Good Gold Again

Folks sometimes ask me to take photos of their jewellery as it is being made. This makes for an interesting keepsake, I'm happy to oblige!

I never get tired of this task; take a spoonful of native gold nuggets, melt into an ingot, forge into wedding ring. Keep it earthy. Its good. Again. 

D'Este Fresco Sparrows

Flappy sparrows 

enlivening the dark corners 

of the frescoed walls

 of Villa D'Este.

Somehow like Brancusi's birds;

not because they are also birds,

and even though they aren't monumental...

Ouch

Iron & Gold Ring- from a scythe.

I cut this ring from the chine of a 19th century scythe blade.
I cold forged this to the desired thickness. This kind of old iron blackens easily- a good contrast to the 18k gold ball.
My method for making the ball (you can just buy them):
-calculate volume of gold req'd
-melt gold into a round cavity in a charcoal block
-attach this resulting crude sphere to a brass rod
-fasten rod in drill (voila: rudimentary lathe)
-turn on drill and file the sphere to perfection as it spins. Then cut off the rod.
-It looks a bit 'hard' and 'perfect' at this stage. To soften the perfection, I then rolled the sphere round and round between two marble slabs imparting a nice stone texture.
A little olde world scythe inspiration:

Zigzag

Rietveld Zigzag chair in progress, Montepulciano

Lapis Lazuli Lesssons

Gold and lapis lazuli beads.

Ur, souther Iraq. c.2600-2400BC

British Museum

Diadem. Southern Italy. c.250-200 BC.

Gold with lapis lazuli.This diffusion-bonded ornamentation is very tiny!

Note twisty wires (stone rolled), granulation (little balls) and

 the mark-out scribe-lines on the substrate. A mix of crude and virtuoso!

British Museum.

Raymond Templier 1934

Brooch. White gold, glass, lapis lazuli. 

V&A Museum.

Marco Zanini, 1983

Ring. Gold, coral and lapis lazuli

V&A Museum.

                                                Plinth, Lapis lazuli (or is it blue marble?). Musei Capitolini.

Roman(?) I assume gold and lapis lazuli (?)

Amazing flatness and patina to modulate the rich colours.

Musei Capitolini

Following the lessons;

Keep it simple, let the gold and lapis lazuli do the work...

 ~Here, little ring I made for someone (their design),

she has much daintier and better-looking fingers I'm sure!

Gold and lapis lazuli.