Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist – September 2019

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TARING AT THE JUNK in

my bench drawer one day, I

wondered what I should do

with all of it. Scrap it for money? Melt

it down and make ingots? Recycle

it somehow, maybe upcycle it, I

thought. All it needs is a little help.

Then it hit me. I’d challenge myself

to make a project using only what I

had on hand, and all the metal had to

come from my drawer. Now I had a

plan, but what would it look like?

Next, I started going through the

scraps of paper I lovingly call my

sketchbook and came across a quick

drawing that captured my imagination.

The sketch of four pie shapes on a

ring looked like it had potential, but

it needed a little help, too. I started

to think about the design and what it

represented to me. The four directions,

a circle, diff erent textures, misaligned

symmetry... I realized it kind of repre-

sented life. Well, my life anyway. (Don’t

get me started — we don’t have that

kind of time.) Inspired, I got to work.

THE WHAT

1

I returned to the drawer and

grabbed some metal, then a few

stones I had lying around.

2

With my sketch and materials

in front of me, I had the what

to use. Then I started to fi gure out

the how, as in how to make this

thing.

INNER CIRCLE

3

The fi rst component to

construct is the ring or inner

circle, which holds everything

together. (Like, what’s your

anchor in life? The imagery just

keeps getting better!) For that, I

took a piece of half round silver

wire and annealed it.

4

I then ran the wire through

the rolling mill to get a little

texture on it.

5

After annealing the piece again,

I went to work forming it into a

1⅜" circle. To me, this is the hardest

step of the project. You are trying

to bend the metal on its side while

it wants to lie the other way, so you

have to keep fl attening it. There are

a couple of ways to form this. You

can use mandrel pliers, forming

stakes, or my trusty old stand-by:

the anvil horn.

A pendant symbolizing change and continuity is also the

perfect opportunity for using up scrap! By Jeff Fulkerson

Circle of Life

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62 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST