Ring

My PC is still on the fritz, and with Christmas in full go mode I didn't have time to take "how its made" pics of this ring but I thought you might like to see it anyway. Its 18K Rose and Shakudo, I must also say that on this ring I cheated and had a pre-made forging rod made, not my usual, then patterned and made the ring myself but cost and time are not to be ignored.

David

Hello, I made this out of a business card sized .8mm thick Silver plate after seeing it done in card form by Charles Lewton-Brain. (www.ganoksin.com/brain/gallery.htm) There is No welding or soldering No casting or tricks just bent metal. See if you can make this shape out of a Business card with some scissors. But no cheating Aka: tape glue etc... Have fun.

David

A Little Tip.

Today is tip day. Working on a Trillion Aqua ring and wanted to show the best way "other than a laser or tack welder" to hold the crown in place so that it doesn't move. If I had a laser I would use it, but since I don't, this is how its done. First take a small piece of wire 20g or so and weld it to the bottom of the ring and then to the "wide side" of the crown then move the crown into place. The wire will hold the crown and you can weld away. With proper heat control you should be able to use hard solder. Hope this helps you the next time you have a weird shaped crown or bezel.

David

New Tool!!!!

YE HUa! I Love new tools. I just got the new GRS GraverMach and it ROCKS. It will take some practice but there is nothing like playing with a new "toy". I'm still at work and will be here for a while but such is the life of a metalsmith at Christmas. I hope to have a new How Its Done Video by early next week (if my PC is well). Have a great day.

David

Pic of my new toy.(ripped off the GRS webpage)

How its Done 2

Hello, sorry for the delay, as you know my PC got sick and it still is not well. So no movie this time, just pics and words.

"How its done" for a simple Tahitian Pearl and 14K yellow pendant.
This time I started with a simple computer generated design using DG3.
The Wax before anything is done.

I wasn't planing to blog this so there are no pictures of the cut lines in the wax before the shaping started but you'll have to give me some slack as I made this 4 years ago. You can see some of the lines and the ruff shape of the pendant coming together.

I have the carved the split into the pendant and you can see the remains of the lines,

You can see that the outside shape of the pendant is done but the inside is still not done.

View from the top of the pendant,

Inside has been ruffly cut out and its time for the final shaping of the pendant,

The shaping of the pendant is done the seat for the pearl has not been cut but you can see the shape that the pendant it will be when finished.

View of the Pendant from the side.

The view of the pendant from the "back". His pendant will have no back it is made so that it can be worn with either side facing forward.Pendant is ready to cast.

In the metal, Nothing has been done but breaking it out of the investment.

Note the seat for the pearl at the bottom of the inside of the pendant.

Here I have cut off the wax tree and its time to clean the casting.

The wax tree dobs have been filed off and the pendant is sanded to fine to take out any waves in the metal. Also at the bottom you can barely see the small hole that the peg for the pearl will soldered into.

Back view of the pendant here you can see the hole for the peg very well centered in the seat. I like to weld all pegs in after casting they are stronger than cast pegs.

Side view,

The pendant is done but the pearl is not attached note the stipple finish on the "back", and the peg for the pearl.

Here you can see the bail at the top.

Finished Pendant.

Back View.

Front.

This is a very simple wax with a very nice ending. Hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I have.

Have a great day.

David

Vista Death!

Hello, I was planing to do a new How its done video today but my pc died. So I will post it tomorrow. Today was good. Have a good night see you all Sunday.

David

Work Work

Hello from work. I'm not sure if I will leave work before Friday ends so I wanted to take a sec and say hello. I will be posting a wax creation that I made in '04 in the next blog but my video maker is on my laptop not this desktop. So I will just say hello and I hope that you all out there are having great days. If you have any questions about anything you see on this blog or about me, leave a comment or email me at david@davidhollowaydesigns.com . I will get back to you as soon as I can. The pic below is what my next "how its done post" will be on. Have a great night.

David

Old Friends and a New Face

Today was a great day.  It started out with a ring I had made in '07 coming in for cleaning.  The ring is my favorite ring to date.  It is a Lemon Citrine set in 14k yellow with Diamonds and it is very artsy with a touch of flash.... to put it mildly.  Also one of my best friends had a new son today.  Noah has much to look forward to and and a great family to show him the way.  Today was mostly filled with phone calls and tying up the last of the loose ends before Christmas.  The pictures are of the ring that came to see me today, hope you like it, I do.

Play day

Hello,  today is my last day off before Christmas.  So I worked on putting a roof over my back deck and made a sideshow of the ring that I was telling you about yesterday.  I hope you like the video.  It doesn't have descriptions of what I'm doing but does show the progression of the ring.  Have a Great day!

David

                                         

Long Day

Hello world, today was a long day 12 hours of playing with metal.  Don't get me wrong though, I loved every minute of it.  This time of year is one of the most fun times.  I get to make new things at a pace that is much faster than the rest of the year.  I just finished one of the sweetest engagement rings that I have ever made.  Usually I'm not a big fan of engagement rings from a style point because they all are so similar with the center stone and blah blah blah...  But this one was nice.  I took over 90 pics of it while I was making it so the next post will be a long one.  I'll put the pics up on Wednesday.  I hope that you have a great day.

David  

Flower Pendant: 12diamonds, pink tour, 

14K white & peach gold   '07                                                                                                                                                  

How it is made.

The Idea with approximate wire sizes.
The stone, a dark Green Tourmaline and the metal.

The ingot of metal after it is alloyed to 14K Yellow and stone.

The metal after it is rolled into a ruffly square bar before it is cut and drawn to make round wire.

I then took the metal and rolled part to a 4mm wide by 2.5mm thick bar stock and drew down the wire to 2.5mm round and 1.5mm round. Also in this picture I have already bent and weld the 2.5mm round wire into the start of the crown(what holds the stone).

Here I have started to welding the cross bars onto the crown, this helps support the crown and looks good from the side view of the pendant. Also the bail for the pendant has been shaped and rest to the left of the crown.

At this point all cross bars have been welded in along with the front of the bail.

It is now time to mark where the diamonds will go in the bail.

A different view of the placement of the diamonds.

Setting the diamonds in the bail. The red stuff is a type of sealing wax used to support the arch of the bail as I set the stones. The stones are flush set. I will show how this is done in a later post.

Another view of the stones after they are set but not finished out.

What the bail looks like after cleanup and polish.

Pre-fitting of the center stone to see what needs to be cut away or moved to make room for the stone

A look back at what we started with and what it looks like now.

You will notice that this view is not the same as what is drawn. The design changed from diamonds in each prong and none in the bail to no diamonds in the prongs and six in the bail. Set in a soft arch pattern to follow the shape of the pendant better.

Back in the red shellac(sealing wax), to set the center stone this style of setting is prong setting.

Starting to set the stone notice the lines in each prong. This is so that I only have to move a small piece of metal, this makes moving the metal over the stone easier.

The finished pendant. This is a forged or fabricated pendant, with no pre-made parts or pieces.

In this view you can see the back of the bail that opens so that you can put this on any chain.

I hope you enjoyed looking the making of this pendant as much as I did making it. This was made in 06. Have a great day.

David