Silver Class Summer Break

I've reached the end of another term of my silversmithing course, it's time for the summer holidays which are no good when your not actually at school! I also have the dilemma of what to do with my Friday nights now?! We had some drinks and nibbles and all got a certificate of attendance, some people have been coming for 5 years! 

This lesson I finished off the earrings I've been working on and flicked through some magazines to find some inspiration for when we start again.

Last week I finished a ring that was really an experiment. I wanted to play around with some things I found in the toolbox. A doming block, some punches and texturing hammers. I didn't really like the effects of the hammers so used the punches in two different sizes to create a random dotty effect. Then I used the doming block to create a dish, as I was doing this a bit started to warp so it wasn't a perfect dish. I used some round nosed pliers to continue the around the dish so it had a random fluted effect. I made a ring out of two pieces of round wire soldered together in the middle and spiralled the ends round for the dish to sit in. I think this makes it look a bit like a flower. 

The earrings I made are Turquoise and Iolite cabochons and then two silver blobs left over from the stack rings. 



First Term - Plain ring, knot ring, learning to set stones and a spiral ring

 

 

Term 2 - The Epic Silver Bracelet and a swirly Malachite ring

Term 3 - Stacking Silver Blob rings, Earrings and the Experiment ring