished the spiral using a pair of Flat Nose Pliers, stopping every now and then to check the size of the spiral. When reaching the desired diameter, I cut off the wire leaving enough extra to for the second leg. The second spiral was done the same way except one leg was purposely left long. This long end would be used to make a bail. All the legs were bent down and set aside for later application.

Using a small 6 inch Scale, I measured the distance between the legs of the two spirals and marked them on the pendant piece. After determining the remaining drill points, I used the point of the triangular scraper, to make little divots as starting points for the drills.

Using a Flex-shaft, fitted with a No. 60 Twist Drill Bit, and a small piece of Scrap Wood. drilled the holes for the 20 gauge wire, and did the same for the 12 gauge wire, using a No. 48 Twist Drill Bit. I also drilled a hole near the top of the piece where With the point of the triangular scraper, I then slightly beveled the tops and bottoms of all the holes.

Now for Mr. Dancik's special trick for riveting. Take two Playing Cards and tape them together on one side. Then cut or punch a hole through both cards. This will become a gauge to determine the height of the rivet above the surface of the faux bone pendant. A simple, yet elegant tool.

I cut off a short piece of the 24 gauge wire with the flush cutters and filed the end of the wire with a No. 2 cut Barrette Needle File, to remove the little ridge left by the cutters, and to slightly round over the end of the wire to make it easier to push through the hole. Using the flat nose pliers to grip the wire, I pushed the wire through the hole until it was 2 cards thickness above the surface. Turning the piece over, threaded the wire through the hole in the cards. Laying the cards flat against the piece, and laying the flush side of the flush cutters against the cards, cut the wire off and flied the end flat.

Putting the cards back on the piece, with the wire stub inside the hole in the cards, laid this flat on a Steel Bench Block, and with a small Riveting Hammer, formed a rivet head. Removed the cards, turned the piece over, and formed the rivet head on the reverse side. Doing one rivet at a time, proceeded to form all the rivets.

Next, I attached the spirals, pushing the legs through the holes, and using the same methods as above riveted the legs of the center spiral and one leg of the top spiral.

With the riveting hammer's cross peen, I added some texture to the spirals. Then with some Liver of Sulphur added some patina to the spirals, then scrubbed the spirals with a 3M green scrub pad to remove some of the patina.

Using an X-acto Knife, I scratched some random lines into the faux bone, and made some random dots with the point of the triangular scraper.

For the final surface treatment, I smeared the surface with Golden Acrylic paint, Sepia color, working it into the scratches and dots.

The bail wire was work hardened with a Nylon Mallet, the using round nose pliers coiled the bail, snugging it up against the top of the pendant,

Thanks for your interest in my blog. John

Faux Bone in progress

2011-02-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

Shown are pieces of faux bone in various stages of completion. Some still have to go through the sanding cycle of 240, 320, 400 and 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper, plus a final polishing before adding, as Robert Danzig says, "information" to the surface. That's any stamping, texturing, or color, etc.

I should have included a scale in the photo to give some indication as to size of the pieces. The oval pice in the middle measures 1 3/16ths inches. It will probably end up tad smaller when finished. I really want to try and finish the bottom piece tomorrow.

Hooray! The snow is melting!

Too Much Snow

2011-02-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

Woooie! My wife and I are both tuckered out! Cleaning off a forty foot double driveway is a bit much for us old folks. But we got it done, got the car out, and celebrated our victory by going over to The Village Inn restaurant for coffee (decaf) and pie. Apple for her, lemon meringue for me. I like apple just fine, but their lemon meringue is terrific! No mail delivery, no UPS, no Fed-X and no newspaper! Darn!

And, as you might imagine, very little got accomplished in the faux bone department. Before going out and tackling the driveway, I did start an arrowhead (sort of), design out of a piece of scrap left over from the other ones. Still have to finish sanding these. The arrowhead isn't going to need much sanding as I will tap, tap, tap a ball bur mounted in the flex-shaft to simulate the knapping process used to create genuine arrowheads. I should say that I hope that is what will happen. I'm probably going to be stiff and sore tomorrow, and there's no prediction if I can get something done. I might just tinker around and draw up some designs for future pieces.

The blog here has been getting quite a number of hits lately, Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. I do appreciate your interest, and I'll try to make the blog as interesting as I can.

Bone Wars Continue

2011-02-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

There's only about 14 or so inches of snow that will need to be removed from around the car and driveway! This NW Arkansas! We aren't supposed to get this kind of snow! So, I guess I will be shoveling snow instead of trying to do some jewelry work.

Believe it or not, I have managed to get something in the works. I have four faux bone pieces in varying stages of completion.

First mistake. Working too small. Faux bone works much better for larger pieces. If you ever want to try using this material, think big. Two inches and up. In other words be BOLD! This is not to say that smaller pieces couldn't be done. For me anyway, the smaller pieces are more difficult to hold onto. Even larger pieces can be troublesome. To facilitate holding the material when filing, I resort to using a ring clamp. If you have strong hands and fingers, you wouldn't necessarily need a clamp. Another reason to think big.

A common double cut, 8", half-round file or rasp, plus one single cut half-round file, and Robert's shaping tool, are all you need for shaping the material after sawing. If your design shape has a more complex concave curve, then you might need a small 4", No. 1 cut, half-round hand file. I doubt if you would ever need to use any needle files.

Then there's the sanding. A necessary chore which you really need to do in order to remove the shiny surface of the material. I'm not a big fan of this, but it pays off in the end.

To incise lines in the surface, all you need is a sharp pointed awl and an ordinary craft knife, such as an X-acto or similar. Of course, there are endless surface treatments which can be done by stamping, heating the faux bone and pressing in any of a myriad of texturing sources.

Anyway, I'm beginning to win the war.

Rio Grande

2011-02-05T07:04:00.000-08:00

Rio Grande is having a huge sale with hundreds of items at reduced prices. Instead of working on jewelry making, I've been spending a lot of time going through page after page of sale items trying to find things that would be nice to have. I make a long list of things and then begin to ask myself, "Do I really need that?" It becomes a little agonizing at times trying to pare down the list to something manageable budget wise. I did put in an order for some items. Then later, after placing the order, I discover that I missed ordering a couple things that I really did need. Ah, me!

Anyway, I did do a little more experimenting with faux bone. If you want to try the material out, you will need Robert's special saw blade and some kind of tool to trim off the crumbs left from sawing. Robert has a special tool for that. You can get by with a sharp triangular scraper. I've found that a coarse cut file works well as a preliminary tool to clean up the sides of any straight edge piece. A belt sander also works well. When the material is cut, filed or sanded, it does create a lot of crumbs. Not so much dust as crumbs. You need an old tooth brush, or something similar, to clean out the teeth on files. A vacuum cleaner attached to the belt sander is helpful or you'll have crumbs flying everywhere. Keeping a waste basket nearby to clean files over, or under, between your knees when sawing will help keep the crumb horde under control.

The material is easy to drill, and will take a center punch divot quite well. As with metal, the drill bit can skate around, so make the divot before drilling.

Ice, Snow and struggles.

2011-02-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

We had a fairly significant ice and snow event here in NW Arkansas. But, nothing like other parts of the country.

The struggle doesn't refer to the weather, but to my working with the faux bone material. They say, whomever, "they" are, that the third time is the charm in getting something right, or winning. Well, I am now on the fifth charm. No idea how many I have left! Anyway, the fifth attempt is looking far better than any of the previous ones. In lieu of the recommended swivel head cutter (a tool actually meant for wax carving), I have found a triangular scraper works pretty well. One has to be careful using it, as it will dig in, and then you may have a boo-boo on your hands. So, a light touch is needed. Also, I still learning about using the special saw blade. It's getting easier to use it, but for some reason, I'm still having problems keeping the saw from wandering, even though I'm going slow and easy and certainly not trying to force the blade to follow the line. I really didn't expect taking this long to do a simple task.

Faux Bone

2011-01-30T09:10:00.000-08:00

I must confess that I am in error when it comes to sawing. The Grobet saw frame is better to use because the frame is stiffer. It is, however, only for sawing smaller pieces, as a larger frame is needed to cut from the larger 8" x 8" stock. The No. 4 saw blade is fine for rounding off corners.

Robert's special blade clears away the crumbs better and there's less binding. So, apologies to Robert.

I continue to work with the material, and while I had hoped to have something to show, my bum hand gives out on me after about five minutes of work, so progress is slow. I think I will have a fairly decent piece to show once I get it finished. I shouldn't promise anything. I'm too slow at getting things finished.

Stump final, fully loaded

2011-01-27T12:42:00.000-08:00

I believe this will be the last posting about the stump. To work on it, the stump is pulled out from it's little niche, then rotated to use the various pieces of equipment. The photo shows the Panavise to the left, steel bench block on sandbag pad, goldsmith's hammer, Foredom drill press, front right, and the Wolf sander in back, right. All the equipment is removable, so others can be installed. There are still minor refinements to be done, such as putting in holders for the various hex wrenches for the drill press and the sander. A vacuum will be hooked up to the sander when that is being used. I may need to include some sort of hanger arrangement for the flex-shaft motor.

In the meantime, I tried out a different saw and blade to cut Faux Bone. I find I have much more success using a Gorbet saw frame and a 4/0 Laser Gold (Rio Grande brand) blade. The difference between the German saw frame with Robert Danzig special blade installed and the other is remarkable. I have more control over the cutting. That problem solved, I'll move onto the next, getting nice clean scribe marks sort of etched into the material to receive color. The material by itself without some enhancement is pretty much blah.

The enormous Rio Grande catalog has arrived and of course, all work stops in order to peruse the contents. Then an e-mail announcing special sale, and there's page after page of that to go through.

I will try again this weekend to show something I've managed to finish using Faux Bone.

Bone Wars

2011-01-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well folks, Im sorry I have nothing to show for my experiments working with Faux Bone. The material is proving to be a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. I will persevere and not allow the material to get the better of me. So there! In fact, I'm going to order some more of it, so when I do get the hang of working with it, I will have a sufficient supply on hand.

In the meantime, more work got done on the stump. Finished an app for the Foredom drill press. I still have to figure out an app for the Wolf sander. Just to clarify things, not all apps will be present on the stump. There has to be room for using the disc cutter, the dapping tools, anvils and bench blocks, so nothing is ever permanently placed on the stump. Then, there will be finding a place for a small vacuum to take care of the dust when any sanding is to be done. Faux Bone does create a lot of debris. I also need to figure out some kind of a vacuum attachment for the bench pin area on the bench.

Also did maintenance on the Pana Vise. Over the years some debris had built up on the inside of the rotating base making it hard to move. Took that apart and re-lubed it with some lithium grease. Works fine, now.

All for now, thanks for visiting!

The big search.

2011-01-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

After moving my Mt. Everest of stuff and junk, after two days of searching, I finally found my scribers, shading plates, and heat gun. All were very carefully put away so I would know exactly where to find them when I needed them.. Ha. ha. Not so. Chalk it up to short term memory loss. The one thing that was really bothersome was the heat gun being in plain sight! I simply didn't remember putting it right there, on a shelf, where it could be found. So now, they are all found, and this time carefully put way in one of the drawers in the tool chest in my little hole in the wall studio. And there they will stay until they are needed.

Tomorrow, I will do some more experimentation with Faux Bone, and hopefully I will be able to post something at the end of the week. I have this idea in my head and I want to try to get something done with it. Wish me success, I need it.

More supplies arrived today. There's still more to order, wire and I think I'll get some more faux bone.

Stump semi-final stage

2011-01-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

The Stump with application of the Pana-vise. The vise is attached to a removable pad. If need be, the vise can be moved to a different location on the stump. Several identical pads have been made for future equipment applications. The top of the stump is removable. Necessary to put in T-nuts which are a part of the holding system for the equipment pads. I like to think of the pads as apps. There will be an app for the jump ringer, an app for etc., etc.

Some changes were made to the original stump. I decided it would be a good idea to raise the stump up by putting on some feet, thus allowing space under the stump for toes. Adding the shelf was a pretty good idea as it provides much needed storage space.

The stump is just heavy enough to stay in place, yet can be easily moved in and out of its storage spot.

It isn't real pretty, but its functional. And that's really all that matters.

Faux Bone

2011-01-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

Faux Bone from Robert Danzig has arrived, along with the special saw blades. Cut off a couple pieces to play with. The saw blade works pretty good, but it will take some getting used to using it. Edges are pretty rough. Now, I know the value of the swivel head cutter he recommends. So, I will have to get one. The material is not exactly what I expected it to be, but I think I can master it sooner or later.

REALLY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Tomorrow is "S" Day! "S" standing for STUMP! Yes, I will post a photo of the Stump with an attachment! Hooray!

I finally broke down and bought one of the lithium battery powered hand drills. Sprung for a DeWalt. What a joy to use! Plenty of power to drive long screws into tough wood. Now, I kick myself for not getting one earlier.

Later, gator!

Got Phi?

2011-01-12T12:02:00.001-08:00

The above is an illustration of the Front and Back sides of a new rule I found at Lee Valley Tools.
This is an illustration how to use the Phi rule. Illustrations courtesy Lee Valley.

Phi, also known as the "Golden Ratio," or the "Golden Mean," has a value of approximately 1.618. Named after Phidias, the lead sculptor of the Parthenon in Greece, who is said to have employed it. Phi is used to proportion objects, buildings, furniture and art, for greater aesthetic appeal.

The rule eliminates the complex calculations when applying the golden ration to designs.

I thought it looked interesting. so I bought a six inch one, the smallest, to try and use it is some jewelry designs. Don't know if it will work, but worth a try. Comes in a plastic case with full instructions, easy to use. You'll need a pair of chain nose pliers to free the rule from the case!

Lee Valley does have some other things which have a potential use by jewelry makers. The is a selection of capped plastic tubes for storage, such as needle files and saw blades, plus other small storage containers, a variety of magnets which can be employed to hold small tools in place. There are magnets to hold pencils, or possibly a scriber. Magnifiers, safety items, masks, wet and dry sandpapers, etc. There is also a very nice bound logbook for you to keep your design ideas from being lost. Might be worth your while to take a look. The tubes are nice, I ordered some, as well as magnets. The magnets are powerful.

http://www.leevalleytools.com

Ordered some pieces of "faux bone" from Robert Danzig to experiment with. I think I shall have fun playing with this material. I'm going to try texturing the material by heating and pressing in some old mimeograph stencil texturing plates left over from yesteryear. Might be able to employ some of the styli we used to use. Some of you probably haven't a clue what I'm referring to when I say "mimeograph!"

Ordered more metal in various gauges and types, tubes and mesh, etc.

Very cold here for Arkansas, too cold to work in the garage, so the stump is still on hold. I will, sooner or later, finish it.

Now, I have still more projects on hold. Bought a interesting shaped, old anvil on Ebay. Man, is it ever going to take a lot of work to shape up for jewelry work. Rust removal, plus a lot of sanding. I hope it will be worth the effort! That job will have to wait for warm weather.

Hope you haven't suffered too much bad weather. We missed a bullet the other day.

Saw a video on Ganoskin where a guy attempted to polish chain with a buff on a polishing machine. Guy was extremely lucky not to have lost a finger! Destroyed part of his chain. Never attempt such a thing! Polishing machines are incredibly dangerous when used improperly! As is most machinery when misused.

Have fun, be well, do good work and check back once in a while.

2011-01-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no posts for awhile. I hope to have something interesting by the end of next week.

Stump update

2011-01-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Today, the middle shelf was installed! Hooray! A place for the dapping set, the disc cutter, small anvils. Also, mounting pads for a couple pieces of equipment, cut and drilled. Awaiting ordered Forstner bits to complete installation of the mounting pads. Amazingly, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and a bit of clear space on the bench top!

Hope everyone has a great new year, get a lot accomplished.

Mishap

2010-12-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

I did a dumb thing and put a deep cut on the ball of my right thumb. In a way, that wasn't too bad as I have very little feeling in my right thumb and forefinger. In fact after doing about a half hour's worth of work, the whole hand goes numb. That's when tools start being dropped and so on. But, did manage to get some things done. Made up a bunch of copper jump rings and did some annealing.

Now, speaking of getting cuts, abrasions, etc., I keep a small bottle of a product called "New Skin" at the bench for taking care of little mishaps, which in my case are bound to happen sooner or later. After applying, the product takes a few minutes to dry, and you can continue to work. I will warn you ahead of time, it stings like crazy at first. In the case of my thumb, I didn't feel a thing. But, if the cut would have been on the left hand, you can bet it would sting.

I continue to add to my wish list of materials and supplies, searching the net for sources and best prices.

Stump, again?

2010-12-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

Well, yes. Essentially, the stump is complete. Holes for the screws to hold the top have been finished, T-nuts installed. So, what remains is for me to figure out where the various items are to go, so I can drill holes and install T-nuts which will keep things in place. As the stump is a multi-purpose piece, there needs to be places to hold a variety of items, from a hanger for a flex-shaft, to a Pana-vise, and more. The flex shaft hanger, I'll make using a floor flange and some pipe, if the hardware store has what I need. I still have to put the middle shelf in place. Hardware store was out of the U-bolts needed for the shelf supports, so now that's on hold. I will get this thing fully operational someday! And, I will make something jewelry wise, someday!

Stump Saga Continues

2010-12-23T13:48:00.000-08:00

Are you getting tired of hearing about the stump? Wouldn't blame you if you were. Anyway, here for better or worse, is a progress report. We had a brief spell of quite nice weather and I was able to work outside and get all of the sawing completed. The skirting around the top and bottom is complete and fastened on. The skirting around the bottom is extended up so any item placed on the bottom will be less likely to fall off when the stump is moved around. Made a shelf to fit in between the legs, also with skirting around to again, keep items from falling off. The shelf supports still need to be put into place. I'll do that after Christmas. The very top portion has not yet been fastened down. Another after Christmas chore. Then, I might put some kind of finish on the wood.

Jasper

2010-12-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Just for the fun of it, I counted the number of different names for semi-precious jasper on one site alone. Thirty-six. Does this figure exhaust all the names given for jasper? No way. People make up names for jasper, some quite fanciful. So oftentimes you see the same type of jasper with three or four different names. You look at a listing of jasper and see an unfamiliar name, the look at the picture, and la!, it's the same jasper you bought a month or so ago!

And, speaking of the many jaspers, I'm thinking that Ocean Jasper is my favorite one of the clan.

Especially the ones with nice orbicular patterns. Sometimes, I really dislike giving up a particularly nice example when it's used in a piece of jewelry.

So what is your favorite jasper?

In the meantime, Happy Holidays, everyone!