materials
■ (^) Sterling or fine-silver finished piece (stones not set)
■ (^) Fine-silver sheet: 24-gauge (0.5 mm), amount deter-
mined by design
■ (^) Copper sheet: 18-gauge (1.0 mm) copper sheet,
large enough to support the gold foil
■ (^) 24k gold foil: amount determined by design
toolbox, page 77
■ (^) Soldering/Annealing
additional tools & supplies
■ (^) Tracing paper
■ (^) Double-sided tape
■ (^) Jeweler’s saw with 4/0 or 5/0 blades
■ (^) Scissors (optional)
■ (^) Cutting mat
■ (^) Curved surgical blade and holder
■ (^) Insulating compound (optional)
■ (^) Gum arabic or tragacanth gum
■ (^) Agate burnisher
■ (^) Sewing needle
Find out where to buy supplies, page 79
See Safety Basics, page 76
Sketch your design. Draw
your finished piece — actual
size — on tracing paper. Sketch
or trace the gold design you’ll
be adding to it [1]. The design
will determine how much fine-
silver sheet and gold foil you
will need.
Anneal the silver sheet and
gold foil. Use a permanent
marker to carefully color a
piece of gold foil. Set a sheet
of 18-gauge (1.0 mm) copper
on a tripod, and heat it with
a torch to oxidize its surface.
Place the gold on the oxidized
copper. The oxidation will pre-
vent the gold from fusing with
the copper. Directing the flame
from below, evenly heat the
copper; it will transfer heat to
the gold [2]. Continue until the
marker on the gold disappears.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The gold foil
Ichikawa uses is substantially
thicker than the gold foil that is
readily available in the United
States. You can achieve a simi-
lar look by either adding layers
of thinner gold foil or using a
rolling mill to roll out a 24k-
gold sheet until it’s the same
thickness as his (0.05 mm/
50 microns).
Use a permanent marker
to color the 24-gauge (0.5 mm)
fine-silver sheet. Either set the
fine silver on the copper sheet
used to anneal the gold, or
place it on a soldering board.
Heat the silver evenly until the
marker disappears.
Transfer your design and
cut out the fine-silver sheet.
Use double-sided tape (film-
based, not fabric or paper) to
secure the sketched design to
the annealed fine-silver sheet.
Use shears or a jeweler’s saw
with a 4/0 or 5/0 blade to cut
out the fine-silver embellish-
ments [3]. If needed, use a file
to refine the edges.
Cut the gold foil. The gold
foil is much too thin to cut
with a saw. Depending on the
thickness of the foil, either
place it between two sheets of
tracing paper and cut it with
scissors, or place it on a cutting
mat and use a craft or surgical
knife instead. If needed, use
the fine-silver embellishments
as a guide for cutting the foil.
TIP: When using a craft
or surgical knife to cut
gold foil, place the foil
on a cutting mat.
Gently but firmly push
the blade through the
foil. Cut little by little. If
you have a surgical
blade, cut with the
curve of the blade and
use a rocking motion.
Do not move quickly,
or you’ll “drag” the foil
at the cut and tear it.
If you use a craft or surgi-
cal knife, the cut edge of the
foil will be slightly raised as a
result of the blade pushing
through the foil to cut it. Place
the foil on a steel bench block,
1
2
34 Art Jewelry ■ March 2016
BASICS & VIDEOS
Learn fundamental techniques
in these bonus tutorials:
Annealing metal ••
Pickle basics ••
Using shears to cut metal
How to fuse
fine-silver sheet
Basics, page 75
Videos, http://www.artjewelrymag.com/videos
Subscriber videos,
http://www.artjewelrymag.com/subvideos