Old School Soldering Method

600 years ago the old masters would bind up pieces of silver or gold, place pallets of solder at stategic locations, then put the entire piece into a hot kiln. 

Here we have 3 strands of 10 gauge copper wire bound up with steel wire.  

Numerous soft silver pallions are placed in the stream between the wires. Copper solder would be easier, but its brittle and will crack under forging. Also, very little solder is needed.  The intention however is to create a visible silver channel between the wires. 

A beautiful red flame patina us achieved. The color of the flame patina is affected by atmospheric conditions. Tonight is a low pressure front coming in. It produces a deep red. I am not sure if we will be able to maintain this color throughout successive firings as we forge the bracelet  

Let's mill it down a bit to flatten the wire.  

One pass gives the piece some authority.  

Also use the mill to put a dip and a taper at the ends. The milling has extended the metal out to 6 1/2 inches, the desired length. 

I filed the ends then begin forming it around this cool bracelet mandrel. I'll work it up to the smallest wrung the back it up at least one size 

And this is what I come up with. Now it needs to be signed, dated and sealed.  

Wabi-Sabi

The beauty of industrially produced objects lies in its uniformity. For three hundred years the expectation of quality has been associated with machine-produced refinements. Even today, the “high-tech” aesthetic influences design. Even as this industrial aesthetic has dominated design for centuries, a counter movement can be traced back to the late eighteenth century interest in ruins and the late 19th century medievalist revival. The Arts and Crafts movement sprang from the aesthetics of Pre-Raphaelitism . The governing aesthetic in jewelry design remains the industrial. However, there is a significant world-wide reaction the nu-natural in jewelry design. The result is an aesthetic which leaves the imprint of the human hand on the finished work.

Kiff Slemmons, a Chicago artist-jeweler, wonders about imperfection and its impact on art in an essay that appears in Metalsmith Magazine (Vol 28, No 1, pp 26-29).

"The beauty of imperfection, its pull on our conscious as well as sensual engagement, is not always recognized for its positive attributes. This is particularly true in the more narrowly defined realm of craft, where perfection is the ultimate achievement. But sometimes the most perfectly executed object lack vitality and their impact ends quickly after this acknowledgment….

"Imperfection can offer openness; in a way, whereas perfection can sometimes be closed and frozen in place. Imperfection can certain energy—can make for flow. Perhaps imperfection is most obvious and easily understood in outsider or folk art, in which the expressive qualities are spontaneous and immediate."