Week 4 and last in this series. This week it’s forging turning the recycled silver into wire.

Lots of heavy tools and machinery this week. Using my rolling mill and hammers and a lot of elbow grease to forge and shape the silver into wire to make rings.

I began with the usual melting of the silver, but just before I quench I use my wide brass tweezers to flatten the sides creating more of an oblong shape to the nugget.  Once quenched and pickled I start rolling it through the mill.  I begin with the largest wire grove and then work it through to the next size with lots of heating to anneal in between until it gets down to about 2.5mm.  Quick heat, quench and clean then onto the next stage.

Once I have nice clean square wire I begin to forge, essentially hitting it with a heavy hammer to flatten, this also widens the wire.  I finish off this part of the process in the rolling mill to get a nice even depth to the wire, usually around 1mm. 

Once this stage is complete it’s a final heat, quench and clean then I have a usable piece of wire.  For the rings I have rounded the ends and stamped along the entire length. Finally shaped around a ring mandrel, polished and a little enamel added to the stamped shapes.

I hope you have enjoyed my month of recycling silver and seeing the process.

 

MaxPring
Hello and a very warm welcome to Max Pring Jewellery, here you will find a range of hand crafted artisan jewellery and accessories.My passion is for metal, I use mainly Silver alongside a little Gold, Copper and Brass. The main thing I love about metal is that it's so versatile, you can melt it, hammer it, bend it, stamp it, shape it, fuse it, add stones to it and if that's not enough you can texture it, paint it, heat it, etch it and polish it too.  You will see the majority of these techniques used in my work as I do love to play!. I find my inspiration from the lush Welsh countryside<em>, </em>living near Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valleys I have beautiful views across the rolling hills and a wildlife reserve just down the road. There's also a lot of old industrial sites where nature has stepped back in, but you can find some really old interesting textures and patterns on abandoned machinery so I'm never short of inspiration.I try to provide a range of items from simple designs that I make time and time again such as my wrap bangles and scarf rings alongside personalised items and one off artisan pieces, perfect if you like a little something different or want to give a gift with meaning.

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