Interview with Darren Wallace, who designs and creates 9ct gold and sterling silver jewellery continued.

Mother Natures Gifts Of Gold and pearl.
Double sided pendant

Why would you suggest jewellery making as a craft for someone looking for a new hobby?

Jewellery unlike other craft forms doesn’t require a high cost outlay. The jewellery medium also doesn’t necessarily have to be a high cost such as the gold or silver that I use. It can be glass, leather, ceramics, beads, stainless steel, copper enameling or what ever.

The ability to make jewellery is independent of age and technical skill. There are so many entry levels that jewellery encompasses from the low cost basics of gluing bell caps onto tumbled stones, to copper enameling, right through to the other end of the spectrum of fully designing, setting, making and finishing every element in the piece.

Jewellery making allows the maker to produce a finished item with what ever skills set they currently have. For other crafts you sometimes need to be experienced with all facets of the process before you can produce your first piece.

Today jewellery suppliers stock most items that will enable you to finish the jewellery piece even if you have technical problems with any particular part of the process. For example, I have a lovely stone at home that I would love to set myself, but I’m not confident in making bezels. In this case, a jewellery supplier, will stock a full array of settings complete with bezels to suit the stone size or you can buy a single pressed metal bezel at a relatively low cost. There is also a wealth of information on the internet with 3 minute videos showing how to. Youtube have 3 minute videos showing the 3 step process in making bezels.

You can learn and grow with the jewellery craft at your pace, cost and leisure. There are also numerous short term TAFE courses available on various aspects of jewellery making. Local gem clubs conduct jewellery courses and it is a wonderful way of meeting people with common interests.

The important aspect of jewellery making for me is the self expression, the satisfaction of creating objects of beauty using my hands, the relaxation and escaping to a peaceful zone along the experience of having met some fascinating and wonderful people as a result of this hobby.

Solid sterling silver pendant and neck wire

Do you have any advice for someone that might be interested in starting jewellery making?

For people that are planning on starting jewellery making, you need to firstly identify “what it is you want to get out of jewellery making”. The term jewellery making is very broad and there are hundreds of different jewellery disciplines and mediums in which to work. For most people, the desire to make jewellery has come from having previously purchased a piece or having seen it in a shop, market or gallery.

If you have already defined what jewellery type, style and medium you want to work in, before you commit, research the craft. Borrow books on your craft, identify the costs, the technical skill level required, uniqueness, sales and market potential if applicable, availability of materials and most importantly the craft scope. If the detail of this review matches your initial response to “what is it you want to get out of jewellery making” then you are on the right track.

For the first two or three project pieces , it’s important to get runs on the board so choose a simple design to start with as it will more than likely be a success and a wonderful learning experience. Too often people new to jewellery making, choose a difficult and ambitious first off project, one that they may have seen in a magazine, involving intricate processes possibly beyond their current technical capability and in making the piece, it all becomes too hard and the end result is scrap. There is so much more to be learned by walking before you run.

If you’re not sure on how to plan your first two or three projects, I'd like to share with you the way I went about it. The advantage of this planning format is that it can be applied to any craft using any medium. To plan your first jewellery project you will need to firstly sketch your idea or design on paper. Keep it simple. Under your prepared sketch, make a list of the processes you think you will need to perform to make the piece. For the purpose of this exercise I choose to make a simple curved wire pendant with sterling silver as the medium. The operations I think I need to use are:

(1) Cut the silver wire square on each end and to the correct length.
(2) Curve the shape of the wire to the design sketch.
(3) Solder a jump ring at the back of the wire to provide a hanging arrangement.
(4) Pickle the piece to remove flux residue after soldering.
(5) Remove and abrade any sharp edges on the ends and surface of the wire.
(6) Apply 925 stamp to the piece.
(7) Polish

Having completed the operations list 1 to 7, add two columns to the right of this list. Use the first column to list what tools you will need to use for each of the 7 operations. The tool list that you establish will be very different depending on the medium you choose to work in. Use the third column to identify what raw materials you need, length, width, diameter and type for the 7 operations. You have now created a three column plan on what needs to be done to make the item to your sketch along with the materials you will need to purchase and a summary of the tools needed to complete the job. Your vision is now clear.

Simplicity

I also recommend for the first two or three projects to buy extra material that can be used for process trails. It’s imperative to familiarise yourself with the processes you need to perform. By performing each of the operations firstly on a piece of extra material, the processes can be change to give a better result before being applied to the production piece.

In jewellery making, there are specialty tools made for just about every operation. Because they are specially designed so to is the cost. There are lower cost generic tools that will do 9 out of the 10 operations you may have planned. To keep the costs down, only buy the tools that you need. As you become more experienced you may elect to expand into speciality tooling or even modify existing tools to suit your operational requirements.

Can you describe your work space?

I work from home in two locations.

The first area is the study room which has been set up for creating wax models used in my floral designs. I shut myself away in this room with classical music and let the hours pass and creative juices flow.

I also have a small workshop that has been set up for the sole purpose of jewellery making. The work space has two large bench areas. The first bench, being a clean area, is used for designing, setting and final product finishing. The second bench is for sawing, soldering, filing and forming. I hang most of my tools on a rotary stand which is a great space saver and provides quick and easy access to the tools.

What are the two craft tools you could not live with out?

In producing wax models you require a waxing pen. The pen is used to join, carve and shape wax. Without the pen free form designs would not be possible.

The second tool and probably the most essential tool to a jeweller is a flexible drive. A flexible drive is a rotary tool used for cutting, grinding and polishing jewellery pieces.

Jewellery interview continued on next page
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