Big girls love power tools!

It’s just been my birthday and my family and boyfriend took pity in me and together bought me a Foredom flex shaft instead of my Dremel. “What’s wrong with your Dremel?” you may ask, eyeing your own version. Well, mine had a minimum speed of 10.000, which meant that it was WAY too fast to remove any metal with for instance a setting burr or any drill. It just went dull :-( AND I missed a foot pedal –so much more convenient!

Due to it’s fast action, it was also almost impossible to control and even when concentrating real hard, I could never write something nicely with it –it just slipped away. It was decent, but I wasn’t satisfied. This pendant for instance:

It can be argued that it’s a coarse style – I know it’s not prettier because I was unable with my current tool, which is just so not satisfying. So I caved in and decided to buy another machine (girls can’t have too many power tools ;-) After discussing the topic on my favorite forum with my fellow metal smith Etsyians (thank you CG), I decided to go for a Foredom –the Volvo of flex shafts.

Last Friday, the day arrived, when we went to my favorite dealer “Ravstedhus” in Southern Jutland (paradise to ppl like me) and shopped:

1 Foredom SR Flex shaft

1 Hand piece with interchangeable cuffs

1 Tube cutter

1 Besel block for round bezels

Plus a few materials, now I was there.

Happy happy me!

And here is the box of goodies this morning, ready to be installed in my workshop:

Pretty soon I had exchanged the Dremel with the Foredom

And did a testrun:

Compare to the talisman, if you please –it’s a huge difference for a first try!

And so I immediately set out to cut some amber, which I haven’t done for ages. Am planning on a quite weird ring themed “octopus”. Let’s see how it turns out, but I tell you: Working with the Foredom is bliss! Wish I had done that ages ago…

Don’t work too long -or shit happens!

This is the sad story of what happens if you get stubborn and work too long and until too late. There is a happy end though!

I had set out to create an open ring with 3 branches, carrying a flower, a large bezel set stone and a butterfly. It’s winter, so I’m dreaming about the warm summer days and hence chose a large citrine, a juicy green peridot and some warm gold to set off the silver.

Here the bezel is about done, the ring shank is roughly there, I have cut the flower from a piece of 1 mm sheet and I’ve happily laid out the stones that I was considering to use: A large, dark citrine, lucious peridots and perhaps a few yellow sapphires for good measure:

At this stage I wasn't entirely setteled on the finished design and kept myself open to changing the design I had in mind as I went. This is how I usually work and the result is usually quite good. Then I domed the flower, shaped the bezel conically and soldered it together.

After attaching the butterfly and filing off all surfaces of the ring shank, I soldered in the 5 little golden balls and set the peridot in the flower. Then I started setting the lovely citrine. And then disaster struck! I hadn’t filed the walls of the bezel thin enough, had to apply too much pressure to fit it over the stone – and BROKE it! I was almost crying! This stone was so special and I had saved it up for an equally special design :-(

Okay… after a few deep breaths and looking at the clock – I had now spent 13 hours in the workshop (yes, creating other stuff too) and it was 10 in the evening, I decided for a plan B: I cut off the upper brim of the bezel, freeing the damaged stone and filed it flush. Then I found a new stone, slightly smaller. I happened to have a light amethyst that would fit, so I cut new shoulders for it in the now smaller bezel. This time I didn’t want to make the same mistake and filed the sides very thin to make sure that the setting would be easy. Alas, I filed away too much, which became evident when I pushed the bezel over the stone – a crack formed along the edge, leaving the stone to rattle around. Now I was seriously almost crying!

But I just refused to let all this work being in vain, so I took a few pictures to remember the design:

And then I cut off the entire branch holding that unfortunate bezel. I smoothed the cut out to invisibility and repositioned the butterfly.

It’s a completely different ring, but after the initial disappointment, I started to value it for its own beauty. It’s simpler and the butterfly gets to play a more distinct role. When you wear the ring, the butterfly is hovering about 5 mm above your hand, while the flower appears to be nestled between two fingers opposite. I’m happy with it, but I will most definitely create a new version of the 3-branched original design, since it was more sumptuous –and I love sumptuous *grin*

And THEN to bed!!!

My tumble polisher has arrived!!! Hooray!

Naturally I had to immediately create something that used the full potential of it (polishing and hardening is tumbled long enough) and so I threw myself into creating a chain consisting of 38 individual links. Most of them are curly, but 13 of them are just oval hoops. The curly ones are just SO my style although a bit of a hassle to create:

First I ran up one or two ends with the torch (basically melting the tip of the silver wire, which then behaves like any other liquid and shapes a drop. In order to get the right curve to the finished shape, I angled the wire to almost horizontal, forcing the drop to hang almost sideways from the wire).

Then I shaped the individual hoops (and I mean individual –no two are the same) and soldered half of them close. After etching I hammered chosen parts flat in order to lend it the art nouveau “schwung” I always crave of my lines and started assembling the soldered hoops with the still open. Soldering the rest of the hoops too was a tad challenging: a lot of small pieces of solder to place and NOT to accidentally tilt off again. And noooo… I was too lazy to do it in small quantities – I did the whole chain in one go! Luckily I succeeded *grin*. Afterwards I hammered details on the freshly soldered chains -now much harder to get to right becaus eof the links they were connected too, but I managed quite well.

And so the new tumbler came into use and didn’t let me down: After 4 hours of tumbling (these are delicate things, so I wanted them to harden a lot to keep their shape) I was very satisfied with the result.

However, after having looked at it for some hours, I decided to add a little extra and replaced one of the round hoops with one made of 18 carat gold. You don’t notice at the first glance, but it’s just so cool and understated and makes the whole thing very special.

It took me over 6 hours to create this chain (plus tumbling of cause), but I am very satisfied with the result, and hurried to take a picture of my mum wearing it.

By the way:
When I was listing this chain on Etsy I measured it and counted the links: There are 38 links and it measures 83 cm! Spooky, eh?

This necklas was sold end of november. You can still see more pictures of the finished item here. I loved it and will therefore probably create something similar again. Perhaps with some set stones?

The Dark Lady necklace

Halloween is approaching quickly, I need to finish off my dress for the party, and inspired by the sinister theme, I have created a somewhat darker piece in my workshop: The Dark Lady. I got the idea some time ago when I visited my boyfriend in Finland. Nowhere near my workshop I could only draw designs and so I did –lots of them!


At home I cut out the serene features of her using my dentist-style drill. Ebony is rather soft, compared to for instance mother of pearl, which my Snow Queen brooch has been made from, but still it’s one of the hardest woods around. I am always very meticulous about the details, and so it easily takes one hour to create a portrait like this. Now that I had it, I decided to sand cast it in silver. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to use it for, perhaps a ring, but it’s nice to have this very special piece of silver ornament, which is as unique as the original.


Then the fitting of the silver bezel, which is actually quite a hassle, when the shape isn’t exactly round, like a gem. But it’s important to me that it fits snugly, and so I take the time to fit, file, fit again and file again until it’s perfect. That done, the actual shape of the centerpiece –the wings – were cut out of a sheet of 1 mm thick silver and I soldered the bezel onto them. The basics were done – now for tidying up and the finishing touches: I removed the excess silver around the bezel and filed it smooth, then created a half loop and soldered to the base of the bezel to hold the garnet drop. For the decoration on the back I drew the outline of the frightened face of the back, drilled holes and then pierced it with my saw.

I was in doubt how to create the vines of the wings, but decided to go for the delicate solution: chiseled curls define the structure of these wings and make them come to life.
Then I heated the surface of my tar-bowl, softening it enough to press the piece into it and thereby fastening it securely. This is a very good trick when setting any kind of gem –in this case the ebony face –because it holds the whole thing secure, making it possible to work two hand with both punsel and hammer to push the bezel over the edges of the face. Now it was secured, never to be removed again. And now the scared face on the back had a black background, which works very well indeed!
Then I made the bezel for the garnet drop and cut out a hole in the back of it to let light in and show off its color. I attached it to the centerpiece with a length of chain, but I’m still in doubt whether I should just have attached it directly. The chain makes it look more elegant, but it can also turn around itself, leaving the backside of the drop visible. I decided to go for the chain after all –practicalities must suffer when faced by aesthetics!
I wanted the color scheme of this piece to be black, silver and red and have a certain sumptuousness to it. The choice for a strand of garnets was therefore easy and I was lucky enough to have extra string to push them apart and cut it in two, securing the ends with knots. I burned my fingers a bit, fiddling with the shell lack for attaching the strand, but eventually it was done and I was quite satisfied. I think it came fairly close to the original idea of my drawing and find it very flattering, especially with a deep V-neck –which is what I mostly wear anyways.

She looks pretty and serene, but beware… muahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!
Do you want her to become yours? Buy her here