Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist – September 2019

SKILLS

Basic fabrication

Soldering

Enameling

TIME IT TOOK

4-5 hours

MATERIALS

• 1"x4" 16-gauge fi ne silver
  eutectic solder


• Enamels — all opaque,
  80 mesh, medium fi ring —
  Woodrow Brown, Jungle
  Green, Butter Yellow,
  Cantaloupe Orange and
  Woodrow Red

TOOLS

Layout: Pencil, graph

paper, ruler

Hand: Bench pin, wood

for drilling, rotary tool

or Dremel, #65 drill bit,

jeweler’s saw with #3 or #4

blades, needle fi les, round

object to form the bail, chain

nose pliers

Soldering: Torch , fi reproof

surface, pickle, quench

water, safety goggles

Enameling: #1 sable or camel

hair brush, small containers

for the enamels, permanent

marker, squeeze bottle with

water, container to collect

discarded water, small piece

of toilet paper, kiln, trowel or

fi ring fork, trivet, fi reproof

surface for cooling, safety

goggles, fi re resistant kiln

glove, timer or clock

Finishing: Water in a container

large enough to wash the

pendant, diamond grinding

disc and mandrel (I glued

mine together) for rotary

tool or Dremel (or water and

alundum stone), sandpaper

60 grit to 400 grit (or higher

if you want a high gloss

fi nish on the metal)

SOURCES

Most of the tool and materials

for this project are available

from well stocked jewelry

supply vendors, many of

whom can be found in our

Advertisers’ Index, page 102.

What

You Need

Jewelry Project

Page 78

AN

EASIER

WAY

silver from the area. Repeat for each

area that needs to be removed.

Tip: Keep the saw blade vertical

when sawing the cell areas. The

enamel will adhere better to a verti-

cal wall.

SHAPE AND SOLDER

THE BAIL

Form the bail with the round nose

pliers and solder with eutectic sol-

der. Pickle, quench, wash, and dry.

PREHEAT THE KILN

When I open the preheated kiln to

insert the project, the temperature

drops but returns quickly to my

working range. I use medium fi ring

enamels that mature in the 1350° F to

1420° F range, so I programmed my

kiln for 1500° F, allowing the opening

and closing of the door to maintain

the needed temperature. You will need to

adjust your kiln temperature to match the

enamels that you use.

PREPARE THE ENAMELS

3

Place a small amount of one enamel

in the cup labeled with that enam-

el’s name and number. If you decide to

use transparent enamels you’ll need to

wash them, but you only need to wet

the opaque enamels. Repeat for each

enamel that you are using.

BE WILLING TO CHANGE!

4

My fi rst attempt, using transparent

enamels. I began by fi lling each cell

using the sable brush. So far, so good.

5

And this is what the transparent

enamel piece looked like: the yellow

was awful! That’s when I decided to

change to opaque. Aren’t you glad you

didn’t do this?

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 77