So.
I set myself two goals for my shop for the summer, and neither of them had to do with sales, or shows, or bookings for the aforementioned. They were 1) to learn how to use a torch for making headpins, and 2) to learn basic silversmithing techniques. As you know if you read “I have made fire!” I can now make my own ball ended Fine silver headpins. If you’re playing the home game, and jewellery making isn’t your thing, allow a brief digression here. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure, with the rest being various alloys (mostly copper I think…) That’s why it’s stamped .925 (or nine hundred and twenty five thousandths, if you’re into number names!) Fine silver is 99.9% silver. [And thus ended the math lesson.] Although fine silver wire is softer than sterling I like it for headpins for a few reasons.
First, you don’t have to quench it and pickle it. Second, it makes really nice perfect round balls all by itself that you don’t have to polish, and it doesn’t pit. I like big balls (tee hee!) on the end of my headpins, so I have to make sure I cut the wire long enough that I don’t end up with all head and no…pin. It’s really satisfying though to make them. I just cut a pile of wires, pick them up one at a time in my pliers and heat away!
Back to the shop goals, and the realising thereof. Goal #2 seemed for a while like it was going to be a trial and error process. Anyone reading who knows me personally, or has heard that I tend to be rather clumsy, knows that me learning to use fire (2400 degrees of it!!) all by myself with no expert supervision is probably a REALLY BAD IDEA(tm). You also know, if you know me, that Partner Dear hardly qualifies as expert supervision. (Actual conversation: “Hey, bring me your torch, your scrap silver wire and one of those bigass glass baking dishes you have! I wanna try something!“) When I asked Google about jewellery making classes in the Vancouver area, I found several excellent websites for 2 year programs and such, and basic beading classes at retail outlets, but no middle ground. Enter my dear Ashley, she of Capilano Rock and Gem (www.capilanorock.ca). I asked her where to go and what to do. She said right away “Do you know Bee? Brendalee? She works here! She teaches exactly what you are wanting to learn! Give me your info, and I will pass it on to her!” (*** If you are a jewellery geek like me, you MUST check out her blog! http://silverbee.typepad.com/my_weblog/ Tips, and hints, and how tos…***)
So I did, and she did, and Bee contacted me, and for the past month I have been raving like an idiot to anyone who will listen to me about how excited I was to do this. Seriously! Chatters on etsy, Partner Dear, my parents, strangers on the ferry…Well, today was the day! There are pictures to prove it! I had to promise not to point CameraBaby in Bee’s direction, but we had an absolute blast!!
Bee's work area. I am jealous!
I arrived a little bit late because, gentle readers, I am NOT a morning person. Getting from my home in Delta to Bee’s home in North Van required copious amounts of caffeine, and me getting out of bed at 6 so I could shlub around for 2 hours, then leave the house late in a blind panic! (my normal morning routine, in other words!) But we got started around 9:30ish after MORE coffee. And YUMMY coffee it was too!
My little work area! The silver wire I would use, FireBaby (my torch)...
We were ready to go! There were tools to discuss, handouts to read, birthday gifts to plan (I am buying myself a jumpring maker for my birthday and will gladly accept any and all donations towards a tumbler!! 
)
The jumpring maker! Pay no attention to the toaster behind it!!
After making the jumprings and becoming totally enraptured (ha! wraptured?…) with the gadget, it was time to cut the jumprings. Partner Dear told me later that what I now own for the cutting of jumprings is called a coping saw. (Is this what they meant when they told me to develop better coping mechanisms? No? Moving on…) Using one of these saws is MUCH harder than it looks. Particularly, using one of these saws while retaining all useful human parts (i.e. fingers!) is harder than it looks. Also: the saw blade works best if it hits a high C when you ping the blade! If it’s pitched below that, it won’t be tight enough. If it’s pitched above that, you’ll snap the blade. Finally; the saw blade does not work AT ALL if you attempt to insert it backwards into the saw frame. However, if you press hard enough, you can really work up to a good hand cramp while accomplishing almost nothing.
Me, trying hard not to cut off any fingertips. My hair looks good too!
Finally, my coil was a pile of jumprings. We annealled them, we pickled them, I took before and after pictures, and then…I soldered the first one! And it was GOOD…
Before, and after. Dramatic, yes?
And then one became three; then there were five groups of three. Then groups of three became groups of seven…and then….
All the pieces put together; soldered, but not pickled or polished. Still, it's my very first piece of chain!
Nothing left but to pickle it (which turns it a bone white colour) and then to tumble it! And then the creation of the s hook, of course, but this is already turning into the Moby Dick of the blogosphere so I will skip to the end…(or as close as I got so far…)
The finished piece: it's assembled, it's tumble polished, it's clasped, and it's mine all mine!!!
Tumbling makes a HUGE difference! Aside from the work hardening that it does, the shine was unbelievable. I think that was attributable in part to Bee’s special burnishing compound. If you want to know what it is, you’ll just have to read her blog: http://silverbee.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Then it was suddenly somehow 2 o’clock, so I went to Cap Rock and Gem and shopped my arse off! (OH, if only….)
Until next time!
wildheather
(PS: I take absolutely no responsibility for the borking of the format in the latter half of this post. It’s late and I’m tired!)
Until next time
wildheather
