Working on texturing techniques I thought it was time to revisit metal fusing again

So whilst waiting for my artisan stamps to arrive from America, my mind turned to playing and experimenting with diffrent ring shank textures.

I thought this was a good time and opportunity to revisit the metalsmithing technique of metal fusing.

Since my last attempt, which you can check out on my blog post Well that did not go as planned, I have watched a number of You-tube videos and IG demos, to see where I went wrong, and concluded its the tumbler stage is where I went wrong.

Feeling super confident, possibly over-confident, I created a UK size R sterling silver ring shank strip, cleaned it up slapped on copious amount of flux before applying a liberall amount of some of the sterling silver dust I had collected from filings of other settings, and other offcuts, as I wanted a very knobbly texture.

This may have been my first mistake in the process, but hey ho in for a penny in for a pound and all that!

I created a platform so that I could heat the metal strip from underneath, so that the metal filings would fuse to the larger metal  piece purely due to the heat.

This is quite a delicate balancing act of heat control, as you need the main metal piece to be hot enough to fuse the metal dust to it, without it actually melting.

And the fact that I am not the most patient of people and I my inner pyromanic just whats to turn up the blow torch full blast and have the process done already.

After numerous firings, I'm super proud of myself, that I have managed to achieve the texture effect I wanted.

The next stage was to create the the ring shank, and itt was while I was shaping the ring shank that it became apparent, that I had not applied an even amount of metal dust as bits started to flake off.

I thought the best way to proceed, was to carry on forming the ring and when soldering add the molten metal that flaked off.

Well as it turned out this wasn't that successful!!!

On to plan B which was to drench the outside of the ring in flux and colver the whole piece in silver dust:

Handcrafted recycled sterling silver fused ring

And it back to firing with the blow torch ensuring that I don't melt the ring, but at this point, I'm begining to think how cool would the ring look if there was some molten edges?

After each firing I check to see how stable the fusing is, before refiring, and once I was finally happy with the end result, I put it in the pickle.

Now in my previous attempt at this stage I would have thrown it into the tumbler to get all nice and shiny, which resulted in my loosing all the fusing, so lesson learned, I used some fine snad paper to smooth off the rough  edges, and used various grits of sandpaper to create a super shiny ring interior:
 

Handcrafted recycled sterling silver fused ring

I really love the final effect that i have achieved with this ring, and with any new process and/or innovations you always learn what works and what not to do.

This metalsmithing technique has me excited for how I can apply it to other ring designs, and with most designs a designer always need to know when the design has been complete, rather than doing more to it.

I'm in 2 minds at the moment whether this is the final ring design, or whether I shoulg do more to elevate it:
 

Handcrafted recycled sterling silver fused ring

Although I would say that when I design jewellery I do not specifically design for woman, I do like to think that my pieces of wearable art is accessible to everyone, and I have to say that in this case the ring is definitely unisex, which may well appeal to males:

 

Handcrafted recycled sterling silver fused ring

Silver is a precious metal, which aids in increasing ones perception, regulates emotional and intuitive energies

It is said that Silver creates strong connections between the physical and astral bodies, and can act as a mirror to the soul, thus allowing one to stimulate viewing oneself from outside of the body.

In conclusion, I think I will start playing around with thinner width rings, so that its not so chunky and patinas, to see how this method changes the colour contour, and maybe adding copper dust to silver sheet to see how the fusing works between 2 distinct metals, with copper having the higher melting point.

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April 14, 2023

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