Sam Courtright Jewelry

     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. 

     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.