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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Silver Cuff



I woke up early this am and felt the need to pound some silver. Luckily the Bead Gallery had a opening in the Cuffcake Bracelet class. Shaping a bracelet was a skill I've been wanting to try. Jason and Amanda are great teachers! The bracelet starts with a flat piece of 20 g sterling. The designs could be card stock cut with a die cutter, or a metal stencil. I chose the cute rabbit as I was born in the year of the Rabbit. After gluing them down, the piece of silver is rolled through a press not unlike a pasta machine. After rounding the corners and sanding them smooth, I got to pound the silver into shape with a ball peen hammer on a piece of hollowed out wood. I love this part! The finally shaping was done over an oval bracelet mandrel. I tried antiquing it a bit with a hard boiled egg. It has a natural matte finish. It fits! And it doesn't roll around.

On the knitting scene, I took a short break from Tile Stole to knit Ysolda's Urchin from Knitty using hand spun silk/merino from the Opalescence. It's blocking now so pictures will have to wait. It was a fun, fast knit.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Wow! That's very cool! I may be a bit biased since it has a bunny on it though. ;)

Rachel said...

What a beautiful bracelet!