silversmith | Eileen Moylan

Summer Courses

03.01.2012 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

I just got a brochure for this summer’s jewellery courses at Birmingham City University. I spent last night going through the catalogue marking all the courses that interested me. If you’ve seen the line up for this summer you’ll understand how difficult it is to narrow down my choice. They have a brilliant classes taught by really accomplished makers.

You might remember that I went on the Syncalstic and Anticlastic forming course last summer which was taught by Cynthia Eid. It was such a great week, I learnt more than I could have possibly imagined in such a short space of time and I also got to visit all my favourite tool shops in the jewellery quarter. Considering my obsession with buying new and not so new tools this was like being let loose in a toy shop for a week. The weight of my suitcase coming home is testament to how little restraint I have when it comes to jewellery tools shopping.

So here are a few of the course I really want to go on this summer.

Creative Metal Forming with a Hydraulic Press by Cynthia Eid. This class combines using a hydraulic press with surface enrichment techniques. As part of the course you get to make and use your own embossing and silhouette dies.

Creative Microfolding, foldforming and Argentium Silver, Cynthia Eid. Fold forming is a technique I would love to improve and refine. It can create the most amazing effects and as this technique makes the metal stronger you can create very light but strong three dimensional forms.

Enamelling Introduction by Tamizan Savill. I’ve never had the opportunity to study enamelling and this course sounds like the perfect way to dip my toe into it and explore various techniques. I met Tamizan in Birmingham last year and saw some of her amazing work.

Keum Boo Embellish Silver with Gold, Katherine Campbell-Legg. Keum Boo is the technique of decorating silver with very thin sheets of gold foil. With gold prices increasing this is a great way of achieving that lovely gold silver contrast without the major expense.

Polishing Masterclass by Stephen M Goldsmith. As I mentioned last week polishing is one of those jobs I would rather not have to do. I’ve been thinking maybe it’s because I’m just not very good at it! So a course like this would be great to make me a better and more efficient polisher.

So there you have my summer course wish list. Would love to hear what courses interest you.

Theresa Nguyen

02.14.2012 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

Since today is Valentine’s Day I decided to look at the silver flower work of silversmith Theresa Nguyen.

All these pieces are hand hammered using anticlastic and fold forming techniques. Each petal is created separately and joined together to give a light ness to the work. These pieces look weightless, especially ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ which soars up to the sky as if it continues to grow.

Hope you enjoy them.

Happy Valentines Day!

Tools!

02.03.2012 by Eileen Moylan // Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on new tools so I decided to go through two of my purchases and explain how and why I use them. I’ve had this for quite a while but I don’t think I’ve shown it off before so feast your eyes on my new draw plate.. isn’t it pretty!

I use this along with my other new toy, a draw tongs.

I use my roller for changing the diameter of wire which is great if I’m working with square or half round wire but the roller can’t adjust round wire. So here’s where my draw plate and tongs come in.

My Roller...just in case you forgot how pretty it is!!

Once I have the wire nearly down to the diameter I want on the roller I use my draw plate to make it round and reduce the size further. The draw plate sits in the vice with the numbers facing outwards and then I feed the wire into a hole at the back.

The wire should sits snugly into the hole then I draw the wire out using my tongs. I keep doing this down through the different size holes until the wire is at my desired thickness.

This all sounds lovely and relaxing but believe me you can work up a sweat even with the most beautifully annealed wire dragging it through the draw plate.

In my early years as an apprentice I would nearly land flat on my arse at the other side of the workshop trying to draw down a long piece of stubborn wire. Thankfully my technique has improved and now it’s less of an athletic endeavour!

I found a great silversmith and jeweller based in Birmingham, Becca Williams who shares my obsession for tools. Have a look at what she’s created using her new heart shaped cutters.