Congratulations to our latest Student of the Week- Leslie Berg. She oxidized the back ground to make her granulation stand out in contrast. You can see what a clean job she did without any flooding of her granules. That is definitely not easy to do because there is such a fine line between flowing the backsheet enough to attach with the granules without overflowing and making a puddle. Many beginning students make the mistake of trying to melt the granules onto the backsheet. If your focus is on the granules they (being smaller in volume than the backsheet) will over heat and melt together in blobs without attaching to the backsheet. This is because they became hotter than the piece as a whole so they won’t fuse properly. In fine silver granulation you must heat around the whole piece until the backsheet gets shiny and melts a bit at the edges, then angle your flame and push the melting area underneath the granules. As soon as you see the attachments form between granules and backsheet, you stop. It looks like a tiny “neck” of metal between the two. I’m far more used to accompanying my description with a live demonstration but hopefully it isn’t too opaque without the visuals. I salute Leslie Berg for her beautiful earrings!
jeanettecaines
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
They are really beautiful! I’ve tried granulation on sterling a few times, and it’s not easy.
The stones are well set as well as the granules being well done, good show, Leslie, keep it up.
Sam