After a time with my real-live-jeweler’s-bench and oxy-propane torch and flexshaft, I was mildly ousted to across the room when a REAL goldsmith was finally hired for the repair shop I work at. I didn’t mind because honestly, much of what they’re doing for repairs is difficult and finicky and very precise and well – I’m not so much with the precise. I feel far more comfortable working on the fashion repairs. I will, on days the goldsmith is absent, continue doing silversmithing though! For instance, check out these bonkers awesome sterling spoon rings I made:
The bosslady has far more resources than I do and she has a large sack of sterling cutlery that she wants me to keep making things out of for her. I have NO problem complying! I get to play with forks and stuff! I made a bracelet:
Someone’s fake fork bracelet was broken so I made a new one out of a silver fork – I fabricated the hinge and everything!
I made a fun little pendant from another fork:
Someone had a missing earring and I got to make a a duplicate:
But I’m getting sidetracked here… the point is, that kind of higher-end silversmithing is a bit rare; I’ve become the fashion jewellery expert at the shop and that suits me perfectly well. If something can’t be soldered with a torch because the stones won’t hold up or the metal isn’t precious, I might glue it. Or, and this IS the point, I might try to use the low-temp soldering iron instead – which led to some experiments at home, as well. It’s not as fancy as using a torch but it gets the job done. Hence, Hobo Solder :D I set up a new space in my studio for it and went to town!
I first tried adding jump rings to pewter so I could made a tassel:
Then a bunch of stuff happened and I ended up here:
To see all that in between stuff, you can watch the video I made of the process!
I hope you like it!