Bench Works
I decided to ring in 2024 with a few blog posts describing the techniques I use to create and repair jewelry (and other things). As I look out at the landscape I see fewer and fewer craftspeople that acually use the methods my Dad taught me. There are very few schools anymore that train in the jewelry arts. A customer recently asked me to make a ring that would hold his wife's sorority pin safely and securely but which could be removed and worn as a pin also. I decided to carve the ring out of a wax blank. The pin's locking mechanism has to be accessible, and working in 3 dimension helped me to visualize and experiment with tolerences. (in other words I was winging it a little) The nice thing about working with wax is that you can add and subtract on the fly. You can't do that as easily with gold or silver. The above picture shows the wax blank I begin with. The picture below shows the rough wax model sprued and ready for casting. The wedged shaped wooden "shelf&qu