Yesterday, I went to a Working with Gold workshop with Deb Jemmott. There were only 3 of us in the class and the small size afforded us plenty to time to discuss the topics: karats, color, alloys, annealing, solder and soldering, and gauge; and to start a project.
Even though I started a small chasing project in gold, that project is not done so I decided to make a pair of kinetic earrings that I have already made in sterling silver and in copper thus, I brought my 18K gold sheet and sterling silver disks and the template I have to drill out the hole to the class.
After a bit of discussion, I decided to do half of each earring in gold and the other half in sterling as it was a way to have the gold but not too much and with the contrast to the silver to which I have applied a patina, the color contrast is wonderful. AND with the different metals, I would get good practice soldering and controlling the heat.
By the end of the class, I had the two metals soldered together and today I have done a bit of clean up, a quick polish and then the placement and soldering onto suspension wires and lastly the patina.
Here are some pictures of me making the earrings AND the finished earrings and yes, I made the ear wires too.
At the very end there are two pictures of me sawing a gold coin (no numismatic value). If you are wondering why I am sawing a coin, here's why: You can get certain gold coins which are 24K (.9999) at spot value and then it can be annealed and rolled out (repeat several times) to make sheet or wire in the gauge you want. So I am cutting the pretty milled edge off to save and then I can roll out the center of the coin. I might make the milled "ring" into a ring.
Even though I started a small chasing project in gold, that project is not done so I decided to make a pair of kinetic earrings that I have already made in sterling silver and in copper thus, I brought my 18K gold sheet and sterling silver disks and the template I have to drill out the hole to the class.
After a bit of discussion, I decided to do half of each earring in gold and the other half in sterling as it was a way to have the gold but not too much and with the contrast to the silver to which I have applied a patina, the color contrast is wonderful. AND with the different metals, I would get good practice soldering and controlling the heat.
By the end of the class, I had the two metals soldered together and today I have done a bit of clean up, a quick polish and then the placement and soldering onto suspension wires and lastly the patina.
Here are some pictures of me making the earrings AND the finished earrings and yes, I made the ear wires too.
At the very end there are two pictures of me sawing a gold coin (no numismatic value). If you are wondering why I am sawing a coin, here's why: You can get certain gold coins which are 24K (.9999) at spot value and then it can be annealed and rolled out (repeat several times) to make sheet or wire in the gauge you want. So I am cutting the pretty milled edge off to save and then I can roll out the center of the coin. I might make the milled "ring" into a ring.
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