Silver Diploma - Final Project

Well, where has that year gone. It has definitely been a full on year. The kids have managed to do a full year at school with not too much disturbance from Covid, which has been nice as it was my youngest daughters last year in primary school. No more school runs as I know it and have been doing for the past 8 years, this week has been an end of an era but also September will bring a new chapter.

Anyway back to jewellery and the Silver Diploma, as that is what we are all here for. I want to say thank you to you all for being here and supporting me, it really is much appreciated. I wanted to share with you my final piece for my Silver Diploma with Jewellers Academy in London.

As with all the projects over the year we are given a brief that has to be met with certain criteria, but unlike the other weeks this project gave me the chance to think a little more outside the box and to push myself and that is what I did.

For the project we had to incorporate at least 3 techniques we had learnt over the past year doing the diploma, (there were a few things that didn’t count like beading, metal clay and wax). I started the term with a few ideas but eventually I decided on a bangle that will become a piece for my first collection that I have been slowly working on over the year (if I can bring myself to part with it).

And just like that the end is here. I have a mix of emotions this week with stress, doubt, sadness, proud, elation and relief all at the same time.

So I knew I wanted to create something spectactular and different but also something that incorporated nature and that could feature in a possible collection that I had in mind and had already started making.

I love saw piercing so I knew that I had to incorporate that, I also really liked the torque bangle project so also wanted to do a bangle and not a ring or a necklace.

I first made rough elements out of paper to work out what size the bangle needed to be, where each element would fit and then how I was going to get at least 3 skills that I had learnt into my design. I then made a prototype out of copper which helped me with the length and thickness of wire that I needed to use, to make sure the bangle was the right size but also substantial enough to wear.

After making the copper prototype I started to make the elements (saw piercing the flowers) that are were going to be added to the wite framed bangle. These each needed positioning so they were even on both sides. When doing multiple solder joins you need to use different ‘strength’ of solder, so the bangle frame I used hard solder and the first flower in the middle of the bangle, I then moved onto medium solder for the other elements and then I used easy solder for the tube, collet and the granules. I also used Technoflux to protect all the previous solder joins each time I soldered another element on. This helps to keep the heat away from the join so the solder doesn’t reheat and unsolder.

The skills I incorporated are:

Multiple solder joins (14 in total)
Saw piercing
Doming
Tube setting
Collet setting

There was supposed to be one collet setting (the main stone on the big flower) and then two tube settings to be placed in a flower either side of the big flower, but there needed to be a design change at the last minute. Whilst I was polishing one of the tube settings, it got ripped off with the polishing wheel and I couldn’t find it to re-attach it, I was running out of time for the submission deadline so I had to think on my feet and that is then when the granulation got added to that flower instead.

Above is the final piece from different angles. I am very pleased with this piece and also my grade of a Distinction for the course.

Bracelets and bangles