Critique Request Inlay into silver pendants
- Thread starter Dani Girl
- Start date
Brian Marshall
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
You're not done yet, right?
Brian
Brian
Hey Brian
I think I'm done with the middle part, it seems to be screaming put some kind of border around it though. What would suit, wheat leaf, scrolls... It's geometrical so maybe more geometrical scribblings... haven't given it much thought.
None of these pendants have been thought about, I'm just cutting as much as I can trying to break my new turn table in, break myself back in, get some techniques practiced and have things to sell.
This pendant is about as thick as photo paper so 1mm stones were the only option. I had to use a bud bur for the holes as nothing else was small enough. Maybe i could have got lucky with a round bur from my collection. 4 of the stones are pretty well flat. I pushed one over with the first bead prong and couldn't get it back down again... the other's just a bit off. Four beads per stone and a flat bevel cut around the stone. I figured cutting the flashing would be a bit obscene at this size.
I think I'm done with the middle part, it seems to be screaming put some kind of border around it though. What would suit, wheat leaf, scrolls... It's geometrical so maybe more geometrical scribblings... haven't given it much thought.
None of these pendants have been thought about, I'm just cutting as much as I can trying to break my new turn table in, break myself back in, get some techniques practiced and have things to sell.
This pendant is about as thick as photo paper so 1mm stones were the only option. I had to use a bud bur for the holes as nothing else was small enough. Maybe i could have got lucky with a round bur from my collection. 4 of the stones are pretty well flat. I pushed one over with the first bead prong and couldn't get it back down again... the other's just a bit off. Four beads per stone and a flat bevel cut around the stone. I figured cutting the flashing would be a bit obscene at this size.
This one is off topic, but the steel on this broke my graver point at least 10 times getting through this. Either it's tough or the vibration in my turntable is giving me curry. We have bracketed the drill press down in a way so it doesn't wobble. Get it sorted one bit at a time. This one is a thank you for offering me a job gift that's only 7 years late for the saddler in town. Almost went down the road of leatherwork instead... it was close. Who knows I might revisit that road one day.
15.5mm rosette
25mm wide Sterling Silver pendant (about as thick as photo paper)
Finished now Sensei. 
tayloredcreations
Member
Your work is so inspiring, I love the combination of engraving and stone setting!
Last edited:
Got a little bit more done today.
Copper inlay practice plate.
Any critiques most welcome.
Any critiques most welcome.
So does anything I've put up yet look like a real english scroll?
Is there anything you'd do differently with the inlay?
Thanks all.
Is there anything you'd do differently with the inlay?
Thanks all.
Thanks mitch.
My second idea is to melt a ball onto the end of the gold wire to make it easy to start the scroll with a ball at the end which seems to be the more commonly done thing. I don't know if that will prove easier to inlay or if I'll end up making a burred floor in the cavity and putting it down in strips. That will probably depend on the size of it.
My second idea is to melt a ball onto the end of the gold wire to make it easy to start the scroll with a ball at the end which seems to be the more commonly done thing. I don't know if that will prove easier to inlay or if I'll end up making a burred floor in the cavity and putting it down in strips. That will probably depend on the size of it.
Brian Marshall
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
You've gotten a torch setup since I saw you last?
Brian
Brian
Torch, no not yet Brian. Going to visit some Jewellers in Canberra and they're going to show me the different budget/expensive set ups they've got and what they can do with them.
Could be most of what I want to do right now could be done cheaply.
I have cirtric acid which can be used as a pickle... should I keep that in a plastic container? Does it go off? Boric acid and borax should be easy to find.
I have been annealing over a candle so far.
Could be most of what I want to do right now could be done cheaply.
I have cirtric acid which can be used as a pickle... should I keep that in a plastic container? Does it go off? Boric acid and borax should be easy to find.
I have been annealing over a candle so far.
Brian Marshall
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Citric acid comes in both dry powder and liquid form. Both should keep indefinitely...
While citric acid does work, it is pretty slow and has the disadvantage of being sticky when it dries on stuff - including your fingers and your bench.
You should be using "food grade" which means that whenever you have a hankering for something sour, you are free to lick your fingers.
Somewhere over there there has to be a swimming pool supply house that sells small quantities of dry granulated "PH Down". (Here it is common to find the stuff in grocery stores)
It contains 93% sodium bisulfate, the rest is inert. You may spell it sodium bisulphate over there?
It costs about a quarter of the price of the same thing flogged to jewelers by the jewelry supply houses - just because "jewelers" should be punished for being jewelers?
You'll find that to be true of most tools and supplies sold to "jewelers/engravers" as well... always shop around in other trades and professions first. You can save yourself a ton of money.
Welding suppliers always have cheaper fluxes and solders, dental suppliers have cheaper burs, lapidary suppliers have the cheapest laps & diamond powder - and the list goes on.
Brian
PS. Anneal over an alcohol lamp instead of the candle. Cleaner flame.
While citric acid does work, it is pretty slow and has the disadvantage of being sticky when it dries on stuff - including your fingers and your bench.
You should be using "food grade" which means that whenever you have a hankering for something sour, you are free to lick your fingers.
Somewhere over there there has to be a swimming pool supply house that sells small quantities of dry granulated "PH Down". (Here it is common to find the stuff in grocery stores)
It contains 93% sodium bisulfate, the rest is inert. You may spell it sodium bisulphate over there?
It costs about a quarter of the price of the same thing flogged to jewelers by the jewelry supply houses - just because "jewelers" should be punished for being jewelers?
You'll find that to be true of most tools and supplies sold to "jewelers/engravers" as well... always shop around in other trades and professions first. You can save yourself a ton of money.
Welding suppliers always have cheaper fluxes and solders, dental suppliers have cheaper burs, lapidary suppliers have the cheapest laps & diamond powder - and the list goes on.
Brian
PS. Anneal over an alcohol lamp instead of the candle. Cleaner flame.
What alcohol goes in the lamp?
Dentists get cheaper burrs... if anyone I would have expected to be punished for earning that much money it would have been them.
I finished sticking an octopus to poor Rei's head from the cartoon series neon genesis Evangelion.
I think I will use it as a letter opener
Dentists get cheaper burrs... if anyone I would have expected to be punished for earning that much money it would have been them.
I finished sticking an octopus to poor Rei's head from the cartoon series neon genesis Evangelion.
I think I will use it as a letter opener
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Brian Marshall
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
In Mexico you can buy 100% drinkable alcohol at any Farmacia.
Here we use "denatured" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol - available in pharmacies and most grocery & hardware/paint stores.
No idea what you might have available over there? Or could make at home with some fruit, potatoes or grain? (not to consume, of course)
B.
Here we use "denatured" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol - available in pharmacies and most grocery & hardware/paint stores.
No idea what you might have available over there? Or could make at home with some fruit, potatoes or grain? (not to consume, of course)
B.
Here it is called metho... metholated spirits.
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