Reticulation

Hello!

So, the last few days I've been experimenting with reticulation. This is a process whereby you repeatedly heat silver, cool and clean it until you achieve undulations and waves in the metal which are quite beautiful! It originated in Czarist Russia and was used by jewelers such as Faberge to create interesting textures and finishes. Let me tell you, it's completely addictive, if time consuming.

Now, sterling silver is an alloy  and consists of  92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper. Repeatedly heating, cooling and cleaning the metal separates the silver and the copper, so that the copper settles in the middle, and the pure silver on the edges. This means that when you heat the final time the copper and pure silver melt at different temperatures -creating waves and undulations in the metal.

Here are some pieces I created recently:-

I used liver of sulphur to heavily oxidise each piece, and then rubbed back so that the detail from the reticulation stands out. Each piece is different, nothing is uniform and you never know how it will turn out!
Let me show you how I created those leaf like earrings. First of all, I cut the shapes out of 0.8mm sterling sheet, and then annealed them, and cleaned them to remove the oxidation by popping them in pickle (a special acid solution).

I think I repeated this process maybe 8-10 times (I lost count!) and then the metal was ready to do its ripply thing... This is how they looked after they'd been cleaned up.

Finally, I soldered some jump rings to the back, oxidised them and rubbed them back.

I love the waves and ripples, as well as the slight curling at the edges. Very leaf like, but with a lunar surface! Moon leaves :-)

All of these pretties will be available in my showcase over on The Jewellery Show in Facebook Land on the 29th May. And I'll be making lots more as I am totally hooked!

Stay safe and well, and I'll be back in June

Sue x

Metal Guru.

Hello folks! Hope I find you all well. It's been a  busy week so far with three out of my four grandchildren succumbing to a sicky bug that's had me running around with not much time to make. So if you think your eyesight is a little blurry - no - I left it  a bit too late to take my pictures today and the light was disappearing fast, so it's the pictures, not you!

This week I thought I'd introduce you to a new venture for my friend Helen Backhouse. She's begun to work with metal clay - silver, bronze and copper - and the results are beautiful. She's using the same moulds as she does for her polymer clay work - all individually hand made from natural found objects, not proprietary. The first pair today is copper, in a bark effect. I've given them the special treatment, with my new delivery of Basha Beads - magical colours that look like the beads have tiny flames inside.

The shells are some of my favourite shapes and they cry out for sea treasures - coral sticks and keishi pearls, all copper wrapped.

And finally- the silver. Oxidised heavily and polished back so the relief in these teasel heads really stands out. I've kept these simple with black pearls and Lucy Haslam's oxidised silver twisted sisters connectors. Gothic glamour.

 

 

So those are this week's earrings; all available in my Etsy shop. I'll see you in two weeks, hopefully bug-free! And by then, there will be only two weeks to Christmas - can you believe it?

 

Lindsay x 

 

My Etsy shop

                                                                  My Facebook page

Welcome Heidi Ahren Williams!

Opal Perfection ~ Australian Opal Doublet Hand-Fabricated Earrings

Hello and thank you all so much for the opportunity to write an article for Earrings Everyday! How fun is this?! Let me quickly introduce myself, and then I'll go into a bit of the process of creating these Opal beauties, from finding the gemstones, to following the Muse and her winding, twisting, adventurous path to perfection!

My name is Heidi Williams, and I'm sure I know many of you from Facebook and Instagram - I stay pretty active in a lot of those groups, and on social media in general.  I live in Wyoming, near the Snowy Range and Medicine Bow Peak. We love to hike, camp, and motorbike in the mountains, enjoying the beauty of the untamed wilderness. Every time I return from the mountains, I feel rejuvenated and freshly inspired to create!

Back from one of these wonderfully relaxing mountain adventures, I began creating these Opal earrings - they are sweetly petite, with tiny little teardrop opal doublets, (which were a challenge to fabricate bezels for) and elegantly organic with a sleek, lightweight design. I love keeping such beautiful gemstones as the star of the show, while adding my own touch of hand-fabricated metalwork to create a One-Of-A-Kind design.

Finding gemstones that are of high quality, and yet unique can be a challenge at times, although social media and the popularity of Instagram and Facebook sales makes this much easier...I am always on the lookout for fabulous gemstones, especially in matching (or semi matching) pairs for future earring designs! I collect these gemstones and then when so inspired I will design around the stone - I rarely purchase a stone with a specific design in mind.

Having settled on these teeny tiny opal doublets from Australia, I began fabricating the smooth silver bezels - choosing the correct height of bezel wire is so important, and something I still mess up on occasionally, but I am happy with these! After soldering the bezels to silver back plates on which I remembered to stamp my little signature heart, and popping them in the pickle pot, I begin work on the upper portion of the earrings.

I select narrow bits of silver sheet 
hand cut and hammered, 16-gauge wire for the front which will be what the opals attach to, and 20-gauge wire for the ear wires. For this portion I use medium paste solder, placing all of my silver bits together in their places on my soldering board. I begin soldering by heating up the 16-gauge wire first - making the end of the wire ball up to create a nice drop for the loop that the opal will hang from. After the 16-gauge wire is balled up sufficiently, I begin heating and soldering the rest of the earring upper. 

Once soldered, I let cool before removing from my soldering board,  as Argentium (935) Silver is brittle when hot - I've shattered one too many designs because I was impatient and tried moving the piece before it was cooled enough! 

These upper earring parts are now popped into the pickle pot, and out comes the tear drop bezels! I trim off the excess silver, file and sand edges, and solder jump rings to the top of each. 

After all of these pieces are sufficiently pickled, I file, sand, and polish. Then out comes the LOS gel (which I LOVE), giving them a nice black patina. (Black Max is also a great blackening agent for silver!) After tumbling, I again polish the bits up, taking off enough of the LOS to highlight the texture. Setting the stones is the next to last step - and a tedious process to keep the bezel smooth and wrinkle-free, especially at the corners. Sometimes I like that wrinkly rustic look, but for this pair of earrings, I wanted a smooth setting.

 I always begin at the corners, smoothing them down first, and move around the setting gradually working the bezel down a bit more with every rotation. Slow and gentle will have your bezel looking amazing in the end! A bit of filing, sanding, and polishing to top it off (avoiding the stone of course), and we are ready to attach the opals to their upper earring parts. These earrings were so much fun to make, and best yet, a success!

Some product information for the curious:
Have you ever wondered what an opal doublet was? Well, quite simply Opal Doublet as the name suggests, is a thin layer of precious Opal cemented onto a backing, usually a piece of common Black Opal or Ironstone. They were originally created from Opal that was perhaps too thin to produce a solid stone.

Wondering about Argentium Silver? Let me tell you! Argentium Silver is .935 pure silver, with germanium as its alloy instead of nickle. It is hypoallergenic, nickle free, and perfect for those who are allergic to traditional Sterling Silver!

Thank you so much for having me! I hope this little article inspires your muse a little!

Be Inspired, Stay Creative~
Heidi

Azteca Designs Boutique
Azteca Designs Boutique on Facebook
Azteca Designs Boutique on Instagram