Chevron Mens Ring- 22 carat gold

Ulno in The Storm

A pair of Ulno bangles for Ebony.

Gold and Iron.

There was a terrific/terrible storm here, so I went outside under the eave and photographed these in the strange light. Then the hail drummed out a fearful tattoo on the tin.

Finito

Finished native gold rings, in the Proven Goodness style.
Quite simple- but its all about the texture, folks.
I make hammers with specially textured faces, then tap all over the surface, about one million times. 

Love and Paper

A recent commission for his and hers 22k gold wedding bands. Congratulations R and J- Best wishes to a beautiful couple!

The brief was kind of challenging; crinkled paper texture on the surface, but thicker than actual paper and both rings to be cut from the same block (but different finger sizes...). I began by making a textured strip, parted that into two widths, then bent up the rings from those.

And then the join....! Now, how would you make an invisible join with an irregular texture? What I did was make a scarf joint, cut on a steep angle, which meant that the join had an irregular line on the face of the ring, that gets hidden in the crinkley texture. The solder used was ≈20k gold, with a slightly higher copper-to-silver ratio for a near-invisible colour match. ( I was not game to try fusion here- the texture would get melted...) The soldering had to be super-careful and the amount precisely judged, because I would not be able to clean up any excess from the face of the ring without damaging the texture...
Can you picture that?
No, its near-invisible.

this time, gold

Ulno Bangle, now available on my webshop.

I dared myself—to make a gold bangle- as simply as possible.
For some reason, sometimes it takes courage just to do something simply- I worry that it may not be 'enough'.
But here, I think it is. Something beautiful and robust that you could wear everyday.
Let me know if you'd like one.

And for some reason, when I try to make something simply, it often takes much longer than I think!
In this case I tapered the wire very slightly, 1mm at the terminals, 1.5mm at the nadir- just for a bit of subtle dynamics. I did this by rolling the wire between massive slabs of iron, at a slight angle. This tapering could be achieved with a hammer, I suppose, but would result in a more planished look (planes of hammer-marks)- and besides I wanted to try the massive slabs. 

Yes, I know, Beads

Not what we usually would do at The Neale Workshop (is that what I'm calling it now?)...

But when someone asks for gold beads... I say yes.

22k and Lapis Lazuli- a knockout combination- tres Egyptienne!

Thanks to Dougal for his assistance. 

Now to string them. Might ask Alice to do that bit.

Proven Goodness

Provenance-where something comes from- can be very important.

In the case of gold, much serious degradation of the environment occurs in the mining process.

I was talking this over with an old school friend, Mark, who had approached me about custom-making  his wedding band. We decided that it would be best if we could make his ring from local gold nuggets- that we found ourselves, taking care not to do irreparable damage in the process- to seek, but not destroy. After two arduous but memorable prospecting episodes, we hadnt found anywhere near enough to make the whole ring. With the wedding date looming, I decided to get help from a supplier of local Victorian gold nuggets, who fixed us up with enough gold, all of which was found by small-scale detectorists.

Gold- as it occurs in nature, is seldom 100% pure- it will often contain traces of silver for example, and is known as native gold. Native gold from Victoria's golden triangle region is some of the richest in the world, typically assaying above 95% purity- about 22-23k.

Here's what I did with it... and if I may say so my friends, this is a wedding ring par excellence...

These are the natural nuggets. That small one above is a piece we found ourselves ( greatly magnified!)

Firstly, I removed all the quartz I possibly could.

Then, melted the nuggets in a groove carved into a charcoal block, forming a simple ingot.

(remember?)

The ingot is beaten out, gradually approaching the desired dimensions.

Mark requested a band 9mm wide and 2mm high, so care is required to keep to the specifications.

...it gradually gets better and better...

Mark wanted his band to look handmade- but not too rough or crazy- just "not like a piece of machinery". To achieve this aesthetic, I endevoured to keep my method very restrained- to only use hammers, both to forge the shape, and to achieve the surface finishing. No machines, no abrasives.

No material will be removed.

The bend begins. I had initially thought I would solder the join, and have to make up my own high-karat solder- but then... I thought, NO- I'll FUSE it. To solder is to join by melting a less pure alloy into the joint- which leaves a visible line of another colour. Fusion involves melting the joint on itself- a seamless, invisible join. The difficulty of fusion is that you have to get the whole piece up to almost-melting temperature... then just-melt the join– you could melt the whole thing! Its a bit nerve-wracking.

You can see in this photo how the whole ring is red hot- and the surface is just starting to 'swim'; to go liquid. Danger! But, this risk of total destruction is part of the romance of goldsmithing, gentle reader. Commitment is required. The smith makes himself vulnerable.

This makes me think of marriage, naturally; for good fusion you have to melt yourself a little bit.

Perfectly fused! But hmm... it looks a little droopy, no?

Its just this shape becuase I did a 'scarf' joint (big overlap) for maximum surface contact.

Don't fret- its getting better and better.

Next, I forge and forge and forge, with my hammer, stretching the ring to size 'U' on the mandrel, and perfecting the shape.

To get the soft, ancientish surface texture was a matter of damping the face of the steel hammer.

After a thousand and one hammer taps, we have arrived.

The weight is astonishing.

The lustre is celestial.

The provenance is without reproach.

The band is seamless, the simple methodology has dignified integrity.

Wear it well, Mark- 'tis a beauty.

and oh... if you need one of these, or something with the same attention to all the considerations; now you know who to ask... everyone should have their own Goldsmith.

The Making of Wire

Ancient way of making wire:

1.Bash out a blob of gold into a flat sheet, ( use a smooth rock for an anvil)

2.Chisel off a strip, ( A stone chisel is ideal (!))

3.Roll strip between two hard surfaces- (perhaps two stone blocks)

The strip will roll/twist into a round wire.

So thats what I did. ( see gold earrings above on green)

(actually, I used clay bricks instead of rocks. And a steel chisel. Sorry)

The result:

grosso modo ma bella!

Drawn wire (the current typical method of wire production) is passé!

Well, its very predictable anyway.

Still the history is also interesting. (WARNING: goldsmithing geekiness ahead)

Theophilus' Treatise (early 12th Century) is thought the first technical description of wire drawing.

A solid rod of metal is pulled through a series of conical holes in an iron block,to make thinner and longer.

A page of Theo's ramblings in german, in case you didn't follow my description.

AD 1389. the first illustration of wire drawing? ( Mendel Bros.)

Workshop of 1576. Note the draw-table with crank wheel (apprentice-powered) on the left. Different draw plates on the wall. Drooby hats and hosiery for all. (Stephanus)

1698. The illustration is more sophisticated, but the wire-making is essentially the same. This wire-drawing workshop has a nice wheeled draw-table, and... drooby hats. No puffy shouldered tunics though. (probably for the best )

Note draw plates on floor. (Weigel)

Historical info from here

Andrew Oddy (British Museum)

OK!

Yawn.

Gold Leafy Ring

Ring, 22k Yellow Gold. David Neale.

The-curled-leaf-idea, an oldy, true, but a goody.

FAQ: Do you cast real plants?

A: No, I make the models from metal; the textures etc are all hand work. I think of them as 'sketches' of life...

( And...Gold is very tricky to photograph! Its rich lustre is so elusive... and I cant seem to get any depth of field with my macro. Time for a new camera?)