Sue Lane » Jewellery Workshops

Forged silver bangle workshop

Sue Lane — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:13:33 +0000

On Saturday 31st July Georgina Franklin delivered a bangle workshop, focusing on forging. The course had been fully booked for months and it was also the first time we had run this course so we were looking forward to it. Georgina demonstrated many different ways of cold forging a piece of silver wire to create different effects using a variety of hammers. Some students explored hammering textures into copper before working on their silver, while others chose a design and went straight into the silver. It was a really good day, and everyone made lovely bangles inspired by Georgina’s samples.

Getting started; Georgina demonstrated forging with many different hammers.

Everyone agreed, once they got started with a hammer in hand, forging was actually very therapeutic!

Lynne began by forging one end of the wire to make it spread out.

Sue started by soldering 2 wires together, then twisted them by holding one end in the vice and twisting the pliers.

Forging to open out the end of the wire.

Georgina's examples of forged bangles.

Sue finishing her bangle by filing and buffing to remove any hammer marks.

Lynne made a lovely bangle including shaping and texturing with different hammers.

This was the first time Kath and done any silver making, so this was a wonderful achievement and a lovely finished piece.

Sue's twisted bangle finished with handmade silver balls. The great thing about making your own bangle is you can make it just the correct size for you!

Kate forged a curvy bangle, planished it to remove hammer marked, then filed, buffed and polished to give a smooth mirror finish.

Contemporary Silver Locket

Sue Lane — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:43:53 +0000

On Saturday 24th july Bronwen Tyler Jones taught a locket making workshop, here at the studio. It was a great day, everyone had some experience of making jewellery already so were interested to find out more about hinges and catches. Everyone made a very nice finshed piece, some students choosing to add more detail when they returned to their studio. Here are some images from the course.

Getting started, Bronwen demonstrates using the fly press to make the shapes.

One of the locket samples for students to follow and one halfway through.

Nadine, Rachel and Michelle preparing to press the silver forms.

The shapes are drawn around with a pen to help see the cutting line, and a lip is left to attach the hinge to.

Rachel exploring using letter punches within her design.

One of Bronwen's samples that students could make, including a simple hinge and clasp.

Tube is cut for the hinge, soldering 2 pieces to one side of the locket first, then soldeirng the 3rd tube to the other side of the locket. This can be a bit tricky!

Soldering the tube, using a piece of brass as a riser to get the hinge to just the correct height.

Soldered tubes in the correct position, now the locket is pickled to clean away the oxide that built up during soldering.

Crimping the hinge to hold the wire in place.

The open locket.

Nadine's finished locket.

Maxine's locket, she was going to add more decoration when she returned home, she was really interested to learn the skills and do the rest at home. I would love to see it when it is finshed!

Inside is as good as out!

Michelle's locket.

Rachel put the detail inside and planned to add beading when she got home.

Reticulation and Fusing Workshop

Sue Lane — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:53:44 +0000

On Saturday 3rd July Georgina Franklin taught a workshop about reticulation and fusing. I am always interested to see what everyone is making, and therefore am always on hand to help out if needed! The jewellery course was very relaxed, making an enjoyable day, with everyone working on different projects. The day began with Georgina explaning the techniques and going through the many samples she had made, followed by a demonstration. It was then the students’ chance to plan a design and get started. Here are the images from the day.

One of Georgina's samples that students could make. A fused silver ring.

A sample of lots of small pieces all fused together to make a pendant.

Lots of silver squares were cut with snips, layed out and fused. During fusing you get the lovely reticulated surface.

A reticulated silver sample.

Georgina demonstrating fusing, hence the bright red colours!

Annealing the silver between 5-6 times before heating to get the texture.

Wendy's piece on the soldering block ready to solder the granules in place.

Georgina had only just had an operation on her foot a few days before the workshop, hence the big foot and krutches! She was a star and coped really well.

Nadine fusing a piece of copper wire to reticulated silver.

Georgina showing different techniques.

Jerry making her necklace.

Wendy's finshed pendant.

Nadine's reticulated silver hook earrings.

Nadine fused copper to a piece of reticulated silver and made a brooch fitting.

Jerry's pendant, including reticulation, granulation and soldering.

Make your wedding rings

Sue Lane — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:34:48 +0000

On 25th June 2010, Francis and Gemma spent a day in the studio with me making their wedding rings. We began with strips of 18k yellow gold oval wire, annealled, shaped, cut, soldered and polished and ended the day with two beautifully finished rings.

The starting point - 18k yellow gold wire.

Francis and Gemma starting to shape the rings with half round pliers.

Francis cutting through the metal to make a perfect joint for soldering.

Gemma cutting through the metal to make Francis' ring.

Trying for size!

Adding the solder

Preparing to solder the joing together.

Gemma applying a matt finish to the ring.

The finished rings, Gemma has a polished finish while Francis has a matt finish.

More information about making your own wedding rings..

Pat, Anne and Sandra’s day in the studio.

Sue Lane — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:33:29 +0000

I had the pleasure of running a jewellery workshop for three lovely ladies on Saturday. We based the day around making rings and they very quickly decided on their designs. Both Pat and Sandra loved the same design, while Anne wanted to make a ring that worked with her own bangle and represented the members of her family. We enjoyed the hot summers day by sitting outside for lunch before returning to the studio to finish the rings. I managed to get some photographs, but as usual we were so busy I forgot to capture the early part of the day. The rings they made were lovely and everyone left the studio delighted!

Sandra's ring. At this stage we had reticulated the surface of the silver, soldered the gold wire to one end, then used the pliers to shape the ring.

Anne preparing to solder the 3 rings together.

A piece of solder sat on the join of the gold ring before Anne soldered it.

Pat is filing the ring to give the edges a clean sharpe look.

Sandra filing the ring before soldering the final gold edge.

The second gold bar was soldered in place, then they where cleaned up before oxidising.

Anne polishing the small gold loop to give it a high polish.

Pat is gently rubbing the surface with a pad to remove some of the oxidised surface to reveal the silver below.

The finished rings!

2010 – Sandcasting Workshop

Sue Lane — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:26:11 +0000

On 19th June I ran a sandcasting workshop with 4 great students. Everyone had several attempts at casting and sweets seemed to be the order of the day! We had one stubborn key that we tried to cast several times, but it was a little on the thin side for the size of casting. Most students soldered jumprings and fixings to their castings and applied polished or matt finishes. Some pieces were left unfinished for be worked on at a later date.

Everyone getting started by making the first sand mould.

Helen compressing the sand in the wooden mould with a hammer.

Melting scrap silver until it is molten and then we pour it into the mould on the right.

Gina making her second mould of the day.

Mark adding the sand to the mould.

Opening the mould to remove the shapes and add air release holes.

Alex at the bench filing and sanding one of her castings.

Here are some of the finished pieces.

Helen's castings. Some are finished and some still have the sprue left on, where she poured the silver into the mould.

Mark's castings. Unfinished as he is able to work on them at home and was just interested in learning the process.

Gina's pendants and charms made from the decorative end of a key.

Alex cast a large button and made a brooch fixing and a sweetie pendant!

5th June 2010 – Silver Jewellery Making Workshop

Sue Lane — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:33:35 +0000

On 5th June I taught a silver jewellery making workshop. Four students, two new and two returning, all worked on individual projects. We had a really enjoyable day in the studio, and everone made a lovely piece of jewellery to take home. We worked on several techniques including basic soldering, piercing, forming, planishing, shaping and finishing as well as setting, and using a drill for decoration. Here are some images from the day and the finished pieces. Have a look at the feedback back page to hear what some of the students said.

Laura piercing the silver to make rings.

Ali at the bench filing one of the three rings she made before linking them all together.

Melanie planishing 2 small circles to make into earrings.

Laura's work in progress.

Lunch time allows us chance to have some fresh air and take a break from the studio for half an hour. We gather around the dining table and enjoy homemade cake baked by my mum!

Ali made a really lovely ring made up of 3 bands, 1 textured, 1 matt and 1 polished, held together with a gold ring.

Laura made 2 rings and joined them with a band with drilled decorative holes.

Melanie came for a day one to one tutition last year and made a ring in gold, then I melted the scrap pieces with some antique gold she owned and made a blob. Melanie rolled it down and cut out the heart shape and added the wire.

Melanie still had a few pieces left so made a pair of earrings based on one of my designs, eventually using every last scrap of metal!

Sarah's finished silver ring, set with a touramaline.

2010 – Sandcasting

Sue Lane — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:19:58 +0000

On Saturday 14 May I ran a sand casting workshop. This course is always popular and great fun. We really do ‘get our hands dirty’! Everyone sucessfully cast several pieces, one piece – a seahorse was a stubborn one but we didn’t give in and got it on the third attempt! Here are a few images, though as usual, I was too busy to capture very much from the early part of the day. To see the steps, take a look at my blog

Two part sand mould ready to cast.

Opening the mould to remove the twig, and add air vents.

Sue cutting the sprues from her castings.

The working area, after we have made 3 or 4 moulds each!

At the bench cutting sprues, filing up the castings and soldering jump rings.

Removing a sprue.

Sue cast from a very old family locket, not causing any harm to the original. We were delighted how much detail was carried through to the casting.

An old key and a seahorse cast in silver by Nick.

Silver acorn cufflinks made by Sue.

Nick's silver bullet cufflinks.

I wish I had photographed the pieces Wendy made, unfortunately I didn't get chance. She made a lovely twig, some buttons and a key.

14th April 2010 – Silver Jewellery Making Workshop

Sue Lane — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:16:16 +0000

On 14th April 2010, Georgina Franklin and I ran a jewellery making workshop covering a range of silversmithing skills based on what the students wanted to do. We had a lovely day, and everyone produced high quality work. The students worked on projects including reticulation, claw setting, soldering gold to silver, beading, clasp making, press forming and of course all the basics skills a jeweller uses everyday!

Margaret making S clasps for beaded necklaces.

Making a silver coil of jump rings which will be cut through with the saw.

Kate making her setting.

Georgina and Jane

Alison soldering her necklace.

Georgina demonstrating beading.

Alison using the pendant motor and a scotch bright wheel to finish her pendant.

Kate made and set a pear shape CZ into a silver claw setting.

Putting jane's beads and silver and gold pendant together.

Margaret's reticulated pendant.

Jane's finished silver, 18k gold and peridot pendant - all made in one day!

Alison's silver and pearl necklace.

John Masefield School Evening Class

Sue Lane — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:15:08 +0000

For the past 5 years I have been running evening classes at John Masefield School. I have included some images of the students working and just a few images of the pieces they have worked on. Due to the nature of the class, I don’t get very much time to photograph work, so these are just snap shots! This is my last term teaching at John Masefield, so a big thank you to all the students and Jeanette for making it a pleasure to come to school!

Kate working hard!

Tessa using wet and dry to finish the pendant

Tessa's finished pendant

Chris and Sally taking a break!

A ring made by Chris soon after she joined the group.

Sally has used press forming to create the shapes, and now she is starting to cut them out.

Harriet working on a ring

Christmas decorations made by Harriet.

Tassie piercing out a silver shape

Jeanette's bracelet

A silver and amethyst necklace made by Jeanette

Bracelet made by Jenny

Bracelet by Annie

Silver cufflinks made by Sally