PepperBox Jewelry Company | Fine Jewelry, Custom Design, Jewelry Repairs

Chemical Romance

This is the short hand for a molecule named diethyl ether. A good customer of PepperBox wanted to get a pendant made for his valentine. Here is what happened.

diethyl ether

The recipient of this gift loves science, this is a picture of a pair of earring she owns that are modeled after the dopamine molecule.

Different design ideas were discussed.

Finally this design was chosen as it is simple and really showcases the image.

A print is made with multiples of the design.

The piece is composed of multiple components, so several designs are cut out.

The drawings are trimmed down and attached to sterling silver sheets.

A sharp exacto knife is used to cut the design into the silver

Now there are clean inscribed lines to follow.

The first of the components to be cut out are the arms of the molecule.

Tiny little pieces of silver.

Each piece has to be cleaned up and straightened out to create the clean lines needed for the design. A very small steel file and abrasive wheel is used for the job.

A tube is used to create the small circle in the design.

Each of the small pieces are soldered onto a base plate using a torch. That’s a good lookin solderer

Once the pieces are soldered on they need to clean in an acid bath jewelers call “pickle”.

Magnifying visors are used because the pieces are so small. In this picture, a small steel graver is used to texture the background of the piece.

A close up of the textured background.

Now that the molecule design is in place, it’s time to create the border.

A hole is drilled in order to allow a saw blade to cut out the interior.

The interior of the hexagon is cut out first.

Then the entire piece is cut out. In order to be safe the piece is cut a little outside the drawing. This ensures the piece won’t be too small.

Files are then used to cut the piece to more exact proportions.

The inside is filed as well.

With the border looking good, it’s time to solder the frame onto the main piece. This is what the piece looks like as it is being soldered.

Once the piece is cleaned up the excess silver is cut away using a jeweler’s saw.

Different abrasive wheels are used to clean up any excess material.

Bam!

A piece of silver wire is formed and cut, this piece will make up the bail of the piece.

Tweezer arrangement just so.

Solder it on down.

A sharp steel scribe is used to further texture the background.

The same scribe is used to cut in the PepperBox “PB” as well as .925 which indicated that the pieces is sterling silver.

The piece is then soaked in a darkening solution.

A steel wire brush is used to apply the final finish. This really brings up the highlight and burnished the silver.

This piece came out really great. A great gift for any science loving valentine. Happy Valentine’s Day guys!!

Tags: art work, Custom design, drawings, fabrication, pendant, silver

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.