No, not that kind of investment. I mean the super-fine casting powder that can be used when casting lost wax figures that are then melted out in a kiln and metal is poured into the void.

And no, I’m not doing that, either. For one thing, I don’t have a kiln. But investment can also be used in a soldering technique where you put delicate, fiddly pieces of a setting together on some plasticine, then form a barrier around them and pour on a layer of investment. Once the investment, which can take incredibly high temperatures, is bone dry you turn it over, peel off the plasticine, and the jewelry parts remain in the investment and are ready to be soldered together on the bottom.

This has two benefits:

1. I don’t have to hold my breath while putting together fiddly bits or worry about bumping something out of alignment.
2. Soldering everything on the bottom keeps the top looking clean and pristine and means a lot less cleanup for me.

I’m going to make up some bracelet links this weekend with this method and see how well it works. I think it’s going to make my job as a silversmith a lot easier.

This is a pendant I made for a friend and colleague who saw a golden rutilated quartz pendant I’d made as a giveaway and wanted to know if I could make her something similar.

So I found a stone she liked that was very similar to the first pendant, ordered it, and when it arrived I realized it was faceted (the first pendant had a smooth cabochon). Since facets really deserve prong settings I decided to make my first double gallery (that refers to the “basket” that the stone sits in) prong setting with V-shaped prongs, which were also a first for me.

After watching a LOT of instructional videos on YouTube I got to work. The galleries are made from 16g square wire with 16g spacers, then I created the V prongs for the ends. Why did it need V prongs, you ask? Because any stone with a pointy end on it like a marquise (the shape of this stone), pear, or square needs extra protection on the pointy corners to make sure they don’t get chipped. A V prong has a groove cut out for the girdle of the stone to fit into, plus an extra pocket burred out for the very tip of the corner that protects it from being banged around and chipped.

Said a prayer to Hephaestus and soldered on the V prongs and round prongs. To my delight nothing fell off or melted in the process so I trimmed everything, soldered on a jump ring and bail, polished off any extra solder, tumbled it in the burnisher, cut the grooves for the stone’s girdle and the pockets for the stone’s tips, then carefully seated the stone…

…and it popped right in without a problem. I tell you, I was shocked. I could have simply pushed in the prongs and rounded their tops but because this is a big ol’ stone I wanted the extra security of claws holding it in place along with the V prongs. The client has seen a picture and is happy with it, which is all that matters in the end.

But the really nice thing about this is that I can now make a setting for my teardrop moldavite (a forest green, olive green or blue greenish vitreous silica projectile glass that was formed by a meteorite impact in southern Germany and is considered a gemstone) and wear it as a pendant.

And no, I’m not going to show it to you. There’s the tiniest black spot under the nail plate next to the cuticle that is obviously an eensy clot and the tip of the finger is a bit tender, but that’s about it. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

And may I just say that trying to type with a band-aid over a fingertip is a royal PITA. I kept making I don’t know how many mistakes while I was working today, to the point where I finally yanked off the band-aid and went with a smaller one that just wrapped around the finger instead of going over the tip.

In other news I’m starting a commissioned piece that is going to be a number of firsts for me and has the potential to go dreadfully wrong. I’m building my first double gallery collet out of 16g square sterling wire, creating my first V prongs, and then I have to solder everything together without melting anything or causing any parts to drop off (because why make things difficult for myself when I can make them really, REALLY difficult).

That being said, I am going to order myself some investment (the super-fine Plaster of Paris-like mixture that can take very high temps and is used when casting fine jewelry) so that I can use a technique where I position setting parts on some plasticine, set up a barrier around them, pour investment over them, and when the investment is bone dry pull off the plasticine and solder the underside of the parts together. It’s a lot easier than shoving prongs into a soft charcoal block and praying that they stay in place while I solder them to a collet.

Or I can just buy some Hold It soldering clay. I dunno. But I do know there are easier ways to put together small, complex setting parts than the way I’ve been doing it.

Bench injury story—feel free to skip if injuries squick you.

So I was sawing some swirls out of a sterling silver spoon today (really ornate silver spoons are 1) surprisingly cheap and 2) great sources for decorative bits that I can use on jewelry) and the saw blade broke.

Now, this happens regularly—jeweler’s saw blades are very fine, less than a millimeter wide and a tiny fraction of that in depth. Unfortunately, this time the blade broke while I was bringing the saw down and I drove the upper blade fragment through the nail on my left middle finger, right next to the cuticle. Ow.

Since I’ve injured myself at the bench before I knew what to do. I squeezed the fingertip gently to get the wound bleeding freely (this helps flush out anything that might have been driven into the nail bed), washed it thoroughly, put on some of the good antibiotic ointment I got last year at the hospital, and bandaged it. It’s making typing a bit of a challenge but I think it should be okay—none of the saw blade got left in the wound. If it swells or turns funny colors I’ll head into the doctor and get them to look at it.

And yes, I had a tetanus shot five years ago so I’m good on that. I was talking about it with Lyndon later on and he said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but to be honest I’m surprised you don’t have more injuries from making jewelry.” It helps that I’m careful and precise, but sometimes things slip and you wind up slicing open a thumb or stabbing a nail. *shrugs* It happens.

I’m currently working on an exceptionally fun custom jewelry order. It’s a pendant that will hold a large marquise cut (oval with pointed ends) rutilated quartz that’s been faceted. I get to use prongs for it and make my own double gallery setting with V-shaped prongs on each end to hold the points securely. It’s complex but the result should be gorgeous, plus this is excellent practice for me in using prong settings.

That being said, I would kill or die for a real jeweler’s bench right now with the cutout and catch drawer because man, I am tired of dropping teeny things on the floor (like the bur container that came apart while I was bringing it down from a shelf and scattered the burs all over the floor. I still can’t find two of them). Dropping things, BTW, is a regular occurrence in every jeweler’s life, which is why the cutout and the catch drawer/sling were developed in the first place. But my bench is a regular workbench from Harbor Freight with a particleboard top screwed into a metal frame so I can’t even make a cutout myself.

Oh, well. I can dream. And keep an eye on local sales groups to see if I can pick up a used one. In case anyone wants to buy me an early birthday present, this bench would be ideal. And in the meantime I’ll keep plugging away on my Harbor Freight table (and keep looking for those last two burs).