[Jewelry making - Article 00895] - Re: [Orchid] Making ring of solid mokume gane

[Helen Hill]

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Hi Wayne,

    I looked at the work of Carrie Adell and yes I can see that she made
    great use of the "waste" (horrible word to use, sorry) in her work. I
    love her "touchstones" collection - the pieces really remind me of
    paintings by Gustav Klimt, whose work I love. I guess making the best
    use of such leftover pieces of precious metal is all part of the
    creative process. 

    I made a pendant for a niece for Christmas, which was to be a bezel
    set, large pear shaped piece of green amethyst. I made a decorative
    element to go round the base of the bezel - three round wires twisted
    by the flexshaft then re-annealed and hammered into a square cross
    section and shaped around the pear shaped bezel. I also used some of
    this twisted wire to make the bale for the pendant which was soldered
    to the bezel point. It looked really pretty but unfortunately I broke
    the stone when setting it so had to rush and make something else for
    her. It was lying around in my work in progress drawer and then I
    remembered it was my son's girlfriend's birthday in a couple of days'
    time. I removed the twisted wire from the pendant, cleaned up any
    solder still on it, made a new bale, added a tiny pear shaped ring to
    the inside of the point and dangled a little bezel set pear shaped
    ruby cabochon from that. I made bezel set ruby cabochon stud earrings
    to go with it too and she loves the set. She said "Oh wow, you
    remembered that I loved the pendant you did with the twisted wire!".
    To be honest I'd completely forgotten! I didn't tell her it was
    recycled from the very pendant she'd admired. ;-) I need to do that
    more often, rather than using new metal. I've probably got loads of
    suitable pieces of silver in my scrap box which I could utilise
    instead. 

    So Wayne, are you saying that you cut your mokume rings out of a
    square (?) panel of mokume of the right thickness for the width of
    the ring or have I got the wrong end of the stick? The orientation of
    the pattern would be different in that case wouldn't it? I'm trying
    to get my head around the patination of mokume and how it then
    translates to the finished piece of jewellery. For example, I can't
    quite get the fact that making a bilet out of two different precious
    metals, then twisting it along its length, butterflying it and
    turning it inside out gives the star pattern (or have I got that
    wrong as well?). My head's in a spin trying to work out what's going
    on on the inside of the billet/rod, when the twisting takes place. 

    Thanks for the advice re looking at Carrie's work. I enjoyed it. 

Helen
UK
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