Online Jewelry Training Classes for Metalsmiths
Dear metalsmith friends,
We hope you have been creative and busy at your bench. Days are getting longer and warmer. Energy and excitement is hanging in the air.
In this edition of the newsletter we focus on antique jewelry as well as making your own tool to flatten metal plate.
What better place to start than with René Lalique?
This is a dainty antique style band with marquee and round shapes and interesting bead detail on the collet bezel.
This instruction shows how to make this timeless traditional 5 stone eternity ring with a double bezel prong setting often made as wedding band to match a solitaire or Tiffany style engagement ring.
There are machines that will flatten a piece of plate if it warps during annealing or rolling. These are quite expensive.
A cost effective solution is to make your own.
As of late I've been using these lock tweezers for delicate soldering jobs. A normal spring tweezer has too much tension, which tends to deform thin metal when it is hot. With these locking tweezers the tension can be adjusted – very, very gently if need be. I bend the tip like a spring tweezer. You can find these at jewelry tool suppliers called gem lock tweezers. They are generally of better quality and thus last a long time.
