Making Jewellery - August 2016

64 makingjewellery.com

TIPS & TECHNIQUES

7 8 9

10 11 12

13 14 15

Place into pickle straight away and leave until it

returns to a matt silver colour.

13. Rinse the bead in water and place the excess
    silver from the spout shape into the jaws of
    your vice. Cut this spout away using a piercing
    saw. You can fi le this afterwards if required,
    but the beauty of casting is it needs minimal
    work done to it once taken out of the mould.
    You may also need to fi le away silver that leaked
    into the channels made in Step 9.


14. Place your bead into the jaws of a pair of mole
    grip pliers. These are useful as you can adjust the
    tension of the grip according to the size of your
    bead. Then you have a secure way of holding
    your bead. Use a new 1-2mm drill bit and drill a
    hole right through the top of the bead.
    15. Place all your beads in silver cleaning
    solution and polish using a silver cloth. It is
    quite diffi cult to get them completely clean,
    but the darker indents show up the pattern of
    the cuttlefi sh bone so beautifully. Repeat all
    the steps over again as many times to make as
    many beads as you require. I have made fi ve,
    four to create a necklace and one as a pendant.

Note: If you are casting an object that has a

fl at back you do not need to do Steps 5, 6 and 7

and you simply carve into only one half of the

cuttlefi sh at Step 8.

CONTACT

[email protected]

Inspirational pieces

1. Arrow head pendant, Andrew Berry,
   Making Jewellery issue 16


2. Ocean-inspired silver jewellery,
   © Selkie Jewellery, Selkiejewellery.com


3. Starfi sh pendant, Tansy Wilson,
   Making Jewellery issue 68


4. Cuttlefi sh textured bangle, Tansy Wilson,
   Making Jewellery issue 68

MJ96_P61-65_Solid Silver Tech SHSF.indd 64 23/06/2016 11:16