Phabulous Phil

One of our clients asked Phil to make her a unique collar necklace.  This is the kind of project that shows how remarkable Phil's creative talent really is.  Winner of many prestigious awards, Phil continuously innovates and improvises to create some of our most amazing designs. 

The process of making this collar began with a rough sketch and then some 18K yellow gold round wire that he bent into the basic collar shape.  Then he rolled out some 18K yellow gold sheet to make the layered decorative elements from.  Here he begins the process of fitting the sheet to the collar.

After forming the first shape, Phil heads to the laser welder to tack weld the sheet to the wire.  We have come to deeply love our laser welder.  In the dark ages before we got it, we would have had to figure out a complex jigging system to hold things like this in place for soldering.  Inevitably something would shift, have to be un-soldered and then re-positioned, re-soldered, until we got it right.  The laser has also freed us to create items that would have been impossible to jig and attach elements that have heat sensitive gems already set.  Here is Phil tack welding and then soldering.

If you read our earlier post, "One Way To Make A Ring, Part 2," that showed our amazing stone setter, Karl working on his immaculately clean work bench, you may notice a bit of a contrast with Phil's bench.  While Phil thrives in a state of near chaos, Karl requires absolute order, in spite of this they manage to share a workroom and remain friends. 

Next, Phil saws and trims the gold sheet and begins to make the next series of shapes to add.

Using a file, he shapes the next piece.

Checking the fit.

A little forging...

 

Our fearless leader, Linda likes what she sees so far.  Linda, owner of Jewelsmith and an incredible designer, provides the overall vision and philosophy that guides us all.  Somehow she manages to apply that guiding hand without stifling the creativity of her team.  She is a wonderful boss and we all count ourselves lucky to work for and with her. 

The process of forming and fitting the sheet continues...

Tapping with a hammer.

Adding some movement and dimension by curling up the edges of the sheet.

Another one of Phil's many strengths is his ability to conceive of and create catches and mechanisms that are both novel and easy to use.  Here, before I could snap a picture, he has created an integrated hinge and a catch mechanism. 

Buffing the edges of the layers for contrast.

Platinum sheet is inserted between the 18K yellow gold layers.

And finally, Phil adds a diamond, does the final finishing touches and we have a beautiful and totally original collar and another happy client!

 

 

 

 

Orange'ya Glad for the Brightened Season?

Spring blossoms some of the most joyous colors. This year is no exception. Keeping with the trend, the colors of the season are some of the most brilliant gem colors and tones, along with pastels and metallics! It’s a custom jewelers dream. Not only are the designs for the season super bold, they’re also soft, incorporating those pastels.

The biggest color of the season? Orange! In the gem world, this can range anywhere from a fire opal orangy-Red to a mandarin garnet orange.

Who better to showcase metallics than a jeweler?! Working with silver, platinum and gold we can create finishes that are shiny (aka high polish) or textured. Sometimes we like to mix these finishes. This can change the overall look dramatically, but it can also change the look subtly by only changing a small part.

We usually associate the traditional colors of spring with Easter, which consists of pastels -- soft variations of purples, pinks, yellows, blues and greens.

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Spring Equinox in the Jewelsmith World

 

 Who doesn’t love Spring? Even the most allergen-prone people must love Spring, or at least the notion. Night and day are equal in length, flowers are blossoming, and everyone seems to be in much brighter spirits.

 We, at Jewelsmith, coincide with this great celebration; a time to celebrate rebirth and growth.

Inspired by some of our current pieces, we certainly have a knack for rebirth. Meaning, we take some of our current jewelry, and transform them into brand new works of art.  

Check out some of our makeovers and "before and after" projects. You can also see more featured makeovers on our website.
 



Transformed into earrings!

Began as diamond earrings...

Shortened and added tahitian pearl drops!

 



Beautiful as a multi tahitian pearl bracelet

Still beautiful as a pair of funky earrings!

Not only do we modify our own pieces, we especially love re-designing our customers’ jewelry. Sometimes we outgrow a piece, in size or taste, or we never really liked it all. These forgotten treasures are perfect for redesign.

Other times, we alter pieces to celebrate an occasion or change in life. And what a way to celebrate. We feel privileged that our customers share their special celebrations with us!

Creating a bond

A unique way to showcase a beautiful gemstone

Creating new earrings from an unworn ring and earrings

Giving new life by combining sentimental treasures & adding a contemporary Jewelsmith twist!

Using their various unused jewelry and loose gems, our customer created a fantastic new bangle.

Ta-da! Rebirth and growth!

Not only can we use your gemstones in a new design, we can also credit any of your unused precious metals towards your new piece. In some cases, we can even incorporate your metal in the redesign. We are strong supporters of recycling.

Spring is a great time to purge, start new projects and complete old ones, creating the perfect opportunity to decide what new things to bring into your life. Why not make some of these new transformations from old ones?


One way to make a ring. Part 2

This post is a continuation of "One way to make a ring. Part 1."

Now that we have a wax model, we have to make a plaster mold.  The idea is to make a cavity into which the molten metal can be poured.  These pictures show the wax model attached to the base and the flask which will contain the plaster.



Hmmm, that plaster looks a little too thick, I'll add a little more water to make it the consistency of high quality paint.  We want the plaster to form perfectly around all the little crevices of the wax model to ensure we get all the detail in the metal that we put into the wax.  Another way we make sure there aren't any air bubbles clinging to our wax model is to suck all the air out of the mix in a vacuum chamber with a pump.  If bubbles did form, they would add freaky little spheres of metal that might be difficult to remove.  The plaster gets poured into the mold and then vacuumed again to remove any air we might have introduced in the pouring.



We leave the molds to harden for about an hour and clean the rim for reasons which we will leave as a mystery for now.  This process is not super exciting, so it seems like a good opportunity to build some suspense.  For my fellow fire enthusiasts, there will be some flames later as well.



Once the plaster is set, it goes into the oven to bake for several hours at various temperatures (1400F at its peak) to cleanly remove all traces of wax leaving the cavity for the metal to fill.  We fire up the Melty Thing, another loving nickname for our little induction furnace that melts and pours the molten metal like a coffee pot.  Is the suspense killing you, yet? Are you dying to know what we need a clean rim on our molds for?  The flask has to make an airtight seal on the casting table pad to create a vacuum to help suck the metal into to the cavity left from the wax, so that's why we have to have a good rim.



Just poured molten glowing metal shows at the top of the mold.  After the metal cools and solidifies, we can break the plaster mold and clean off any remaining plaster from the casting.  Here is the new ring next to the old one.



The casting gets a good sanding and then we give it to Karl to set the stones.  It must be said that Karl is a fairly meticulous and somewhat neat person in general as demonstrated by the picture that shows him lining up his gravers and burs.  These attributes serve him well since his specialty demands that he be detail oriented, scrupulously neat and organized.  But woe betide the leaver of careless messes, as the wrath of Karl shall be felt.  As long as you clean up after yourself though, he's the happy-go-lucky guy that you see here goofing for the camera.



Karl is putting the ring into a glob of setter's cement that will hold the ring while he sets the stones.  The cement becomes a gooey liquid over a soft flame and then hardens at room temperature.  (See fellow pyros, I told you there'd be flames.) This cement is also used by stone cutters to hold gems while they are being polished.  It's one of many choices for holding pieces, my favorite as discussed in "Birth of a Bracelet" is pitch which has similar properties.  Next he checks the fit of the stones and perfects their seats a little at a time until they fit perfectly at just the right depth.



He uses a mini jackhammer, or reciprocating hammer to push the metal over the stones to hold them securely.  Then he uses gravers, which are like little chisels, to get a nice clean edge around the settings.  Gravers are also used to push the beads we made in the CAD over the the black and white diamonds.



Then he uses a beading tool to round up the beads and the setting is done.  Now he just has to get the ring out of the setter's cement.



Once again, he warms the cement and slowly works the ring out of the now stringy goo and plops it into the ultrasonic cleaner to get the cement off.

Here is the ring almost finished, all sanded and ready for polishing.



Wooo hoo!  All done.  I don't always get to meet the people that receive the jewelry that we make, but in this case I did!  We had made some subtle changes from the original to solve the problem that they had with stones falling out, and we were hoping that they wouldn't mind these changes.  The customer and her husband and adorable little baby came in to pick it up and they loved it!  That's what makes this job so rewarding, is seeing people be pleased with your work, as Karl is fond of saying, "We love happy customers!"

One way to make a ring. Part 1

Of course there are many methods for making a ring, but here we will explore one of those ways.  In this case, we were re-making an existing ring because there were problems with the stones falling out repeatedly.  Tiffany, one of our designers, Karl, our gemstone setter, and I sat down and came up with a plan to keep the spirit of the design while improving the security of the gemstones.

Here's the original ring which contains white and black diamonds and custom-cut black onyx inlay.



Next, I cranked up the CAD (Computer Aided Design) program and puzzled out how to make the crisscross pattern.  To the casual observer, I must have looked like I was just staring blankly at the computer screen for a really long time, but eventually I figured out a workable layout.  I "drew" the pattern flat in the CAD program, made the basic domed and tapered shape of the ring and then transferred the flat pattern to the domed surface.  Here are a couple of screen shots from this part of the process.



Once I had the model made in CAD, I used a program that makes a tool path for the computerized milling machine to follow.  The milling machine, which we have lovingly dubbed "The Weasel" for the frenetic noise it makes as it chews into the wax, cuts the model into wax which is then used to make a mold.  We'll get into the mold making process in Part 2.

Here are some pics of The Weasel in action, and of Jiggle Gater, who oversees and ensures good luck in all milling operations.





Once the wax model was ready, I showed it to Karl, who immediately thought of a way to make it even more secure and efficient to set.  He wanted a little extra height in the metal surrounding the black onyx inlay so that he would have a little more metal to hammer over the stones, so back to CAD.  It was a relatively simple matter to add what he wanted, then I re-milled it.  This close collaboration with all the members of the Jewelsmith team makes for a much better end result because each piece benefits from the collective experiences of our staff.



Karl gives his setter's stamp of approval and we are ready for the next step.  Ooooh, great idea, Phil, time to forage in the candy drawer for some chocolatey inspiration.





In part 2, we will follow this project through the next steps in the process, mold making, casting, clean-up and gemstone setting.  But before we end part 1, a word about one of our recycling efforts.  Whether you are hand carving or milling a wax by machine, there is often quite a bit of leftover wax that isn't big enough to use for another piece of jewelry.





The solution we've found is pretty low tech, but quite effective.  We melt the wax chunks in a crock pot and then pour the melted wax into modified candle molds, allow them to cool and then slice them with a band saw into usable shapes.



We love ideas that are both environmentally friendly and cost effective.  We are keeping all that wax out of landfills and saving around $1 per disk.  That may not sound like much, but at the rate we use them, that's $1500/year!

Thanks for reading part 1 of this article, we love what we do and are excited about this medium for sharing our passion.

For a peek at the process, check out our behind the scenes video by Inkspot Crow.

Jewelsmith - Behind the Bench

 

Birth of a Bracelet

Lately we've been getting lots of requests for "delicate" designs.  Because we stand behind everything we make, we want to give people what they want but we also want the things we make to really last.  This design was intended to have a delicate look, but also the durability we strive for.  We used 18K rose gold not only for its color, but also for its springy toughness that should withstand many years of opening/closing and general wear.

I started by gathering the materials.  We had already made some white gold sheet to use for the settings, but here are some pictures of another sheet being made in the same way.  Leftover metal is re-melted and poured into an ingot mold where it solidifies into a thick sheet.  That sheet is then squeezed between rollers to make it thinner with each pass until the final thickness is achieved.



These are the actual materials used for this bracelet.  The 18K rose gold wire, the 14K white gold sheet and two diamonds.



The easiest way to cut circles out of sheet is with a circle punch.  We use a fairly huge arbor press to force the cutters through the metal.



Flat circles are a little boring so we dome them with a dapping block.  Dapping uses a punch and die combined with some therapeutic hammer whacking to make the curved dome shape we wanted.



Now that we have gathered and shaped all the bits we need, we can assemble them.  The laser welder is a great tool for tacking the parts together, we used to have to come up with complex jigs and holding strategies to solder the parts straight.  Here I am soldering the settings onto the bracelet.  You might think that the curve isn't quite round enough for a bracelet, and you're right.  It is easier to set, sand and polish if everything is easily accessible, so it's straight-ish for now.



I have an unproven and thoroughly unsubstantiated theory that all jewelers are pyromaniacs who have found a healthy outlet for their love of fire.  Or maybe that's just me.

In order to create a "seat" for the stone to be set into, I first drill a pilot hole and then enlarge it and refine it's shape for a snug friction fit.



Ooooooops.  I broke the drill bit and it is stuck in the hole.  After mumbling a few carefully chosen words,  I hammered the drill bit out from the back and we're back in business.  Fortunately, it had made it all the way through before it broke.  Sometimes we're not that lucky, and the piece will have to be soaked in an acid that only acts on steel, or a heated alum mixture that dissolves the drill bit enough to loosen it up enough to remove it.



Every jeweler has their own favorite method of holding pieces while they hammer the metal over the stone and mine is pretty old fashioned.  I like pitch shown above.  It melts with a little heat and hardens at room temperature.  It's easy and quick to use, its only drawback is that if you touch it while it's melted you will make a very large, very sticky mess.  After hammering the metal over the diamond, the setting looks like this.



All the little divots from the hammer marks must be sanded out to create a nice smooth surface for polishing.



Yes, my fingers seem to be in a weird configuration, you're very observant.  There actually is a point to having a pinky braced on the bench pin and it is to control the tremors that come from moderate caffeine abuse.



After polishing there is lots of sticky buffing compound left on the piece, so a quick dip in the ultrasonic cleaner which uses sound waves to agitate the soapy water.  Then some high pressure steaming to blast away whatever is left.





Finally it's time to make it look like a bracelet.  I start by bending the wire by hand and then refine the shape with nylon jawed pliers that won't mess up that shiny finish we worked so hard to get.



Time for a test drive and to launch my career as a hand model.



The diamonds are a little too far apart still, a few more adjustments, a little paperwork and we're done!