Soldering
Silver soldering is a technique used on small items such as jewelry and provides a strong joint. Place a very small piece of solder along the join and heat with a blowtorch until it is a dull red. Remove the flame immediately the solder begins to flow and join the two ends. Place the bracelet [...]
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Twisting silver wire provides a number of textures which can be used in many ways to make jewelry and ornaments. The bracelet and rings, shown here, were made from round silver wire, but you may wish to experiment with the many different shapes and sizes of wire available.
Twisting wire
This technique involves twisting two or more [...]
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Other jewelry findings
Ear-rings findings These are made for pierced and unpierced ears. Check that ear wires are made of sterling silver or gold to avoid inflammation of delicate ear lobes. Drop ear-ring findings usually incorporate a loop onto which bell cap and stone can be threaded direct, but you can add jump rings if you [...]
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To fix a jump ring
When your stone is firmly secured to its bell cap and the glue has thoroughly dried, open wide a suitable jump ring by twisting both ends of the ring sideways with two pairs of jewelry pliers. Now hook one end of the ring through the eyelet of the bell cap and, [...]
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This illustrates a representative cross-section of the findings to be found in lapidary and craft shops, and gives advice on deciding which findings are best suited to various sorts of stones.
Most shops sell findings for ear-rings, brooches, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, rings, tie clips and pins — almost any jewelry you may want to make — [...]
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Plastic is a lightweight material that comes in an exciting variety of forms and colours and is very easily worked. It is often considered solely as a substitute for materials such as glass, wood or metal but, in fact, it has properties that make it totally unique as a crafts material.
It is made up from [...]
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Spacers
Shell jewelry often looks better when the shells are separated by spacers, which can be turned ivory, wooden beads, nuts or seeds, or mother-of-pearl.
Pieces of mother-of-pearl (see below) can be turned on a lathe or made by cutting oblongs of pearl shell 2.5cm (lin) long by 6mm (tin) wide.
Make up two square wooden boards, about [...]
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The fascinating variety of shells, and their different colours, shapes and textures, make an ideal cheap material for jewelry pieces. As with pebble polishing, there are various levels of involvement; you may just wish to use the shells you have already collected or you may want to clean, polish and colour them or change their [...]
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Having chosen your stones, polished them and found a suitable mount to match, you can now start to assemble your jewelry pieces. If a lot of care has already gone into preparation and design, this should be the simplest part of the process but care should still be taken to ensure the best possible results.
Making [...]
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Applying the plastic
There are two basic techniques for using the cold enamel solutions - you can mix two or more colours in a liquid state or allow one colour to set hard before adding subsequent layers. The first technique requires careful choice of colours and some skill but there is an element of chance in [...]
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