The Fools Gold

I´d like to start making silver jewellery at home. I understand I will need a selection of pliers, a soldering torch, saw etc. but where can I buy a good quality, but reasonably priced, kit (maybe online)? I live in Barcelona… Thanks!
I´d like to start making silver jewellery at home. I understand I will need a selection of pliers, a soldering torch, saw etc. but where can I buy a good quality, but reasonably priced, kit (maybe online)? I live in Barcelona… Thanks!
p.s. I only speak beginners Spanish so a jewellery course here would be impossibe. I also have an educational background in art & craft up to degree level so feel confident I can master jewellrey design at home without the aid of a course… hopefully…

Do you already have a background in jewellery making? If not then I would recommend doing a basic course first so you can get a taste of different techniques and the tools which you need for it. That’s what I did.

Standard tools like basic pliers, calipers, jeweller’s saw, plastic hamers, rulers, sandpaper, files, polishing tools, cuters, etc. can all be bought through standard hardware stores.

Specialised tools like ring gauges, silver solder (note, this is not the silver solder sold in hardware stores), heat resistant pliers, casting pans, mould sand, shaped wire bending pliers can be bought through stores which cater to jewellery makers. If you join a course you should be able to arrange such orders through your teacher. He’ll also be able to give advise. You will also need to get you silver there. Another source of silver is you local silversmith. That is, if he’s willing to part with it.

I just saw that there will be a jewellery fair in Barcelona at the end of the year. You could go there and talk to silversmiths and ask them for local tool and material sources:
http://www.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/barcelona-jewellery-fair.html

Edit: to react to your additions: I’m sure you can find a course in Barcelone itself in Spanish. There will probably be leaflets on the show. With your background you should be able to design jewellery but I think that a basic course will be usefull to learn how to actually use silver and to make contacts. One tip: you can work with Brass to practise the techniques before using silver. Brass is much easier to find.

By the way, what kind of jewellery do you want to make? Your toolset will depend on that.

This may be a crazy question, but I want to have a flower that is made out of plastic, casted in sterling silver. Is this possible?

I know the lost wax process, but was wondering if I could have plastic materials casted also?

do you have one plastic flower and it needs to come out perfect the first time or do you have several?
Depending on the type of plastic your plastic could be embedded into the appropriate material like for the lost-wax-casting and the plastic would burn out. The hollow space could be filled with molten sterling silver resulting in a replica of your plastic flower.

The problem is that there are many types of plastic. Some do burn out cleanly, others do not. Trial and error is the only practical way to find out. The only other option would be to make a mold of your flower and use this to make a replica in wax. Which also could be complicated.

You could either try to find a jewelry class which teaches you casting during which you could do it yourself or you need to find a jeweler who does custom fabrication as well and not just sell ready made jewelry. It’s not going to be cheap.

Depending on size and thickness of parts it would need to be cast with either vacuum casting or centrifugal casting, which is equipment a jeweler would have, but not a large scale art foundry.

I have a blue topaz, white gold ring. On the inside of the band it’s got nabco 14k stamped. I am just wondering what "nabco" stands for.

it’s the manufacturing company

What make up and jewelry should I wear for my 8th grade graduation? My dress is green and white, has some black and brown, and a little bit of yellow too. My shoes are brown and light brown. So what should my makeup and jewelry be? Please be detailed. Thank you!

Hun Ima beauty adviser ..Green and gold goes awesome together , you can add yellow as well if you want a dramatic look.I think gold jewelery will go better because of the browns in the dress and shoes also the gold shimmer on your eyes.

Very important , make sure you use an eyeshadow base so there will be no creasing or fading especially in this hot weather and long hrs , start off light then then go darker on the brow bone and at the side .Use a basic gold or yellow on the lids , then gold shimmer on the brow bone upwards and the green on the side.black mascara and nude lips since much attention is on the eyes .

p.s-Hope you have a great time

I’m very interested in getting a microdermal on my upper chest, centered close to my collar bones. I’m concerned it will look awkward with necklaces. Do I have to choose between 1 or the other? Anyone with experience with this or even better pictures? I’ve seen tons of pictures of the piercing itself, but not with necklaces.

That’s entirely personal preference. There is really nothing wrong with wearing a necklace as far as over-accessorizing being a concern. But a smaller chain could get caught on them, and you definitely don’t want to rip one of those out!

Someone used a silver gel pen and drew a squiggle on my car window. Any ideas how to get it off please?

Have you tried regular water?

The gel ink is water-based, so this should work.

If it doesn’t, try rubbing alcohol, or acetone (nail polish remover).

The bracelet is just made of like 10 strands of embroidery thread. I’d also like to include a sheet of paper in the letter. How many stamps would I have to put on the envilope? I’m from canada ( Ontario, Toronto to be exact ) and would like to ship the bracelet and sheet of paper to sweden.

thanks!
Canada Post goes by weight. From the sound of things, it won’t be that heavy, but you also don’t want someone feeling the envelope, and deciding to rip it open and keep the bracelet for themselves.

I would suggest you go to the nearest post office, get them to give you a sturdy cardboard mailer to use. Inside, you put the bracelet and the letter you want to send. You close it up and give it to the postal clerk to be weighed.

Because it is an international letter (has to go to Sweden), you will pay more than normal Canada postage. If the mailer envelope is a normal size, and less than 30g in weight, you might pay as little as $1.86 to get it there.

Just tell the clerk if you want to ship it in the least expensive method, and he/she will suggest something.

You should also note that there is no guarantee that it gets to your destination. If this is a valuable bracelet, you probably will want to insure it when you ship it. If it is just a hand-crafted bracelet you made yourself for a friend and has no special importance if it is lost in the mail (you could make another one), then I would not worry about that.

I need to make a tree out of wire to hang jewellery from. What gauge wire should I use? It has to be strong enough to keep tree shape and not bend when jewellery is hung off the branches.
If anyone knows the answers, please let me know!

use steel wires only….. they r easely available
and will give ur tree a perfect look.
give a "U" shape to wire then twist it it will strongen it !

All of the sterling silver flatware chests that I see online and in stores look so small and only seem to accomodate the place settings.

Where you store them is important. Keep them out of the kitchen. Sulfur from cooking eggs will cause them to tarnish very quickly, even if in a box. Any kind of cabinet with a closed solid door is best, not one with a glass front. While you may want to show off your silver, light speeds the tarnishing process. (Like exposing film to light in a camera, nothing happens until light hits the silver film coating.) If you have a cool place to store them, that is also good as heat increases the tarnishing process also. Do not put them away wet as water acts as a conductor of current and also speeds the tarnishing. When you do put them away, wipe them off with a soft cloth and set them down with the cloth. Where you touch will tarnish faster. The boxes are good for the place settings. If you put the silver in the box with some 3M anti-tarnish strips and stick that box in a as suggested above, you probably will not have to clean the silver when you go to use it again. For larger items, there are bags specially designed for silver items. Stick each item into its own bag and store it as above.

When it comes time to clean the silver, there are two ways to do it.

One way removes the tarnish and along with it, a small amount of silver. If your stuff is silver plate, eventually it will wear down to the cheaper base metal. If your stuff is sterling you will not have that problem but will be losing some of the design each time you clean the silver. This method is often done with a dipping solution or using salt, baking soda and aluminum foil. It is easy and fast to do.

The other method puts silver onto the item. This involves using a cleaner that has cyanide in it so make sure you wear gloves. Each time you clean, the silver oxide is converted back to silver and more silver is added. This is the best method to use on older silver plate as it thickens up the silver layer. This is not so fast and you do not want to do it anywhere near food or kids. It tends to fill in scratches so an old piece that looks pretty bad starts looking better the more times you clean it.

Last bit of advice. DO NOT store your sterling with your silver plate. While they may look the same, you want to keep them apart. If the worst happens and you can only save some of your stuff, you want to be able to quickly grab the sterling silver items as they are far more valuable.

I like to make bracelets and stuff, and I want to make charms myself. Any ideas?

If by "charm" you mean something you will hang off of a chain bracelet, or off of a purse or key-chain, then you want to start with a bead, and an eye or head pin to attach to it. Most ready made beads have a hole through them. If you make a bead yourself, from clay or dough etc, you’ll need to put a hole though the bead. You can use a head pin, a nail etc depending upon how thick your bead is.

I buy supplies from Fire Mountain Gems and they sell everything you need, and the website has a gallery of design ideas, how-to videos etc…