Here is a tip for preparing your pieces for patina from @aliciahannahnaomi - “Basically once the piece has gone through to triploli (polishing compound), I clean it all off in my boiling water, cloudy ammonia and dish soap solution. Then I rinse it in... more
Here is a fantastic tip for forming larger curves (like bangles) from @metamorphpgh - “This is a cheap way to make accurately sized forms out of PVC pipe. You just drill a hole in the side so that you can secure one end while you wrap the wire... more
If you need to make jump rings of all different sizes use this tip from @goudsmederijlamoon - “My knitting needles..Here are some of them, various sizes and materials. Bought from a thrift shop. I use both plastic and metal! I made a little video of... more
Here is a tip for determining the length of bezel wire you need for your stone! In this example I’m using a gorgeous American Mined™ BlueBird Turquoise™ 10 x 8mm Oval Cabochon from @riogrande Stone height will always vary on hand-cut stones, and for... more
Love this soldering tip from @letsmakejewelry - “A simple soldering tip from Master Jeweler Jurgen Maerz. When soldering one flat piece to another, use a ball bur to make divots in the back of the plate, then add solder and fill the divots. When the... more
Here is a #diy saw blade organizer from @sweetsilverjewelry - “Spicey” Saw blade organizer 😂: I use an old spice jar with shaker top and straws (that just happened to fit the jar I used) to keep the blades from getting snagged on each other. The... more
Here is a tip for utilizing your soldering pick and some other general soldering tips from @meritmade - “I get asked a lot about my soldering process. In this video, I’m soldering a small piece of sterling silver into a sterling silver ring to size it... more
Here is a tip to prevent solder flow from @nrjewellerydesign - “A pencil is all you need to stop messy solder overflow. It's perfect for when you need to solder bails - just gently 'colour in' either side of the piece (avoiding the edge where you want... more
Here is a method for quickly removing lots of small diamonds from a piece you are reworking from @fairbankandperry - “The most efficient (and fun) way to remove lots of small diamonds from a gold ring is to melt it! 1️⃣ Coat the whole piece in saving... more
Here is a plier modification from @meszarosjohn - “A small notch at the end of round nose pliers helps to hold small round components” to create this notch you can get it started with a separating disc and then file it (I would use an old file and... more
For this #tooltalktuesday I wanted to discuss the most common SOLDERING SURFACES (to the best of my knowledge :) First we will discuss the honeycomb soldering board. They are lightweight and have tons of tiny holes, they don’t retain heat and cool... more
Here is a #diy textured hammer from @loraleeartist - “A regular hammer can be modified to texture metal. Cheap ones from harbor freight are great to play with. I have two that I have used a grinder and belt sander on. I made a thin line on the ends.... more
Here is a sanding tip from @williamcobbjewelry - “You can use mini saw frames to hold slivers of sandpaper. It needs to be plastic film backed sandpaper though. Paper backed sandpaper tends to tear.” Love this! Those small saw frames fascinate me! I’d... more
Here is a soldering tip from @marionwild - “I use binder clips on the ends of cross locking tweezers for help with soldering things in place. I prefer this over the swivel base because it’s using gravity to keep the tweezers in place, making pressure... more
Here is a #DIY bench that is inexpensive and perfect for small spaces from @cassidykento - “Tiny personal bench! It is made from a small cutting board table from Ikea (BEKVAM KITCHEN CART)! Just add some sides to the top keep everything from sliding... more
Here is a tool for making holes without drilling from @cynthiaoutwestsilversmith - “Here is a little video using the metal hole punch as you would a drill. This saves so much time and space....There’s no cleanup involved and the best part is that the... more
Here are some tips for ordering WIRE from @riogrande particularly what gauge and hardness! First you need to ask yourself: what kind of project are you making and where on the body will it be worn? If we use the image of rings as an example we can see... more
For this #tooltalktuesday I wanted to more thoroughly discuss Sanding Discs. I have been using these for over a decade and they are absolutely a must have if you own a flexshaft. I use Moore’s snap on sanding discs. They come in many different grits... more
This month the theme for the #metalsmithchallenge was VESSELS + BOXES and everyone NAILED IT. Thank you to each and every one of you who shared your work with us! I always try to share as many as I can, and I appreciate them all! It’s such an... more
