Jewelry Project CIRCLE OF LIFE
6
When it’s pretty close, you can
solder the circle closed with hard
solder. After it was soldered, I did
a little straightening up to get the
circle rounder.OUTSIDE CIRCLE PIECES
7
Next, I determined what size I
wanted my outside circle to be
using a circle guide.8
Taking a scrap piece of 22
gauge copper that already had
a texture on it, I marked the exterior
radius and took off a couple of
millimeters on the interior sides. I
wanted my radius to stay pretty true
but wanted to keep spaces between
each quarter.9
I cut it out with a jeweler’s saw
and then fi led the edges smooth.10
Before cutting out the other
three quarters (I used silver),
I wanted to texture each one dif-
ferently, and with something other
than just my stable of brass pattern
sheets to use in the rolling mill.
Then I remembered some new pat-
terns that I had gotten from Gwen
Youngblood — perfect! I made two
more of my quarters using these
patterns, the last one using 180 grit
sandpaper.
I also made a small bezel for a little
variscite cab I had lying around, and
then soldered that onto one of the
quarters.11
For my last quarter, I wanted
something a little diff erent than
just a pattern, so I got out a Danny
Wade stamp and put a border on
the inside edges.7
10
8
11
6
9
I set the
quarters on
the circle over
the solder and
supported them
with little scraps
of copper sheet
I keep around
my soldering
station for just
such occasions.
(By the way, this
is a great tip...
you’re welcome!)
64 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST