Macro - earrings

In the series of 'Macro:

Ring in hoorn

Deze ring is gemaakt naar eigen ontwerp in Zebu-hoorn.

Hieronder zie je alle stappen:
- Van idee naar schets
- Aftekenen op het hoorn
- Uitzagen van vorm in het hoorn en de zilveren binnenring erin kleven
- Alles afvijlen
- Schuin vlakje afvijlen, gaatje inboren en plaatje met pinnetje opkleven, en verder ook afvijlen
- Lichtjes polijsten om het smelten van de lijm tegen te gaan.

Tags: Goldsmith - silversmith - silver - do it yourself - handmade - ring - jewelry design
Tags: Goudsmid - zilversmid - zilver - handgemaakt - juweelontwerp - ring

Casting a silver ring

Step by step of casting a silver ring.

Deze ring is met de verloren-was techniek gemaakt. Hieronder vind je stap voor stap hoe deze tot stand kwam.

Eerst tekenen we de vorm af op de was, waarna we pas als laatste vijlstap de ring in was afronden.
Deze vorm wordt aan de wasboom bevestigd waarna het in een koker wordt bevestigd waarin we hittebestendige gips gieten.
De was wordt verhit en loopt vantussen het gips weg, waarin - na vacuüm trekken - het zilver kan worden gegoten.
Verdere afwerking is minimaal: ik polijstte enkel de bovenkant naar hoogglans en behield de onderzijde mat.

Tags: Goldsmith - silversmith - silver - rhodinate - do it yourself - ring

Tags: Goudsmid - zilversmid - zilver - handgemaakt - juweelontwerp - ring

Silver initals pendants

 I made these initials a while ago, but it wasn't easy to find someone closeby to rhodinate.
Now, it's finally done.
At first when I made these kind of inital - pendants, I drew and created the letters myself; then let them choose, adjusted them and so on. Now I take stencils from websites such as dafont.com. They have a very big variety of fonts, in bolds, italics... and it's also much easier to print them out in different sizes.
I glue the cutout on my silver plate and simply saw around it. A lot of filing needs to be done afterwards and to finish it off I solder a little ring invisible onto the back of the initial.

Tags: Goldsmith - silversmith - silver - rhodinate - do it yourself
Tags: Goudsmid - zilversmid - zilver - handgemaakt - juweelontwerp

I made a new hollow ring, a design I made two years ago.
Completely in silver, matte on the outside and polished on the inside and lastely it is rhodinated.

Tags: goldsmith - silversmith - hollow ring - do it yourself - rhodinate - silver
Tags: goudsmid - zilversmid - handgemaakt - juweelontwerp

2 Silver rings - Alliance and commisioned ring

 This first ring was commissioned. It is a duplicate for an old ring to which she was very emotionally attached to, but it was too small and it was fixed up with tin solder so I suggested to make her a new one!
The stones in both of the rings are zirkonia and the rings are rhodinated.

This ring is an american wedding ring aka alliance. I might say: I will never make one of these agian. This I made for practice and although it is very pretty, you can buy 13 in a dozen online in your size and costumize it with different stones.
I'd rather put my time in more creative things ;)

'Macro' Silver necklace - WIP and finished product

This silver necklace I made during the last two weeks. I was inspired by macro-images of silver.
The width of each little 'pebble' varies between 0,5 to 1cm and also differ in height. The necklace has a matte finish.
It was a bumpy road, but in the end I'm glad it's wearable and I didn't melt it together.
While being 925 sterling silver and cast by myself, it tends to become darker when exposed to the air. Searching for a solution for that part but with a cotton cloth or silver cloth it solves temporarily the problem.
This was made as a birthday gift, but I'm making simpeler and easier to wear ones for my shop!
Here are some photos of the wip and finished product.

Tags: Goldsmith - silversmith - silver - rhodinate - do it yourself - Step by step
Tags: Goudsmid - zilversmid - zilver - handgemaakt - juweelontwerp