All articles filed in December 2007

     I wanted to make a meaningful Christmas present for a younger family member.  My mother had given me my Grandmother’s  silver plate and  said that it would be OK if I made jewelry out of it.  I took two teaspoons and heated them until they were cherry red with my lamp working torch.  After letting them cool, I clamped them into a vise and sawed off the handles with my jeweler’s saw.  I filed off the rough edges and drilled holes in both ends of each handle.  I shaped the pieces with a rubber covered mallet and a form made to hammer out dents in cars.  Then I threw the handles in the pickle pot to clean off most of the fire scale.  Next, I used a wire brush attachment in my drill to clean off the rest of the dirt and shine them up.  I filed around the rough edges of the holes I’d drilled and went over the handles with steel wool before polishing them with muslin buffing wheel and rouge.

          I assembled the pieces with jump rings I’d made previously, and a lobster clasp.  When I don’t solder jump rings, I like to make them oval shaped with the cut on the side because they are stronger and less likely to pull apart which is important for a bracelet.  I was going to put a lamp-worked bead dangle on the front with a wrapped loop.  I ended up using the dangle you see in the picture-an  odd earring belonging to my mother. 

          I have a full set of my Grandmother’s silver plate and a ton of ideas for using it to make jewelry.  What about a ring or bracelet for my maternal girl cousins?  That’s a thought.  It would be a good way to share the silver plate with the family. 

          Yesterday, my Mother was telling me about the wonderful Christmas dinners  my Grandmother  cooked years ago.  I imagine they enjoyed more than one with the spoons I used on this bracelet.  I never knew my Grandmother.  The picture of her below must have been taken when she was 16  or so, which would make it circa 1900.

Emma Peterson Montgomery