Contemporary Jewellery Blog

My nephew Tom is taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, and as part of the programme students are required to learn a new skill. So, I was delighted when he asked if I could teach him jewellery and silversmithing skills. We started by making rings and earrings which he made to perfection and we sold at my Jewellery Studio Open Day in November last year. Tom then designed a silver box, and over the weeks we did a little at a time, until finally last week, he finished it. Not only that... it is perfect. The finish is to a very high standard and the lid fits like a glove. Here are a few images of work in progress and a film I made of all the stages.

Tom made the silver box using tube and 1mm silver sheet.

Cutting the tube to the height of the box.

When the tube is soldered to the base it goes all sorts of amazing colours. We use pickle to remove the oxidisation and borax.

This is how it looks after pickling and while Tom is in the progress of cutting away the excess silver.

The next stage was to make the lid, and Tom used the ring sizer to make sure the lid fitted perfectly into the base.

Once the lid was made, Tom made a little silver rugby ball and soldered it to the top. Here it is before pickling.

The finished box!