I’ve not posted up any images of my locket making lately, so here goes – it’s nearly finished!
I finished filing the edges of the domes and gave them a quick polish.
Next came the hinge bracket. I hade to line the domes up and sandwich them together with masking tape so that I could make all the edges uniform.
Next was the tricky task of filing a groove for the tube hinge to sit into – you can see the start of this in the image below.
Checking to see if it fits…
Looking good…
Next I had to cut three pieces of tube that would form the hinge.
Here they are…
Gettin ready to solder the single hinge element onto one side.
All done…
I had to then line up the edges of the bracket and position the other two hinge elements ready for soldering to the other dome.
And there you go…
I added a small balled silver clasp – but forgot to photograph that bit, so I move on to the bails. These were incredibly tricky to solder on for some reason and I got really fed up with it and had an interlude of learning tube riveting before returning to the soldering and getting it sorted in the end.
more images to follow soon….
Wow, this is stunning. I thought I’d already decided what I wanted to tell my husband I wanted for my birthday this year (believe me, hints and leaving him to his own devices won’t work!) but this is gorgeous!!
It’s just a prototype to try out locket ideas and learn how to make hinges. It’s not really functional as a locket at all, so isn’t going to be for sale and I’m not sure I’ll make another one like this. I’m working a book type locket next, starting tonight which is going to involve etching a photo and some text into the metal. Will post up some images tonight if I have time.