One summer season, between college and university I worked with an independent jeweller making silver rings by hand for sale in National Trust centres and small gift stores. Now I figured every single ring would take ages to produce, and you'd start and completely finish one ring before commencing another, how wrong I was. The silver ring making process was a great deal more organised than that to be sure output was profitable and the stocks were kept sufficient for sudden demand.The first part of the procedure is turning the basic silver wire bought in large rolls of various weights into ring shapes. This is accomplished using a specific steel rod shaped like a very long taper. The raw silver wire is attached tightly at both ends and then employing a turning handle at the other end of your vice it is turned and wrapped tightly into a spiral until each turn of the spiral is as close to a ring shape as you possibly can. The tapering is usually to make sure you end up with several rings of different dimensions to cater for various finger sizes.
As soon as the spiral of silver is cut down the middle leaving a few un-joined silver circles you next need to learn how you can hold a jeweller's solder safely, and ways to utilize the silver flux. Wearing an apron to shield your clothes, you lay out the raw silver rings onto a heat proof board in rows of ten and add the flux to the join of each ring. Moving cautiously along each ring, you heat the silver ring up utilizing a circular motion until its molten hot however, not melting, once you see a silver flash the flux has melted and bonded together with the silver. As soon as the two ends are fused together, making use of tongs you lower the ring straight into boric acid to pickle and thoroughly clean away the flux. Rinse them in water after.
The next phase with your batch of silver jewellery is to reshape them by using a soft hammer and mandrel, sand away any abrasive edges then shine them up in barrels packed with ball bearings over night.
Adriana Lima, Zooey Deschanel, Chloë Sevigny
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