The following pictures are a mixed bag of photos from a jewelry class I teach at Lorain County Community College. I teach silver soldering, metal forming (hammering, bending, cutting, buffing, etc.) stone setting, stone drilling, some casting (lost wax occasionally, plus some sand casting). Projects are usually rings, pendants, earrings, bezels, pins, bracelets, and a knife or two. I've been teaching this class for about 8 to10 years or so. It's a great class to teach and a lot of people continue to take it over and over which gives it a real sense of community.
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Looks like she's getting ready to solder.
The flame is put to the metal.
I'm not sure what Barb is putting together, but I'm
sure it was nice.
It looks like Paul is sanding something. He really
cherishes his sanding time. Often times I've heard him
say, "if you be a friend to your sandpaper, your
sandpaper will be a friend to you."
It's always important to apply flux before you solder.
Sawing is an important skill to develop. I wonder how many
blades she's broken today?
Carefully positioning pieces and parts before soldering.
And now for the soldering.
Some sanding and forming with a rotary tool.
Good filing position. It looks like she's got the wood vise block
in the vise and is filing the sides of a sawn ring blank.
It looks like somebody is finishing a pierced sun image and
about ready to make a jump ring and call it a necklace.
Iffy photo of a nice ring set with an abalone shell cab.
A nice hammered copper ring. This is a nice first project and
a typical workshop project. I can usually get everyone to finish
one of these in about 2 hours or less.
She's smiling but probably saying/thinking something to the effect of,
"don't take my picture, you know I have a hammer in my hands.."
Another picture of the daily grind.
Joe made this layered, cross piece with copper soldered to brass. He was using another cross made from wood as an inspiration and was able to keep the rough hewn feeling of the original and yet successfully translate it into metal. He used a rotary tool coupled with a cut off wheel to notch/cut/grind the designs into the surface of the cross. My photo does not really do it justice.
This is Felice's first ring and bezel. She stuck it out and did a great job. She decided to use a free form piece of turquoise which makes for a little more difficult time constructing the bezel and setting the stone. She also had to cut a little bit of stone to get it to fit.
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