Peony pendant in shakudo, gold & copper

Jim Kelso · Apr 20, 2012

Hereâ€™s another in the series of this shape of pendant. This one is a Poppy design in 4% Baldwin shakudo(96%copper/4%gold), copper and 22k gold with 18k bezel, cable and bale. The smaller photo shows about life size (35mm) in my browser. The gold and shakudo are joined with 18k hard solder. The copper is inlaid.

Marrinan · Apr 20, 2012

Wonderful simplicity-Beautiful work. You work is always a treat to the eyes. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. Fred

mrthe · Apr 20, 2012

wow that's wonderfull! thanks for sharing

GertGraveur · Apr 20, 2012

Very nice! Always a pleasure to see your work Jim!

James Roettger · Apr 20, 2012

Beautiful piece, looks destined to be a sales success as well. Can you tell me where one can obtain Baldwin shakudo. I know that alloy can be problematic to make in small batches with brittleness and all.

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Apr 20, 2012

Looks real ZEN Jim, I like it. You always have innovating designs.
And sure I like that one "scratch"

arnaud

Weldon47 · Apr 20, 2012

The ever-amazing Kelso does it AGAIN!

Awesome work...and....deceptively simple,

Thanks for sharing,

Weldon

Dave London · Apr 20, 2012

Another home run, thanks for the great work and photos

dimovengraving · Apr 20, 2012

Beautiful work :thumbsup:

willy · Apr 20, 2012

Jim,
Thanks for sharing,

Willy

Jim Kelso · Apr 20, 2012

Thanks loads guys. Very much appreciated!

James you can get Phil's shakudo from Reactive Metals Studio.
http://www.reactivemetals.com/http___www.reactivemetals.com/Home.html

To get it the true Japanese black you need also to learn the patina:

http://www.jimkelso.com/japanpatina.html/tutorial.htm

Titian · Apr 20, 2012

Charming work.

James Roettger · Apr 21, 2012

Thanks Jim for the resource info. That reactive metals place looks like a good source.

monk · Apr 21, 2012

elegance disguised as simplicity ! your work is always a joy for me to look at. whomever ends up wearing this, indeed has a work to be proud of.

Sam · Apr 22, 2012

Jim, your work is always a pleasure to see. Very inspiring and tastefully done. Bravo!!!

Jim Kelso · Apr 22, 2012

Again, thanks very much guys!

Marcus Hunt · Apr 23, 2012

Jim, I adore your work. This is absolutely beautiful. Can you please excuse my ignorance; the black metal is iron or steel I take it? how do you join this to the gold so perfectly or is the gold an inlay?

Jim Kelso · Apr 23, 2012

Thanks very much Marcus! The black metal is the Japanese alloy shakudo, in this case 96% copper and 4% gold. It turns black in the traditional Japanese patina described here:

http://www.jimkelso.com/japanpatina.html/tutorial.htm

The gold is unaffected by the patina.

The gold and shakudo are both solid through and through, about 17g. I had to work at that seam! I soldered the pieces after very careful fitting, face down, heating with a torch from below. This pulled the 18k solder, which lay on the top(really the back) into the seam. There were a couple of minute gaps, nonetheless, and I punched the gaps closed, having left the gold a little proud just for that reason. All trued up with stones. The copper is inlayed mechanically, held by the surrounding shakudo.

One photo shows the piece before final polishing where you can discern the solder joint, mostly down low in the gold.

The polish was silicon carbide powder followed by charcoal powder, both in horsehair brushes and water. Even the fine charcoal leaves a very fine pattern of omni-directional micro scratches. The patina on the shakudo largely obliterates the visual pattern but the gold is unaffected by the patina and thus a fine matte pattern remains on it. I prefer it to a glaring high polish as it seems to show the engraving better.

The dark patina contrasting with the gold, plus the polish makes the joint disappear as seen in the other photo, magnified 10 times or so.

Arnaud Van Tilburgh · Apr 23, 2012

Thanks Jim for explaining the different steps. The close up indeed shows better the texture made by the way you “polished” it.
I also use brushes powder and water, but mine are from goat hair, never heard of horsehair brushes.

I already wrote about that one “scratch” Am I right it is the Japanese way to add an imperfection to make it perfect?

arnaud

mrthe · Apr 23, 2012

thank you Jim this thread is everytime more interesting and i'm going to learn a lot from this, one question , shakudo only is copper more gold? i have read time ago that was make with silver too, sorry for asking but i'm a jewelery maker and is veryinteresting for me know more about that.
thank you another time

Peony pendant in shakudo, gold & copper

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