Critique Request Inlay into silver pendants

Dani Girl · May 8, 2017

Brian Marshall · May 8, 2017

You're not done yet, right?

Brian

Dani Girl · May 8, 2017

John B. said:
Dani Girl said:

The first inlaid pic at the top here... it's pretty easy to see with the bit of steel blue darkness left on the silver around the gold that the gold is jagged because i got some epic heel drag with my flat cutting the grooves. Would i be wisest to raise heel angle, round heel, not use a flat at all? Take multiple passes? This was a good depth for the wire.

Try cutting the inlay channel with an ongelette followed by a round bottom graver to widen it out. No heel drag.

Click to expand...

Thank you John, I will try that soon. I might even round off the flat I was using for this piece and give it a go. HSS would be best for small points used for soft metal I guess. I am using an onglette for the first time now, is there anything that's good to know about them?

Dani Girl · May 8, 2017

Hey Brian

I think I'm done with the middle part, it seems to be screaming put some kind of border around it though. What would suit, wheat leaf, scrolls... It's geometrical so maybe more geometrical scribblings... haven't given it much thought.

None of these pendants have been thought about, I'm just cutting as much as I can trying to break my new turn table in, break myself back in, get some techniques practiced and have things to sell.

This pendant is about as thick as photo paper so 1mm stones were the only option. I had to use a bud bur for the holes as nothing else was small enough. Maybe i could have got lucky with a round bur from my collection. 4 of the stones are pretty well flat. I pushed one over with the first bead prong and couldn't get it back down again... the other's just a bit off. Four beads per stone and a flat bevel cut around the stone. I figured cutting the flashing would be a bit obscene at this size.

Dani Girl · May 8, 2017

This one is off topic, but the steel on this broke my graver point at least 10 times getting through this. Either it's tough or the vibration in my turntable is giving me curry. We have bracketed the drill press down in a way so it doesn't wobble. Get it sorted one bit at a time. This one is a thank you for offering me a job gift that's only 7 years late for the saddler in town. Almost went down the road of leatherwork instead... it was close. Who knows I might revisit that road one day.

Dani Girl · May 9, 2017

15.5mm rosette

25mm wide Sterling Silver pendant (about as thick as photo paper)

Dani Girl · May 9, 2017

Finished now Sensei.

tayloredcreations · May 9, 2017

Your work is so inspiring, I love the combination of engraving and stone setting!

John B. · May 9, 2017

Dani Girl said:
John B. said:

Thank you John, I will try that soon. I might even round off the flat I was using for this piece and give it a go. HSS would be best for small points used for soft metal I guess. I am using an onglette for the first time now, is there anything that's good to know about them?

Click to expand...

To heel an ongelette just hand hold it at about 15 degrees with the point in contact with the abrasive and wipe it from side to side.
This will raise the point slightly and taper the side radius's in.
Jab the point into end grain of hardwood and check the point on your thumbnail.
Narrowing an old flat to what you want and rounding it off will work. Make a short heel following the edge radius.
Any kind of graver steel will work in soft metal but for cutting gold try carbide. The gold chips don't stick to it.

Dani Girl · May 10, 2017

Got a little bit more done today.

Dani Girl · May 14, 2017

Copper inlay practice plate.

Any critiques most welcome. :tiphat:

Dani Girl · May 14, 2017

So does anything I've put up yet look like a real english scroll?

Is there anything you'd do differently with the inlay?

Thanks all.

mitch · May 14, 2017

iirc, earlier in this thread you lamented not knowing how to finish the center of a scroll with an inlaid spine. it looks like you've come up with a very attractive solution to your dilemma.
:graver:

Dani Girl · May 14, 2017

Thanks mitch.

My second idea is to melt a ball onto the end of the gold wire to make it easy to start the scroll with a ball at the end which seems to be the more commonly done thing. I don't know if that will prove easier to inlay or if I'll end up making a burred floor in the cavity and putting it down in strips. That will probably depend on the size of it.

Brian Marshall · May 15, 2017

You've gotten a torch setup since I saw you last?

Brian

Dani Girl · May 15, 2017

Torch, no not yet Brian. Going to visit some Jewellers in Canberra and they're going to show me the different budget/expensive set ups they've got and what they can do with them.

Could be most of what I want to do right now could be done cheaply.

I have cirtric acid which can be used as a pickle... should I keep that in a plastic container? Does it go off? Boric acid and borax should be easy to find.

I have been annealing over a candle so far.

Brian Marshall · May 15, 2017

Citric acid comes in both dry powder and liquid form. Both should keep indefinitely...

While citric acid does work, it is pretty slow and has the disadvantage of being sticky when it dries on stuff - including your fingers and your bench.

You should be using "food grade" which means that whenever you have a hankering for something sour, you are free to lick your fingers.

Somewhere over there there has to be a swimming pool supply house that sells small quantities of dry granulated "PH Down". (Here it is common to find the stuff in grocery stores)

It contains 93% sodium bisulfate, the rest is inert. You may spell it sodium bisulphate over there?

It costs about a quarter of the price of the same thing flogged to jewelers by the jewelry supply houses - just because "jewelers" should be punished for being jewelers?

You'll find that to be true of most tools and supplies sold to "jewelers/engravers" as well... always shop around in other trades and professions first. You can save yourself a ton of money.

Welding suppliers always have cheaper fluxes and solders, dental suppliers have cheaper burs, lapidary suppliers have the cheapest laps & diamond powder - and the list goes on.

Brian

PS. Anneal over an alcohol lamp instead of the candle. Cleaner flame.

Dani Girl · May 15, 2017

What alcohol goes in the lamp?

Dentists get cheaper burrs... if anyone I would have expected to be punished for earning that much money it would have been them.

I finished sticking an octopus to poor Rei's head from the cartoon series neon genesis Evangelion.

I think I will use it as a letter opener

Brian Marshall · May 15, 2017

In Mexico you can buy 100% drinkable alcohol at any Farmacia.

Here we use "denatured" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol - available in pharmacies and most grocery & hardware/paint stores.

No idea what you might have available over there? Or could make at home with some fruit, potatoes or grain? (not to consume, of course)

B.

Dani Girl · May 16, 2017

Here it is called metho... metholated spirits.

Critique Request Inlay into silver pendants

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