Once the crosses were actually created and finished (see An Essay In Crosses I and II) everything else flowed easily to the conclusion.
I didn’t have much established equipment for performing precision drilling work other than the CNC milling machine, fortunately so long as you have the right attachments the CNC can do the job. Early on I had wisely decided to make the investment of a Sherline 4th axis rotary table with all the trimmings necessary to mount it on my Taig. Unfortunately I never forsaw the need, until now, to mount the table on the left side of the milling table. I really wanted to easily eyeball my work as I manually jogged the milling head.
However, I had gained enough confidence from working aluminium and steel from my earlier lessons learned on creating a engraving vise and on creating a drawplate respectively. It was therefore simple enough to create a right angle adapter using a spare plate of aluminum and my drill press, so that my rotary table could rest upon it and face me directly as I sat in my operator’s chair.
Rotary table mounted on milling table using a 90 degree riser block serves as horizontal vise
I had enough practice by now to understand about drilling small holes in metal using carbide endmills. I had actually never machined (okay, so I have fly-cut but that really isn’t the same thing) silver before and I was afraid that I would jam and thus break my endmill from the soft metal. But I needn’t have worried. First, the fine silver cross I was about to drill my hole into was already work hardened. Second, I kept the drilling processes generously lubricated. I removed swarf and added fresh olive oil about every 0.005 inches of progress. Third and finally, I used an extremely conservative feed rate. It still only took 8 minutes to safely drill a 0.03 inch hole in work hardened fine silver!
["NOSHABKEMING THE RADIANT!" a old and grizzled master machinist might yell at me. 8 MINUTES!!! WHY NOT 8 SECONDS?!?!? To which I would say: "Oh pshaw... I'm unemployed so I have no plans on going anywhere so I might as well take the time to do it right the first time 
]
Note the fish-eye effect in the next photo: I had aimed my camera through a 10X inspection loupe.
Drilling a .03 inch hole with 4 flute carbide endmill in fine silver at .033 inches per minute feed rate lubricated frequenty by extra virgin olive oil.
I had chosen a .03 inch diameter hole to drill in the top of the cross so that it could admit 22 gauge wire for mounting purposes:
Drilled hole admits 22 gauge fine silver wire.
And so I do that very thing. Earlier I had researched some Internet articles on create silver chainmaille, and I found it so simple to do that there really is no point on reiterating the step by step process here.
The short description is this: I created a closed loop of 22 gauge fine silver wire that I had work harded before by hammering it briefly with a rubber mallet. Then then formed the wire around a 1/8 inch drill bit, with some overlapping for fusing purposes. I then created another loop, but hooked that one between the cross and first loop. I then fused the second loop in the usual manner.
Something that helps, of course, is having the ability to use a heat sink to choose what you do not want the heat to affect while closing the connecting loop. I had a leftover electronic soldering heat sink left over from my amateur radio days, which did the job nicely to draw heat away from everything but the loop I was closing.
[Caution: Be sure to remove all traces of electronic solder from used electronic soldering heat sinks before reusing them in jewelry service. The lead from said solder can discolor fine silver rather severely! I was very lucky to only get the discoloration in one tiny spot that I was easily able to sand away, just as I realized the mistake I had made!]
Adding a chain to the cross.
Now I might never have mentioned this, but last week I created a set of handmade French ear hooks made from that same 22 gauge wire, again based on Internet research, and again so very simple as to not require recapitulating on my blog.
Once the chains were in place on my crosses all I needed to do was slip the free end of the chain over my ear hooks to the places on the ear hooks were charms are supposed to dangle:
Completely hand made set of earrings connected to handmade French ear hooks using fused jump rings.
Here’s a picture of an actual person (my wife) testing them out:
The chain is chosen to be two links so that cross orients parallel to face for best viewing in family photos.
I had actually create 4 sets of these earrings but I had a deadline coming up tomorrow. We have a Schwann’s salesperson come by and I had shown him the crosses, so he wanted a set for his daughter. We agreed on $20, but I had not mentioned that they needed to hang on the earrings somehow, so I will try to charge him $5 for the pair of handmade French ear wires. I’ll see how well he takes the news. If necessary I’ll back down to the $20 I originally promised
I promised my wife the best pair out of the four. The second best pair I had decreed was “export quality”, fit for the Schwann man. I’ll take the other two with me to my wife’s hometown that we’ll be flying down to in a few weeks for Christmas: the next best pair, a very handsome set, will go to my wife’s favorite cousin; and finally, that cousin’s mother will get the last set.
My wife, being the wonderful person and highly capable scrapbooker and stamper that she is, was more than willing to create a package to contain my first sale. She even told me there would be no charge for it (I think she was just simply glad to see that after my spending a few thousand dollars outfitting myself for CNC and jewelry making that I finally had, what she called, “finished product”!).
So the final two photos show my package labelling and the commercial appearance of my very first earring design:
Package label for Aulë brand.
Packaging for sale for first article of Aulë brand jewelry.
And so I have now shown that I can make all the components for a new piece of jewelry, and assemble them into something that people find desireable. The only thing place where I needs must to gloss over my statement is the need to buy round wire rather than draw it myself.
Anyhow… I would say I have now officially become an entry level apprentice, perhaps the masters out there can choose to agree or disagree with this statement in thier comments.
[Caveat: This afternoon I showed around my earrings to my daughter's ballet teachers and the mothers of a few of her ballet classmates. They had all the opinion that they already looked polished from a distance and so polishing was unnecessary. I disagree but who am I to argue with civilians? I realize there are still toolmarks on the chains and the ear hooks, but I have no time left fix that for the Schwann man's purchase. But as I still have a few days between now and takeoff next week I will try to find time to at least polish the sets I am giving as presents, and post the pictures of one such below this paragraph later. I promise! ]
Merry Christmas,
Aulë
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Helen Hill 12.14.09 at 10:54 am
Forgive me for saying so Aulë, but you seem to be wanting to reinvent the wheel when it comes to making jewellery. Some of your chosen methods are causing you to make costly mistakes, both in terms of time and money. Would it not be better to simply buy the silver products you need for each project, rather than starting out with a big (expensive) block of fine silver and spending days if not weeks reducing it down to something workable?
Your crosses prior to fusing (in the second cross blog post) were looking almost very good, but with the addition of the pmc and subsequent fusing, they were all lumpy and not anywhere near acceptable as a finished product - as you know - resulting in the need for a lot of clean up work just to get them back to something approaching their pre-fused appearance. Just as an aside, from a design perspective, the jump rings used on the earrings are rather large in comparison to the cross element, meaning that they (and the ear hook curl) detract from the cross.
If I were you, I would consider buying some Argentium sterling silver if you would rather fuse as opposed to soldering. It fuses beautifully, and if the tolerances on your cutouts were tight enough, there would be absolutely no need for any filler material. It is considerably harder than fine silver and so more durable and better able to hold the finish for longer without too many scratches or dents, etc. BTW, you’ll never work harden a metal with rubber mallet.
Personally, I read about all aspects of jewellery making for over a year before embarking on any projects in reality (I started making in 2007). That way, I knew the theory of jewellery making and so could go straight into the correct methods when I did decide to take the plunge, rather than trying to figure it out by myself. Things are done the way they are done for a reason, and folks before us have figured out the best way to do things, so we don’t have to.
However, if it’s the fun of trying to figure out the process which excites you, rather than trying to make salable finished products, then ignore everything I’ve said. We all have different priorities.
Aulë 12.14.09 at 10:48 pm
Helen,
Thank you very much for your in-depth critique. The perspective of a professional master jeweler such as yourself is always valuable.
But since seeing it is at least as painful as it is valuable, I hope you will forgive me equally as much if I am apprehensive about posting your comment… I will hope that other readers are not prematurely discouraged from forming their own opinions as they read my efforts.
But you still should consider my perspective before you can render a final judgement.
I am well aware that I am still very much of a novice who has no formal schooling in your trade.
I never claimed on my blog to be anything other than someone skilled in a completely different field trying to feel his way around the completely unfamiliar territory of jewelry making.
My blog is intended to mainly speak to other offshored professionals, especially electrical and software engineers. It is designed to convey hope as much to them as to myself. My message is: “I am making the effort to learn a new field using my existing engineering training as a base. And if I can make that effort, then so can you.”
I realize that part of your message is that I am required to first pay my dues as a jeweler by either long amounts of advance research or by specialized training, before I can even think of making saleable product.
But as you may or may not know, most engineers are instinctive inventors, and as such will simply refuse to accept that there can’t or shouldn’t be alternative ways of doing anything they witness in another field by using techniques and experiences which they have already had in thier own field. I therefore have to address that instinct of “reinventing the wheel” as best as I can, even if I have to fall on my face quite a few times along the way.
Engineers also are trained to keep laboratory notebooks of every action they undertake and every thought they make as they undergo thier work, in the hopes that an accident or a mistake or even a success can lead to a newly usable idea.
I don’t know if jewelers like yourself keep notebooks, but I would therefore invite you to consider my blog as my own personal laboratory notebook, open for all the world to see.
You also have to realize that many of my choices are either formed or forced by local conditions:
1) I live in a very rural area approximately 50 miles from the nearest town and 300 miles away from the nearest city. I’m also on a very limited budget, and Delivery fees are killer! I have to make use of either locally available resources or gifts, or make every penny out of a $100 USD monthly allowance stretch as far as possible for tools and/or consumeables.
2) A one ounce fine silver ingot costing perhaps $19 USD gives me far more possibilities to work with, than an order of $30 USD of an ounce of assorted silver bezel with $15 USD in UPS ground shipping for a total of $45 USD. Need I say more?
3) I can’t really speak to your design preferences. All I can tell you are that I made arbitrary choices which at first blush in fact appear to be aesthetically pleasing to the locals. So far out of 10 pairs of these earrings: I’ve sold 1 privately for $25, I have a restaurant willing to show 2 pieces on 50% consignment, and I have a pawn shop willing to buy 1 for 50% outright. 3 other pairs are going as gifts to members of my family, all of whom are discriminating enough to refuse to wear crap even if made by a family member. That’s not at all a bad success ratio for a first attempt!
4) I’m saving all of my silver scrap for later possible casting, and since I am unemployed because my software skills are considered worthless due to offshoring, as well as unemployable due to psychiatric disabilities, my time is therefore worthless in the job market.
5) Due to family commitments as a homemaker coming first before my silversmithing, I can only devote 3 hour days at 4 days per week anyway. My hope to become a profitable jeweler by necessity needs be a hope that looks extremely long range down into the future. I estimate that in maybe as little as 7 years at this pace I will likely be equivalent to an entry level bench jeweler just out of two years full time from vocational school.
To be realistic this may only be a self-supporting hobby. But maybe someday the horse will sing as well. But as I said in my initial article: what I am doing in my spare time beats suicide from lack of purpose.
And I am sure a lot of other middle-aged engineers might take my lead and attempt something else, anything else, rather than consider suicide because thier life’s trade had been wrenched from them.
So go ahead and keep on critiquing, if you want. Others who read you will simply have to consider the source.
Best,
Aulë
P S Bond 12.15.09 at 8:22 am
As another software engineer who has been making jewellery a wee while now, I’m following this with some interest. There’s many in our discipline who don’t seem to “get” engineering per se, so idea of applying engineering approaches across the board is alien. I’m particularly pleased to see I’m not the only one keeps a decent logbook in the workshop; do make sure you track the time operations take you too (although I’m quite possibly preaching to the converted on that!).
I don’t know what your bookshelf is like, but I suspect from your approach that you might appreciate Brepohl (read some of the excerpts on Ganoksin) - it covers the process and materials from the ground up in moderate depth. Less showy than some around, but a very good reference material. Don’t assume that everyone else has formal schooling, or is a master jeweller though. IIRC Helen was a chemist previously, so should also be versed in the value of a decent logbook.
I’d be inclined to agree with Helen on buying some ready-milled stock if you can - if only for the learning experience. Milling your own stock is a perfectly valid approach though, but if you can try it at the finished point too, it can feed back well into the earlier phases of the operation. Sometimes milling is the only solution though - I’ve been forging down a largish block of mokume gane recently which couldn’t have been purchased reasonably; the other weekend I was chatting to a silversmith whose work is all forged from the same startpoint of a 1″ diameter bar of silver.
Your work selling is good - the first sale alone is a decent boost to the ego; don’t allow yourself to become hidebound on it, and allow your work to evolve - just don’t try to bundle *too* many new techniques into a new piece. Not that I’m the best person to give that piece of advice…
Keep going. Be your own worst critic, analyse everything, but don’t share the criticisms with your customers.
Aulë 12.15.09 at 10:20 am
P S Bond,
Thank you so very much for commenting on this article! The more people, the better!
Alas, my logbook right now is not that much more than a pad of quadrille paper with dates, sketches, and scrawls and its latest entry is more than a month old. That’s how long it has been since I had done any actual experimentation of techniques rather than thier applications of them as I had been blogging. But as I said before, I’m letting my blog count as notebook because I am showing the good, the bad, and the ugly here.
So far my entire right bookshelf is half computer science and half a mishmash including such things as last year’s ARRL handbook, the 1977 versions of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry And Physics and the CRC Mathematics Tables, Grey’s Anatomy, the Stuller’s catalogs, and a ten-year-old version of The Idiot’s Guide To Starting Your Own Business.
Above my left bookshelf, I keep about 16 bins of electronic components from my amateur radio days: all ranges of RLC plus lots of semiconductors of all types, and some stepper motors. Hidden away in niches in my bedroom are a 100 Mhz analog oscilloscope and an all-tube Lavoie Laboratories analog spectrum analyzer circa 1955, plus I keep an RLC meter and an VMM in my desk.
On top of my left bookcase I keep some high fire clay with half a dozen glazes and some gold trim, because at some point I want to reactivate my ceramics skills from high school and introduce porcelain into my creations. I still have a new Paragon Q11A Express in my shed that I have prepared with high fire kiln wash but have not used yet. I have a possible mentor next year for enamelling who wants me to link up with him after new years, the kiln might see some use then.
The middle of my left bookshelf is reserved for my lapidary equipment: A refurbished Gryphon C-40 diamond bandsaw ($60 USD from Craigslist plus only $125 USD for new parts!), plus this year’s Christmas gift from my father: an Inland grinder with conversion kits for trim saw and 8 inch flat lap.
The bottom of my left bookshelf has a few odds and ends: a couple of older model laptops that I’m keeping for testing some ideas in distributed computing, but I decided to quit trying for my doctorate in computer science for reasons:
1) it was too expensive, my family needed my SSDI payments more than I did, and there was no evidence that a doctorate would make any difference in my employability
2) the trip was just too far out at 300+ miles range, I had to spend 2 nights per week away from my family just to attend classes half time, and I was exhausted every week
3) I suffered relapses of clinical depression every two weeks even on a half time course load
4) My academic advisor was simply not interested in my intended research area, nor could I find any other faculty who wanted to supervise it: creating massive dataflow signal processing architecture not from tying the processors together via Beowulf but instead by having each node transmit its frame buffer on a dedicated UHF channel and having all nodes able to arbitrarily tune into thier neighbors using TV tuner cards. My advisor felt that the world had stepped beyond both dataflow machines and frequency division multiplex… and I believe my architecture could under the right circumstances lead to a revival for niche applications in virtual reality and other video entertainment.
I won’t even consider trying for a computer science doctorate again until my wife chooses in the course of her career to move us a lot closer to a university.
And then of course there’s the old refrain I got back from each and every interview since 2005: “We believe your skills are outstanding but we had this gut feeling that you wouldn’t be a good fit for our team.”
My life is completely stuck where it is, and so that’s why I’m learning yet another different set of skills.
So as you can see, its not for nothing that I’m choosing to take “Aulë” for my callsign!