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Final Project

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My theme for this project was water. I made the waterfall earrings first by using the circle punch then drilling a hole, hammering texture and dapping each piece then using chain making to make jump rings and clip the circles together. For the bracelet I cut out an oval, etched a cute saying “The Calm Before The Storm” into it and textured the sides to make it look like raindrops. I then made the chain to look wavey and attached it to the piece. The last piece was the river keychain. First I etched out the river and enameled clear blue into it to resemble water and I put texture on the edges to give the piece a framed look. The biggest challenge was to think of the designs and ideas for everything, each piece went through many changes. I just learned how to enamel and it was definitely my favorite part of the assignment because it was fun but it also challenged myself and it turned out very well. My bracelet is like the ugly stepsister in a way because it didn’t turn out as well as I w

Riveting Practice

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     For this project, I was looking to make a Christmas present for my childhood friend from Church. Her initials are JNA and the hearts under the rivited piece are symbolic of her and I and how we are always there for each other. At first, I was going to etch “2017” under the riveted piece but I tried twice and failed twice before changing my design, so that was my biggest challenge. With this project, soddering was my favorite. I learned how to rivet, wich is something I have not previously done in any of my other pieces. I challenged myself by changing my design halfway through the project. I think the rivet turned out very well but I accidentally hammered the corner of my piece as I was installing the rivet so I could have been more careful. Also, when I turned in my piece it was kind of scratched up and I could have sanded it more. 

Art Inspired Etching Project

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     I was listening to my friends’ and my favorite song, “World On A String” by Frank Sinatra when I read about this project. I decided to model my keychain off of that song. The words “Life’s a wonderful thing” is something my friend and I say that is based off the real lyrics “Life’s a beautiful thing”. My biggest challenge was etching because you have to be so precise and you can’t just erase it if you make a mistake, also, often times I don’t realize I messed up until after the piece has already been etched. I really enjoyed stamping with this project. I learned how to make a keychain ring. I challenged myself by sawing out two perfect circles that were identical and filing and sanding them down. I feel that the final piece turned out pretty well for me. I definitely could have etched better because I messed up a little bit and some areas have thicker lines than other areas. 

Cooper Ring Project

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     The first thing I did for this project was planning out what I wanted my focal point to be. I chose a heart with the letters “LC” in it, which represent my late-papa’s initials. After my design was chosen, I began tracing and cutting out my piece from a small sheet of copper. Since this piece had to included two pieces of copper soldered together, I had to cut out two separate hearts. One of which I sawed the letters “LC” out of and I left the other plain. When this process was over, the edges of the pieces had to be filed, and beveled, and the entirety of both pieces had to besanded with all five grits. Next came soldering. First off, I took the top heart (the one with LC) and melted small pieces of solder on it before letting it sit in the pickle for 20 minutes and pumassing it after. Then I soldered the two hearts together and put the entire piece in the pickle for another 20 minutes. While waiting for that, I measured my ring size, cut 14 gauge wire to the correct size, filed

Brass Pendant Project

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     The biggest challenge for me was definitely sanding. I spent more than a week sanding over and over again until the surface of my piece was scratch-free. I enjoyed making the chain most of all because it was fun to see my piece come together at last as a beautiful, one of a kind necklace. I have learned so many things from this project, but above all, i've learned that patience pays off. First, I had to sketch many ideas for pieces that I thought would look good. After choosing the humming bird design, I transferred my drawing onto a piece of brass and began sawing the outer shape and negative space out. Next came filing and then sanding, which as I previously mentioned was extremely tedious and time consuming. Once my piece was smooth, I started working on the chain that consists of bead links and jump rings. When everything else was finished, I had to patina and polish both the chain and the pendent to give it a nice, reflective finish. 

SCHS Jewelry

http://schs-jewelry.blogspot.com/