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Turning a Sow’s Ear into a Silk Purse

Gone are the days when I tossed my mistakes into the little box on my bench. Silver is just too expensive to treat without the proper respect, and perhaps that is as it should be. Even though anything that could go wrong did, I decided to fix the meltdown to use for my Betty McKim Earring Challenge project. They are not very presentable viewed with the pitiless magnification of my little camera, but look fine on me.

earrings

But more encouragingly, I taught my first class in this technique at Ornamentea this week, and it was successful. I’ve been fascinated with circular forms for years, and found the Strickland Brooch at the British Museum.

strickland brooch

Inspired, I designed a class project that a non-jeweler could complete in a few hours. I wanted to use more cable and less granules, as they are difficult to produce without a lot of scrap on hand for the Sandkuhler Splash. Melting little balls one at a time, and needing several hundred is not doable in a day length workshop.

notebook drawings

This is the beginning project that we did. They had no problems, and were even able to do their own designs, which turned out great.

granulation class project

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Lillian Jones

Lillian Jones

Is a teacher and metalsmith in North Carolina, USA. She works both in silver fabrication and enamel. Her imagery is drawn from the geometries of nature, and an interest in illustration.

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