“Pliers and files and hammers and bench blocks, Flush cutters, torches and wood doming blocks, Tumbling ear wires and the joy that it brings, These are a few of my favourite things” ( With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein! [ … ] Read More
Category Archives: Tools of the Trade
What Tools Should I Use for Forming and Dapping?
We jewellers are a crafty lot. We produce some pretty amazing jewellery pieces and forming helps us give that wow factor to our jewellery! Mandrels are necessary in every jeweller’s toolbox. There are mandrels for bezels, rings, bracelets and [ … ] Read More
What is Pickle Anyway, and How Do I Use It?
When I say pickle, what is the first thing that springs to mind? Lovely, crunchy dills and onions or a crockpot of simmering sodium bisulfate? If it’s the latter, you are most certainly a jeweller! Even if it’s not [ … ] Read More
How to Prepare and Decontaminate Your Tumbler Barrel
I think it’s safe to say that most of us love our tumblers. They save us countless hours of hand polishing as well as beautifully work-hardening the creations that we have laboured over. I must confess that when I [ … ] Read More
Soldering Blocks – Which One Should I Use?
Not sure which soldering block, board, or tri-pod to use for each soldering job? Read on!! It’s true that there are many different blocks, which can get a little confusing, especially when you’re starting out on your jewellery making [ … ] Read More
Which Pliers Should I Use?
Pliers are one of the most used tools on any jeweller’s bench. I have several different pair that I use constantly for a wide variety of techniques. For those of you that find the variety of pliers a little [ … ] Read More
Polish Your Style!
When I first ventured into silversmithing, there were a lot of things I knew nothing about. One of these was polishing. Like many other people, most of my experience with polishing silver had been either polishing my mother’s flatware [ … ] Read More
Argentium
Answer the the following question: Is Argentium a) the name of a Roman emperor b) a lost city like Atlantis c) a Superhero If you answered c, you are right! Argentium is a superhero sterling silver, capable of creating [ … ] Read More
Hammer Textures
Texturing metal with hammers and stamps is a fun, relatively easy and inexpensive way of adding interest to a jewellery piece. I’m a big fan of textured pieces, finding most smooth mirror finished pieces a bit of a bore, [ … ] Read More
Soldering in the Round
Feeling uninspired? Not much to do in the studio? Or just plain “I don’t wanna!” but still feel like doing something? No worries, I have a great project for you which will become your new favorite soldering buddy. Make [ … ] Read More
Soldering Station Set Up
Solder Station Setup Ideally you should have a separate well ventilated studio with big windows letting in natural light. However we live in reality where most of us carve out a little work space wherever we can. The important [ … ] Read More
Which Torch is Best for my Metalsmithing Studio
Successful soldering, annealing, melting, reticulation, enamelling, along with many other jewellery techniques requiring heat, starts with the right torch for the job. Each torch set up has its pluses and minuses, and particular uses. As jewellers, we become very [ … ] Read More