Lots of Shiny Big Bones!

My new cuttlefish bones arrived and they are huge!

I finished the heart casting and it looks amazing.  It needs to be hallmarked though as it weighs over 8g.  I added a 4mm peridot stone to it.

Last night I decided to see if I could cast a ring in the cuttlefish bone.  I did it really quickly thinking it would not work but it did!  Looked odd but it is certainly easier to cuttlefish cast a ring than it is to sand cast one.  It seems to be easier to get the molten silver to flow right around the ring mould.

I tried pushing something into my bone and the bone snapped!  Need to do some research on that.

Anyway, the ring is in the tumbler and here are some photos of the process of the ring finishing.  I forgot to do photos of the actual casting as I was in such a rush.  The first one shows the ring after it has been pickled and with the sprue still attached. The second one shows the ring after sawing off the sprue and the third one is the ring after I had worked on it.  I think it will look good after it has been polished.  Maybe I will add a little gemstone to the top?  Not sure .......

Cuttlefish Bone Casting!

I have tried cuttlefish bone casting before, years ago and it was a big failure. I have a little more patience now so decided to give it a go.

I had some bones in my cupboard for ages, some I had bought and some that I found on the beach at Titchfield Haven not far from home.

I only had 3 bones that were big enough.  The first one I decided to take two bones and then sand them down and fit them together.  That did work but it was hard to get them to fit together.

I then decided to saw the other one in half.  This is where I had problems before and the bones broke.  This time it didn't break and it worked well.  Still some teething problems ie not using enough silver grains in my casting and the second one I made the sprue on the 2nd half too long so it lost some of the texture on my casting at the bottom.

None of this makes sense unless you know about casting!  I have ordered some more bones and when they arrive I will take some photos of my next effort to show you.  In the meantime here are my pieces.  I will use them to make something.  They both need hallmarking as they are pretty heavy.

I love the texture that you get from them.

New Silver Jewellery

www.lynettesilver.etsy.com

I have been making lots of new jewellery in the New Year!  I discovered freeform silver casting and I love it!

I have been teaching myself how to freeform cast silver over salt, spaghetti, pine sprigs and chickpeas.  My favourite at the moment is chickpeas or bean casting as its usually called.

You take a small empty clean can (I used a sweetcorn can) and fill it with dried chickpeas.  You then melt your sterling silver pieces in a crucible, and pour the molten silver over the chickpeas.  They smoke and smell a little so I open the back door to let the smoke out!

Then I tip the can in a bowl of cold water and look for the silver pieces.  The larger pieces have chickpeas stuck in the silver so I then have to winkle them out.  Small pieces can be used to make stud and drop earrings, bracelets, rings etc. and the larger pieces to make pendants.

Here are a few things that I have made through bean casting.