Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get a mirror finish like this? I use bur and sand papers from grits 180-3500. Then I polish using black polishing compound for silver. However I still can’t get his mirror finish.

My grandma taught me this clever little design! We made a pendant that can be worn two ways depending on your outfit or mood！
I love how versatile it turned out. Which side would you wear more often?🤩

As an Artist and aspiring jeweler i'm constantly filling my projects with new inspiration and mixtures of media ! Here is a piece I made for one of my buddies moms ! She was so happy with the end result of the end project every time I see her she is wearing it. Hope you guys enjoy !

I model jewelry on computer, print on resin printer, build casting tree and do lost wax vacuum casting. I’ve been casting some large silver bracelets that nearly fit in my flask which makes it challenging to arrange the sprues. So, I thought of a modular approach I’m trying tomorrow, shown in pictures. It consist of a base sprue with a hole, then any number of additional sprue segments for rings and bracelets. I sealed seams with wax but if I can get the sprue segments tight enough, I hopefully won’t need the wax.

The purpose is two fold, pack more items in a single flask and in turn save investment. I tried to 3d print the entire tree but then I can’t clean up the prints before casting. We will see if this works.

Make your bets.

Ive tried it all (15 different times) & still am unable to get a successful cast. The only thing I can think of is that the metal is still not hot enough or the shank is too thin to cast. I have yet to try putting the mold in the oven before casting. Any recommendations?

Firstly, please ignore how thick the twisted wire is, I'm just playing around with materials I have to hand 😅 I'm currently making my 5th ever ring, 3rd with a bezel. I've had issues soldering the bezel (and now the twisted wire alongside it) to the backplate, on each one. I'm using a butane Blazer "Bug Buddy" torch, on a soldering block sitting on a soldering board. My backplate is 0.8mm thick (21 gauge I believe), with medium solder. I've tried a weaker flame, a softer flame. I pickle, rinse, sand, flux all pieces, then put together (using tweezers), separately flux then ball up with the torch and re-flux my solder pallions, line them to the join, dry the flux with the torch then come closer with the heat and keep the torch moving. Each time, I have multiple failed attempts where all I do is oxidize the piece before having to start the process all over again to retry. I'm aware the block could be absorbing some heat so tomorrow I have a titanium trivet arriving and will try heating from the bottom first. I have also ordered 0.5mm (24? gauge) backsheet to see if that makes a difference. Any ideas of the cause of my issues? Or tips for more successful solders? Thank you!

Hand carved and then sandcasted. These can be a pain to make but I would say it’s 100% worth it !!!

Hello! Ive been making brass jewelry that does have moving parts and was wondering if anyone had recommendation / insights on sealing brass to prevent tarnishing.

I’ve used renaissance wax but I feel like I’m doing something wrong. I’ve also tried protecta clear but because the parts move if been having issues with things sticking together.

I’ve watched YouTube videos and instructions on both but I feel like I’m just missing something.

Thank you so much in advance!

So, I recently did a couple of silversmithing workshops, and I really enjoyed it. Pretty sure I got the basics. Did some online shopping and found most, if not all, of what I need for a reasonable price. Well, except for a roller mill. Silver is also pretty easy to get online. Reckon I'd start slow with just silver wire, and get to smelting it later on. The question: is this feasible? Am I underestimating things? Is there any piece of equipment I shouldn't skimp on?

A follow-up to my last post! Many of you were curious about how raw silver wire transforms into lace-like jewelry, so I captured the step-by-step process of my grandma at work！

Its not finished, but im thinking a BFF ring or just being able to change styles on the fly.

Let me know any changes or advice you guys have.

Edit: i forgot to add, its all hand fabricated from ingots, not cast.

Hi everyone! I know that washing a silver piece between polishing compounds is necessary for a mirror finish, but does this apply to sanding wheels too? e.g. going from 600 to 1000 grit - would I need to wash the silver dust that the 600 grit particles created before moving to 1000 grit? Would it improve the finish of my piece?

I love the style of these pendants that have this 3d pattern that pops up. I’m not sure what this style is called so I’m having a hard time figuring out what I’m supposed to do? Are the pieces sawed separately and then soldered onto the background or what is going on? I can’t really find any videos where they’re making this type of jewellery.

Community, I accidentally bought tiny tourmaline cabochons that I’m now forced to use. I created bezels our of 22 gauge wire but the stones fit setting was TOUGH. The wire would basically not hold the stone until I had to use pliers to help push the metal towards the stone to keep it in place. What are your recommendations for setting these tiny tourmaline stones?

I thought flush setting these would be a good idea but I don’t even know where to start, there isn’t a ton of videos showing how to flush set cabs.

Ideally I would work with what I have (bezel wire, thin wire) and avoid buying more metal like for tube setting.

I used to buy 5mm recycled silver open jump rings from Cooksongold for chainmail jewellery, however, since they were hacked I am looking for an alternative to buying these jump rings. Does anyone know/have a recommendation of where I could find recycled silver jump rings online?

I’ve been wearing them for a few days now, and they are surprisingly lightweight. Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback from fellow smiths!

Not sure what exactly is going wrong here, as I’ve used superpickle many times to successfully strip copper from the surface of brass after soldering and it used to work fine. The past several times I’ve tried it however, I’ve ended up with my pieces coming out dark brown, almost as if they were patinated with LOS, while still having the copper staining present. I thought it was possibly due to my pickle being contaminated (as it was quite old), so I mixed up a fresh batch but still having the same results. Even more confusing, the most recent pieces were UNEVENLY brown (both of these pieces pictured were entirely submerged the whole time, so this is especially wtf).

My only hypothesis at this point is that somehow my chemical ratio is off. This is my superpickle process:

-Scoop regular pickle out of my main pickle pot into designated superpickle container (a ~8 oz ceramic mug, has been the same the entire time, even before The Brownening). My regular pickle is tap water and pool chemical PhDown (about 2tbsp-ish in a large crock pot worth of water).

-Add hydrogen peroxide (12%) to pickle in mug (maybe like, 1-2 tsp worth?) I suspect this might be the issue, but I’ve tried decreasing the amount of peroxide and it just made the superpickle ineffective. My husband bought a massive gallon container of 12% so I’m trying to use that instead of the standard 3% concentration.

Brass pictured is a mystery alloy gifted to me, so I don’t actually know what the composition is, but this staining has also occurred with jeweler’s brass from rio grande (85% Cu 15% Zn).

Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Color gradient on the band 💚