Eileen Moylan

Jewellery Designer Cork

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Sketching with Metal

04.12.2012 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

Copper and Oval Stone ring design

Sketch in Metal not a finished piece

This week I’m working on a commission piece in silver set with a large oval cut emerald. I’m still in the early days of design but I decided to post some early photos of the work so you can see how it changes through the design and making process.

As you will know I love to sketch but sometimes acutally working out the design directly in metal can be more benificial. This is one of those times! The sketches just weren’t giving me a sense of how the form would flow when translated to metal.

So I cut out some copper and using a cheap oval stone I started to play around with the design. Once I have the rough design worked out in metal it’s back to the sketch pad to refine these ideas and work out dimensions.

Here are a few photos of the rough sketches in metal.

Copper and Oval stone ring Design

Sketch in Metal not a finished piece

Copper and Oval stone ring design

Sketch in Metal not a finished piece

 

Categories // My Workshop Tags // contemporary Irish silver, contemporary jewellery, Silver, silver ring, silversmith, Sketching

Gold & Silver Stacking Rings Part 2

12.21.2011 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

 

This is part two of a series on making stacking rings, to read part 1 click here.

Having made the silver rings I then needed to cut out the gold details and solder them on the rings.

Filing flat are on rings for gold detail
Filing flat are on rings for gold detail

 

I begin by filing an area on the rings so the gold triangles will be able to sit flat on the bands. Then I cut the mark out the different size triangles on my gold sheet.

Marking out Triangles (and drinking tea!)
Marking out Triangles (and drinking tea!)

Because the gold details are so small they need to be held in a ring clamp when filing and cutting them out.

Cutting out Gold Detail
Cutting out Gold Detail

 

Filing edges of gold
Filing edges of gold
Cutting out gold detail
Cutting out gold detail

Once I have all the gold pieces cut out I place them on the rings to make sure everything sits nicely together and they will work in a variety of positions. I stick these on with blu tack so I can move them around easily.

Checking gold detail on rings
Checking gold detail on rings

When I’m happy with the size, shape and direction of each of the gold triangles I can start setting up for soldering.

Setting up for soldering
Setting up for soldering

It’s not a great photo as the sun started streaming in the workshop window. Once I’ve finished all the soldering I’ll post pictures of the finished rings.

 

Categories // My Workshop Tags // contemporary jewellery, Gold, jewellers tools, Jewellery, Jewelry, Silver, silver ring

Gold & Silver Stacking Rings

12.09.2011 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

This week I’ve been working on a set of gold and silver stacking rings. I did a number of sketches and the customer decided on these rings with little gold triangles dotted across the three bands. I’m making sketch number 1 on this page with all the gold triangles going in different directions.

Stacking Rings Sketch
Stacking Rings Sketch

I’ve cut the silver wire and rounded it up to the correct size of ring. Sorry I forgot to photograph that part but if you want to see it have a look at the post I wrote on making a silver ring.

Soldering Silver ring
Soldering Silver ring

Once I have the rings set in place and the joint perfectly lined up I can being soldering. I begin by heating the entire ring and then once the heat is built up I can concentrate on the joint. I do this with silver as it is such a conductor of heat the joint would not hold the temperature unless the entire ring was already hot. The silver solder and flux is positioned on the joint and once it begins to melt I keep the flame on it. This is to make sure the solder runs into the entire joint and gives me a seamless joint. I let it cool down, pop it in the acid to clean the metal and then rinse it in water and scratch brush it using a brass wire brush.

Emery paper on inside of ring
Emery paper on inside of ring

With stacking rings it’s important that all the rings are exactly the same size and they sit perfectly together so I clean up the soldered seam and using emery paper clean up file marks on the edges of the rings. I use dowel rod with different grade emery papers to get into the inside of the rings. While it’s a slow process it’s best to start with the coarse emery paper and work your way down to the finest grade so you have less polishing to do at the end.

Cleaning up edges with emery paper
Cleaning up edges with emery paper
Cleaning up edges
Cleaning up edges

I also use a pig skin with polishing compound to give the flat edges a final polish before I begin the next stage of cutting out the gold triangles and soldering them onto the silver rings.

I’ll post photos of this next week…

Have a good weekend!

Categories // My Workshop Tags // contemporary jewellery, jewellers tools, Jewellery, Silver, silver ring, silver soldering, silversmith, silversmiths techniques, silversmiths tools

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About

Jewellery Designer based in Cork, Ireland. Since finishing my Masters in design, I have worked as a Silver & Goldsmith creating unique jewellery, Wedding & Engagement Rings and Sculptural commissions. Read more about what I do here.

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