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Make Jewelry to Surprise your Mother
A perfect gift for Mother’s Day. Make these flower earrings (or any other design) for your mother and feel her pride and joy. Make them in easy steps, everything is illustrated and explained. Materials:
Sawing silver flowers from sheet metalSelect a flower pattern from Dover Japanese Crests Book (they have great patterns and are all copy-right free), or any other of your choosing, insert it in a Word document and print it 2 times (for each flower), check the size of the image printed to suit your needs.Cut it out and put a fine (really thin) layer of glue on the sheet metal and stick the flower pattern on it. Press well so that it adheres evenly. Let it dry thoroughly (1 hour at least).
Hold the saw lightly with your hand; let the saw teeth do the work. Avoid exerting too much pressure (beginning jewelers usually break allot of saw blades, so don’t despair). To turn a sharp corner, simultaneously turn the metal while quickly moving the saw up and down.
When you have all the flowers cut, start filing each one according to the pattern. Use a barrette and a three-square file to file every petal to shape until the flower is well modeled and symmetrical. Files remove metal on their forward stroke so you should move the files away from you to shape the metal. After filing all of them, soak them in alcohol to get rid of the paper. Clean the metal with an old toothbrush and a bit of toothpaste; give them a quick rinse and dry before the next step. Now that the paper pattern is discarded you can check the shape of each flower. File more until all the petals are the same shape, check any sharp edges or corners. The outer rim of each petal should be filed evenly so anyone can see the “gauge” of it. Start with coarser files (7” files) and work your way to needle files (6” or mini needle files).
Think of it like shaping the geometry of the flower, sculpting with your files the structure of each petal. After filing comes the sanding of each flower. Start with lower grit sandpaper to smooth out the filing and to get in between the petals. You can bend sandpaper to get in between petals, and you can also cover files with pieces of sandpaper to have a firmer and shaped sanding surface. Just as the outer rim of each petal is filed and sanded evenly, do the same with the inner rims in between petals. Sand the surface of your flowers to get rid of any scratches and even-out the surface. The filing and sanding at this stage may take a bit of time and practice, but it’s best to make a big effort here before continuing the project. Why? It’s easier to file and sand a flat sheet metal flower than a concave flower, which is the next step. Anneal each flower, pickle, rinse and dry. Dapping metal flowers to form a domeShape each petal to a slight curve using a small dapping punch and brass hammer.Start at the center of the flower and work your way down each petal while gently dapping it.
Try to let the dapping punch slide on the petal while you direct it towards you while hitting it with your hammer. This way the petals will start “curling” upwards, getting a “real-like” shape. Then, put the biggest concave depression of your dapping block up-right. Put one of your flowers inside in such a way that its sits in the center. Hold your biggest dapping punch with your left hand and the brass hammer with your right hand and gently hit the flower several times until it acquires that concave shape.
While dapping, the flower will shift slightly sideways, this is ok. Keep dapping it gently making sure to move the flower so that it shifts evenly from one side to the next (like quarter segments of a clock). This way you’ll even-up the dapping and the shape will come out right. Anneal and repeat with successively smaller concave depressions (and corresponding smaller dapping punches) until you’re happy with the shape. Anneal often to make sure that the metal is not being stressed and to avoid any petals breaking off.
You may need to move up intermittent petals using flat-nose pliers to avoid squeezing them while dapping in smaller concavities (like “crooked teeth”, oops!). This will also start giving the flower its final shape. With your flex shaft, drill a hole in the center of each flower to pass the 20 gauge wire through it.
Measure with your calipers the gauge of the drill bit so the piercing will fit the wire snuggly, not loosely (it should be less than 20 gauge). Open it a little bit more with a round needle file if needed. Attaching the earring studCut a small segment of wire (about 2.5”) with your flush cutter.Dip the cut end in flux (just the tip) and put your torch on the end (slightly touching it) in order to make it roll or “crawl” up into a small ball.
This way you’ll end up with a ball pin. Let it cool down. Pass the wire through the drilled piercing of a flower so that the ball of the ball pin sits at the front of the flower. Hold it with soldering tweezers, better yet, try to “hang” the flower from the wire so that the ball pin snuggly touches the flower. Put a solder probe beside the wire on top of the flower (which should be facing upside down) and solder the wire in place. Keep moving your torch because the wire may be easily melted if it is heated constantly.
Repeat with the other flower. Check that the earring posts are securely soldered together (you can do this by moving them sideways with a flat-nose pliers to see that it doesn’t come off!) Now you have your two earring studs nearly ready. Filing, sanding and polishingCut the wire from each earring to leave ½” of earring post.File any excess solder and sand the earrings very well, taking care not to nudge the earring post. Make sure to file and sand the end of the earring post to a nice, round shape for optimum wearability.
Make a security groove on the end of the earring post (about 1/4” from the end) to give the friction back greater security. Make it using your flush cutter, gently squeezing it while rolling the wire post. Tumbling: getting a matte finish
Just like you did on the amethyst necklace project, tumble the earrings to give them a nice finish. Go to your nearest jewelry supplier or jewelry service and get your flowers tumbled in a rotary tumble with steel shot for a couple of hours to give them a beautiful, matte shine. Assemble the friction back to each earring and, it’s ready for gift wrapping!
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