Arts Festival A Success!

You may remember a recent blog of ours showcasing our latest work for Prior’s Field School to design promotional stationery for the Art Festival, which gave people the opportunity to sign up and try new crafts for a day.  Trying something new always gets my vote, which is why I couldn’t resist signing up for a class. I chose an introduction to silversmithing, I mean it can’t be that hard, right? Wrong!

The day started off quite nicely, a cup of tea and a tour round the school to get acquainted with surroundings (and the obligatory health and safety briefing).  Then off to work we go.

Firstly, we had to decide if we wanted to make a ring or a bangle.  I don’t think the instructor Mr Rood (who was excellent) expected trouble from his adult class, but he soon realised that for most students, a simple straight ring or bangle wasn’t going to satisfy the creative bunch who had arrived.

We then had to measure our finger / wrist to work out how much silver we needed to make our chosen piece of jewellery (using paper, which is far trickier than it sounds), including any extra we might need for design elements.  We then cut the wire with piercing saws ensuring no rough edges. Then the hard work started, using a mandrel to shape the metal from straight wire to ring or bangle shaped.  Some members of the class even decided to shape their pieces with twists and create extra loops to add a flourish to their design.

Once round, and overlapping (or a very small gap between the two ends), pieces were fluxed, so that when soldering the metal wasn’t scorched.  A bit of silver solder and a hand blow torch was all that was needed to join the two ends together, though as we soon realised, it was much easier to achieve this with a ring than a bracelet.  The pieces were then quenched in water and filed to remove any bumps or sharp edges to give them a more professional finish, then further filed with a fine file to remove any scratches.

Then the best bit, polishing to a sparkling piece of jewellery.  All members of the class produced a piece of jewellery of a decent enough standard to wear. I’ve been wearing the ring I made every day since I made it, and was surprised at the achievements we all made in such a short space of time.

Thanks to Prior’s Field School for organising such an enjoyable weekend!  I know that when I met up with other participants who had been in sculpture and sewing groups, they had just as good a time as I did.  My only regret was not having signed up for a class or two on the Sunday….

If you fancy trying something new, keep an eye out for next year’s activities which should not be missed!