Seams Like a Lady

This post is copied directly from my old blog,  where I published it in February of 2020. In some ways, I’ve learned a lot since then. I’m other ways, I’m still damn pleased with this project and this process!

Here’s my latest project, continuing to try new things, and build on things I’ve already tried. I wanted to make a version of this ring.

And check out this amazing back!

So I started with the bezel, with an 8mm round cabochon. The first part is exactly like my first bezel ring.

Then I formed the beaded wire around the center bezel, then formed a 1mm round wire around that. I soldered the round wire, I did not solder the beaded wire.

Then I arranged all three pieces onto a back plate, and soldered them all on at the same time. I use wire solder, and cut pieces right around 1mm long. Yes. They’re tiny. I could buy the precut pallions, but the wire is more versatile. I used approximately 10 pieces, with four inside the bezel and six spaced evenly around the outer edge, balanced between the beaded wire and the round wire. Heating the bezel from underneath on a tripod pulls the melted solder down to the back plate when it flows. It flows toward the heat.

I used a jeweler’s saw to cut out the bezel, and a file to neaten up the edge. The photo is before the file work was done.

Now time for the shank! The ring band. Starting with 2mm round wire, I flattened the end a bit. I drew it out slightly, as well.

Then I used the saw to split the end in two. Getting this even actually failed both times, but it’s close enough I was able to file the fatter side down to match the other side.

The process of curling those forked ends out took some fiddling. Round nose pliers, a bit more hammering, filing, annealing, cutting a bit of the ends off, pliers again. The photos over simplify the process, really, but I also think practice will simplify the process in time, too. I ended up doing two things wrong, overall: I flattened too much of the wire, really, and I split too far down. Both times. The former is just something to know for the future. The latter was cured by cutting off the ends as I formed them.

Repeat that on the other side, and then form the shank around a mandrel. This involved a steel mandrel and rubber headed hammer. And then a lot of fiddling to get the curlicues to sit flat on the back of the bezel.

I did clean everything up with a file, and then the pieces can be soldered together.

I need to add the granules to the shank, and then it’s time to set the stone! I puzzled over the best way to attach the granules. I don’t have any gum Arabic or hide glue, which would both be good temporary adhesives to hold the granules in place. I decided to solder the granules together, since there are only three to each side, and then I used a third hand to hold the ring at an angle, and sweat soldered each granule cluster one at a time. Sweat soldering, in this situation, involved melting a bit of easy solder on the back of the granule cluster, placing it on the band, and then heating it all together, to melt that solder and make it flow between all the pieces.

So here’s the finished setting, ready for the stone. The granules were more successfully attached on one side than the other, but I accepted several steps back that this was a test piece, so I’m not going to attempt cutting them off and reattaching them. I did also polish the piece (by hand) at this point. I might go back over it again, but I wanted to get it to a certain point before adding the stone. This is another black onyx. The original cabochon was blue glass. I’ve ordered some blue lapis lazuli stones to use for the next version.

And here’s the finished ring!

It occurs to me that I’ve mentioned it, but maybe not everyone knows what pick soldering is! First let me state that it is almost assuredly not a period practice. Even with a lamp and blow pipe, suck that the heat isn’t as intense as a charcoal forge (and the piece is more accessible) it would take two people and I think it would be extremely awkward if not impossible. In period, powdered solder was typically applied over a wet base. Or the copper salt solution method, which uses copper salts suspended in a liquid or else applied to a glue. It amounts to a thin solder paste, altogether. Something more easy to control than modern solder chips that want to fall away from the joint if you breathe too hard.

While it’s still my plan to experiment with period soldering techniques, if I’m not competing with a piece, I don’t mind making it with modern solder. And my new favorite method of doing that (at least for certain types of joins, like on my recent filigree piece and the Hercules knots…and parts of the crotalia earrings, come to think of it.

I’ll try to get a video of it the next time I do it and art that to this post. But essentially you start with your solder chip away from the piece. Melt it and pick it up with a titanium solder pick. The solder will stick to the pick. Then, with your non-dominant hand holding the torch, bring the piece up to soldering temp, or a little less. Holding the pick in your dominant hand, place the little solder ball exactly where you want it and watch it flow.

It takes a couple tries to master the timing of when to pick up the solder. If it’s still molten, it’ll just smear. If it’s too cool, you’ll just push it around. Basically, remove heat and immediately pick it up.

It’s not guaranteed success, but at least for me, it really increases the odds! I do think that a paste, even a homemade period one, would work just as well, if not better. Even then, Theophilus talks about having to refire pieces if all the joins didn’t take the first time. So it’s an old problem to have your solder not flow correctly on the first try.

If you haven’t read my “Figuring Out Filigree” post, you won’t get all the information on this piece. If you have read it, this is the project post where I’ll go into other details about making the necklace.

My inspiration is a photo that I found on Pinterest, that’s from Flickr, with a foreign language caption citing “museo archeologico e d’arte della Maremma, Grosseto” This is a museum in Grosseto, Italy. I can’t find the necklace on its website, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in their collection, their entire collection may not be online. It’s also quite similar to one that I’ve made previously, based on a partial necklace fragment that’s 12″ long, that resides at The Met in New York. The key differences between them are that the Maremma necklace is made with thicker gauge, rectangular or square wire, the motifs seem slightly smaller, and there are three little curlicues inside each circle, rather than four. I believe it is a real artifact, but I can’t verify that. I made it anyway because it’s pretty! And it’s a different kind of challenge than the one I made previously.

For my version, I started with 5cm lengths of wire for the outer circle.

Once those were all formed and soldered, I spent some time figuring out the filigree. Each inner motif ended up taking 3cm of wire. I should note that I’m using 20 gauge square wire.

Then I moved onto making the jump rings. I really should have made these one at a time, to keep the square wire perfectly in line. I didn’t, I made them in my usual way, and the wire twisted on me in places. Lesson learned. My jump rings are 4mm.

Test fitting the entire piece.

Next came soldering the inner motifs. I soldered where they met the outer ring, as well as where they met each other in the middle. When I made my original necklace (from the Met example) I only soldered the outer ring connections. That’s held up remarkably well, as I wear it relatively often. But this piece is going out into the world, and I wanted it to be a bit more secure.

At this point, each inner motif needed to be tweaked and hammered flat so that they would all fit correctly prior to soldering.

In the above photo, all the inner bits are soldered, and the jump rings are waiting for solder. I did melt one motif and had to remake it. I pick soldered everything.

And here they are all finished and polished! There’s one that’s quite wonky. It started to melt, but I rescued it. It’s not perfect, but it’s not so bad I felt the need to trash it. It’ll just go at the back.

The finished necklace is constructed the same way as making a Byzantine necklace with a simple hook and eye closure. The stones are 15-17mm red brecciated jasper. I did veer from the original in one additional way. In lieu of 10 filigree motifs and 9 beads, with filigree at the ends, I did 10 and 11 beads, with beads at the end. Without those two extra beads, it was just barely long enough for me, and I knew it wouldn’t work for everyone. As this is going to a charity auction, I want it to work for as many people as possible. Here are some glamor shots, as well as a comparison photo between this one and the necklace I had made based on the Met example a few years ago.

I find that every time I do a filigree piece, it takes a little time to figure out how long to cut each filigree wire. I’ll show you my process.

I start by soldering my border shape, in this case rings. It’s kind of like building a cabinet and fitting drawers. You always want to measure off your actual frame. For filigree, I switched over to bronze for my test wires.

The top example used 2cm wires, the next used 3cm wires, the third used 2.5cm, which fit, but wasn’t the right proportion. The bottom one uses 2.7cm wires. Look how much difference 2mm makes! These frames are about the size of a dime.

I thought I had a winner with the 2.7cm version, but then I looked at my inspiration again.

The shape wasn’t quite right. So I went back and reworked my 3cm version.

We have a winner! The reworked 3cm version is so much closer to the original. That’s what I’m moving forward with. I’ll post a full step by step of the construction process once it’s done, but I wanted to make this a separate post about just this process.

So the Hercules, or Herakles, Knot is a motif seen throughout Greco-Roman jewelry and art. It’s another one of those things that spans from the Roman Republic all the way through the Empire. I love things like that. I’ve made two knots that are going to become earrings like these from The Louvre:

But there are quite a few examples of extant necklaces that use the same motif. Once my new stock of wire comes in, I plan to make two versions with two different size knots. These earring charms are made with 19 gauge fine silver.

Start with two pieces of wire 2″ in length (for knots that finish just over 1″ long).

Form each of those into a rough circle/ oval so that the two ends meet cleanly.

Solder or fuse each ring shut. Make sure the joint is solid before moving on.

Start forming each ring into a rounded, sort of bowling pin shape. You want the fat end to be fatter, proportionally, than a bowling pin. I used the stepped bail forming pliers to do this, using several of the steps to help.

I’m adding a video that I took that shows how I do this. I’m sure there are other ways, but this works for me.

You should end up with two mostly identical shapes.

Next, you want to very gently curve each piece around the middle, so that if they’re opposing one another, they’re curved in opposite directions. This curve allows you to slot the two pieces together and get that woven look, and they’ll be flattened out in the next step.

The photo above shows how gently you can curve the pieces and all make them work together. Don’t worry too much about the alignment now, you’ll tweak it in the next step. Just get them interwoven.

Next, gently straighten out the pieces as much as possible, and tweak your shape and alignment. I very gently tapped mine with a hide mallet, then flipped it over and tapped the other side.

You can see how flat it got.

The next step is to solder. Solder at the four points where the skinny ends overlap and underlap the fastest ends. That locks the knot together.

This knot ended up right around 1-1/8″ long. It’s a little on the skinny side, though. When I make the necklaces, I plan to round the fat end a bit more, exaggerating the shape. These aren’t bad, though, and I’m happy with them!

I’m still learning things about soldering, and I keep improving the more time I spend at my bench. Here’s the thing, I’ve gotten lazy about how much solder I use. I’m using more than I used to. I used to use about 1mm or less of wire solder for a small join. Lately, I’ve been using 2mm or slightly more. It’s still a tiny amount, but it’s double!

To force myself to do better, I tried using solder pallions. These are pre-cut itty bitty rectangles of solder that are .5x1mm and are very thin. I need magnifiers to use them since my work light went out. (My charcoal block also really needs sanding, it’s filthy.) Y’all. It’s life changing. I tried both pick soldering with them, and placing them before firing. Both methods worked like a dream, and there’s so much less solder mess to clean up afterward. I mean, duh. But the reality of it was eye-opening. In the photo, you can see the back of two earrings. The left is the too much solder, after cleanup. You can still visibly see a ton of solder around the joins, comparatively. The second one, I didn’t do any additional cleanup on at all. I just polished it as is.

I used two pallions on the ear wire on the second one, and that was just for insurance. I think one, properly placed, would have done it.

Even Cellini warned about using too much solder! Some things don’t change, even after hundreds of years.

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve opened a shop on Leap Handmade! I’m Sable Crescent Studio! It’s a big step for me, as I didn’t think I would ever do this. But it’s an expensive hobby amd there’s only so much jewelry one girl can have. If I want to keep making, I need a method of moving pieces on.

My personal rules for the shop are: 1, only list what I’ve already made. 2, only make what brings me joy. I am open to commissions, but if I’m not interested in the project, I will turn it down. It’s the luxury of this being a hobby and not a career.

One happy side benefit of this endeavor is that I finally purchased a light box! I’m still working to improve my photography, but the box helps a ton.

I won’t be selling everything I make. I’ll still keep, wear, display, and compete with some pieces. I’ll also keep playing with period techniques on those. Sale pieces are just being added to my rotation of making things. My posts from here on will feature the processes for both.

Crotalia earrings were found in Pompeii and there’s an extant pair from the third century in the British Museum. In addition, they’re seen in a number of Fayum mummy portraits. Altogether, that puts them solidly through most if not all of the Imperial era. I love how versatile they are. The mummy portraits often feature pearls, as did the Pompeii pair. The British Museum pair features pearls as accents to colored stones. This is my process for making basic crotalia earrings.

Start with your bar, cut from sheet. I honestly don’t know, but I think this is 24 or 22 gauge. 22, I’m pretty sure.

Sand the bar’s edges and round the corners slightly. Form 6 2-3mm jump rings, three for each earring.

Solder the jump rings to the bar. I find pick soldering works great for this task.

Solder a straight piece of 20 gauge to the back.

Polish and form your ear wire. Don’t forget to work harden the ear wire.

Add beads! These are styled after the British Museum wrapping technique, but just using pearls as seen in other examples.

I never actually wrote about these when I made the first pair because they’re SO simple. But just in case anyone is reading this for period jewelry information, these are period! And really not that bad to make at all. It’s one solder operation, if you close the loop and attach it at the same time.

Attach the jump rings to the Cs. It’s around 1/4 of the way around the wire, but I don’t measure. I just eyeball it. Work harden the shape.

Then just add a few beads and you’re done! I used the same integral spiral “bead cap” that I used in my last post.

And they’re done!

Based on these.

In the future, I may play with using 18 gauge and tapering it, but the taper would need to start further in to work with modern ear holes.

Did you read my last post? Do you remember how I had two spare lozenge links? What’s a girl to do but to make matching earrings? Now, there were no original earrings that went with the necklace. However, the Louvre has a pair of Hercules knot earrings, where a single knot motif is suspended from a ring, with a teardrop bead hanging from it.

I am extrapolating from that example and using a single lozenge motif with a bead suspended from it. I’m also doing an ear hook based on a different period example (that’s almost identical to a certain modern French hook), because that Hercules knot earring pair has the sort of loop that’s been wired closed.

So I’m doing something holy unlike my style and mishmashing period examples with my own extrapolated idea.

But here’s the (dead simple) process. Start with two 2″ lengths of 20 gauge wire.

Melt one end such that it balls up and forms a bead on the end.

Don’t do what I did and hold your phone in one hand and the torch in the other. I wouldn’t do that with anything more complicated and higher stakes as this, and I shouldn’t have done it here. But I wanted to show what I meant with the melting.

Straighten the beads if you need to, and trim the wires so they’re the same length.

The next several steps are easiest if you hold both wires at the same time, touching each other.

Slide the link on from the back. I don’t have a photo of this step, so sorry! Then pinch the bead back the rest of the way so that it touches the ear wire.

For the bead “cap” make a tiny spiral, as small as you can get it, but larger than your bead hole.

Bend the wire so that the spiral is at a right angle to the rest.

Slide on your bead. Press the spiral down so that it lays flat against the bead.

The top end of the bead wire gets attached to the link the same way all the links in the necklace were formed.

And here are the finished earrings! Roman-ish.