Learn enameling techniques and silversmithing techniques. Plan your design out first on paper. Enamels take much time & patience so you want to like your design before you begin.
To start this pair of earrings I first work on paper to get a shape I like and then work on the design within the shape. My pencil lines will become cloisonné wires and the dots are pieces of fine silver that I have heated until they become a small dot. On paper I work with colored pencils and color in the areas I want. I then assign these colors to my selection of Shauer enamels. The metal is prepared first. I work with Fine silver, as it is purer than Sterling Silver and won’t darken as it is heated in the kiln and flake into the enamels that would make them look dirty. I take my 2 pencil shapes that I have decided to use, trace over them with pencil on vellum, cut out the paper shapes and glue them with rubber cement onto a sheet of Fine Silver. I take my metal saw and saw out the shapes and then dome them slightly with a dapping block. The edges are carefully filed so that my shapes are perfect.
The enamels I want to use are sifted and washed many times to get out impurities. Then clean the metal and place counter-enamel onto back of domed fine silver shapes and heat in a kiln at 1500 degrees for about 5 minutes. Next a thin layer of transparent Shauer enamel is sifted onto front of fine silver shapes and heated in kiln for about 5 minutes. Cloisonné wires are cut to fit design and placed on both shapes as I have designed the pattern and also fine silver balls are placed where I want my dots, then heated in kiln, to tack down. Transparent enamel is mixed with the colors I choose to work with and added to the fine silver shapes, filling in the cloisonné wires and all areas. I build up the enamels, with firing between layers, with the colors becoming more transparent than saturated as I near the top layer. I try to obtain 12 to 14 layers. Then polishing begins with wet/dry sandpapers, from 220 to 1000 grit, enamel held underwater while polishing. Then soak in ammonia and heat in kiln until smooth finish is obtained.
I take fine silver bezel wire and fit it around both shapes, solder them closed, then solder both of them onto a base piece of sterling silver sheet metal, saw out around the bezel so that they appear as two shallow cups in the shape of my enamels. On the backs I solder on sterling silver ear posts about one third of the way down from the top of both settings. I carefully polish both settings and then place the enamels into them and with a bezel pusher, working from one side to the other, I press in the bezel to hold the enamels in place until the bezels are smooth and also use a burnisher around the bezels and then polish the whole piece again, very carefully as the enamels are now set in them, in place. At this point I have only to add the earring nuts to the posts and they are ready to be worn. Learn enameling techniques and silversmithing techniques. Plan your design out first on paper. Enamels take much time & patience so you want to like your design before you begin.
To start this pair of earrings I first work on paper to get a shape I like and then work on the design within the shape. My pencil lines will become cloisonné wires and the dots are pieces of fine silver ... Read full instructions »Difficulty:
I am interested in this project but don't see where to "find" it so that I can make the earrings and learn the skill. Don't see any links that get me beyond this page as far as actually "working" the project. Could someone please help?
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