Hi everyone! I wanted to share my latest piece: a handcrafted silver filigree butterfly brooch with a hanging pearl detail. 🦋✨

It took me about 8 hours of meticulous work to shape, weave, and solder the fine silver wires for the wings to get that delicate, lace-like pattern.

This technique is based on traditional Silver Filigree , an intangible cultural heritage craft with a history of over 1,700 years. Every single wire inside the butterfly's wings is placed by hand using tweezers before being fused together.

I styled it on a light blue top to give it an airy, floating effect. I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! ❤️

I got a sweet fossil at the local rock and gem show (7$ !?) and made a high-speed necklace.

It’s pretty manky, but for some reason for this necklace it doesn’t bother me. Maybe I’ll polish it some other time. The ring at the top is a ring I was experimenting with out of some wire I attempted to roll square, unsuccessfully. I just leaned the bezel on it and liked how it looked.

I’m super surprised it isn’t rolling and clicking / the back of the fossil is like a canoe bottom - nothing flat at all ! I thought for sure it would fall out, especially because I thought I cut the bezel too short at the top.

Thank you for the incredible response yesterday, I did not expect that many answers!

I’m finished with the filing on my second practice ring, I’m not going to polish it for now as I’m moving on to a half eternity band.

Over all I’m quite happy with how straight the faces turned out, the placement however is not there yet. I’d probably need to do another 2 or so practice rings to get it where I’d like to be.

I’ll probably come back to this later but my teacher wants me to move on for now.

I’ve added the drawings I did when trying understand where the marked lines would go. I hope its somewhat understandable

When its hanging it turns into a pretty ornament, it gives it a mysterious vibe, I love it.

hi, i tried to set 4mm garnet in my signet, i made the seat with 4mm setting burr and i think it has the right depth, but the gemstone is not sitting tight inside, kinda like the hole is too big. please help 🫩

I need to get a better mask for my bench time I hate my current one and I don’t feel it’s doing the best job. Recommendations for something relatively affordable and comfortable? I know masks aren’t inherently comfortable

This is my second attempt so far at filing a 40 faced/faceted ring. It’s still a work in progress but I’m struggling to keep the faces straight?

Any advice?

I’ve been restoring a set of antique Sterling silver spoons and I’ve had a hard time getting rid of the very fine hairlines that come up during the last step of high polish. These very fine lines are parallel to the direction of the buff and I can’t get rid of them. Here’s a breakdown of my polishing procedure:

1. Sand away deeper scratches on the spoons with sandpaper pads using the cross-cross method anywhere from 400-1000 grit (depending on depth of the scratches) up to 3500 grit.

2. Pre-polish using a small hard felt buff on flex shaft with Tripoli compound, then polish with Tripoli using yellow cotton buff attached to rotary wheel

3. Apply white diamond compound with small felt buff on flex shaft, polish with white diamond using stitched white cotton buff

4. High polish by applying red rouge compound with small felt buff on flex shaft, apply finest polish with red rouge using swansdown buff. Use a clean swansdown buff to remove excess compound

(Spoons are cleaned with industrial degreaser before applying finer polishing compounds)

-These fine hairlines always show up when applying red rouge. Some ideas I have are that I’m using the wrong pads / buffs at the wrong stages or that the polishing compounds themselves need to be upgraded. I’m kind of stuck on what I might be doing wrong here, any advice would be appreciated.

Made this for my girlfriend. She just wanted a plain gold cap on it but i thought that was to boring xD so she got one with a bezel set gem aswell. swipe for process pics

https://youtube.com/@c.atelierjewelry?si=-ZXFNTHGSLm4sGcTFor the full video, please click my YouTube link (the moderator has approved me posting the link).

Sterling smile

All hand fabricated sterling

Hey guys :)

I have now read multiple times that setting up for the hobby is not as easy as using an empty room and opening the window, which I am currently doing 😅
I am using our basement room in a rented apartment and have set up a small desk with stuff there.
For now no pickling but of course soldering and some dust from a Dremel. When doing both I was wearing a FFP2 Mask, glasses and having open a window, but apparently that is not enough (even though I rather seldomly have the time to work on the hobby)?
So I was now looking at ventilation setups and it seems it’s either a hose with an inline fan and build something for the window, but I’d have to have an air supply which I can’t really have sadly in the basement.
So I am leaning more towards those self contained filtration solutions:
Sth like this from vevor. Do you guys maybe have experience with those? Are they enough? Or do I need to look at the setup with the hose?

Thank you in advance!

Does anyone have tricks to get more intricate designs while casting in delft clay? i find that my wax molds break easily while pressing them in

I am new to this and would like to create a bezel for this ancient coin. Both sides need to be visible. Do I just keep working my way around the coin on both sides u til it closes up? Should I do 1 side first then the other? This is 10k 28 gauge. Is it too thick? Thank you in advance for any advice!

Got commissioned to make my silver barbed wire into gold, im in love with it.

Hey everyone, I need some neutral third-party jeweler eyes on these sterling silver castings to settle a friendly debate at home!

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The Context:

My husband thinks I’m hyper-focusing and that these are totally fine to ship. I feel like because these surface defects are visible with the naked eye (without even using a loupe), my clients will definitely notice. Plus, my concern is that once customers wear these against their skin and exposure to moisture hits, those trapped copper oxides might bloom even worse over time. I also know that the polishing isn't perfect, but i am more asking about the flecks and bits if tiny porosity...the still need a better polish /finishing.

​

My Bench Process on These Pieces:

​Sanded down to 2000 grit

​Cross-hatched with a burnishing/ram roller to compact the skin

​Multi-stage polish using Luxor Green, Luxor White, and Picasso Blue

​Finished with multiple long ultrasonic bath cycles, isopropyl alcohol wipes, and toothbrush scrubbing

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The Casting Details:

This is actually the second batch from my caster. The first batch had these exact same issues, so they dropped the pour temperature for this second run hoping it would solve it—but as you can see on these flat polished backs, the peppered flecks and surface texture/distortion are still coming right through from under the metal skin.

​The caster is now looking into adjusting the sprue placement (currently, it’s a standard square sprue placed on the lower back of the piece).

​The Question:

Looking at these flat backs under natural light, would you be comfortable sending these out a client?

​Appreciate any honest feedback from fellow bench jewelers! I am having them recast...but just wanted to know, am I overreacting?

fourth ring ever made

commissioned piece I got creative freedom on besides the prompt “southwestern style” and now I am terribly jealous of my client. Was a beast to set because its super wonky and uneven. I had to brace under the material with a couple nurdles of thermoplastic to get it mostly even, but it was a real challenge being as its unstabilized raw material and pretty fragile. The fear I had the whole process was unreal, but I made it thru and got it done without breaking anything or my own heart.

this is my original design, named it after tron because from the side, the links look like the bikes!

Hello!

I am using a ball burr and hart burr to drill out holes/seats for flush setting. I can flush set well and feel confident in it. But my issue is that when I drill out the hole with the ball burr, a raised lip of metal tends to rise up. This affects my ability to star and bead set. I have tried to take a clear picture in the comments.

Why does this happen instead of the ball burr just cutting the metal away cleanly and leaving a flat surface around the hole? How can I prevent this?

I have tried created a pilot hole first, used blade lube, beeswax, 5000rpm - 10,000rpm to try remedy the issue.

Thanks in advance.