Silversmithing

I just completed my silversmith class taught by Jess Noonan who makes amazing jewellery herself and also teaches both day-classes and term-long courses in the Midlands.

We were working from Gallery 18 in Loughborough

I've made a pendant, four rings, a bangle and a chain bracelet. Jess is a fab teacher who gives you a lot of scope for doing the work that you're interested in while learning the techniques.

The space had benches for six people (the maximum on the course) and all of the equipment that you would need. Also at the start of the course you get some pieces of metal and other essentials which you can supplement later as you decide what you're going to make.

This is the plain D-shaped ring that I finished last week and haven't taken off since.

Towards the end of the course I started playing with silver plated forks to try and create some rings and other jewellery out of them. This one is the most successful of the fork jewellery, it's made from nickel silver and I've not found anything to do with the handle yet but the tines were great to work with and have made a lovely ring. The outside two tines can either be twisted as shown below or can be bent backwards to hold a stone.

This is the under-side of the ring with the two inner tines bent around to form the ring itself and then sanded to make it comfortable to wear.

 

Can you tell I like chunky jewellery? I'm going to spend a few months sourcing some more nickel silver forks and hopefully some sterling silver as well (plate did not work well!) and then take another class with Jess to work on them further. I might even get myself a blowtorch. You have been warned!

Vick.

www.vclinde.co.uk