Metal Forming

Here's another project from my fourth semester at George Brown. I made this pendant in Metal Forming B. I utilized two different metal forming techniques to make it, the first being the Plunkett fold. The bottom part was die formed with the use of hammers and a die that I made specifically for this purpose.

This project stood out from the others for me, because I found the class to be much more relaxed than the others I had, and I think that helped me to work much more confidently and ultimately make fewer mistakes. I also haven't had much experience with metal forming, so this really opened my eyes to the plasticity and memory of certain metals.

Third Semeseter

Once again I have found myself way too focused on school work over the last few months to think about any projects outside of my assigned work. Since I don’t have many new things to first talk about, I would like to take this opportunity to share this older piece, it was a one-off "experiment" (from sometime in 2006). It’s a brooch that was cast from epoxy resin. It features a 4mm purple cubic zirconia suspended in the clear material, as well as imitation gold leaf. I wasn't sure how I felt about this piece at first, but it has grown on me over time and now I love it. I’m thinking about continuing this idea in a smaller, more polished form (this one is 45mm in diameter and the finding on the back is a cheap craft store finding) and in different 2D shapes.

This is one school project that I managed to get a photo of from this semester that really shows the contrast of the things I find myself working on in my free time and the thing I have to work on at school. Correctly fitting the gemstone to the setting and evenly spacing the silver components is of utmost importance. I find gemsetting to be very challenging, and was surprised with myself for doing as well as I did on this 4 claw construction and setting.

I hope to share more photos of my school work once the year is over, and my projects are returned to me. Please also take note of the new link to the left that shows photos of the majority of the work that I've done over the last three years.

First Year Projects

Over the past year, I haven't had much chance to post any of the projects that I made during my full-time studies at GBC. We mainly made and polished practice pieces in copper and brass to get a feel for the jewellery making process with less expensive materials, but nearer to the end of the year we were able to work with sterling silver as well as 10 karat gold (something that most first years don't get to do apparently!). I also had my first experience with stone setting.

The first image to the left is a sterling silver brooch that has leaves slowly emerging from the background. The second is a synthetic amethyst cabochon, set in sterling silver. Unfortunately I used the wrong tool and the area around the stone isn't as neat and smooth as it should be.

I haven't been updating much lately because I've been focusing on my Etsy shop. Most of my latest projects have been put up there for sale. I've branched out from making a couple of custom resin belt buckles to making some more artistic ones of my own. I've also continued working with Precious Metal Clay and I'm starting to get better at it! The picture on the left is of one of my latest PMC pendants which was inspired by the forget-me-nots that grow in my backyard and it even contains a small amount of the flower covered in PMC slip.

Hollow Silver Star Pendant/ Charm

This is the second and last project that I made in the same course as the previous pendant. It was created through a process called lost wax casting, a process which allows for a lot of fine detail. Unfortunately, not all of the detail of this piece can be seen in the photograph to the left. Taking photos of jewellery has been much harder than I thought it would be, but hopefully with a little practice I’ll get better at it.

Sterling Silver Flower Pendant

I made this in my Jewellery & Silversmithing class. It's my first pendant and my first non-ring project. The techniques I used were saw metal piercing and sweat soldering.