I am very pleased to announce that Berlian Arts is now offering my work for sale. Berlian Arts is a site created by Robert Diamante (most of the photography on this site) dedicated to artists who have lived and found inspiration in the beauty that is Maine. I am honored to be included among such talented artisans. Please take a moment to visit the site at www.berlianarts.com - it features everything from pottery to photography.
Proud of my package(ing)
After a year of experimenting with various boxes, wrappings, and containers of all sorts and size I am happy to say the search is done. Initially I had it in my head to use little embossed tin containers... to be honest, I still like that idea, but with a minimum order of 1,000 units by any reputable manufacturer that idea fell by the wayside. I tried various commercial options, velvet boxes, cardboard boxes, none of them felt or looked right. Besides, most of my rings don't fit in those standard commercial boxes. Luckily, I happened upon a series of little handmade wooden boxes. Each one is a little different and to ease my delicate conscience, they are made of sustainably harvested soft wood. To get the customized look I want I created a metal brand of my logo which is heated and burned into the top of each box, no two are alike. Perhaps the best part is that after being branded they have this great woodsy smell, a treat for all the senses, not too shabby.
Shown with my sterling silver and rose cut white topaz earrings.
Earblings
While spacing out looking at my aquarium recently (I do that more than I should admit) my attention drifted to the starfish. After a little staring I grabbed a piece of wax and started carving. My initial idea was for a simple cufflink, not hugely detailed, but something more than just a five pointed star. The carving was pretty easy, the only tricky part was carving the arms so that some appeared to lift a bit. That first iteration was just used for cufflinks.
I was quite pleased with how these came out - the shape was interesting, and they laid well against the shirt cuff, almost like a real starfish on a rock. But.... they could stand to have a bit of color. The next version involved creating a new mold with a 5mm cabochon setting in the middle.
It was at this stage where I got it into my head to make earrings. My first attempt.... lacked grace in the details.
To be honest, I was actually very happy with the result, so proud in fact that I showed them to everyone who would listen to me or check their email. To my friends' credit, none of them pointed out how bad the overly large jumprings looked...or the fact that the holes drilled in the arms looks... shall we say, indelicate. Anyways, it was a starting point. I also experimented with oxidising the earrings... it was a disaster requiring a full re-polishing.
After I came to my senses and realized that what I had was not marketable, I opted to spend many hours trolling the internet to figure out how earrings should look. This is one of those times where being a guy with no pierced ears or predilection to wear jewelry was a bit of an issue. Fortunately, the internet is full of pictures, some of which are not offensive or arousing and involve closeups of dangly earrings. Based on my intensive research I figured out that attaching little rings to the arms instead of drilling through them was probably the way to go.. and using smaller jumprings between the arms would also be an improvement. With that in mind I created three new models in silver to be used specifically for earrings.
Silicone molds were made from the models and from those sterling silver castings were made.
The castings (we are now in present tense) are de-sprued and cleaned up with vibratory media and run thru a rotary tumbler to quickly burnish the castings. Before connecting the different sections I like to attach the ear posts... this could probably happen in a different order....
(once again I am reminded that my camera really needs to come home from work)
To attach the earposts I like to drill a shallow hole, roughly the size of the earpost, in the back of the top earring section.
I use a third arm to keep the ear post upright and in place during the soldering process.
Success! or at least the post doesn't seem to be falling over. Now it is time to assemble the various parts with the jumprings. Jumprings are essentially little metal circles... they are a pain, they are a pain to shape, to solder and to proportion correctly. Here is a jumpring:
I make them by wrapping wire aroung a mandrel and then cutting even links. The jumprings for these earrings are made from 22g fine silver wire. Here are the sections ready for assembly:
The jumprings are put through the rings on the ends of the links and bent into circles. everything is then fluxed and a piece of medium silver solder is placed next to the joint in the jumprings.
This phase is not without mishaps. The picture below shows a failed soldering where the solder flowed too far and connected the jumpring to the starfish. If this happens the links will not swing free... in short, the parts are destined for the melting pot.
When everything goes as planned the links move freely and the jumprings can be put under stress without coming apart. The picture below shows the results of successful soldering followed by a brief stint in the rotary tumbler to burnish the jumprings.
Now, for the tricky part....the stones.
These are 5mm cabs in carnelian, blue chalcedony, and chrysoprase. I like interesting colors and these materials have a great soft feel to them that is not seen in a lot of commercial jewelry.... partly because being 100% natural it is a pain to find matching stones.
At first I pick a couple stones that have similar color and texture. The blue chalcedony in the above picture are just sitting on the settings. If I were to try hammering the bezel in at this stage the stones stand a good chance of popping out. So once I know which stone is going in which setting I use a bur to cut the bezel walls to fit the individual stones. Since these stones are hand cut they all slightly different, saying they are 5mm is pretty much a ballpark... so is saying they are round.
With all the settings cut and stones fitting well - I.E. no rocking side to side and not a canyon of space around the stone - it is time to get the hammerpiece out. The hammer handpiece (I use a Bedeco) is a miniture hammer that is powered by the flexshaft. It has an adjustable stroke and the hammer's head can be shaped to fit the project.
When closing a bezel it is best to tack the stone in place by hitting once on opposite sides of the stone and then going back to fill in the missed areas. If you were to imagine a clock face the first hit would be at 12, then at 6, then 3 and 9 etc..etc.. If you were to start on one side and just work your way around the stone you would end up setting the stone off center. The stone below has been tacked in place (the flat spots on the bezel are the first hits).
I work around the stones until they are solidly in place and there are no peaked areas of the metal that were missed.
At this point the pieces need one final cleanup. Visible hammer strikes need to be polished out as well as any random marks and scuffs. I have found that pumice wheels are best for this kind of work.
And now for a little more polishing, this time using the 3M bristle discs. A lot of time and effort for a simple pair of earrrings eh???
All shined up and ready to be photographed. I would like to make an OTT (over the top) version in gold with flush set diamonds and rubys and ruby cabs... so many projects.
ice
Without question what I receive the most questions about is the stone cutting process. Most people have no idea how stones go from a piece of rough to the finished sparkling, light filled final product so commonly seen in jewelry. Stone cutting was my "gateway drug" to jewelry design.... and is probably still my favorite part of any project. In the pictures below I have documented the faceting of a 15.02ct unheated, 100% natural aquamarine. It should come as no surprise that since I am a little spacey I forgot to take pictures of some steps.
Starting Point: The piece of rough for this post is at the far right of the middle row. The carat weight is listed below each piece of rough. A yield of 25-30% is average for a cutter focused on brilliance. Most international commercial cut stones are cut for yield which results in windowed stones (where you can see through the bottom of the stone while looking at it from the top). Windowed stones are not cut with refraction and brilliance in mind and result in less lively but heavier stones. Different stones have different refractive indexes which means that the light bends at different angles when it enters the stone from above. Optically correct stones are cut so that the light that enters from above bounces off the pavilion (bottom) facets and back out through the top towards the viewers eyes. If the light rays bounce out the side or the pavilion of the stone then color intensity and "glitter" are lost. Commercial cutters often cut overly dark rough in a windowed manner as the light passing straight through the stone makes it appear lighter and of better quality than it actually is.
The pictures below shows the faceting machine. It is essentially a protractor with one end that can be rotated 360 degrees. The rotating end comes in to contact with a spinning lap. The laps can be made of different materials with diamonds of varying coarseness.
The control panel to the left of the lap is used to adjust speed and direction of the lap's rotation. The picture below is a closeup of the mast. This is where the angle of the facet and stone rotation is adjusted.
Step 1:The stone is attached to an aluminum dop using hot wax (yes I forgot to take a picture of this step). Once the wax is set, I like to wait 24hrs, the aluminum dop is slid into the end of the protractor assembly and tightened in place. Using a angles that are optimized for this type of stone - Aquamarine has a refractive index of 1.56 - I start roughing in the facets for the pavilion of the stone. Since this is such a large stone I rough it in with a very course 180 grit lap. From the picture below you can see the chewed up look of the stone with a very clear scratch pattern. At this stage I am only looking to cut the main pavilion facets without coming to a fine point. Aquamarine is a very brittle stone and trying to cut a fine point with such a rough lap creates micro fractures in the surface material which could result in the very tip chipping off.
Step 2: Once i have removed enough material to get the basic shape and outline of the stone I take off the 180 grit lap and switch to a 260. 260 is what I would normally rough a medium sized stone in with. It takes off material quickly, but does not damage the crystalline structure of the stone as much as the 180. Using the 260 I continue cutting the pavilion facets so that they come closer to a point and are more even. The surface now shows a more even frosted look.
Step 3: Switch the 260 lap for a 600. The 600 is for anything other than quartz the last lap I cut with before polishing. In order to get a good polish on quartz, a finer 1200 grit Nubond lap must be used. Using the 600 lap I cut in the smaller facets on the pavilion and the side barion facets. The 600 is great because it can remove a fair amount of material quickly but leaves a very even finish. With each step more light is allowed to enter the stone which really starts to become evident at the 600 cut level.
Step 4: Pre-polish and polish. This used to be two separate and very time consuming steps. In the last few years combination laps have become available that allow both steps to be done at the same time. The centrifical force caused by the spinning lap ensures that the fine diamond does not contaminate the inner polishing ring (this is the lap that is visible in the top picture of the entire faceting machine). Instead of having to take a stone through two full runs of every facet with the combo laps you can pre-polish a facet, wipe the stone clean and then polish the same facet, this results in flatter more perfect facets which results in a better finished stone. For the pre-polish I use 3K grit diamond and for the polish I use chrome oxide.
The picture above shows the cullet facets polished with the remaining pavilion facets still at the 600 grit level of cutting. Throughout the polish process it is important to hold the facets up to light as reflected light is the easiest way to check for minute scratches or fogginess.
Step 5: Once the pavilion has been completely polished the dopand stone are removed from the quill and placed in a transfer jig. The transfer jig allows you to remove the dop from what will be the crown of the stone and attach a new one to the just cut pavilion without the stone coming out of allignment. This is one of the most daunting parts of the process for a new cutter as a mistake here can pretty much ruin a stone. I like to use super glue for this stage as it is a cold adhesive vs. hot wax which could cause the stone to shift. Once glued I like to let the stone sit for at least 12 hours so that the glue is thouroughly cured before applying pressure to it. To remove the waxed dop I apply heat to the metal which melts the wax before trasfering much heat into the stone.
Steps 6,7,8: The new dop is inserted into the end of the quill and the whole process is started over again.
Once the table is cut and polished the stone gets removed from the dop. If the stone is flawless then it can be subjected to either cold or heat and the varying levels of contraction/expansion between the stone and the metal of the dop will allow the stone to pop off. If the stone has inclusions/imperfections (as this stone does) then the super glue must be dissolved away, which is much slower and smellier than the other method. The picture below shows the final stone, it is very difficult to accurately capture the brilliance of a cut stone without specific lighting. The foggy areas are slight veils that are only visible from certain angles, they are actually quite beautiful when viewed up close - something to be incorporated into and considered in the final jewelry piece.
Heavy handed
This is actually the first ring I ever made. I was asked to make something substantial but simple, with a stone as the focal point, but not set in a manner that would catch on things. The gold is 22kt which lends a very rich look and heavy weight to the ring. Of the stones I had at the time the choice of the almandine garnet was sort of a no brainer - it's intense red plays off the the gold beautifully - a lighter toned stone would probably not have held its own against the 22kt.
I did not document the steps as carefully as I should have so this posting really just shows the wax modeling portion of the project.
Step 1: This was another project that lacked advance plans. But seeing as it was a ring I figured getting the band right was a good start. To make the band I used a round section of Wolf Wax attached to the flex shaft. With the round section spinning I then used a metal graver to carve a symmetrical band. Essentially the setup is that of a lathe.
During this process it is important to keep in mind the comfort of the wearer. With a wide band you need to increase the desired ring size by about a half size because more of the finger is being compressed under the ring metal. Also, for comfort, the inside of the ring should be beveled with no sharp edges.
The final band was about 1mm thick at the center and slightly thinner at the edges. Since only one edge can be finished on the machine the other side has to be cut to match by hand after taking it off the flex shaft.
Step 2: Carving a stone setting. I wanted the stone setting to roughly match the contour of the pavilion of the stone - which would be a hard shape to form out of metal so I opted to carve it out of wax. Since the stone was flawless I took a short cut and heated it and then melted it down into a piece of wax. If the stone had had any imperfections heating it would have been to risky as fractures could run or inclusions could create cracks. Once the stone was melted into the wax up to its girdle I removed it and then carved the wax from the outside in until the I got the shape I wanted.
Step 3: I attached the setting to the top of the band. This is done by using a heated wax pen to touch the seem where the two pieces of wax come together. The wax melts and the crystal structure reforms as if it were one contiguous piece of wax.
Step 4: As you can see from the pictures the stone sits pretty high and would definitely catch on things. To remedy that I decided to add three granules to each side of the setting. The granules added a decorative element but also shield the setting. Granules are an ancient decorative feature frequently seen in gold and fine silver works.
Step 5: This is clearly where I stopped taking step by step pictures. The wax model was cast in 22kt and then polished. The stone was set by pressing in the four mini prongs on the setting. If I were to make this ring again i would probably change the face up portion of the setting. Overall though, it turned out quite well and the wearer tells me it is very comfortable.
Robert Diamante photographed this ring on a piece of slate that he picked up from the shore path on Mount Desert Island in Maine. The rough edges and texture of the stone were a great contrast to the smooth metal of the ring.
Ancient inspirations
About a year ago I was at a rather fun holiday party - there were copious amounts of home made eggnog - and I had the luck to meet a very beautiful and talented graphic artists. After a few drinks we had hammered out a deal of sorts, a logo for my line in exchange for a cocktail ring of my design. The requirements were: the ring had to have an Etruscan inspiration and my logo had to be clean, bold and of a style that would not look dated in 50 years (naturally those are also the features/qualities I like to think I myself posses).
Bargain struck, we both got to work. She finished in a matter of weeks, providing me with several excellent options and of course the final product which I currently use. My end of the bargain was a little slower in coming, but 6 short months later I did deliver this ring - "Etruscan Ring" was inspired by jewelry and motifs of that era. It is fabricated entirely by hand of 18kt yellow gold and features a 2.97ct rhodolite garnet that I cut. Nothing on this ring is standard, the gold sheet and stock was all made custom from ingots and the stone was cut from a piece of rough I acquired from a dealer in Africa.
The process of creating this was not one that involved advance planning. I had a general idea and just started working on it to see what would evolve. The lack of planning was a major reason for the amount of time it took to finish. It would take much less time to re-create the style, but there was a lot of trial and error involved in getting things to look the way I wanted.
Step 1: Create the basic components. The ingots were formed using cavities carved in the charcoal block. They were then formed into sheet by annealing one of the ingots and putting it through the rolling mill. A rolling mill is an adjustable set of steel rollers which are progressively adjusted down until the sheet is the proper gauge. The ingot is annealed after each pass through the rolling mill as that softens the metal by altering the crystal structure and allowing the thinning process to progress faster and with less likelihood of the metal cracking.
The wire was formed in a similar way but instead of smooth rollers in the mill, a grooved set is used which shapes the wire.
The picture below shows the charcoal block. The wire and the sheet. I have cut a circle out of the sheet which will be used for the domed portion of the ring.
Step 2: Forming the individual components of the ring. Originally the design called for a gold dome covered in concentric circles of fine twisted wire. A lot of Etruscan gold work was decorated in that fashion, but as I started to put it together it just looked too busy and messy - it is something I would like to revisit trying at a later date. The wire you see here was discarded later in the project, but the dome was used. It was created by placing the gold disc in a dapping block and moving it from flatter/larger domed indentations to progressively smaller forms until I ended up with the size/height that I wanted. I dapping block is generally made out of metal or wood; it has a series of indentations in it, they can be any shape but round is most common. There are a series of daps that fit into each indentation - you put the sheet of metal between the indentation and you use the mating dap to form the metal.
Step 3: I cut the dome down to the height that I wanted for the ring and soldered a backing on to it for strength. I had always intended to use the faceted garnet for this ring, but since it is did not have a flat back I could not set it on the dome to get an idea of placement and eventual look. The little amethyst cab in the pic below was just a placeholder while I figured out the next step. The dome has been sanded up to a 400 grit level here - it is a little hard to tell from the above picture, but when it comes out of the dapping block its surface is far from perfect and even.
Step 4: I cut a small circle in the center of the dome. The hole had to be just slightly smaller than the stone so that it would fit down and even but not fall through. The bezel around the stone was cut as a strip from the left over sheet seen in the first picture. It was soldered and formed as a circle separately, then the bottom was sanded even and smooth and it was soldered to the top of the dome. There are different "grades" of solder that flow/melt at slightly different temperatures. This situation is an example of why you need to do the first join with the highest flow temp solder. Otherwise, if I had used the same temp solders to form the bezel and then to attach it to the dome then I would have run the risk of the bezel falling apart.
Step 5: Connect the pieces. I did not want to interupt the clean look of the dome by piercing it to attach some sort of band and I did not like the idea of simply soldering a circle to the bottom of the dome and calling it done. I came up with an idea to tension set the dome between two upright arms that came off an inner ring. In order to make that I had to draw some very thick round "wire". The following picture shows the new batch of components prior to final forming. For scale, the dome is a little over an inch across.
Step 6: I soldered two strips of the thick wire parallel to each other and formed them in a "U" shape around the inner ring. Once soldered together I bent them in and out to get just the right amount of tension to hold the dome in place.
Here you see the ring on a ring mandrel. By putting it on the mandrel I was able to look at it from various angles as if it were on a finger and get an idea of what the best height for the dome would be.
Step 7: After making a decision about where the dome should sit I notched the sides so that the dome would sit on a slight shelf. The shelf added stability but was not visible while looking at the ring from above. The dome was soldered to the shelves - the tension was enough to hold the dome in place, but a good knock at the wrong angle would have sent it flying.
Step 8: I cut the extra height off the sides and domed the tips to give it the look of granulation, a common technique used in Etruscan jewelry.
Step 9: Setting the stone. When bezel setting a tough metal like 18kt it is necessary to use a hammer handpiece. A slight miss with that tool though can easily mar the surface of adjacent metal. Below you can see that I covered the areas not being worked on in masking tape. It is amazing how much proteciton it affords. From here I placed the stone in the bezel and worked my away around the stone forming the metal.
Step 10: Once the stone was held firmly in place and there was no more hammering to do on the bezel I removed the tape. The result at this point looks rough.
Step 11: Using files, sandpaper and silicone abrasive wheels I smoothed the metal and polished it. The end result is a shiny, beautiful (at least in my opinion) ring. From here the ring was sent to a Robert Diamante up in Maine to photograph (his beautiful picture is in a different section of this site) and then happily handed over to its new owner.
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
Sadly, I seem to start lots of projects, and then put them down for months at a time. Seeing as it might get a little difficult to follow what is going on if I am skipping from one thing to another on here. I have decided to try to show projects from conception to delivery in one post. It will not be a true depiction of my process - but it should be better than bits here and bits there.
So, my first "project post": Sharks.
The idea for this came from some pictures I took while diving the Blue Hole in Belize. Now, before my skills as a photographer are disparaged, I would like to point out that these were taken at about 130' down.
It's the silhouettes that I love - they remind me of the experience, but there is more to it than that. Everyone who has watched Shark Week or Jaws or Planet Earth can't help but be amazed by these animals. I would eventually like the sale of my shark pieces to go towards preservation efforts - that is a bit down the road though.
Step 1: Attempt to draw what is floating about in my head. This is where I usually start to think about how to actually put the components together. For this project that is not as much of an issue, but for rings, necklaces etc.. it is best to have a game plan from the start.
Step 2: I am better at working in wax then metal. In order to create something replicable I chose to carve the shark model out of Wolf Wax. The wax was then put in silicone to make a mold. With that mold I can make as many identical metal castings as needed in any kind of metal (the mold is used to make wax copies which are then used to make the actual castings). When making a model it is important to make sure that it is exactly as you want it, every little imperfection WILL get transferred to every casting - thus, one little imperfection will become hundreds.
I start with a flat piece of Wolf Wax and then draw the shape I want. I then cut out the shape with a saw and start to do some basic contouring.
Once the basic shape is correct I start to add detail.
Step 3: Cleanup of the castings. These can be in any metal, in this case they are silver. Some caster will deliver the castings with the sprues attached. Sprues are metal "stems" that are left over from the casting process. If the caster removed them then great. If not then there is a bit of cutting and filing to do. Good casters will put the base where they put the sprues as much on quality of the casting as ease of cleanup. In this case, the sprues were located on the flattish area just behind the gills. Once the sprues are removed, the casting needs to be sanded and touched up, either by hand, or in a mass finishing system.
Below are both sides of a casting. These were sanded using 3M Bristle Discs and a flexshaft. The Bristle Discs are probably the coolest new invention of recent years. They allow even sanding of odd shapes with even coverage of detail I.E. inside the gill slits and mouth on this casting.
Step 4: What do I want to do with all these sharks? Yes, amazingly, my process is totally backwards. Below is one idea I was playing with. I am also kicking around ideas for earings (with help from a friend).
(it is clearly time I leave a dedicated camera on my workbench and stop reaching for the blackberry)
Step 5: As the head decider at my bench I decided to make a set of cufflinks. I am currently playing with a couple different types of cufflink backs - the one I used here is not my favorite. Attaching this type of finding is pretty easy. Plug in the pickle pot (acid that cleans the metal of oxides so that solder flows better) and file a flat spot on one side of a shark. Soldering works best if both sides of metal touch with no spaces in between. Once the pieces match up well you put a little borax on the joint and a solder chip and light up the torch. Once the solder flows take the torch away, quench and then put in the pickle.
This shows one soldered cufflink. I don't do a final polish until after the torch work - usually stopping at 400 or 600 grit - this picture shows the shark sanded up to a 400 grit level.
Step 6: Finish soldering work and then polish and buff. I generally use all the Bristle Discs, stopping at the 1 micron level and then buff using rouge and the flexshaft.
Voila! a set of shark cufflinks. I made these a while back and wear them quite a bit. From the pictures of my bench in older posts you can see lots of sharks swimming across the surface. They are awaiting the next project, not sure what that will be. Suggestions are welcome.
The Setting
It's basic English 101, a story needs a setting for the characters to interact in and with. For this story I present the setting:
It's a mess, analagous to some hypothetical post apocolyptic world where debris is strewn and the fractured beginings and ends of a hundred different projects are on display... right, it is a mess though. In fact, this is only one of the work benches, the rock cutting bench will be saved for a post on faceting. This is how I like to work though, it helps to be surounded by raw materials and stones, like putting a puzzle together - you have to see all the pieces to make something of it.
It Begins
My first post; I suppose there should be some sort of mission statement quality to this. Unfortunately, to have a mission statement would require a clearly defined mission.
What I know is what this will not be. I do not intend to eschew any kind of political, or social opinions via this medium. This will not be a big open window into my life, full of revelations and emotion (though it is conceivable that minor details of travel and ideas would find their way thru). Those of you who know me will not find this terribly surprising, but might wonder if I really have the self-control to keep my opinions to myself… that is a valid and open question.
The vague outlines of what this will be is a result of consistently being asked the same question: How did you make that? Though jewelry and cut stones are everywhere, the vast majority of people do not have any idea how the things they wear come together. In the least technical way possible it will be the goal of this blog to show the process (my process) for conceptualizing, creating and assembling finished pieces.
In essence, I want people to see how this:
Becomes this:
Personally, I have come to appreciate the jewelry I see more and more now that I have a deeper understanding of the amount of work that goes into even the lowliest of rings. Hopefully, those who take the time to read my dry prose will have a greater enjoyment of the jewelry they already own; and perhaps a greater appreciation of what they are looking at the next time the urge to go shopping strikes.