Jewelry Project ESSENCE OF JAPAN
6
Center punch only the largest
dots. Tape down the piece to
secure it.7
I recommend cutting off the
back end to shorten the drill
bit, which will help keep it from
breaking.8
You will drill ⅔ deep, so I
strongly recommend using a
hand drill for steady control.9
Cut off the end of the 22g fi ne
silver wire with fl ush cutters to
create a fl at tip.10
Push in the 22g fi ne silver wire
and then, leaving about 2mm
above the surface, cut the wire off.
Make sure you do not cut too close
to the surface.11
Use the push chisel and hammer
to push the fi ne silver wire in. It is
important to hold the chisel straight
up and hammer down gently a few
times. Hitting the chisel at an angle
will end up either bending the wire or
damaging the base metal surface.12
Continue with the 22g and 24g
wires.13
Once all the wires are in, start
fi ling gently from a coarse to
a fi ne fi le. Then switch to #400 grit
sandpaper up to #1000 grit or your
desired fi nish.14
Here is the piece with sanding
fi nished.15
Clean up the piece with pumice
powder and patina with liver of
sulfur. If you don’t have pumice pow-
der, you can use any metal cleansers.16
Here is the fi nished inlay.7
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24 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST
22 Okada_EssenceOfJapan_mayjune20.indd 24 3/16/20 3:37 PM