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" I have the blank on is called a bench "pin".  I would estimate that at least three quarters of all the jewelry work I do takes place in those few square inches that compromise the surface. This picture below shows my bench and how small that pin is.

 

This picture shows the wax model cast in gold. In a future post I'll describe that process.   

As I mentioned before, sometimes (and this is the outcome you hope for) the model is exactly perfect. You go on to remove it from the casting sprue, clean it up, and you have a finished piece. Other times, as in this instance, I had to do some tweeking to bring it to the perfection I envisioned to begin with. The picture below shows how it finally turned out, and how the locking mechanism (on the right) works from underneath the ring.

In the next post I'll describe what actaully happens when a ring is sized larger or smaller.

 

In past posts I've detailed some of the outstanding work my Dad, Richard Inlow did over many years. Here is another from the 1990's. A woman and her husband were taking a romantic walk in the woods one day and he found a Chestnut which he carried in his pocket for years. It wore shiny after all those years. She asked my Dad to make a silver replica.... (who can understand love?) 

Thanks for looking. Happy New Years!