I signed up for a 12 week jewellery making course as an introduction to working with silver,something I have been interested in for a while, but never took forward. I came across Alice Goldsack , and thought why the heck not?
Just before my first session I was having doubts and fears, would I fit in? an overweight middle aged woman? am I too old for this? can I do this? what the hell was I thinking.But I pushed myself to go and boy am I pleased I did, I absolutely loved it.
Over the course of the 12 weeks you make 3 pieces of silver jewellery. First up was a ring. Alice had asked if we could come with some ideas of what we would like to make. I didn't really have a clue except I wanted a thumb ring. When you've never done something before its really difficult to know what you would be capable of doing so I think I played it safe. Here's a few pics I took, I was the only one that had the camera/phone out, but I just braved it out and took pics!
We started off with a flat piece of silver, needed to do some maths to work out how long it would need to be, cut it, then get it resembling a ring shape. Then came the good bits
soldering then smoothing, look I made a ring !
Nope its not finished yet, were going for texture
This was an exceptionally satisfying task after a long day at work, hammering metal.. however I do think this was one of the contributory factors to my bad back !
to give you some idea of scale, this will fit onto the lower part of my thumb when I have finished shaping it
Next up I am making a smaller brass ring that will 'float' around the middle section of the ring. At the end of session 1 this is how far I had got. I'm not quite sure of how I get the brass ring to float around the silver, hopefully I will find that out tonight.
Sadly I had to miss last weeks session due to my bad back.But I am really pleased I pushed myself to go. I didn't realise how much energy went into silver smithing, 2 hours of constant activity, cutting, filing, hammering ! my poor body was a bit shocked I think! Whilst I walk my 10k steps pretty much every day I don't have good core muscles, actually I don't have core muscles at all and my upper body strength really is quite poor. Quite a good workout when you think about it !
Looking forward to tonight's session and hopefully I will be able to pick up an extra session so I get back on track. Lets hope my back lasts !
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