Many of you have asked how Sterling silver charms from the Jewelry with a Purpose – For the Horses could be ‘hand made’.
Well…. I’ll show you!
I describe these as ‘handmade Sterling charms’ and readers were asking how I could say that…
DAD WAS A DENTIST…
The only reason I had any idea about this was because my father was a dentist. And, every now and then he would get a creative bug and make jewelry for me. First he’d take dental wax and form whatever shape he wanted and then he would stick it into his centrifuge while injecting dental gold.
The wax would be replace by dental gold. (This is basically how he made gold teeth in the office.)
I’d watch him do this so the idea stuck…
This is a ring my Dad made for me. It is several diamond shapes in a circle.
This is a ring my Dad made for me when I was a little girl. First he used dental wax to mold this shape, then he put it into his centrifuge and replaced the wax with dental gold.
THAT PROCESS… WITH STERLING AND WITHOUT A CENTRIFUGE!
It is fairly easy, if you happen to have a wax moldmaker and metal casting factory nearby – which we do here in Grass Valley (who knew?!). It ends up that jewelry makers nationwide send their waxes to be molded and cast right here in Grass Valley!
So, that part was lucky.
OK, now, what you do is get molding wax from Rio Grande or any other jewelry supply place.
Then, play and have fun creating anything you want.
These are several shapes that I am playing with at the moment. These are all made from wax. The blobs are actually beads. They have a hole in the center and will be sterling beads.
The hard part… is attaching the little ring onto the top or back of the tiny item. This takes some time and patience. Also, having a flame nearby with a metal implement helps attach the ring to the form.
Attaching the little ring to the shape is the hard part…
Next, drop it off at the metal casting house and buy whatever metal powder/beads you want – and have it shipped to the casting house. I chose sterling silver.
The casting house will send the waxes to the mold maker who very carefully, stamps your logo onto the piece (you have to get that stamp made ahead of time) and then injects rubber around your piece to create the mold. The wax part melts.
That mold is sent back to the casting house where they inject metal (sterling) into the mold.
Et, voila!
Here you can see all the waxes I had molded and cast.
This is the flip side. You can see how the flower ring is attached at the back on one of them – that was hard!
SO, THAT IS HOW IT IS DONE!
So when you look at Horse and Man Jewelry For the Horses and see handmade sterling charms, you know I made it! ;)
Mama Tess took an evening stroll tonight… She says, “Hi!”
