My general day to day production of jewellery,gemstones and jewellery related things.

This kind of work I seriously like doing.

I like carving the stone, carving the wax and casting the result.

This is a fused anti-clastic ring that has diamonds set in the little white gold balls.

Needless to say, this is also work I like doing. In’t pretty?

This is my latest laminated amethyst I have finished
With this one I made the internal cavity as big as was possible without loosing the stones integrity.

What I also did this time, is to increase the crown facets to 40º and keep them high.
Then I faceted the top in a slight dome, like oº, then 10º, then 20º.
What that did was act as a mini magnifying glass, so the center ball appears bigger.

Also, I faceted eight main facets, instead of four. I think this will be about the maximum before the flower effect is lost and it starts looking like a bicycle sprocket.

This is a view of the pavilion.

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This is a pale aquamarine that I laminated and faceted after I inserted a .10ct diamond in it.
The aqua is not actually as pale as in the photo, though. I suspect the diamond makes is look a little lighter in colour.
It is set in a 18kt yellow and white gold dress ring.
The sides are actually concave, so they reflect the center white gold bands.
Difficult to photograph.

The diamond stands in a polished ‘U’ shaped cup inside the pavilion.
This causes it to move all the time on the finger inside the stone.

It is a very striking effect, one I am well pleased with.

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This is the Aqua that I carved for the ring, coming in at 6.05ct.

A commissioned yellow and white gold bangle. This is the first part of the work.

In all probability, it will come back next your for me to set diamonds in the center.

Replacement stock.

A silver fused ring set with a carved Budd stone.

I work in any metal. I like silver.

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This is a ring I made for Mort.
Set with a Canadian Nephrite Jade, one of the toughest stones that I have made a cab out of recently. I hammered this stone it to the ring hard, and it laughed at me. I could have hammered the white gold flush onto the stone, but I don’t like that. I want everything to have a rough and jammed look.
I really like the olive green.
A real macho man colour.
A Canadian customer of mine John , gave me a small slab, perfect for making jewellery stones out of, and I am going to cut some more shapes out of it and make some more ‘Man Jewellery’ soon.

Now for the wimp side of me
This CZ, a composite of the unfinished picture shown in the previous post.
I cut the pavilion in a stepped round cab.
Like a circle at 42º and then a circle at 50º.
This gives it that watery look from the top.
The same effect can be achieved if one facets a normal brilliant pavilion and then you cut the crown a ‘buff top’, namely a cabochon smooth top.
It makes all the flat facets look like they being viewed under water.

Very cool effect.

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I have been hard at work cutting round stones. Anything from 3mm to 6mm.
I like round stones. They easy to make tubes for, they work well with most designs and they don’t require lots of real estate….small ones I mean.
But well cut small stones are surprisingly difficult to get. On the Internet or from dealers. And I mean WELL CUT ones. With all the facets and meets correct.
So I went through my small rough and set to work. Major mission stuff.
Sapphire, tourmaline, spinel, garnet.
Lots of sweat, many cricks in the back and pains in the neck, literally and figuratively.

This is a Nigerian Aqua I carved -6.04 ct, a replacement for one sold.
Next week sees me carving a ring in wax for this stone.

Friggin‘ thing chipped on the top left hand corner at polishing, so I had to be creative in cutting and design.

This is a picture aligning the center hole to the general stone, prior to faceting.

I used a native cut stone as rough.

And this is a picture of my dog, called Popcorn, because he likes to swim in a bowl of fresh popcorn when Anne makes it. (often)

He is actually an Australian cockatiel, who guides me in my gem cutting endeavours

and is pivotal to my equilibrium, just like Anne is.

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I finished this ring today. Set with a .85ct diamond and the tube in white gold with little diamonds set in the fused sides.

This is a sort of stock ring for me. I cast the basic shank and then I fit, in this case, titanium that has been heat blued.
The dolphin is then riveted through the titanium and the shank, holding the whole affair together.
I have, in the past, used that shank with enamel as the background and elephant and birds as the motives.

She liked her ring plain and simple.I thusly made it such.

Oo-Rah! The time tower marches forward. The wood is Cherry wood.
The sides are copper. The corners feet are brass.

In the center of the Time tower, there will be a rheostat that will control the intensity of the lights. On the top of the light is a copper plate with a brass ring and a clear lens.
I just love those light bulbs. I buy them at Ace ( can you believe it!) They so old valve-ish.
That is why I made the bottom brass fitting to hide the obviously modern screw fittings.
The sides are still going to be adorned with a brass gate kind of a thing-a-ma-bob.

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I didn’t want to have the corners of the Time Tower standard, so I carved a wax model and the cast it into silver as the master. It was quite big, about 100 grams and it didn’t fit into a standard vulcanising mould so I moulded it in Silicone.
I solder the sprues on and then I make a perspex box the right size.
Then I drill a hole in the removable front part so that the main sprue fits in tightly.

And I ’solder’ ( or should the be braze, or stick?) the front on with injection wax. That holds everything rigid and is easy to remove when necessary.

I use a two part Silastic ‘J’ silicone from Dow Corning or Zero D’s clear silicone. Both are very good. This stuff is actually white and then the ‘hardener’ is green. That way you can see if it is mixed well. The stuff looks like creamy mint chocolate, and in fact when they make those chocolate adverts on TV where the chocolate pours over something, it is actually silicone.
Brown silicone. Delicious.
I digress.

And then they are injected ,

and cast.
For casting material, I just buy brazing rods. $10 per pound.
They work real good and they very yellow.
KISS, you know.

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A Hidi can be found here on how to make such material.

The Time Tower moves forward.

I have added the top panels (still uncompleted) and I made the gear train.

This is a side view

I made some moulds from the nylon gears that came out of the printer that the Gear Gun was made out of.

I took a chance. I had no idea if nylon, (or if that is the material it is made out of) could be vulcanised.

And lo and behold, it took the heat easily.

After I cast the gears I made two side shaft holders.

I cut two pieces of brass flat stock, bolt them together, draw the basic design on them and file the hell out of them.

And Boing! one cool ‘gear train’ .

Ok, boing might not the absolute right word, because it took a couple of days to finish.

Anyway, it looks Victorian and steampunk-ish.

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This is a 18kt choker that I made for René with her gold and diamonds.
Making this piece took quite a long time, because there are lots of rings to be made.
There are thirteen rings in the center part in which the diamonds are set.
They all had to be centered and soldered and then 3 carats of old cut diamonds had to be pavé set in them.

Setting that kind of diamond is always a mission.
I call them rovals. ( round and oval)

This is a titanium pendant with a hollow gold pear shape and white gold twist wire around it.

A gift from him to her.

It is VERY dangerous for a guy to design jewellery for his wife without her knowing. A little bit like buying her clothes or a hand bag or lipstick. Trust me, I know

Very delicate territory.

I think she will like it though.

The Time Tower continues. I am actually further than this picture shows.

Still a loooong way to go, though.

I made the third face out of 1 brass layer, a second brass layer and 1 layer of titanium.

A bit like Photoshop……….

The clock is only printed paper, like I said in my previous post.

It’s all still rough and ready, unpolished and all.

When I start a complicated project like this, or in jewellery, I never really know where I am going to end up.

I sort of bumble along and often I have to make a U turn and when I come to a fork, I take it.

Just kidding, I read that somewhere. The fork part, I mean.

I have about 50 hours of work in it so far.

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Larimar cab in a sun pendant. What can I say? It is the Caribbean, mon.

Made for John, as a surprise gift to his wife.

The Time Tower advances…. I like making projects like this.

I think it is going to be in the 300 hour range of work. Nice and comfortable.

I made two doors at the bottom which can open and close.

The empty spaces in the doors and sides will have glass in.

The front is still going to get a clock in as well.

This will be the main view, but I have to make the side clocks and doors and windows before I can see what the ‘main’ clock will look like.

Rest assured that it will have blued titanium in it.

I have complete freedom to do what I like since this is not an order…

This is one of the clock sides that I just printed a piece of paper of the actual face (maybe) that I am going to put in.

The blue/green is patinaed copper that I coloured with Rio’s green Patina.

As in the windows below, the side body is made of three layers.

that is, brass, copper and brass again.

The front panel is pierced out to show the patinaed copper behind it.

The whole catastrophe is held together with copper nuts and brass bolts that I make.

The clock will have a bubble glass cover. That is , if I can find it on the ‘net…

My Gear Gun took six months of spread— out—- time.

This one should be the same, me thinks……

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