Bracelet

So far I have worked on my bracelet twice and both times have gone pretty well. I started out with a long piece of silver wire. The wire was then put into a vice and wrapped around a metal bar to create twenty eight jump rings (pictured). I then had to take the jump rings and saw them so they were individual instead of one larger spring. This was fairly easy in the beginning, but once I got closer to the bottom, the spring was harder to hold and I kept sawing my fingers. The next step was to link the jump rings together and make it so they were touching perfectly on both sides. That got to be pretty difficult. I had to take two pairs of pliers and twist them back and forth until they meet perfectly which was difficult because the metal is so stiff. The last thing I did was solder each individual jump ring together. I plan on finishing my bracelet by this weekend. 

Luke Mendola's Presentation

Last week, all WISE students were required to attend Luke Mendola's sample presentation. Ms. Lord made it a point that it is not an EXAMPLE presentation but rather a SAMPLE presentation. I thought Luke's presentation went pretty well. He used to play the harmonica on the hockey bus and he was not very good at all so it was very interesting to see how far he has come in the sixteen weeks he had been working on his project. I definitely liked the way he structured his powerpoint and it definitely helped me outline how I want to create my presentation. He did a good job explaining how he got originally got involved with playing the harmonica but I wish that he had explained what he learned a little more. He also said that he learned a lot of new songs but he never went through and played any of them. Overall, only based on his presentation, I would give Luke a B+/A-.

Mentor Meeting May 23rd

This meeting with Mr. Johnson was by far the most eventful one we have had. We went through my entire project and created an outline of my presentation. The plan is to outline why I decided to work on jewelry as my project followed by a background of my Uncle Fareed and why and how he became a jeweler. Then, I will go through and describe my original proposal and what has changed since I originally made it. the biggest part of the project will be when I go over the process of making the pieces. I plan on going through and describing how I made each of the three pieces (I am not done with the bracelet yet) and the different obstacles I faced. Next, I plan on going over the successes of the project and the things I have learned as well as how I plan to use what I have learned in the future.

Red Flag 5

This week has had many ups and downs. Since last red flag class I made a Mother's Day pendant for my mother which had a heart shaped blue topaz stone set in it. This was much different from the ring because I actually had to free hand shape the mold of the pendant instead of being able to shape it with any round object. I learned how to make a heart using pliers to shape the metal. I also had to do a lot of filing which hurts my hands a lot because a stab myself every two seconds. 

My presentation is on June 5th at 3:45. I need to have my papers in by May 29th. I think the most important thing to get done with my papers is the research because right now I pretty much only have the people at the jewelry shop as resources. 

My goal for the coming week is to start my bracelet and hopefully finish it by the end of next week. 

Mentor Meeting May 15th

My mentor meeting with Mr. Johnson went pretty well today. I brought in my pendant and showed him what I had accomplished and shared with him how I made it. We went through the steps and I told him how it was a Mothers Day present. Other than that, today's meeting was pretty much just to set up what we were going to discuss the coming week. We decided that it would be best to go through my presentation plan and decide what I am going to say.

Mother's Day Success

After finishing my mother's pendant at about one in the morning on Saturday, I finally got the chance to give it to my mother on today. I waited until the whole family came home before I gave it to her and she loved it! She was incredibly surprised at how well it came out and how I got it done in only two days of working on it. I am incredibly happy that she was so satisfied with the piece despite it not being the design she asked for!

The Final Pendant

Here is the final pendant. It is much easier to explain the side pattern using a picture. If you look on the sides you can see where I filed the triangles and the round parts so that there was a nice design and it isn't just one solid piece of metal. I realized that I am very happy that my uncle made me use a heart shaped stone rather than a round stone because pushing me out of my comfort zone was actually a good thing. It made me challenge myself and realize that I can actually do it if I try hard enough.

Finishing the Pendant

      Tonight was very easy to work on my project because I could have my Uncle Fareed's full attention and no one else to bother us. I had to work at the Community Recreation Center until about 8:30 P.M. and when I got off the ice I had a phone call from my uncle. I called him back and he said since I have prom in the morning and mothers day is on Sunday, we should go into the shop and work on the project tonight.

     The last thing I had completed was soldering all the pieces together so they looked nice. The next step was filing down the sides so they are smooth and even with one another. I then had to go all the way through and sand the sides down so they were even smoother. I then had to set the stone. Setting the stone was very similar to setting the round stone other than the fact that they are different shapes. I simply set the stone in the center of the bezel and used the bezel roller to fold the sides over the stone. Lastly, I took the stone into the polishing room and polished it off so it looked nice and shiny and finally I was done with my second piece of jewelry!

Change of Plans

        Upon arrival to the workplace today, I was expecting to begin working on the bracelet like my uncle and I decided, but plans changed when my mother asked me to make her a pendant for mothers day so my uncle decided we should work on that. She told be she loved the ring and wanted a round bezel set stone with a chain that could go through the pendant. My Uncle Fareed asked me what I wanted to do, so I told him what my mom asked for and he thought it was a great idea. He took me into the giant walk in safe and asked me what stone I wanted to use. I told him that my moms favorite color is purple so I thought a nice amethyst stone would be nice. I also recommended a ruby because of her July birthday in which he thought were both excellent ideas. I left the vault for a minute to go and grab a drink of water and my Uncle Fareed followed me out with a box of heart shaped blue topaz stones.... not even close to what I was planning on using. He gave me a stone and told me we would use that instead of something round which made me a little frustrated because I knew it would push me out of my comfort zone, but I kept my cool.

       The first thing I had to do was take a sheet of metal and shape it into a heart. This was damn near impossible for me. I sat there for about an hour trying to shape the metal into a heart and I could not do it. I found myself getting so frustrated that every few minutes I would end up throwing the piece into the drawer and dropping the pliers that I was using to shape the metal out of frustration. Then my Uncle Marwan, the comedian of the family, showed back up to work and watched me only to laugh at my constant mistakes. Surprisingly this cheered me up a little because he was standing there laughing which made me realize how funny I actually looked from an outsiders perspective. Eventually, my Uncle Fareed came back to help me out and realized that I could not shape the silver into the heart. He was shocked that I couldn't do it and as he was telling me how easy it is and that I should be able to do it, he shaped the heart in about five seconds that would fit the stone perfectly.

       I then had to solder the heart shaped piece onto a flat metal sheet and saw out the shape of the heart for the bottom. Uncle Fareed told me to to file the sides of the metal sheet so that it was even all the way around but I misunderstood and filed all the way down to the original metal heart piece. this meant that we had to solder another flat metal sheet to the bottom. We then had to shape another heart shaped piece so it would match the original piece. This piece was used as the side. Next came the most tedious part of the entire pendant. I had to sit there, using a small triangular file, and file small triangles into the piece that we had shaped into a heart with about two millimeters in between. I then had to flip it over and solder small, round pieces into the other side of the metal so there was a nice design when I soldered the original piece that my uncle shaped to the filed piece. I had to have stabbed myself in the fingers ten times while trying to file this down. The last part of the solder work was adding when more heart shaped plate to the bottom of the pendant, that way the points from the filed triangles wouldn't poke the person wearing them. This was the last thing I did before leaving for practice.

Creating the Ring Step By Step

1- Get your metal and stone.
2- Measure the circumference and depth of your stone.
3- Cut a strip from a flat sheet of metal using the depth of your stone as the width.
4- Use rounded pliers to shave the metal into a circle as best as you can.
5- Place the stone in the top of the metal and cut the excess metal.
6- Solder the two sides together.
7- Put the soldered piece onto a mandrel (image attached) so it is on tight and will move.
8- Hammer the piece on the mandrel the it is round. Turn the piece over and hammer the other side so the whole thing is a circle. The bezel is now finished.
9- Use a piece of thick wire and shape it so it fits perfectly on the sides of the bezel using pliers to make it round.
10 - Once the thick wire (the shank) is somewhat rounded and is lying flat on the sides of the bezel, solder both sides.
11- Place the shank attached the the bezel on the mandrel and hammer until it is perfectly round.
12- At this point, the bezel is flat on the bottom so if you try to put the ring on, it won't fit. In order to make it fit, the bottom of the bezel needs to be filed down using a small round file so that it is well rounded with the shank.
13- Next, the inside and outside of the shank, as well as the bezel, need to be filed so they are smooth and even. This is done by using a rounded file on the inside of the shank and twisting side to side. Since the sides are flat, a flat surfaced file is used to smooth it out. Finally, a very small, fine file is used on the bezel in order to get in the smaller areas that way there is a smaller risk of mistake.
14. The next step is polishing. There are a few different attachments that are put on the polishing machine. First, a small rubber attachment is put on to smooth the inside of the shank, but be careful, this one gets very hot and can easily burn your fingers. The polishing disc is used next which is a soft pad that gets the outside of the shank, the sides, and the bezel.
14- After the ring is nice and shiny, it is time to set the stone. The stone is placed in the center of the bezel and then a bezel roller is used to press against the edges at about a 45 degree angle which pushes the sides of the bezel of the stone so barely covers the sides.
15- The final step of the ring making process is to go back and polish the ring once again to get it as shiny as possible so none of the marks are showing from the stone setting.

The Ring

This is the final ring! I couldn't have been more excited to get it done and see what I can do. I brought it around school and showed it off to all my friends and teachers and they were shocked at how well it came out. It is made out of sterling silver with a blue topaz stone. The bottom picture is of the bezel roller. The metal part is the piece that you press against the sides of the bezel. As you can see, it is slightly rounded so it is easier to move side to side against the bezel. 

Completed Ring

Today was a very eventful and very exciting one. I finally finished my first piece of jewelry! I didn't have much left to do when I walked into M.F. Abdulky today but the few things I did have were some of the hardest parts. First, I had to finish polishing the ring which gets incredibly frustrating because I keep burning my darn fingers from all the friction against the machine. The hardest part of the entire ring was next... setting the stone. My uncle seems to make me want to do everything the hard way so I had to use this device called a bezel roller that looked like it was about about forty years old. The way a bezel works is you sit the stone in the center and you fold the sites of the bezel of the stone so they are slightly overlapping. The bezel roller is what you use to fold the sides over. You place the metal part of the roller on the sides of the bezel and press as hard as you can and rock back and forth until you see the sides folding over. This was not a simple task because my hand was killing me about half way through from pushing so hard but eventually I got the sides to fold over well. Then, my uncle noticed the bezel was covering the stone a little more than we wanted, so he used a carving tool to remove the excess silver covering the blue topaz stone. Finally, I took the ring into the polishing room and polished it off so it was nice and shiny.

Red Flag Day 4

This week I have spent about 6 hours on my project so far and I hope to work more on Sunday. I worked on polishing my ring on Tuesday, but when my uncle found solder spots on the bezel, he made me restart. I once again reshaped the bezel into a circle and soldered it onto the shank. On Thursday, I filed the ring so it was nice and even, followed by starting to polish it and make it shiny.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday, I had to get fitted for my prom tux and completely forgot to see Mr. Johnson. But, I have been staying caught up on my journal creating about four this week. Class was different because Ms. Lord wasn't there so we all went around class and shared something about our project. I shared my gold bracelet because I plan on making a bracelet similar to the one I wear.

For the remainder of the week, I plan Togo in on Sunday and finish up my ring.

Progress

Today I returned to the shop and continued creating my ring. Some days a lot of work is done, and noticed, and I leave confident in myself, other days you do a lot of work, but it seems like nothing is done at all because nothing is added or looks too altered. Today was one of the days where it seemed like I did nothing. The main focus today was filing the ring so it was nice and smooth on each side and even as well. I had to flatten out the sides of the shank so they weren't uneven but it always seemed like I would create more and more nicks the were incredibly difficult to file out. I would sit the and file out when nick and then create new ones on accident. Once I evened out the bezel and shank, it was time to polish, but I ran out of time. I hope to return on Sunday, when it is just me and my uncle, to do more work and finish my ring.