Thread: Ask me about gold and silver jewelry repair.

Haha. Dick Leach?

Can you make a piece of jewellery from scratch, say if I sketched out a design and gave it to you to turn into a work of metallic art?

I have a question. if you were to resize a 24 carat gold ring, would you use 24 carat gold to resize with, assuming you just add more to the ring and stretch out, or do you use heap stuff?

Ever done any enameling?

I do Rose Engine turning and had to learn enameling kind of on my own in order to do guilloche work. Most everything I do is on stirling. Any tips for better success with the "warm" colors would be most appreciated! (Reds, pinks, etc.)

Originally Posted by Vex Kitten

Can you make a piece of jewellery from scratch, say if I sketched out a design and gave it to you to turn into a work of metallic art?

That's not a difficult task. I, myself, do not do casting though. We send all of our casting work to another jeweler (the store owner's cousin) because it's his main line of business so he's set up for much faster turn-around. I have carved wax patterns (used to make the mold) before. I've even casted with our vacuum caster but, it's been a long time. (The guy who now does our casting uses a centrifugal caster.)

Originally Posted by Adam

I have a question. if you were to resize a 24 carat gold ring, would you use 24 carat gold to resize with, assuming you just add more to the ring and stretch out, or do you use heap stuff?

You should aways use the proper karat gold. Most jewelers use gold solder, which is of the same karat but a different alloy that melts at a lower temp than the "actual" gold alloy.

However, whenever possible, we weld ring shank. What I mean by welding is we'll take an actual piece of scrap gold of the appropriate karat and melt it into the space that needs to be filled. This is more risky than soldering because it melts at the same temp as the ring itself (meaning that the ring shaft actually liquefies where the welding is done) but, it makes for a much stronger repair. It's like re-casting that section of the ring shank so there is no solder joint to break in the future. It actually becomes a solid part of the jewelry. Welding like that isn't a beginner's task but, it isn't hard either. Just takes skill (and nerves of steel)

Originally Posted by pj

Ever done any enameling?

I do Rose Engine turning and had to learn enameling kind of on my own in order to do guilloche work. Most everything I do is on stirling. Any tips for better success with the "warm" colors would be most appreciated! (Reds, pinks, etc.)

No, I have never done enameling, except to fill some small areas with Tester's enamel model paint then bake it to harden it. And that's not much different from the way a lot of class rings are done. But, as far as using the proper enamel powder, no. I have not.