Spoonerism

Well I started my Silver Jewellery Creation course on Friday and the first thing I wanted to do was make a ring from one of the sterling silver teaspoons I bought in Edinburgh last week.

I initially has to heat the spoon to soften the metal, let this cool and then cut the handle off. I then proceeded to whack it with a raw-hide mallet against a ring mandrel to start forming the curved shape of the ring. This took some doing as the end of the handle is quite thick silver, so it was a matter of heating, cooling, whacking and heating, cooling, whacking and so on and just shaping it gradually. This is a great prototype and I’m really please with the result. Can’t wait to learn from my mistakes and make the next one.

Points to note for the next ring…
I think I started on the wrong end as I decided to shape the thin end of the handle first. This left me with nothing to hold onto properly when wanting to apply the right amount of force to the thicker end in order to curve it. So I’ll start with the thicker end next time.

I also thought I would have to flatten the thin end of the handle a bit so that it would slip under the thick end once it was curved round. Having done this and ruined the shape of it, I don’t think this is necessary. So that’s another thing to bear in mind next time.

Also at some stage I picked up the wrong hammer and marked the ring, which meant I had to sand, burnish and polish to remove the marks which I can still see, but no-one else has noticed. Ooops – not doing that again either.

Next time I also think it might be worth wrapping some leather around the ring mandrel too, to avoid marking the inside of the ring as it did get marked quite a lot.

Anyway, here are some pics…

What's on the Bench?

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