Lieder, j.

PepperBox halting custom work and repairs.

2011-07-26T11:56:00.004-05:00

Hi guys,

Over the past 2 years PepperBox has been fortunate enough to have great customers that sought out to collaborate on pieces of unique and beautiful custom jewelry. I am grateful for every one of these past opportunities but it's time for the business to make a shift for the time being. PepperBox will no longer be offering jewelry repair and custom design services. There are several reasons for this change, but the main one is that I'd like the business to focus more on producing new and more affordable designs. With limited resources and manufacturing ability, my hope is that by focusing on design and production, PepperBox will be able to get out a larger number of new pieces for customers to enjoy and offer these at prices they can afford. I would like to take the time to thank everyone that showed their support by ordering custom pieces. We really did some great projects together. All of the documented pieces will stay up for your enjoyment in the blog section and new designs will be added later. Thanks again and I look forward to sharing what's next for PepperBox.

Luv it mane,

Jason

P.S. Here's a trip down memory lane and just a few of my favorite projects, typos and all. :)

Hobchuck and Doctor T

18k Men’s Ring

A dramatic gift

Chandelier Earrings

Birthday Pig

Liam’s Baby Spoon

Alley Drums

4 Pearl Bracelet

2011-07-26T09:46:00.004-05:00

When one of my best and most loyal customers rang me up and told me he needed something special for is his lady, I just had to hook him up. He knew he wanted a bracelet with pearls but that was it. The rest he left up to me. Here's how it came together.

Sketching came first. The bracelet was going to be a cuff. Here are a few early ideas.

Silver sheet and wire are chosen for the project and a few different pearls are considered.

It was decided that the smaller fresh water pearls would be used. The first step is shown here. Thin flat sheet is formed into cups called bezels. The metal is formed to fit the pearls. These bezels are what will hold the pearls in place later on.

Here the seams of the bezels are being soldered closed. The torch is used to heat the metal and the little pick is used to place the small pieces of silver solder in place.

Here the bezels sit after being soldered and cleaned. The heights of the bezels are all equal. This is a problem because the pearls have an organic and therefor a not uniform shape.

A marker is used to note the height of each pearl.

A small file is then used to cut the bezels down to the correct height.

With the bezels looking good, its time to make the bracelet band. Here the sheet metal is measured out and marked to be cut.

This wider strip of silver is being cut in half to form each side of the bracelet.

The two longer strips are soldered together first.

This piece of sheet is split in half and will form the center of the bracelet.

The separate sheets are soldered together using high temperature silver solder.

Excess solder is removed using a flat file.

This bracelet is designed to have a great deal of texture. The seams where the strips were soldered together create one kind of pattern. Here the piece is hammered into concrete to give the metal another layer of texture.

A flat graver is used to cut into the silver, adding an additional layer of texturing.

Now that the bracelet is starting to take shape and texture, it's time to add the border.

PepperBox has relocated to a new shop. A shop that does not have a rolling mill or a draw plate for making wire. The wire for this project will have to be forged out of a thicker piece of silver stock. Old school time boys and girls.

The wire is hammered many times with a steel hammer onto a steel block. This process stretches and elongates the metal into thinner wire.

After each pass with the hammer the silver becomes harder and more brittle. In between hammer passes the silver has to be softened or it will crack. This process is called annealing. Here the silver is being heated to a red hot temperature before it will be quickly cooled. This process softens the metal and allows for more stretching and hammering.

Over time the wire gets longer and thinner.

Here a wire ring is formed to create the center border.

Once the placing looks good the ring is soldered onto the sheet metal.

More wire is used to create the rest of the border that lines the entire bracelet. The wire is formed, clamped in place and then soldered with silver solder.

With the border in place it's time to get the bezels for the pearls in place.

Once all the pieces are assembled the excess sheet is cut away using a jewelers saw.

Here the bracelet has been formed into a shape that will fit the wrist of the intended wearer.

Any excess solder is removed and any rough edges are smoothed down. The bracelet now has all the texture it's going to get and is ready to be darkened.

A solution called liver of sulfur is mixed up and the bracelet is soaked in it until it turns black.

This is the bracelet right after it's removed from the solution.

Before the final brushing and polishing are done the pearls are set. This process is saved until the end in order to protect the pearls from the heating and stress of the fabrication process. Here a blunt steel tool is used to form the bezels over the edges of the pearls, thus securing them in place.

Perhaps a bit more arm hair than the eventual wearer, but one has to make do.

With the pearls in place the bracelet is brushed with steel wool. This process highlights all the texture that was put into the piece earlier. Working the silver this way highlights it's ability to take on texture so beautifully.

This hammering and texturing of the silver gives it an organic feel to go along with the organic shape of the pearls.

A dramatic gift.

2011-06-13T00:39:00.007-05:00

A wedding is surely a good time for a gift. The customer who commissioned this piece wanted something very special for her soon to be daughter-in-law. After searching some online sites for something unique, it became clear that PepperBox custom piece was the way to go :)

After some discussion of the wearer's interests, as well as some sketching, and it was decided that a thespian themed piece in 18k white gold would be a perfect gift. Here is how it came together.

The design settle, here the materials wait to be wrought.

The pendant will have thespian masks on the front and a pierced pattern on the reverse. Here the designs have been drawn in the computer and transferred onto the gold.

The pierced pattern is taken care of first. Here a graver is used to make small cuts that will guide the drill bit.

The small saw blade is fed through the holes.

The sections of the design are pierced out one at a time.

Saw, saw, saw.

Once the piercing is done the transfer film is removed.

Now for the tough part :) The thespian masks will be done in relief using a technique called chasing and repousse. Here pitch is heated up to hold the gold in place.

Once the gold is put in the pitch, the pitch is allowed to cool and harden.

Small steel chasing tools are chosen for the job.

With a specialized chasing hammer, the steel tools push the metal according to the pattern.

The faces are pushed out from the back of the piece. Repousse refers to this process of pushing the metal from the back side.

The piece is taken out of the pitch and put back in, now with the front side up.

This piece is worked like this, from the front and back side, with multiple passes.

With each pass, the faces become closer to the desired shape.

To get the fine detain and final surface, the gold is set into a thermo plastic. The thermo plastic is stronger than the pitch and allows for a great finish to be applied to the gold.

Finally after hours of hammering and shaping the thespian masks are completed.

Now the two plates will be joined. Registration marks ensure a proper alignment.

The pieces are clamped together and ready to be soldered together.

A torch is used to flow 18k white gold solder along the seams.

The excess gold is cut away and saved for later recycling.

A small file is used to true up the edges of the piece.

18k gold wire is formed into a jump ring around a small steel stake using a hammer.

A jeweler's saw is used to cut the ring apart.

Small gold beads are made to be soldered around the jump ring and on the bottom of the piece.

The jump ring and and beads are soldered into place.

After each soldering operation, the piece is placed in an acid bath called pickle to remove and oxidation and flux.

The piece is set in thermo-plastic and a steel chasing tool is used to texture the bead and jump ring.

A steel graver is used to texture the back of the piece.

A bail is attached so that piece can hang from a chain.

This piece is not polished by removing gold with buffing wheels and polishing compounds. Rather polished steel tools are used to burnish down the gold and impart a unique finish.

Steel wool is used to impart a shine on the gold.

This burnishing allows all the texture from the pieces creating to be highlighted.

The pendant has a truly unique finish that highlights the work that has gone into it. It's a one of kind gift to honor of a beautiful new chapter in a family's life.

IDM Boston March 19th

2011-03-28T22:56:00.004-05:00

Just a few pics from the March 19th show. At IDM in Harvard Sq. holdin it down.

PepperBox in Harvard Sq. on Sat. March 19th

2011-03-14T11:58:00.010-05:00

PepperBox will be set up in Harvard Sq. this Saturday, March 19th. The display will be set up inside 30 Brattle St. (right by the recently renovated T stop) at the Independent Designer's Market Boston. The market is open Saturday 11:00 am to 5:00 PM.

Come on out, check out the new jewelry, shoot the smith with Jason and if you ask him nicely for the secret handshake he will be sure to give you 15% off any purchase made :)

Get out there early and you may even snag a black and white print of this awesome poster, straight out of Memphis, Tennessee done just for PepperBox by none other than Warble Design. Be sure to also check out the latest stuff on Warble's Posterous site. See ya soon!

PepperBox Spring Photoshoot

2011-02-28T23:01:00.005-06:00

Winter still has a ways to go up here in the east and to be sure, despite the cold, the dedicated skiers would never turn away a nice heavy snow. It is none the less, never a bad thing looking forward to sunnier times. Melisa Aquino did a great job at getting some beautiful shots of Hannah and PepperBox out in California, where they manage to get great snow and sunshine! We'd all love to hear what you think about this little taste of spring.

Photographer: Melisa Aquino
Model: Hannah Elder
Jewelry: PepperBox Jewelry Co.

Chemical Romance

2011-02-14T16:17:00.003-06:00

This is the short hand for a molecule named diethyl ether. A good customer of PepperBox wanted to get a pendant made for his valentine. Here is what happened.

diethyl ether

The recipient of this gift loves science, this is a picture of a pair of earring she owns that are modeled after the dopamine molecule.

Different design ideas were discussed.

Finally this design was chosen as it is simple and really showcases the image.

A print is made with multiples of the design.

The piece is composed of multiple components, so several designs are cut out.

The drawings are trimmed down and attached to sterling silver sheets.

A sharp exacto knife is used to cut the design into the silver

Now there are clean inscribed lines to follow.

The first of the components to be cut out are the arms of the molecule.

Tiny little pieces of silver.

Each piece has to be cleaned up and straightened out to create the clean lines needed for the design. A very small steel file and abrasive wheel is used for the job.

A tube is used to create the small circle in the design.

Each of the small pieces are soldered onto a base plate using a torch. That's a good lookin solderer :)

Once the pieces are soldered on they need to clean in an acid bath jewelers call "pickle".

Magnifying visors are used because the pieces are so small. In this picture, a small steel graver is used to texture the background of the piece.

A close up of the textured background.

Now that the molecule design is in place, it's time to create the border.

A hole is drilled in order to allow a saw blade to cut out the interior.

The interior of the hexagon is cut out first.

Then the entire piece is cut out. In order to be safe the piece is cut a little outside the drawing. This ensures the piece won't be too small.

Files are then used to cut the piece to more exact proportions.

The inside is filed as well.

With the border looking good, it's time to solder the frame onto the main piece. This is what the piece looks like as it is being soldered.

Once the piece is cleaned up the excess silver is cut away using a jeweler's saw.

Different abrasive wheels are used to clean up any excess material.

Bam!

A piece of silver wire is formed and cut, this piece will make up the bail of the piece.

Tweezer arrangement just so.

Solder it on down.

A sharp steel scribe is used to further texture the background.

The same scribe is used to cut in the PepperBox "PB" as well as .925 which indicated that the pieces is sterling silver.

The piece is then soaked in a darkening solution.

A steel wire brush is used to apply the final finish. This really brings up the highlight and burnished the silver.

This piece came out really great. A great gift for any science loving valentine. Happy Valentine's Day guys!!

Sun Pendant

2010-12-21T13:21:00.005-06:00

A woman well traveled and her man that wants to make sure that no matter where she goes, she'll always have a little sunshine. Here is what happened.

A favorite customer of PepperBox wanted to create a necklace for his lady using the sun as a theme. This picture is of a repoussed sun in bronze. The customer liked the rough looking feel of this piece so we decided to create a piece that would have a lot of texture in silver.

These drawing show the basic idea for the necklace. It will have a large central piece and the customer wants to have the piece on a neck ring rather than a chain. A neck ring is one piece of metal that is formed to the shape of the neck. Like a ring for you neck.

The first thing that is going to happen is the creation of the neck ring. Here a silver ingot that has been poured from molten silver is having the end bead cut off of it.

Once the bead is cut off the silver ingot, it is rolled through a grooved rolling mill. This process compresses the silver and is like putting a piece of play dough through one of those roller things.

This rolling process hardens the metal and in order to keep it from cracking the silver must be heated to a dull red and quenched quickly in water. This process is called annealing and it must be done several times through out this process.

More rolling.

More annealing.

More rolling.

By repeatedly rolling and annealing, the thick piece of silver is formed into a piece that is the correct shape and length for the neck ring. Here the piece is marked where the excess will be cut off.

Once the silver is the correct length, it is bent over a round forming stake.

The neck ring now has a proper shape that will fit the wearers neck.

The neck ring is to be textured. Because hammering the silver would cause it to expand and change the shape of the neck ring, a small abrasive wheel is used to texture the piece.

Now that the neck ring is finished, it's time to work on the sun pendant. The piece will be made up of several parts and will have an inscription engraved on the back. The first thing to be done, cut out a disc that is the appropriate size.

The disc is cut out and extra metal is left around the edges to make sure there is enough material for the final design.

This first disc is sent out to the engraver and the inscription is cut into the silver.

Now to make the sun. Some sterling silver is melted in a ceramic crucible and will be poured into an ingot mold.

This thick piece of silver is called an ingot. It will be rolled out much like the wire was rolled out for the neck ring.

Rolling mill.

Anneal.

Rolling mill.

By this repeated process, that thick silver ingot is formed into a much thinner and larger sheet. A piece is cut off that will be formed into the sun design.

Since the sun design is to have a hand made feel to it, the design is drawn in by hand. This allows for drawing to retain some of it's originality and personality.

After the drawing is applied, the piece is set into a hard, resin like substance called pitch, and is now ready for the chasing and repousse process.

Here the sun and the rays are being pushed outward with a blunt steel chasing tool. The process is similar to chiseling with a hammer, but because the steel tool is blunt and polished the metal is displaced rather than removed.

Once the entire design is pushed out from the back, the pitch is gently heated so that the silver can be removed.

The pitch is gooey and sticks to everything, care must be taken not to get it on the skin or leg areas. Youch!

Now, it's time to work the front of the design. The negative space is first filled in with some hot pitch. The silver is then place in the pitch bowl again and allowed to cool and harden.

The design is very rough on the front side. More blunt chasing tools are used to refine it's shape.

Other tools are used to texture the silver.

Tap tap tap. This is how the chasing hammer is held and used along with the steel chasing tools. Lookin tough with that little hammer.

A final texture is applied to the entire piece in order to give it a uniform surface.

Now that the sun is made, it's time to make the border that will frame the pendant. In this picture, a piece of silver wire is being annealed so that it can be formed into the circle that will make the frame.

The wire is formed to the correct shape.

It is then cut and soldered into a ring.

The ring is lightly hammered to form into a more round circle.

This mag light turned out to be the perfect circumference for the piece.

The pieces of the pendant will be held together with pins. Before anything else is done with the frame, it is marked where the holes will be drilled.

A very small drill bit is used to drill the pilot holes.

After the drilling, the frame is then soldered into place around the sun.

The excess metal has been removed and then the holes are drilled all the way through the piece.

Here, a ring is about to be soldered to the top of the pendant. The ring will allow the bail to be attached later.

The front and back pieces are to be held together with silver pins. The first step to creating these pins is to cut piece of wire.

The wires are then heated and melted into bead on one end.

The back plate containing the engraving is also drilled and the pins are put into place.

Steel binding wire is used to hold the pieces firmly together while the other ends of the wire are quickly melted into beads. With both ends of the wire beaded up, the piece is now securely assembled.

The only piece left to make is the bail. The design is first laid out on a flat sheet of silver.

Two curved wires are soldered onto the sheet.

The piece is textured on the inside of the wires.

Excess silver is cut away, leaving a long oval shape.

A steel hammer is used to lightly texture the wires.

Non-marring nylon bending pliers are used to bend the oval into the shape of the bail.

A little tap tap from the nylon hammer and the piece is now the correct shape.

The end of the bail is then soldered closed on the piece.

Just a little extra hammering, you can't have enough.

The necklace is pretty much done, as a final step it will be darkened and polished. This process really brings out all the texture that was imprinted on the silver during the fabrication process.

When the pieces come out of the darkening solution they are totally black. A little scrub with some steel wool and a polishing cloth and...

Shazam!

This is a very original necklace that really shows off it's hand made texture. Silver is such a great material for this. Merry Christmas guys.

Filigree Teardrops

2010-12-21T13:08:00.004-06:00

One of the first custom jobs for PepperBox was a pair of chandelier earrings. This style of earring requires a great deal of time, careful soldering and attention to detail but the results are well worth the time and effort. It was a great treat to be able to create a new pair of earrings in this style. Here is what happened.

First a scale drawing is made up. The drawing will serve as a guide during the fabrication process as it is the actual size that the finished earrings will be.

Some of the pieces that make up the earrings are repeated and there for cast using a mold. The original pieces are fabricated from scratch and then molded up. This allows the repeated elements of the design to be produced in a more efficient manner.

The cast elements of the earrings are very small and require fine steel burs to clean them up. Here a pointed reamer is being used to clean up the open spaces of this piece.

Now for the assembly. The first step is to solder the center elements together. Here the pieces sit on a ceramic soldering block waiting to be soldered with a torch.

While the center elements soak in an acid bath that cleans them, pliers are used to draw some sterling silver wire through a steel draw plate. This is forms the wire down to a thickness which will work well for the filigree in the earrings.

The wire is drawn down until has a thickens of 22 gauge. The gauge system for wire works like this, the larger the number the is the thinner the wire is. 22 gauge will be thin enough to form the filigree but thick enough to provide enough strength for the earrings.

The drawing down causes the wire to be springy and not ideal for forming curves and curly cues. Here there wire is being heated in order to anneal it. The annealing will cause the wire to loose it's springiness and allow it to be formed into the intricate shapes required for the filigree design.

The first bends of the wire are very simple. The bend is made using simple pliers.

The parts are done formed and soldered in steps. So here, eight wires that will make the first of the curves are formed according to the design and are ready to be soldered.

All eight wires are soldered onto the center components.

The wire are then bent into place so that they match the design.

More soldering is done in order to for the wires to keep their form and to add additional strength.

These curves are formed using more specialized pliers that are better suited to bending curves. Here the first to the curves that will make up the filigree pattern are finished.

These steel forming pliers have a very fine tip that allow the creation of the very small curly cues.

Here these smaller curves are about to be soldered on.

Now the pattern is really starting to take shape.

After each soldering operation the pieces are soaked in an acid bath that jewelers call pickle. The pickle removes and flux and oxides that are left over from the soldering process.

Now that the interior wires are all attached, the final wires are form and prepared for soldering.

Here the wire are being soldering on using a fine torch. Heat control is crucial during these soldering processes, a mistake can melt previously attached wire and cause a massive set back to the job.

The wires are formed and soldered into place according to the drawing.

This earring design requires many small jump rings. Here the same pair of small forming pliers are used to curl sterling silver wire into a long coil.

Now secured in a wooden ring clamp, a jewelers saw is used to cut down the middle of the coil. This will create all the jump rings needed for the project.

Boom! Jump rings!

A ring is soldered to to each teardrop shape. Steal locking tweezers are used to hold the pieces in place for soldering.

Once rings have been soldered onto the main assemblies, the tear drops are attached using pliers.

To ensure safe connections all of the jump rings are soldered closed using a very fine torch and small pieces of solder.

Now that everything is attached, the earrings are cleaned up using abrasive wheels that remove any excess solder and create smooth surfaces for the final polish.

The fronts of the earrings are given a preliminary polish by using small brushed and polishing compound. The brushes are used to get into the intricate details with out removing or damaging the filigree work.

Before the final polish, the earring are soaked in a darkening solution until they turn black.

The darkening of the silver will highlight all the fine detail that is in the earrings.

A more aggressive polishing compound is used first to remove most of the dark finish on the silver.

The earring wires are then bent into shape.

Finally the earrings are given a high polish with a soft buff and fine polishing compound.

Shazam!! All the meticulous and patience pays off once the earrings are finished and ready to be delivered to the customer. Merry Christmas guys!

Link Bracelets

2010-12-15T17:39:00.007-06:00

The feel of a nice link bracelet is great. It's a little chain on the wrist, jingling, flashing and imbuing just the right amount of magical powers to the wearer. These bracelets do just that. Here's how they were made.

The bracelets start out as a plan. These pieces require a lot of steps and many parts, so a basic plan of how they will come together is a good thing.

The layout of the bracelet links is drawn in the computer first.

Transferring the drawings from the computer speeds up the process as multiples can be made more quickly.

Each link is roughly cut out with this table top shear.

The computer transfer also serves as the guide for the hand engraving. Each heart or flower is cut engraved in the sterling silver sheet with a small steel graver.

Wire will be used to make small frames for each link. Here the wire is being "drawn" down by pulling through a steel draw plate. The plate has holes drilled in it that step down in diameter, by pulling the wire through a series of these holes, it is squished down into thinner wire.

Steel pliers are used to form the silver wire into the frames for each link.

In order to speed things up, all the components are created at the same time. The bracelets are created through a series of steps. It's a whole process.

Before the frames can be soldered onto each link they must be soldered closed. In this picture each of the frames must wait there turn as only one can be soldered at a time.

This is little insider trick. Before the frames are soldered onto the engraved pieces, a little bit of correction fluid (like whiteout) is painted on the engravings. This will keep the solder from flowing and filling in the engravings.

One by one the each of the frames is soldered onto the engraved components.

Any excess metal is removed using a jewelers saw.

Now we're getting somewhere.

The bracelets will have a great deal of texture on them. Each one of the frames is lightly hammered in order to flatten the round frames ever so slightly as well as imprint added texture onto each piece.

The pieces are drilled where they will connect to the other bracelet components.

Cutting with a jewelers saw leaves a rough edge that need to be smoothed out. Each piece is clamped in a wooded ring clamp which firmly holds the piece in place so that it can be filled.

Here a steel file is used in order to knock off any rough edges.

Now that all of the engraved pieces are pretty much finished, it's time to make the smaller links that will go in between those components. Here wire has been cut to equal lengths. This wire will be melted into small beads. Since each one of the wires is basically the same size, the beads they make will also be uniform in size.

Each wire length is heated until it melts and forms a small bead.

All of the beads are "squished with a large steel hammer.

Small grooves are then cut on both sides of all the beads. These grooves will help hold the soon to be attached jump rings in place.

Wire will be used to make jump ring to just the right shape and size.

Very fine steel rounding pliers are used to form coils. The coils are then cut down a seam creating a bunch of jump rings.

Steel tweezers are used to hold each ring in place as it is soldered to it's bead.

The components are mostly done and now it's starting to look like a bracelet.

Pliers are used to connect all of the links.

One of the final components it the clasp that will hold the bracelets together. Here steel round nose pliers are used to bend a length of sterling silver wire into a shepherd's hook clasp.

It's now time to solder all the links closed. Many very small pieces of solder will be needed to do the job. This picture shows just how small they are.

Boric acid and flux coat the entire piece. The serve to protect the silver as well as allow the solder to flow once the piece has reached a high enough temperature.

One by one, all of the connections are soldered closed. Soldering all the links closed adds a lot of work to each piece, but it also adds a great deal of strength to the chain, ensuring that it will hold up better over time.

After the bracelets are assembled it's time to create the final finish. A darkening solution is mixed up and the bracelets soak in this solution until the become completely darkened.

This is how the bracelets look once the darkening process has been completed.

The final finish is imparted using a small steel wire brush. This gives the silver a nice shine and really highlights all the beautiful texture that has been imprinted during the creation of these pieces.

Shazam!

Not the best wrist model but you get the picture. :)

Celtic cross clean up.

2010-12-13T15:02:00.004-06:00

This project is an interesting one. A customer came with a celtic design which they had carved out of wax and cast themselves! They were having quite a time cleaning it up though, here is what happened.

This is the piece the customer brought in. It's a celtic design that had been roughly carved in wax and then cast in Argentium silver. Argentium silver is very similar to sterling silver however because of it's alloy contents it has a resistance to oxidation during soldering. Techy stuff.

The casting is very rough, it has pits and gaps missing in the design that need to be filled. The project was a challenge to say the least, which made it all the more difficult to turn away :)

The first thing that has to be done is to fill any gaps in the design or major pits in the casting with silver and solder. This is picture of the piece after the fill metal has been soldered on.

Now that fill metal has been added it's time to start the clean up process. In this picture the large pieces of excess metal are being removed with a small needle file.

Differently shaped files are used to clean up all the little areas of the pattern.

This is a small half round file being used on a curved part of the design.

Now that the large pieces of excess metal have been removed, some emery strips have to be made to sand and clean up the inside areas of the celtic pattern.

Spray adhesive is applied to the back of a sand paper.

The sandpaper is then attached to a piece of canvas. The canvas will add extra strength to the sandpaper.

Thin strips are then cut with an exacto knife.

Many strips are needed because they will wear out during clean up process.

The emery strips are held in place using a jeweler's saw frame. In this way the interior areas of the design are cleaned up and made smooth.

The larger interior areas are cleaned up using an abrasive cone that rotates at a high speed.

The exterior areas are cleaned up and the lines are straightened out using abrasive wheels.

The abrasive wheels remove excess metal and smooth out the design.

Different grit wheels are used in order to create a good polish on the piece.

Before the final polish, brushes with polishing compound are used to get at all the hard to reach areas.

A string with polishing compound is used to polish the interior areas of the design.

Lastly the piece is given a high polish using a large polishing buff.

From this.

To this.

The piece came out very well. A night and day difference from the way it came in.

Meriel's Napkin Holder

2010-11-29T14:20:00.002-06:00

Some time ago, I had a customer come in to have a replica made of a Gorham silver napkin holder. The piece was a hit, so much so that, the customer came in to have another one made. Here is what happened.

This is a picture of the napkin holder that is to be replicated. It is almost identical to the napkin holder previously reproduced, only instead of having one initial, there is an entire name engraved on the front. The new piece will have "MERIEL" engraved on the front.

A piece of copper wire is used to measure length of the piece.

The wire is wrapped to fit the shape of the existing napkin holder.

The excess wire is cut off leaving a piece of wire that is the same length as the napkin holder.

The copper wire is then flattened out using a rawhide mallet.

The flattened out wire is now used to measure out the piece of silver that will be used to make the napkin holder. This piece of silver is too short but because it is quite a bit thicker than the napkin holder it can be rolled out to the correct length.

A jeweler's saw is used to cut the piece of silver to the appropriate width.

When the cut piece of silver is held up next to the existing napkin holder the differences in thickness become more apparent.

The cut piece is an 18 gauge piece of sheet.

The silver that makes up the existing napkin holder has a thickness of 20 gauge. For sheet silver, the smaller the gauge number, the thicker the metal is.

The piece of silver sheet is rolled through a steel rolling mill which smooshes the metal like clay until it is the correct thickness and length.

A flat file is then used to ensure that the edges are straight and true.

The rolling process leaves the metal stiff and springy. Here the piece of silver is being annealed with a torch to make it soft enough to shape into the napkin holder.

To create the curves of the piece, the silver is formed around a steel mandrel.

Now that the piece is formed it's time to solder the joint together. Steel wire is used to tie the piece together, this will keep the metal from warping during the soldering process.

A large and wide flame is used to ensure even heat through out the whole piece.

This is a close up of the seam that is being soldered. The small chips are silver solder, they melt at a lower temperature than sterling silver and flow into the seam once the piece reaches a high enough temperature.

Pretty close match. The new piece has just been removed from an acid bath called "pickle" which removes any oxides or residues left over from the soldering process.

The piece is hammered on a steel mandrel to get just the right curve.

It is also hammered on a flat steel stake to flatten out the flat areas. To protect the silver, which is much softer than steel, from dings, a rawhide mallet along along with a piece of leather is used.

The piece on the right is the new napkin holder. It is slightly taller than the original and needs to be brought down just a bit.

A file is used to cut the piece down to just the right height.

The piece is then pushed around on piece of sandpaper that is sitting on a flat surface. This action smooths out the edges of the napkin holder.

The lines on the pieces are excess solder which needs to be removed.

A rubber wheel, which is impregnated with abrasive material, is used to grind off the extra solder.

Here the inside of the piece is being polished with a ring buff.

Finally the whole piece is gone over with a high polish buff.

Pretty close match :) Unfortunately the piece was delivered before final pictures could be taken. The final piece has "MERIEL" rather than Mark engraved on the front. Thankfully, the piece was completed just in time to be out on the table for Thanksgiving dinner.

Fresh Designs.

2010-11-16T11:27:00.003-06:00

Fresh hot metal boys and girls. This post features some of PepperBox's new pieces that are for sale in the jewelry section of the website. Enjoy.

A handful of earring designs.

These designs are drawn up in the computer and then laid out for fabrication in silver.

The designs are printed out, glued onto the silver and then cut out with a jewelers saw.

Once the design is cut out, the glue and paper are burned away.

Stripes are drawn in by hand with permanent marker.

The stripes are then carved into the silver with a steel bur.

The borders are formed in wire.

Here the border wire is being soldered onto the main piece. The little squares of metal are solder chips. The solder melts at a lower temperature then the silver and flows to bind the separate pieces together.

Some of the pieces after the borders have been solder on. Any excess solder or metal will be removed with abrasive wheels.

Beads and jump rings are also soldered onto the main pieces.

These finished designs are ready to be molded up so that they can produced at more affordable prices.

Thin wire strips are cut and formed to create the bezels that will hold the stones in place.

The bezels are then soldered onto each earring.

Small flowers are soldered onto the floating along earrings.

The bezels are pushed over the edges of the stones to set and hold them in place.

Striped Tear Earrings with Green Malachite

Striped Star Earrings with Oxblood Coral

The final pieces are given an antique finish. These earrings are called Floating Along Earrings with Denim Lapis.

This design also starts out as a drawing which is digitized and printed out for lay out purposes.

The piece is cut out of a fairly thick piece of bronze sheet.

The inside of the piece is pierced out with a jewelers saw.

Abrasive wheels are used to carve the details of the piece.

Through a series of carvings the small frame is created.

This swan will fill the frame, it has been etched in a piece of brass.

The swan is fit to the frame and soldered. After a jump ring is attached the piece will be ready to be molded.

The result is a pair of cute swan earrings in sterling silver.

This piece is going to be a pendant. Here a piece of copper wire is formed to create a border.

Once the piece is formed, it is soldered together.

Here the border is about to be soldered onto a flat sheet of bronze.

A small skull is cut out and will be soldered into the frame.

After soldering is completed the excess metal is removed using a jewelers saw.

A jump ring is soldered on to accommodate a bail.

The silver skull is darkened and placed on a sterling silver chain.

This is a scan of a sketch book page featuring a few flower drawings.

These flowers are cut out of sterling silver sheet and, in this picture, are being engraved with a steel graver.

Forget Me Not Posts

These are just a few of the steps that were required to make this coin bezel.

An alligator is hand engraved into a sterling silver disc. The disc will then be set into the bronze coin bezel.

The Ojos Coin Pendant.

These small pieces are raw castings for a pair of silver post earrings. The will be cleaned up and have posts soldered onto them.

Small 18k gold beads are soldered into the center of these Wheel Post earrings.

After getting all this work done, it's time to sell some jewelry. I sold in Brooklyn, NY for 4 weekends at Artist and Fleas. Here are some pics from the first weekend set up before shoppers were allowed in.

That's a good lookin salesman. :) Thanks for taking a look at some of the new work. There are more new pieces for sale in the jewelry section, take a look and drop PepperBox a line.

Upgraded.

2010-10-13T20:52:00.009-05:00

This project has a special place in my heart. A ring was shipped to me to have a stone replaced. This was a ring that I made back in Memphis, Tennessee when I was in school, it should be noted that I did not set the stone that fell out :). It was the first engagement ring I ever made and it was for some very good friends of mine. Unfortunately after I replaced the missing stone, the post office lost the ring when it was en route back to the wearer. It was insured but the customer wanted to upgrade the ring a little for his wife. Here's how the upgraded ring was made.

Cad models illustrate the differences in diamond sizes. The design on the far left is what the original ring had looked like. It was a very simple band, made in 18k gold, that had three diamonds flush set into the band. The new ring is going to have larger diamonds and a different design to the band.

3d models are a great communication tool for jewelry design. There are many problems that can occur when there is not good communication between the customer and the jeweler.

The ring starts off as a wax tube, a piece large enough to accommodate the design is cut off from a main block.

The inside of the wax ring is made to fit the customer's finger size.

Here the wax is measured against the actual stone to ensure there will be enough material to safely set the stone.

The design is then laid out onto the wax blank. The additional wax will now be removed.

A coarse file is used to quickly carve away the unwanted wax.

At this point most of the wax has been carved away and it's time to cut the settings for the diamonds.

The diamonds are measured against the wax and steel burs, which are in the back groun, and used to cut seats for the diamonds to sit in.

Here the diamonds are sitting nice and snug in their seats.

The rest of the wax is removed using a finer file and the shape of the ring is refined at this point to its final shape.

Now we're talking ring.

A few close ups of the final wax. The wax will now be cast in gold using a process call lost wax casting. The green wax will be melted away and replaced by 18k gold through a process of encasing the wax in a ceramic shell, melting away the wax and then pouring molten gold into the empty cavity.

This is what the ring looks like after it has been cast in 18k gold.

The sprue or tube that allowed the molten gold fill the casting is removed with a jeweler's saw.

The casting is then cleaned using a variety of abrasive wheels and sand papers.

Here the seats are cleaned up and cut to the exact sizes of the diamonds that are to be set in them.

A steel setting tool is used to push the gold over just enough of the diamond's edge or "girdle" to hold it in place.

A sand blaster is used to add some texture onto certain parts of the ring.

Other parts of the ring are brought back up to a high polish.

Shazam! Ring upgraded.

Thankfully this ring was not lost during the journey back and the then fiance-to-be, now wife and mother, was very pleased with her new engagement ring. Miss you guys.

Hell hath no bracelet.

2010-10-08T10:16:00.006-05:00

This job has a quite interesting story. A very close customer of PepperBox had a request for an anniversary gift for her husband. When they first met he had a bracelet that he enjoyed wearing but it had been given to him as a gift an ex..... Needless to say that bracelet had the kaibash put on it. However she knew he really enjoyed the piece and wanted to give him a new bracelet, one that wouldn't recall past girlfriends. This is further evidence of the the way jewelry connects us to past memories and people. So here is how the new bracelet was made.

The bracelet is for a man that is on organization boards and is an all around classy guy so the bracelet has to reflect that. This piece is being made out of .999 fine silver and will have a good heft to it. A piece fit for and executive. This is the round stock that will make up the cuff.

The silver is as close to pure as possible. That means it is softer and more malleable than sterling silver, which is alloyed in order to make it stiffer. Here the silver is being annealed, which will allow it to be hammered and formed more easily.

Here the silver rod is being forged flat in one direction only. The forging also imparts a unique texture on the silver. This texture will add to the over all finish of the piece.

The annealing process, which consists of heating the silver up to red hot and then quenching it in water, is repeated through out the forging process.

Once the forging is completed, two sides of the stock have a rounded contour. These faces are going to get a line carved into them to add a subtle detail to the bracelet. Here the center line is marked with a pair of steel dividers.

Here the groove is being carved with an abrasive cut of disc. Care has to be taken during this tricky process . One little slip and a large and deep gash can be cut into the silver.

The measurements were sneakily obtained by the customer and here the length is being measured out. Measure twice, cut once.

The circumference is then transfered to a large bracelet mandrel.

The fine silver forms quite easily to the contour of the mandrel. Here a nylon mallet is used. The nylon will not deform the soft silver like a steel hammer will.

Once the bracelet is formed round it is hammered in on direction for create an oval shape that will fit the wrist.

PB and the .999 content is hand engraved on the inside of the bracelet.

Now that the bracelet form is created, it is time to impart the finish. Here the bracelet is heated. This cleans the metal in a way and also allows the silver to develop and interesting "skin".

As a final step the bracelet is rubbed down with steel wool. The steel wool actually burnishes the fine silver down and gives it a subtle luster. Like fine leather, this bracelet will, over time, have a patina of wear built up, meaning it will get dinged up develop it's own texture. This burnishing process can be repeated later to bring back the original finish.

The heavy fine silver cuff will hold up and wear beautifully over time and I would guess that if I would only stop mentioning it in this blog post, no one will would ever recall the original bracelet that was the kick started this project. Happy anniversary guys!!!

You're welcome Kalen.

2010-10-05T20:21:00.005-05:00

A good customer of PepperBox is getting married and her ring is all done. Now something just right must be done for her man!! This worked out perfect great because the groom to be is literally family and was completely open to ideas for unique wedding band. Her is what PepperBox was happy to do for Kalen.

Kalen had seen an 18k gold mens ring PepperBox did and decided that he wanted something with a similar feel but in Silver and with a unique pattern.

The ring starts out as a piece of silver sheet that is first textured and then a pattern is roughly laid out on the ring. The pattern will consist of alternating bars and domes.

Here, pieces of sterling silver have been cut into uniform pieces. These pieces will form the domes of the pattern.

They are heated with a torch until they melt into small spheres.

Little domes. Domies.

Next the domes are laid out according to the pattern and fused with the silver sheet. This process can be tricky because no solder is used and there is the possibility of over heating the silver and melting the larger sheet that makes up the ring.

Not to worry though, this ain't my first rodeo, more like the third :). Here the domes are fused to the silver sheet.

Now silver has to be draw down into square wire that will make up the bars of the design.

Just as the domes were laid out, so the bars are cut and placed in preparation to be fused to the main piece.

This is how the piece looks right after it has been fused together. Sterling silver oxidizes in open air so a good deal of flux must be used to allow the metals to fuse well. As the flux cools it takes on a colorful glassy state that looks like enamel.

The piece is soaked in an acid bath that removes the glassy flux along with any oxides. This acid bath is called "pickle" in the jewelry world and it leaves the metal all clean and fluffy.

Once the pattern is complete, the flat piece is formed into a circle around a steel stake. The piece is hammered with plastic coated mallet that does not mar up the silver.

Now that the ring is formed, a silver sleeve is fabricated and then inserted. This is done to create a smooth inside for the final ring.

Here the sleeve is soldered into place.

Once the excess silver is removed the ring is brushed and polished. The unique texture of the ring is a result of all the previous steps and this finishing process helps that complex surface to really stand out.

Shazaam!

The white surface on the ring is the result of a process called depletion. This depletion is caused by the repeated heating and pickling of the silver.

Kalen and Sommer's rings together.

The rings are hand engraved with a message that is personal to the sooooon to be married couple.

You're welcome Kalen. I'll see you guys soon.

A ring for Sommer.

2010-09-30T11:05:00.003-05:00

A good customer of PepperBox is getting married. She wanted something special in white gold to go along with her diamond engagement ring. This is how the project came together.

The ring starts out as a piece of 14k white gold square stock.

The stock is hammered in order to made it slightly wider in one direction.

The stock is then hammered into shape around a steel ring mandrel.

Since the ring is to be a size 5 1/2, it is pushed down the mandrel until it is has the right diameter.

Once the gold is cut and formed into place, it's ready to be soldered together.

A hard 14k gold solder is used on the joint. The gold solder has a melting temperature just under that of the 14k gold. This allows the solder to flow into the joint while melted and then leave a seamless ring of gold when the metal cools.

After the ring is pickled, it is rounded out and made to exactly a 5 1/2, relatively :)

The inside of the ring is marked as 14k gold with a steel content stamp.

Sommer requested a simple band but we talked about having a few little details that might not be noticeable at first glance. Here, a dot pattern is made using a marker and a circle template.

The holes are then drilled out using a small steel drill bit.

After the holes are drilled, the two outer faces are lightly textured using a steel hammer along with other little tricks.

Finally the inside and top face of the ring is polished to a high polish.

She was happy with the results. :)

This is a shot of Sommer's ring along with her fiance's ring which they also commissioned from PepperBox. As an added special detail, the rings were engraved with a phrase that is personal to the couple. The post about how his ring was made is on deck.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get t-shirts made with this on it. Kalen, you just won the first ever PepperBox t-shirt design contest!! Congrats, even though you were the only entry in the contest, good job man. Sommer, I hope everything is going wonderfully and I can't wait to come bring you guys your rings. See ya soon.
J

Floating on a green.

2010-09-16T18:38:00.004-05:00

I found these turquoise stones in a bead shop and they really struck my eye. They are a hulk color green but they also have little traces of orange. I wanted to further the idea of the striped earrings, as well build up my collection for all the coming Holiday season, yes, that means these suckers are for sale:) Here is what happened.

Some idea sketches for the earrings.

Here the stones sit on a sheet of sterling silver before the design is laid out.

I wanted the earrings to have a strong hand made feel. The designs are just free handed right onto the silver sheet. Leaving enough space for the stones of course. There are four pairs of earrings laid out here. Two will have stones and two will not.

The design is cut out using a jewelers saw.

The stripes are also drawn by hand. Good old sharpie.

A steel bur is used to carve the stripes in the silver.

Wire is drawn down to just the right size. This wire will be used to make the border of the earrings.

The wire is shaped using pliers and my hands.

The wire is gradually soldered and formed around to create a border.

These are the pieces after they have been soldered and pickled. The extra metal on the edges will be removed with an abrasive wheel.

After the excess silver is removed the dots are, again, drawn in by hand.

A steel punch is used to create each of the dots.

The pictures skip around just a little. This piece already has jump rings attached. Here the positions for the prongs are marked and drilled.

Each of the prongs is soldered on individually.

Now it's time for the jump rings. The rings will allow for the other pieces of the earring to be attached later on.

The small flowers that will make up the bottom elements are pierced according to a pattern that is drawn in the computer and then printed out.

Flower elements after they have been pierced and cleaned up.

An 18k yellow gold bead is soldered to the middle of each flower along with a jump ring to attach it to the main part of the earring.

The two pieces are linked up and the rings soldered closed.

The pieces are then darkened in a darkening solution.

After the piece is darkened it is polished with a rough brush to bring up the highlights in the metal.

This process of darkening and polishing really makes all the textures of the sterling silver stand out.

Here the green turquoise stone is set using the prongs. A steel prong pusher is used to move the prongs into position.

After the earring wires are attached the pair is good to go.

There is also a version with out the green turquoise.

Making it new.

2010-09-15T11:55:00.004-05:00

As I have said before jewelry is very personal for people. For many reasons we adorn ourselves and attach strong emotions to even the smallest objects. This project is about taking the meaning from one piece and transforming it into something new. This customer had a diamond from an old wedding ring that needed to be taken to a new level. Here is what happened.

This is the old wedding ring with the diamond removed from the setting. The stone was a good size, just under one carat. There are two other smaller diamonds that are not pictured here.

After the design idea was established with the customer, the first step is to chop off a big enough piece of wax to carve the ring out of. This tube of ring wax is marked with a pair of steel dividers.

The wax has to be cut evenly so the cuts are made evenly, all the way around the tube rather than just sawing straight through.

Once a piece is cut, the basic shape of the ring is scribed onto the wax. This drawing will serve as a guide while the excess material is being carved away.

Wax carving is all about removing material. The ring lies inside the wax and all that needs to be done is remove what's not needed. This small file is used to cut away wax right up to the line in the drawing.

The file in this picture is relatively large and removes a lot of wax very quickly.

The ring is carve according to different dimensions. After the ring is cut according to the first drawing the ring is stepped down in a different direction.

Through out the process the wax is checked against the stones to make sure everything fits just right. This will be the shape that holds the stones in place after all.

After most of the ring is shaped it's time to drill the holes for the stones to sit. A small drill bit is used to cut the initial holes.

Here a steel setting bur, one the same size as the diamond, is used to cut a more exact hole.

Looks like the stone fit just right.

As one of the last steps the settings are filled down to allow the diamonds to be visible from the sides. The customer wanted to really showcase her diamonds, this is one way to allow more light to move through the stones.

The ring is just about ready to be cast in 18k gold. Hand carved waxes tend to look a little bulky. This is because some material must be left to ensure there is enough metal after the casting and cleaning process to allow for a secure setting. It's much easier to remove metal than it is to add it.

Here is the ring right after it comes back from the casters. It is 18k gold and actually has a really unique texture and color on it that is the result of the casting process.

First the left over sprue, or tube where molten metal enters the mold, is removed with a jewelers saw.

Here the piece has just been stamped 18k.

Small rubber wheels that are impregnated with abrasive material are used to clean up the casting and smooth out all the lines.

Even though "seats" were already cut in the wax, they must be re-cut and cleaned up before the final setting.

Here the diamonds are being hammer set using a chasing hammer and a very small, polished steel chasing tool that pushes metal over just the edge of the diamond to hold it securely in place. The hammering cause the metal to "grab" the stone and keep it from falling out.

Here a steel hand tool is being used to push the metal into place. This process can be quite difficult. The are many factors that play into a successful stone setting and all must be paid attention to when a mistake can break a stone and cost thousands of dollars.

Here the ring is being sandblasted to give it an added texture.

All it needs is a final polish and.....

Voila!

From this....

...to this. This ring came out great and it really did transform the old into something new.

A video about PepperBox

2010-08-25T15:08:00.002-05:00

This is a great little video about PepperBox that Mykim Dang and Kevin Madden. The music in the video is by The Album Leaf. Please check it out.

Hobchuck and Doctor T

2010-08-10T13:58:00.008-05:00

This is a really cool project. A true collaboration between PepperBox and the customer. This bracelet is a wedding gift that contains personal imagery and style. It is a truly unique gift from one friend to another. Here is how it was made.

The idea started as a drawing. The customer wants to have some personal text and imagery. The letter are drawn by hand and says "Habchuck" and "Doctor T". The two friends were band mates in the past, "Hobchuck" is getting married and this is a gift from his best man, "Doctor T".

First the design is retraced in the computer and the design is modified to add some extra detailing.

The design is transferred onto a piece of silver and then it is set in hard black pitch that will support it during the forming process.

Here we go, this is a collection of repousse tools that will be used to push the metal up from the back. They are various sizes and shapes, but they are all smooth and polished so that they do not cut into the silver.

Larger tools along with a heavier hammer are used first to push out the larger areas.

This sometimes causes the metal to displace too much and the silver can pop out of the pitch.

The silver plate is taken out and formed back to shape on a flat surface with a nylon hammer that will not mark up the silver.

The pitch is re-heated so the piece can be placed back into position.

The design is worked evenly all around to create a good surface on the front.

Thinner tools are used to make sure the edges are crisp on the front.

Now that the guitar is body is done the letter can be started.

Special attention must be paid to the areas where the letters overlap. They are marked in red on the drawing to serve as a guide while working.

Very small and specialized tools are used to get the fine detail of the letters.

Now that the silver has been repoussed, or pushed up from the back, it is time to take the silver out and work the front.

The pitch is heated to soften it up so that the silver can be removed.

Pitch is like tar, it's a gewy mess when it is hot. It has to be handled with care or else it will get on everything.

The front of the piece now has a lumpy texture that has to be worked from the front.

All the force used to push the metal up causes the silver to be bowed out in some areas. The piece is worked on a flat surface before it is set into the pitch. This makes the design follow the original lines and not become distorted.

Another result of all the hammering is the stiffening of the silver. In order to keep the silver from tearing while the piece is worked from the front, it has to be annealed. This is done by heating the silver up and then quenching it in water quickly.

Some pitch is put into the negative areas in order to make sure all the letters and small details are supported properly.

Now the piece is ready to be worked from the front or chased.

Tap tap tap. The pitch bowl sits in a rubber ring that can be swiveled around to any angle. This allows all the detailed work to be done.

First the design lines are pushed into position with a thin smooth tool. This cleans up all the lines and makes forces the metal to follow the original drawing.

The details of the guitar are marked by hand. This lets the piece have some variation and a hand drawn feel to it.

Smooth steel tools are used to push the metal down, allowing the pick ups and knobs of the guitar to be higher than the body of the guitar.

The rest of the guitar body is then pushed or "planished" down with wider and smooth steal tool.

Now the back ground silver and the letters are planished. This means they are worked over with a smooth steel tool that creates a uniform texture and surface on the silver.

The guitar strings are engraved with a sharp steel scribe.

Magic marker is used to get a sense of what the finished silver will look like.

The piece is going to have a cross hatched background texture. Lines are drawn in to serve as a guide.

The cross hatching is done one hammer hit at a time on the entire background.

Once this is don the silver is pulled out of the pitch again.

This is the silver plate in an acid bath that cleans it after the piece has been annealed. The piece has to be annealed because it is about to be bent into a round form to fit the bracelet.

A thermo plastic is used placed on the front and back of the silver piece.

The thermo plastic is hard and just flexible enough, when it is cooled, to both keep the design from deforming and allow the piece to be bent on a bracelet mandrel.

Once the thermo plastic is removed the piece is further formed on the bracelet mandrel.

The wearers wrist has been measured and the piece is formed to fit just so on the leather that will make up the rest of the bracelet. Here the piece has been darkened and it sits among the chasing hammer and steel tools.

Now for the clasp. The clasp is to be fabricated out of sterling silver. It is based on the idea of bracelet buckle similar to this one.

First tubing has to be made to make a free spinning piece the will move along with the leather in order to keep it from stretching too much. Here a round file is used to cut a groove in a wooden block, this will be used to form the flat sheet silver that will make up the tube.

The silver sheet is hammered into the groove using a round steel rod.

The piece is further rounded out on a steel stake.

The piece is then pulled through a series of smaller holes until it closes up and becomes tubing.

Here the seam is being solder closed in order to make it a solid tube.

Here the silver rod is placed inside the tubing and a steel ball bur is being used to cut a groove into the outside pieces of the buckle. The groove will hole the rods in place while they are soldered.

Correctional fluid, like white out, is put on and in the tubing. This will keep solder from flowing into the tubing and allow the tubing to spin freely.

The piece is soldered one end at a time. This is a very difficult solder because no solder can be allowed to flow into or on the tubing or else it will not spin with the leather.

Here the tongue is formed on a small round stake with a nylon hammer that does not mar up the silver.

Small rings are added to keep the tongue in place.

Finally the tongue is put in place with a pair of smooth pliers.

The silver plate is place on more time in thermo plastic. It is obvious in this pic that the wearer is a big guy.

The final cross hatching is done along the outside edges of the silver plate.

A pair of sharp dividers are used to mark where holes for rivets will be drilled.

Now that the holes are drilled it's time to make the rivets.

Small silver pieces are beaded up and hammered to make the tops of the rivets.

More tubing is made and cut to for the bottoms of the rivets.

The pieces are then soldered together one at a time.

The rivets will go all along the border to secure the silver plate onto the leather cuff.

Here the piece of leather has been cut and the buckle has been attached by a leather worker.

Holes are marked and drilled for the rivets.

The rivets are put in place along with a washer. The washer grabs the leather more securely and will keep the small rivets from coming out.

Uh........ SHAZAM!

Get sick with it.

This is such a unique gift that really represents the time and care that go into a great friendship. It is a fitting gift from a best man, Congrats Hobcuck.

Flower Power.

2010-08-04T17:45:00.004-05:00

This is a custom design that was done as a memorial ring for a child that passed away in August 2009. The customer wanted a clean design with a floral element and a peridot. The design needed to be clean and done silver. Here is what happened.

The ring starts off as a piece of sterling silver stock that is cut down to the proper length for a size 5 ring.

This is a thick piece of silver that is left over from a past casting job. The piece is hammered flat to make it more uniform.

A circle of the appropriate size is cut out of the thick silver piece.

This piece will become the setting for the stone.

The piece is marked with a pair of calipers to get a better circle.

The excess is then ground away using an abrasive rotary tool. Here the piece is being held in a wooden hand clamp called a ring clamp.

Here the setting is being compared to the ring shank. These two piece will be soldered together to form the ring.

The setting is drilled in the center to mark where the center and where the stone will be set.

Here a piece of silver stock has been soldered onto the circle piece. This will allow the piece to be held in a clamp while it is carved into shape.

The setting can now be held in the ring clamp and filed into a dome shape.

The ring shank is hammered round and soldered together.

The pieces are almost ready to be assembled.

First the ring shank must be cut to accommodate the setting.

Here the ring shank is being soldered to the setting. The steel tweezers hold the shank in place while heat and solder are applied.

Here the excess metal is being removed from the inside of the ring with a half round file.

No the inside of the setting is ground out in the shape of a bowl. A abrasive grinding stone is used to remove the silver.

A thin piece of silver is chosen, from which the flower pattern will be created.

In order to keep a playful feeling to the ring the flower is drawn out by hand.

A jewelers saw is used to cut out the flower.

The flower is then pressed into a steel dapping block. This forms the silver into a bowl shape so that it will fit into the setting.

After the flower is soldered into place, a small steel setting bur is used to cut the seat for the round peridot.

Perfect fit.

Now the ring is cleaned with emery sticks and various abrasive rubber wheels.

Before the ring is finished, it is darkened using a solution containing liver of sulphur. This cause the silver to darken.

Now the ring is ready to be polished and finished.

A brush with polishing compound is used to clean the ring up.

Here the stone is being set using a sharp steel graver. The stone is put in the setting, then the graver cuts and pushes very small tabs of silver to hold the stone in place. Other cuts are made to create the petal pattern.

Finally the rings is given a high polish on the buffing wheel.

A picture of the ring inside the light tent.

The grinding of the setting creates a nice background texture.

Gold link bracelet repair

2010-07-20T13:35:00.004-05:00

This is a repair job for a jeweler that PepperBox contracts with. It's a 14k gold link bracelet. The customer wants the extra links put back into the bracelet. Here's what happened.

The bracelet repair is taken in and checked over to confirm the type of metal and to consider the best way to insert the extra links.

First the bracelet is cut in the joints to open it up.

Then the old pins that held the bracelet together must be drilled and removed.

Ready to go. This must be done on both sides of the piece that is going to be added to the bracelet.

Here the new pins can be seen holding the bracelet back together.

In order to protect the joints from being soldered together. White out is used to keep the flowing solder at bay. It's a nice little trick courtesy of Richard Prillaman and the National Ornamental Metal Museum.

Now the wires are melted down to beads.

One small piece of solder is enough to hold the wire in place.

This is done on each side of the wires.

The excess is ground off and the bracelet can be finished and polished. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the polished bracelet. The customer was very please and it was out the door before more pics could be taken.

Platinum ring repair.

2010-07-20T12:49:00.007-05:00

This is a platinum and diamond ring that came in to be sized down. On close inspection it's apparent that the ring had been worked on previously and this adds some extra complications to the repair process. Here is what happened.

The ring had been reshanked or for some other reason it was soldered in the places that are marked in the photo. Because the ring is going down in size the choice is made to cut out the old solder and weld the shank back together, thereby removing and lower quality material.

First the ring is cut on one side only. The section of low grade solder is completely removed.

This is a bag of platinum sizing stock, it contains various sizes of platinum wire and square stock that can be used for fabrication or repairs.

A thin strip of platinum is chosen.

The ring is closed up using nylon jawed ring closing pliers.

A small piece of platinum stock is cut and put in position.

Platinum has a melting temperature of just over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that any stones in the ring must be protected during the welding process. In this picture the ring is "packed" into a kind of wet putty that is heat resistant and will protect the diamonds in the ring.

These darkened safety goggles must be used when welding platinum. This is because as the metal is heated to welding temp it gives off a very bright light that can damage the eyes.

Ready to go. So stylish.

The ring is brought up to temp and the torch is focused on the thin piece of platinum in order to melt it into the ring shank.

Platinum does not oxidize and therefor does not require any flux. Once the metal is welded it leaves a clean bead.

This process is repeated on the other side.

The welding joints are struck with a cross peen hammer to stretch the ring to just the right size.

The excess metal is filled away and collected.

A rubber abrasive wheel is used to remove any scratches from the shank.

This leaves the ring free from any deep scratches and evens out the surface.

The ring is then polished using buffing wheels and compounds specifically for platinum.

The ring is now solid platinum and shiny just like new.

Working on jewelry like this is a very good learning experience. It allows for creativity within very narrow guides. This creates focus on a small set of problems and elevates them to the utmost importance. On this project, the design of the ring is not important only the design and execution of the repair.

Striped teardrop earrings.

2010-07-20T10:41:00.003-05:00

PepperBox is in need of earring designs. These earrings were not commissioned but rather are for PepperBox's inventory. The idea is to have earrings that are interesting but also very wearable and not too over the top. Here is how they came together.

The design starts out as a series of drawings. In this picture the design is being measured so the length can be laid out in the silver.

The design is laid out free hand on sterling silver sheet. Here it is being cut out with a jewelers saw.

Now that both pieces are cut out the stripes are drawn in, also in freehand.

Here the stripes are being ground out using a steel bur.

Apologies for the missing steps. The frames are made by soldering silver wires onto the edges of the silver sheets. Small ball of silver are melted and then soldered onto the end. Lastly jump rings are formed and then soldered onto the tops of the earrings. Here is what the earrings look like once all the soldering is complete. They are now ready to be cleaned up, meaning the excess solder and silver will be ground away and the earrings will be polished.

All done. The earrings are darkened and then refinished with steel wool to remove most of the darkening. This leaves only the low spots like the striped darkened.

This pair is a simplified version of the drawing, they do not have all the embellishments that were included in the original design. Look forward to new and different versions of this style. These earrings might look nice with the dots as in the drawings.

Birthday Pig

2010-06-03T14:52:00.008-05:00

This is a project that I did for my sweet girl friend Angela for her birthday. If you check out her blog you will see that she was all about this. Here's what I did.

I stared out with an illustration from a french cookbook of the different cuts of pork. This is such a great illustration in general and it was well suited for a chasing and repousse piece.

The drawing is printed out to scale to check that there is enough material to work with. There is plenty here.

This metal is bronze. Bronze works great for chasing and repousse as it is very malleable. The first thing that needs to be done is to anneal the piece.

After the piece is annealed and cleaned a iron is used to transfer the drawing in the metal.

This is the bronze with drawing set in pitch. Pitch is like tar, it might be tar, I think it's from trees though, but it can be heated up to a gooey state and then when it cools it becomes hard and hold the piece in place during work.

Trusty chasing hammer. I got the hammer in college and shaped the handle to fit my hand and to make it lighter. It is a great tool. The reason the bottom of the handle is so large compared to the rest to the handle is because that is the only part of the hammer that is held, the rest can be very thin, just strong enough to hold the hammer head.

These are all chasing tools, a project like this will require a variety of differently shaped tools to get all the desired detail.

Here I'm holding a selection of my favorite tools for the repousse part of the process. You may be able to see that all the tools for the repousse part are rather smooth and blunt. That is because at this stage all I want to do is push the metal out from the back into the shapes that are desired.

This is what happens, hammer blow by hammer blow the metal is push out from the back. Large chasing tools are used for the larger areas.

Smaller tools like this one are used to punch out the tighter areas.

Just follow the drawing.

The book in the background is a catalog of Tiffany silver piece. Tiffany shops did amazing chasing and repousse work during the late 18oo's and early 1900's. I studied this pig pitcher get an idea on how the did some of the shapes and finishing.

After all the work from the back is done, the piece has to be annealed because all the hammering and forming causes the metal to stiffen up and not want to form in the other direction.

Here is a little trick, a shaped wooden chasing tool is used just along the edges to push any metal that might have been push out too far. The wood keep the metal from getting scared which is what using a steel tool would do.

Some pitch is melted into the negative pig area. Couldn't find a better way to say that.

The the whole piece is set into the pitch.

This is what the piece looks like before any surface detail is chased into it.

Sorry for the lack of pic in the chasing process but this is what the piece looks like after. Different tools are used to form the metal into just the right shapes, even out the metal and make the details stand out.

Now that the pig is done it's time to put on the text. Acid is used to etch the bronze. This is a resist done with spray paint and the text is scratched out with a steel tool.

After the piece is etched in an acid bath it is darkened to check the results.

The paint resisted the acid but it did not give a very clean or hard line for the text. Something else has to be tried.

Print makers sometimes use an acrylic floor wax as an acid resistant or mordant( I think that's what it's called). There was not any acrylic floor wax available but acrylic gesso was. The gesso was watered down and applied in several coats.

That's a nice hard etch.

Now that the design is looking good it's time to make the edges. First they are measured and laid out in marker.

The edges are going to be made by folding the bronze sheet. Cuts are made with a jeweler's saw.

Then the folds are made using a hammer and a steel stake. Check out that hammer, it's from Japan. Solid.

The corners are held together with copper rivets.

After the piece is darkened it is hand polished to give it a nice luster and bring out the highlights.

Wham.

Bam.

Piggy man. Happy Birthday Angela!!

Busted Bell

2010-06-03T14:52:00.006-05:00

The case of the busted bell. I customer brought in a bell that had belonged to her mother and I'm pretty sure a dog chewed it or smashed it. It must have been a big dog. Here is what happened.

This is the bell as it came in. The bell part was misshapen and the handle was twisted and smashed. At this point I believed that the bell was solid silver.

A closer inspection reveals the bell to be electro plated silver and the handle is silver plated brass. At this point I called a shop in boston to see if they could re-plate the piece, they could. I then informed the customer and gave her facts. Because the piece meant something to her she decided to go ahead with the repair.

Straightening out the handle proved to be a real struggle. I was only able to do so much with the wire still in place so I removed the top ball.

You can see the at the wire are brass.

Using different hand tools the handle was reformed. This process was not easy, there was a time when I wasn't quite sure if I was going to get it back together.

Whew!!!

Super close up in the light box!!

After soldering the top bead back on and straightening the bell part. The piece was taken to a shop and silver plated.

Before.

After.

A cross for Grams

2010-05-31T15:07:00.004-05:00

Another on of my favorite customers. This one is for my Grams. I had been wanting to make a cross for her for sometime, so I finally just sat down and did it. Here is what happened.

I don't always make CAD models for jewelry but I did this quick model just to get some dimensions for the metal.

With this program the stone sizes can be entered in and I can design the shape that I want.

Then I can just get the dimensions from the model and I know how much metal I will need.

Before doing an expensive project like this, it's good to get all the materials planned out in advance. This whole piece is in 18k yellow gold. The stones on the arms of the cross are VS diamonds and the center stone is a pale cornflower blue sapphire.

First the stock for the cross has to be rolled down the right thickness.

As the metal is rolled down it gets hard and brittle and has to be annealed in order to keep it from cracking. Annealing is done by heating up the gold to a red color and then quenching it in cold water.

After the metal is annealed it can continue to be rolled down until it is the right thickness.

Rolling the metal down make it curve up, the gold has to be hammered flat with a steel hammer.

The gold stock is hammered with a dome hammer to make the metal spread out just a bit in the other direction so that there is enough width to set the stones.

Perfect. Measure twice, cut once.

Sharp steel dividers are used to mark the lengths for the cuts.

Once the stock is cut another check is made to make sure the stones have enough room. Looks good.

The initial cutting is done with a cut off disk, this is not very accurate but it is fast.

This is a tiny square file, one of the edges is grinded away and polished so it won't cut the gold.

After most of the material is removed, accurate cuts can be made with the square file.

The cuts are made just like lincon logs.

Lookin pretty good.

Time to solder those pieces in place. This is 18k hard solder, it is a gold alloy that melts at a lower temperature than the 18k stock.

This is the cross on the charcoal soldering block, it is coated in boric acid to help it not to oxidize.

This is what the piece looks like after it's been soldered. The flux and boric acid form a glassy coating that has to be removed with acid.

Now it's time to cut the hole for the center setting. After the center is found a drill bit is used to make the hole.

A rotary tool is used to remove most of the gold.

This small round file cuts the hole to just the right size.

There was not a piece of gold stock available fit the center hole so one had to be made. In this picture you can see the ingot mold, the gold stock to be melted, crucible and the borax flux that will keep the metal clean.

The gold is melted in this ceramic crucible and then poured into the steel ingot mold.

This is a great example of what not to do. Those gold flakes are all that were left in the mold after some residual moister in the mold cause the gold to explode out. :(

After the mold was heated enough, the gold was able to be poured properly and the stock for the center setting is ready to be cut.

The piece is cut with a jewelers saw.

Perfect fit.

The piece is soldered into place using 18k hard solder.

This is a trick Richard Prillaman taught me. Masking tape is used to hold the piece while it is rubbed on sand paper until the back is flush.

Super smooth.

The center setting is cleaned up with a "gummie" disc, it's kinda like an eraser that is impregnated with abrasive.

Another check is made, it's looking good.

Now it's time for the shape of the cross to be cut. First the center is marked with dividers.

The center lines serve as guides as the shape is cut with a file.

Another check. Super fine.

The center of the setting is found with dividers.

A drill bit is used to cut the initial hole

This is my bur set. They are all diff sizes so they can be used with a variety of stone sizes.

The setting for the center stone is cut.

Time to make some more wire. This time I'll make sure I don't have any moisture in the mold by heating it thoroughly.

This time the wire ingot came out nicely with no pitting.

That big chunk is rolled down to thinner square wire.

The end of the square wire is filed to a point.

This allows the square wire to be pulled through a drawplate with holes in descending sizes.

Through out the process the wire has to be heated and annealed several times to keep it from getting too brittle.

Pull it down.

The wire is used to make a ring for the top of the cross.

Check me.

I got a blue on.

Some of the wire is flattened with a hammer to make the material wider and flatter for the bail.

It is formed with pliers, attached to the cross and soldered together.

This is the whole piece cleaning in the pickle before it goes to a stone setter.

My stone setters shop in Boston.

A final polish.

Lookin good z mac!

I knew from the start that I was going to have the cross pave set. I have done pave setting before but mine is not as clean or as tight as the z mac nasty. Here is the finished cross with the 18k chain.

This cross came out great and my Gram's liked it so much she cried. Haha, I sure didn't mean to make my grandma cry but I knew what she meant.

Grandmama's ring

2010-05-17T15:06:00.005-05:00

My Grandfather, James Dean Lowery, passed away in the summer of 2009. His death resulted from complications after a knee surgery he had and was unexpected. Before he passed away he asked me to make a ring for my grandmother. A year after his death, not my usual turn around time, the ring is finished. Here is how it was made.

Sometimes, a drawing is made at the start of a project and is used as a guide during manufacture. For this project the stones that will be set serve as the guide. The first step is to carve a wax that can be cast into metal. This small miter box is used to cut off a piece of wax ring tube large enough to create the ring.

The miter box is used to get a straight cut all the way through the wax.

This blue jewelry wax is quite tough and can be worked with files like this one to smooth out surface. In many ways the process is quite similar to working in metal directly.

This ring is going to have a center oval ruby and two side diamonds. Here the ring is being marked with center lines and ruby is used as a guide for the dimensions of the ring.

This is how it works. The diamond is laid on the wax.

Then a line is marked to show where to cut. All the excess wax has to be removed so it is important to know just where to cut.

A wax saw, which has very large teeth that remove a lot of material, is used to remove the bulk of the wax.

A file is used to true up the lines.

The cuts are made according to the lines that were marked in the wax.

Good lookin guy.

This pair of calipers is being used to mark the height of the ring.

Now the three different settings can be made out.

A check to make sure that too much material is not being removed. The ring gets worked in one dimension at a time. Here the height of the settings are cut, but the width of the entire ring is still the same.

A little bit more filling just to make sure the wax is flat.

Now the ring is being worked in this dimension. Dividers are used to mark how much wax to cut away.

The wax is cut in steps, so here the first layer is taken away.

Now the next set of lines are draw in.

Now the ring is starting to take shape. At this stage the wax is very rough, it will be smoothed out later.

A small file is used to true up the lines of the wax.

Now settings are rounded out a little and the seats for the stones are cut out.

There is still plenty of material left.

A rubber abrasive wheel is used to round out the settings.

The abrasive wheel is also used to carve and give the ring shank a little style.

The ring shank is tapered in in a few directions.

The taper and flaring can be seen from this angle.

The stones fit, the shape is good. The ring is ready to be sent off to the casters.

This is what the ring looks like after it has been cast in 18k gold. The casting has a dull skin on it and the large chunk at the bottom is the sprue that allowed the metal to flow into the casting.

First the sprue is removed with a saw.

The inside of the ring is filled to remove any skin and true up the inside shape.

The ring is stamped with an 18k content stamp. The leather underneath the piece helps protect the piece from deforming.

18k!!

More rubber abrasive wheels are used to remove the casting skin and smooth out any rough spots.

This is what the settings look like before the seats are cut.

The stones do not fit in them and there for cannot be set yet.

Steel setting burs are used to carve out just the right seat for the stones.

Different sizes and shapes of burs are used to cut out just the right shape.

This is the basic idea. The stone is measured.

Then a bur is chosen that is a close match to the stone size.

Then that bur is used to cut the metal to the desired shape and size.

Now it's looking like a ring.

The seats look good, the stones are ready to be set.

The side stones are set first using a chasing tool and a hammer to push the metal over the edges of the stones.

A steel bezel pushing too is used to collapse the gold around only the edge of the center ruby. This is a nerve racking job as too much pressure may cause the stone to chip or break and too little will leave the stone loose.

They're in there, with no damage to the stones. The tool marks are then cleaned up with rubber abrasive wheels.

Before the final clean up the outside of the ring shank, or bottom part of the ring, is sand blasted using this table top sand blasting case.

The sandblasting gives the ring a unique texture.

A felt wheel with polishing compound is used to go back an and polish the inner areas.

This will leave only the outer shank with the sand blasted texture.

A final polish is done on the buffing wheel.

Now it's a ring.

The polishing process leave the metal smooth and highly reflective.

Here the difference between the sand blast and high polished finishes can be seen.

My grandmother is not a gusher when it comes to gifts but I could tell by the way she showed the ring off to everyone at our family reunion this summer that she was very pleased with the way it turned out. Even though my granddaddy was not about to but the ring on her finger I'm glad I had the opportunity to finish the project for her. I think he would be pleased.

18k Men's Ring

2010-05-08T12:26:00.002-05:00

Several months ago I made a silver men's ring. I was just experimenting in my shop. I didn't even put the ring up on the website for sale. A good customer was in the shop one day and I was showing her some pieces that I was working on and she saw this silver ring and thought it would be perfect for her husband as an anniversary gift. She wanted it much bigger though and in 18k. Here's what we did.

This is the original silver ring. It is fabricated out of several pieces of sterling silver.

So basically the ring is just going to be remade but in a larger size. It all starts with a strip of bronze.

First these divets are hammered into the strip. This forming causes the metal to roll up into a circle.

The metal is then soldered together and rounded out.

Next a inner sleeve is soldered on the inside of the ring.

The excess is ground off and marks are made to show where the beads are going to be.

The marks are then drilled out slightly to accommodate the beads.

The beads are soldered into place. The white on the bronze is the silver solder. The silver looks really cool in this pic.

The ring is polished up a little but not too much because there is going to be some texture on the 18k ring.

The new ring is also made and ready to get a mold made from it. Here is the silver original and the new bronze model side by side.

After the mold is made the new ring can be cast in 18k. The yellow ring on the right is what the 18k gold ring looks like just after it's cast. That little stub is where the molten metal was poured in, it's called a sprue.

The sprue is removed and the 18k ring is cleaned up.

This design is high polished on the inside of the ring and on the sides but the texture from the fabrication process is left on the outside.

The 18k gold has such a beautiful and rich color. It works perfect with this kind of texturing.

The customer and her husband were very happy.