DIY Statement Necklace Making Ideas You'll Love
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PRESENTS How to Make Necklaces: DIY Statement Necklace Making Ideas You’ll Love HOW TO MAKE NECKLACES: DIY STATEMENT NECKLACE MAKING IDEAS YOU’LL LOVE 7 DISCO DARLING Making the most of disc beads BY KEIRSTEN GILES 3 10 CHINESE WRITING MOKUME GANE STONE PENDANT HEART PENDANT Set an irregular stone Combine alternative metals with with pickets conventional materials BY LEXI ERICKSON BY ROGER HALAS NECKLACES COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES, which is advantage of metal’s malleability to create a 3D heart one of the great things about them if you like developing pendant with mokumé gané, a layered metal whose your own jewelry designs. You can make other types of patterns stretch and compress as you form the heart jewelry in different styles from ancient to Edwardian to (create your own mokumé as shown with sterling, bronze, punk, too – you just have more ground to work with if and traditional alloys or buy sheet as metal stock), and you’re creating jewelry that’s worn around the neck. add a wink of sparkle with a small faceted gem. Or you can create your own pattern as you put together an Pendants are perfect for showing off interesting patterns impressive necklace using turquoise and wood button because you have enough room to show the whole pattern, beads linked together with copper wire and jump rings for a but pendants work just as well for something small, simple, and contemporary look on a traditional form. uniform. Like pendant necklaces, necklaces without a focal or with a focal area made of multiple elements can be as big or Start your next necklace making venture with these varied little as you or your customers like. Either way, necklaces simply necklace designs and see where they lead you! stand out: if you’re going to wear just one piece of jewelry that you want to be noticed, it’s probably going to be a necklace. In this convenient e-book, you’ll learn to set a large patterned gem in a silver bezel and see how to create a complementary silver and copper element to make Content Strategist, the pendant really special. You’ll also learn how to take Interweave Jewelry Group ©F+W Media, Inc. | All rights reserved | F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this issue to be copied for personal use. www.JewelryMakingDaily.com 2 ©F+W Media, Inc. | All rights reserved | F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this issue to be copied for personal use. Lexi erickson CHINESE WRITING STONE PENDANT Opening Photo: JIM LAWSON Project Photos: HELEN DRIGGS Set an irregular stone with pickets BY PROJECT hinese writing stone has a drama in its high-contrast it works for the jewelry designer. Gary Wilson’s stones patterning that is hard to ignore. But when a stone are easy to design with because all are cut beautifully. Cis so dramatic, it must be cut beautifully, so I called When looking at the stone I thought of the fireworks for one of my favorite cutters and asked for a selection. the Olympics in Beijing, and the lovely Chinese chrysan- This stone, though large, jumped out at me immediately themums. I wanted to incorporate those feelings with because of its shape and demanding presence. It’s a the stone, and by offsetting the stone, a design was true “in your face” stone, and I fell in love with it. born. Though there are many cutters out there with a vari- With an offset stone, you must have metal backing ety of shapes and colors, when picking out a stone, you the entire stone, otherwise the bezel will not fit correct- must consider several factors. Of course, the cut must ly and the stone will be unstable. Many thanks to Andy show off the uniqueness of the stone, color, pattern, Cooperman for teaching me his “picket” technique for and/or shape. But there are many cutters who do not holding irregular found objects and stones. take into consideration the shape of the stone and how ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST, NOVEMBER 2009 ©F+W©F+W Media, Media, Inc. Inc. | |All All rights rights reserved reserved | |F+W F+W Media Media grants grants permission permission for for any any or or all all pages pages in in this this issue issue to to be be copied copied for for personal personal use. use. www.JewelryMakingDaily.com 3 SKILLS YO u nEEd • fabrication • soldering • bezel setting • patience MaTERIaLS and T OOLS YOu nEEd MateriaL s chinese charm brick, flux, flux brush, tweezers, 1.5 x 6 mm sterling flat wire: copper tongs, pickle David H. Fell co., www.dhfco chinese Writing stone Dental floss .com Other tools: flex shaft, cut-off 20-gauge sterling t ooL s wheels, light green 3M radial Chinese charm (#695-534 22-gauge copper Layout tools: fine sharpie pen bristle discs, White advantedge “friend”): rio Grande, www or dividers wheel and pink advantedge .riogrande.com sterling silver curved tubing knife edge wheel for bail Hand tools: jeweler’s saw and T-pins: available at craft stores blades, sterling and letter 1.5mm x 6mm sterling flat wire s ources Chinese Writing Stone: Gary B. stamps, files, hand and needle, Wilson, www.garywilsonstones Hard solder and easy wire sandpaper (3M imperial Micro tools & Materials: Most of the .com solder Finishing Film, 20 and 15 mi- tools and materials for this cron), pliers, bezel pusher project will be available from Liver of sulfur well stocked jewelry supply Soldering tools: t-pins, old vendors. Bur Life extra long needle nose pliers, soldering tank and torch, fire- will lie. If it’s too far off your top plate, because you do not want it to uncoil annEaLIng InSuRanCE the stone’s attachment will be unstable suddenly while you are annealing. Pickle I flux when annealing. The flux and could break off with wear. and rinse. turns clear at 1100º, and that is when your metal is annealed. If {Photo 2} Saw around drawn pattern. {Photo 4} Using wide flat pliers and you wait for “cherry red,” it may File as needed. your fingers, form flat wire around be too late. stone. (This will take some strength in ➤ If additional filing is needed between your hands.) Don’t fit too tightly. Treat the “petals” of the chrysanthemum, file wire exactly as you would a bezel. them with a triangular needle file. {Photo 5} File or smooth edges to a butt {Photo 1} Hold Sharpie pen continuously Sand the entire piece with 20 micron fin- joint with white Advantedge wheel. Sol- at same angle, and draw around stone. ishing film, going in one direction. Hall- der closed with hard solder. Pickle and Allow room for picket bezel to fit with mark your piece with “Sterling” and your rinse. slight lip beyond bezel. initials on the back at this time. Set aside. {Photo 6} Make sure bezel is flat onto ➤ If you have a set of dividers, they will {Photo 3} Anneal flat wire. back plate. Because we will be solder- work equally well or better. Remember ing from stick, this is extremely impor- to overlap the stone onto your top plate, ➤ The wire will be very stiff, so coil it tant. Flux. in this case the “chrysanthemum,” and and place it on the firebrick. Secure it take into consideration where the stone with T-pins. Make sure it is securely held STICK SOLdERIng “Soldering from the stick,” or “stick solder- ing,” has been used by plumbers for years. I learned this at Manny’s trading post back in the 1950s from an old Navajo Indian, who set the most intricate bezel covered pieces in just minutes using the same technique. Once you master it, your soldering of bezels will become much faster and easier. ©F+W Media, Inc. | All rights reserved | F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this issue to be copied for personal use. www.JewelryMakingDaily.com 4 ©F+W Media, Inc. | All rights reserved | F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this issue to be copied for personal use. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 {Photo 7} Holding wire solder with ➤ My favorite soldering picks come ➤ I tried to cut mine to follow the shape tweezers in your dominant hand and from Allcraft Tool & Supply. They are and spacing of the lightly colored parts torch with your other hand, heat piece strong and thick, and do not lose their of the stone. until flux is clear. Introduce wire solder temper and bend when held firmly along inside of bezel where it joins back against something. Cut small pieces of copper and file edg- plate. If piece is not hot enough to ac- es for decoration on top of chrysanthe- cept solder, solder will ball up on end. {Photo 9} Placing dental floss behind mum to mirror design on stone. Sweat Keep heating piece and reintroduce stone, and leaving enough to hold onto, some solder on back of them all with solder again a few seconds later. When test fit stone into bezel. Do any clean up easy, pickle and rinse. it flows, pull solder around bezel with on inside of bezel. flame. This takes patience. ➤ It will be easier to find tiny parts if {Photo 10} I use an emery board for you put some warm pickle in a small yo- {Photo 8} Using your solder pick, make acrylic nails cleanup outside of bezel. gurt container and just drop small piec- sure your bezel is down by pressing with es in there instead of in the bottom of side of your pick along top of flat wire {Photo 11} Using a cut-off wheel — and the crock pot.