Michon Jewelry Blog

Mini Pearl Ring

Posted by Leah on Oct 10, 2008

This fun pearl ring was an experiment I did in making rings with thinner wire for the bands. I love how it turned out.

I made it pretty small, actually about a size smaller than I intended, so it’s now a lovely pinky ring for me. Sometimes slight errors mean I get to keep a piece of jewelry for myself!

It is made from argentium silver wire and cultured freshwater pearls.

Black Pearl Ring

Posted by Leah on Oct 9, 2008

I love this new silver-and-pearl ring I made, so much I’m tempted to keep it for myself, except that I need about one size smaller to wear it on my ring finger.

This ring is made from argentium silver wire with cultured freshwater pearls that have been color treated to look like black Tahitian pearls. I do my wirework freehand, so each ring has slight variations that make it unique even when I make two in the same style. I love the look of black pearls, and these two are beautifully colored, one more purple-gray, and one with green undertones. This ring looks great on:

New Works In Progress

Posted by Leah on Oct 8, 2008

Thought I’d share some progress photos from the new jewelry series I’m working on…the finished pieces may or may not resemble these photos at all! It’s a very experimental series for me and I’m having a blast working out the process.

This first one (above) is closest to being finished. It is made from fine silver, which is 99.9% pure silver.

The next one (above) is a combination of argentium and fine silver. Interesting things happen when fusing metals with different melting points, I discovered.

The third piece is fine silver, fused a bit more than the first one. I’ll be adding more metal and probably some pearls to this piece.

And the last one, fine silver and argentium silver. It looks kind of cool, but as you can see, I didn’t do much shaping with it, and that’s because I’m not sure I can. In experimenting with fusing two different types of silver, the results aren’t as predictable as when I use all argentium or all fine silver. In this case, some areas became hollow (and I think I even have a geeky explanation for why it happened, but that’s a whole other long post) and the resulting shell is very fragile.

Hopefully I’ll have time to work on this series more in the next week or so, and I’ll post any pieces that I’m happy with.

Chandelier Crystal Necklace

Posted by Leah on Sep 24, 2008

I was looking through my stash the other night for inspiration, and I found some chandelier crystals that I had completely forgotten about. They are big and sparkly - the perfect centerpiece for a necklace. I decided to go with a very simple color scheme - silver for metal, and gray freshwater pearls with the clear crystal:

Since I became a mom, I’ve been much more aware of the needs of women with young children. I made this necklace long enough to slip on, and it has no clasp. Everything is finished in a way that if a baby or toddler pulls on it, it won’t come loose.

I know it isn’t quite holiday party season yet, but I think this necklace would look fabulous for a holiday party - it can dress up jeans and a simple top, and it would also look great with a black cocktail dress and heels. As a designer, it’s never too early to start thinking about the holidays…for the woman who prefers gold, my classic elegance lariat would also look lovely at a cocktail party.

Can you use a propane torch to fuse silver?

Posted by Leah on Sep 22, 2008

The answer to this question is definitely yes - you can use a propane torch to fuse silver. In fact, the only torch I use is a propane torch I bought at the hardware store, and it works great for fusing and soldering silver. I’ve used it with sterling, argentium, and fine silver. I’ve also used it to anneal copper & solder copper using silver solder.

New Rings

Posted by Leah on Jun 21, 2008

I made a couple of argentium silver rings recently. I can’t decide if I should send them to Exhibit One in Oklahoma, take them to ProArts in Oakland, CA, or list them for sale in my etsy shop…

Fused Pendant - Finished or Not?

Posted by Leah on Sep 7, 2007

I just can’t decide if this fused piece is finished or not. It is scraps of Argentium sterling silver with a freshwater pearl dangle. I actually did the fusing months ago, and wasn’t sure what to do with the resulting piece of metal. Yesterday at my studio, I decided to drill two holes - one to add a bail and one to add a pearl dangle - and this is the result. I can’t decide if I love it or hate it.

What I like about it: the industrial look of the metal in contrast with the pearl, the texture of fused metal, the fact that the sheet was a scrap leftover from a pierced piece I made and the wire bits and granules were also recycled from other projects.

What I’m not sure about: I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel that the piece could be a lot stronger with some very minor modifications - if only I could decide what those modifications were.

Jewelry 101: Making Headpins

Posted by Leah on Aug 8, 2007

I enjoy making my own silver head pins by melting a ball of metal at the end of a piece of wire. It’s fairly easy to do, and enables you to always have the length you need in the gauge you need for a project.

I use a slightly different technique depending on which type of silver I’m using - sterling, fine, or Argentium. Whichever metal you use, you will need a torch. I use a propane torch, but butane torches also work, although for thicker wire it can be hard to get the flame of the butane torch big/hot enough. Other options are acetylene/oxygen and oxygen/propane, but butane and propane torches are cheap & available at the hardware store.

Using fine silver is the easiest, because you don’t need flux or pickle, just a torch and some tweezers to hold the wire. A heat-resistant surface to let your headpins cool is desirable, and always be safe and use proper ventilation and eye protection when using a torch. Cut a piece of wire slightly longer than you want your headpin to be - maybe 1/2 inch longer. Hold one end of the wire with the tweezers, with the other end of the wire pointing down. Point the torch flame at the end of the wire that is away from your tweezers, and watch a little ball of metal appear! The longer you keep the torch there, the bigger the ball will be - but if it gets too big, it might fall off, so be careful.

I like to use Argentium silver for making headpins. With Argentium, I use basically the same process, except I used the tiniest little bit of flux on the wire end where I’m making the ball. If you use too much flux, you’ll have flux residue, which has to be removed, but if you use just enough, you’ll end up with a nice looking head pin that doesn’t require clean-up at all. If the wire above the ball gets slightly discolored, quickly passing the flame over the discolored part will usually turn the wire silver again.

With regular sterling silver, there is always some clean-up involved, unless you are going for the oxidized (black metal) look. I don’t bother with flux, and start by following the same process as for fine silver. You end up with a head pin that has a very blackened end. This can be cleaned up by soaking in pickle, or by using an abrasive to polish off the oxidation. I like to use a piece of a green kitchen scrubber sponge to polish off most of the oxidation, leaving a slightly rough look. If I want my headpins to be perfectly shiny, I don’t usually use sterling, since it’s easier to get nice shiny head pins with fine silver or Argentium, but if you want clean and shiny sterling head pins, use pickle to remove oxidation, and then toss the finished head pins in a tumbler with stainless steel shot and water for a few minutes.

You can also make head pins by bending the end of a piece of wire into a nice looking shape, such as a spiral. All you need for this method are some pliers and a little practice bending the wire into the shape you want without marking it. When I make head pins this way, I like to lightly hammer the shape I’ve made to harden the wire a little bit.

Jewelry 101: Flux

Posted by Leah on Jul 19, 2007

I’m writing a series of short articles on jewelry making basics, called Jewelry 101. You can click on Jewelry 101 under “categories” in the right-hand column to see all the articles (this one is the first). Even if you aren’t interested in making your own jewelry, it might be interesting to learn a little bit about the basic tools and processes I use to create jewelry. Now, on to my first topic: flux.

Flux is a liquid or paste applied to metal when heating the metal. There are many different kinds of flux on the market, and they all work for different temperature ranges. In jewelry making, when using a torch to solder or fuse metal, it is important to get a flux that is intended for use at very high temperatures. This means that flux sold for use with soldering irons probably will not withstand the amount of heat a torch gives off, so make sure that the flux you buy is appropriate for use with a torch.

Flux protects silver from firescale while heating, and prevents oxidation of metal. It is always used when soldering, as the solder will not flow properly if flux is not applied to the solder & the area it should flow into. Flux can be applied with a paintbrush, and should be applied before heating the metal. As you heat the metal with your torch, the flux will bubble and then start to look glassy. If you notice that some of the metal is not covered with flux, you might want to add a little more and then re-heat the metal.

Flux is almost always used when heating sterling silver, whether soldering, fusing, or annealing, because it helps prevent firescale from forming. It is not necessary to apply flux to fine silver when heating it, since fine silver does not get firescale. However, if fine silver is being joined with silver solder, you should apply flux to the solder and the spots that will be joined with solder.

With Argentium sterling silver, some people don’t use flux except for soldering, while some people also use flux for fusing. It is not necessary to use flux when annealing Argentium. In my personal experience, a tiny bit of flux (less than I’d use with regular sterling silver) helps a lot if I’m fusing or making ball-end headpins with Argentium.

Flux is also used when soldering gold. Since I have limited experience soldering gold, I won’t comment more on that right now. If you want to use silver solder to solder copper, using more flux seems to help, since copper oxidizes easily.

I use liquid flux. A brand I like is Batterns, and I also like a very similar product called My-T-flux. Some jewelers prefer to use a paste flux, but I find that it’s harder for me to see what I’m doing if I use paste flux. Whatever you decide, I recommend buying flux from a jewelry supply company - and make sure you get one that is intended for use with a torch. I’ve heard that people have had success making a paste flux from denatured alcohol and borax, but I’ve never tried this myself.

After you complete your soldering/fusing/annealing, you might notice that there is some glassy flux residue all over the metal. This can be removed by soaking the metal in an acidic solution known as pickle. I’ll be writing about pickle in a future article, so stay tuned!

Scrap Pendant

Posted by Leah on Jun 14, 2007

I made this pendant from scrap sterling silver, with a few freshwater pearls added. One thing that is really nice about working with metal is that it is easy to reuse scraps. In this case, I had some half-round sterling silver wire in a size that I just don’t use. I’m not really sure why I bought it originally, but it had been sitting around my studio for quite a while. So, I sculpted it & fused it with my torch until I was mostly happy with the look, then added pearls to contrast with the rough look of the semi-melted silver.

This piece took a while to complete because there wasn’t an obvious place to attach a bail, but with some small alterations, I was able to add the wire bezel shown in the picture.