Rutilated Quartz Pendant in Argentium

by jasondeck on February 10, 2010

I was helping out at the Creative Metalworks open bench sessions in the fall, and I had forgotten to bring the project I was working on at the time.  I wanted to come up with something relatively simple so I might knock it out in an afternoon or two, while helping out other students.  I went to our pile of stones and was poking through it when I found this little beauty.

stone, front

stone, front

stone, back

stone, back

It looks like rutilated quartz, and has an oddly attractive cutting flaw on the back.  I thought it would make a nice simple pendant with a thin bezel, and that should be pretty quick.  Unfortunately I couldn’t leave well enough alone and the design advanced a bit, but it was still done in a reasonable amount of time.

Overall the idea was to have the teardrop stone balanced against a similarly sized and shaped bail, and to highlight the groove on the back of the stone.  I felt that a visual center would be nice to highlight the pseudo symmetry I was trying to set up between the stone and bail, and a CZ would fit the bill nicely.

stones

stones

I’m fond of argentium, but contrary to what you might see here, I work with it relatively seldom.  As it happens in forgetting the box with my current project, I had also left my sterling behind.  I had some argentium on hand, so I decided to use it for this project and practice my fusing.

stock

stock

The seam of the bezel was placed where the flaw in the stone was to help draw the eye to it, and fused.

bezel

bezel

fused bezel, side

fused bezel, side

You can just see how the seam lines up with the flaw.

fused bezel, back

fused bezel, back

There was no argentium tube for the CZ tube setting, so some was fabricated.

tube ready for fusing

tube ready for fusing

fused, rounded, scribed tube

fused, rounded, scribed tube

tube cut to make a seat, that is one ugly cut, too

tube cut to make a seat, that is one ugly cut, too

The shorter tube was cut with a jeweler’s saw, trimmed until it tube was a force fit in the larger tube, and then the entire assembly was fused.

tube with seat

tube with seat

The tube setting was fused down to the sheet, and then I tried to fuse the bezel down.  After botching it, and melting the bezel twice, I soldered the bezel down.  I do need to work on my fusing, but I also like to complete projects.

back, bezel, and tube

back, bezel, and tube

The back was pierced out, leaving the back plate wider than necessary, and a slice was placed over the stone’s flaw to further highlight it.

pierced, trial fit

pierced, trial fit

With the basic piece done, an appropriately sized bail was fabricated.

bail stock

bail stock

Which was formed via forging.

rough bail

rough bail

Solder was melted onto the ends of a short wire, the inside of the bail was divoted with a small ball bur, the assembly was aligned with some tension in the bail and heated to solder the bail on.

attached bail

attached bail

The bezel was trimmed to match the somewhat uneven height of the stone, and the inside of the bezel was given a light polish as this was the last time it would be accessible.  I didn’t think it would make any difference in the final product, with the stone being translucent and not transparent.  However, “I didn’t think … ” and “it will not … ” are not the same thing, so I polished it.

polished setting

polished setting

The point of the teardrop would have been difficult to reach with a standard bezel pusher, and even though the shop has a variety of different ones, there wasn’t a good one for this job.  A cut nail, also known as a horseshoe nail, was ground down and sanded to about 400-600 grit to remove any corners or sharp edges while leaving enough tooth to lay the bezel down.

bezel tool

bezel tool

One of the other students who was there who cuts her own cabs, and sets them, said I should set the stone freehand instead of using thermoplastic and an engraver’s ball vise.  Since I had never done it, and didn’t want to look like a wuss, I set it freehand, and as it turns out I am indeed a wuss.  The setting went well, but my left shoulder was killing me at the end from holding the piece.  The bulk of the bezel was pushed over with a standard bezel pusher, and the point was laid down using a combination of the standard bezel pusher and the nail held just as it is pictured above in a closed fist while pulling towards the bottom of the stone.  I didn’t think to get someone to snap a pic because, as I said, I’m a wuss and was way too preoccupied with my wimpy arm.

Once the bezel was turned down there was plenty of room to set the CZ with a tube setting tool, after the seat had been cut, of course.

finished, with chain

finished, with chain

The chain is an interesting thin sterling chain I got on closeout a while back.  It looks nice, but isn’t very flexible or strong.  For this necklace two strands were attached at one end by soldering them together to a jump ring, that end was carefully twisted while the free ends were kept separate by a friend’s outstretched hand.  Then the free end was similarly soldered.

In this way the chain strands are twisted and also twisted around each other, like a hemp rope.  If the chain is unclasped, and held dangling by one end, the chain will not unwind.

finished, with chain, close up

finished, with chain, close up

Some of the residue from the yellow ochre is still visible on the chain.  This stuff takes solder just like soft solder wick, and if a solder stop isn’t used the ends of the chain are rigid and inflexible for as much as a half inch.

I like to hang a tag makers mark on chains with lobster clasps.  If you put the tag along side the chain, and pinch the chain and tag between the thumb and finger, while pressing against the jump ring with the tip of the thumb and finger, it holds still and is pretty rigid making it a lot easier to put on behind the neck.

finished, with chain, detail

finished, with chain, detail

As an interesting side note, I’m an idiot.

The entire time I was designing and making this piece, it was destined for my girlfriend.  After I was completely committed to the project, and had fabricated a good bit of it, I remembered that she is one of the few people who turns argentium black and purple when it is worn for only a short time.  She wears it outside a shirt, however, and doesn’t seem to have any problems with it so far.

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jasondeck

jasondeck

jasondeck

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Argentium baby spoon, with Keum Boo

by jasondeck on October 12, 2009

This summer a good friend’s baby girl had her first birthday.  I know nothing about babies, what they want, or what their parents want, so I figured I would make her a nice silver spoon.  I mean if you have no idea what they want, why not make something you want?  Besides, the father and I are always talking about job stuff and money, so I thought a silver spoon would be funny.

Like almost all projects I have , I started this one later than I would have liked, so it had to be pretty straightforward. I had a false start where I thought it would be nice to chase and repoussé the baby’s initial in the spoon, but I don’t really know how to do either.  It went surprisingly well, but after I had accidentally poked a small hole I decided to stick with what I know in the interest of time.

I figured argentium was a good bet, since it will probably sit on a shelf or in a drawer, only getting looked at once in a blue moon until someone decides to scrap it for money.  In the meantime less re-polishing is always better.  Since no one would actually use it, a friend told me that most busy mothers carry around their own disposable spoons, I would have a bit of leeway in its design.  I figured some Keum Boo might set it off nicely, and since I’m lazy, argentium would be better than depletion gilding.

The first letter of the baby’s name is B, so I traced out a nice looking one, and pierced it out.

To ensure that the letter would really stand out when it was sweated down, I put a light pattern on the spoon body with a pattern roller.  The maker was to approximate where I wanted the letter and the pattern.

As an aside, while I was piercing the B, I managed to get the saw blade twisted 90 degrees in the frame and make a small botched cut really late in the game.  I was able to salvage it however, and I think it came out well.  If I hadn’t said anything I think it would go completely unnoticed.

Solder flowed onto the back of the letter, pickled, and lightly sanded.

The B was sweated in place on the pattern, and the flanking areas cleaned with 4F pumice for the Keum Boo.

After Keum Boo application.  The argentium turned yellow in the pumiced areas like the last time I did this.

The general shape cut out.

In a very fortunate turn, the shop had some stakes for spoons, and there was one the appropriate shape and size.  I sank the spoon a bit in a hollow in a stump, then formed it over a stake.  I forgot to get a pic of the sweet stake.  Then a bit of preliminary polishing.

The main bending was done on a small bracelet mandrel, and then a final polish.  Here i the final product, aggressively cropped in the light booth.  I was in a bit of a hurry, as I said before, and the pics were shitty, so I had to really cut it down to hide the booth itself.

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jasondeck

jasondeck

jasondeck

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