jewellers tools | Eileen Moylan

What to do with unworn gold jewellery?

05.28.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

This week I’m melting down a customers gold to transform it into a new piece of jewellery. Many people disregard this option as they think they don’t have enough gold jewellery to recycle. But how many broken chains and odd earrings do you have that will never be worn again? This is a perfect way to de-clutter your jewellery box and also give yourself a guilt free gift of jewellery!

Here are some photos of the melting and re modelling process. I begin my weighing the customers gold, making sure I have enough to make the requested design. I’m turning this gold into charms for a bracelet.

For these charms I need a length of D shaped wire. This is done by rolling the gold through my trusty rolling mill to form a length of wire. It’s a slow process with the gold needing to be annealed ( heated to soften) after every few rolls.

Once the gold is at the correct thickness I cut it into the required lengths and start rounding it up. This also has to be done in stages and annealed as the gold wire is very thick for the size of the charm.

I will post pictures of the finished charms next week…

How to set a pearl

05.11.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

I’ve had a few busy days of paper work and admin so it was lovely to get back into the workshop today. I’ve got a few making projects on the go at the moment as well as some repairs. One of which is to replace a pearl in a white gold ring.

I decided to photograph my technique and go through how I set pearls. Pearls are unlike any other stones as it is one of the only times I will condone the use of glue! Glue is a jewellers nightmare, often I’ll be asked to carry out repairs on pieces that people have already repaired with glue. Before I can even begin to repair the piece I’ll have to remove all the glue. If I solder the piece first the glue will create a dirty soldering joint causing the solder not to run.

I begin by cleaning and polishing the ring as once the pearl is set I can’t put the ring in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Then I make sure the pearl is a snug fit in the setting. I’ve bought this pearl specifically for this job so it makes for a better setting. I also make sure the post of the setting has little grooves cut into it, this allows the glue to sit into these grooves making it harder for the pearl to slide off. Once I’m happy with the pearl and the way it sits into the post I can begin preparing the glue.

I use a epoxy resin as it sets better and doesn’t shatter like super glue. I mix it with a tooth pick and then using a broken saw blade put glue inside the drilled hole of the pearl. I then put the glue on the post of the setting. Be careful not to add too much as it will gather at the bottom of the pearl.

Once the glue is on both the setting and the pearl I gently fit the pearl to the post. I give the pearl a twist to make sure it is sitting correctly and also to spread the glue around the inside of the pearl.

Then I get my most valuable pearl setting tool… a clothes peg. I can’t remember where I came across this tip but it really is ingenious. You use the clothes peg to hold the pearl to the setting while the glue is hardening. It’s soft enough that it doesn’t damage the pearl and the spring means it can fit most pearl sizes and settings. I’ve drilled a hole on the top of this peg so I can also using it when setting pearl earrings. The post of the earring goes through the hole so the pearl sits snugly in the peg.

Well there you have it, my guide to setting pearls. If you have any handy jewellery tips I’d love to hear them.

Have a good weekend 🙂

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Making Silver Earrings Part 2

05.02.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

Last week I wrote about a pair of silver earrings I was making for myself.

Now that the wires are in place it’s time to start soldering. I’ve filed the joint in such a way that they will fit together perfectly and won’t move during the soldering. Once I have them soldered, I leave them to cool and then clean them in the acid.

I’ve cut two lengths of .7mm round silver wire for the ear wire sections.

When I have the wires soldered on I can start filing the edges. I’ve decided to file the step between the silver earring and ear wire so it’s looks seamless. Once I have that done they are ready to be polished and of course worn!

Ta- dah!