What is hand fabricated jewelry?
Hand fabricated jewelry is made using traditional metalsmithing techniques that have been around for centuries. Each piece starts with flat metal sheet and wire that is sawed, filed, soldered and polished into its finished form. There are no molds, nothing is cast, and because of that, each piece is unique. There are no shortcuts, this is a labor intensive, tedious process that takes a lot of time, tools, and patience. But I like doing things the long way, the old way, the slow way. It is extremely gratifying to create these treasures and keep this craft alive.
My workbench is often a mess, scattered with tools and materials for a multitude of projects I am usually working on simultaneously. This is a jewelers' bench, specifically made for this craft, with plenty of drawers, a tray to catch my silver dust, and modifications I have made to hold my torch and other tools. When I'm here, I feel like I'm home.
Soldering is perhaps the trickiest and most fun part of making jewelry. I use acetylene gas to fuel my Smith torch set-up. It gets hot enough to melt metal so I can pour my own ingots, but it is also gentle enough to work with tiny intricate details in gold.
My jewelers' saw is like an extension of myself. The saw blades come in a variety of sizes, and my favorite are the smallest ones. The teeth are almost invisible and it lets me create the smallest details like the ferns and flowers pictured below. I often use magnification when I saw so that I can see what I am doing in greater detail.
Jewelry making also involves a lot of hammering! Above I am using a dapping block to form the tops of my jellyfish wind chimes. I also use different hammers to add texture to my pieces. I use about six different hammers that all serve different purposes! My two pound brass hammer is perfect for using with the dapping block. The chasing hammer is my go-to at the bench. I have a planishing hammer that helps me make an almost faceted hammered finish on the moon phase pieces. And I like to gently form the monstera earrings with a nylon hammer. The rawhide mallet is perfectly soft for flattening sheet and wire. And then there are a bunch of little tools I use in combination with the chasing hammer for a variety of purposes like texturing, stone setting, and forming the metal.
