Reed Sullivan - Mentor
[email protected]
Mrs. Sullivan is the Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Woodside Priory School. She has been teaching me miscellaneous artistic techniques in her own free time for the past four years. I’ve taken her glass and ceramics classes in the past, and started taking her metals class this year. She helped me plan, organize, and create my supplemental portfolio for college applications. She’s an amazingly successful artist, and has already agreed to be my mentor for Senior Project.
[email protected]
Mrs. Sullivan is the Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Woodside Priory School. She has been teaching me miscellaneous artistic techniques in her own free time for the past four years. I’ve taken her glass and ceramics classes in the past, and started taking her metals class this year. She helped me plan, organize, and create my supplemental portfolio for college applications. She’s an amazingly successful artist, and has already agreed to be my mentor for Senior Project.
Lost Wax Casting Method
Part I - Part II - Part III
There are lots of ways to make rings, but for my project I've concluded using a wax-casting method is the most efficient and cost-effective. Mrs. Sullivan has advised me about the exact type of waxx to buy and the correct tools to use for the first step. However, it's not a simple one-step method. This article outlines the basic steps: modeling, copying, sprueing, and pouring.
Part I - Part II - Part III
There are lots of ways to make rings, but for my project I've concluded using a wax-casting method is the most efficient and cost-effective. Mrs. Sullivan has advised me about the exact type of waxx to buy and the correct tools to use for the first step. However, it's not a simple one-step method. This article outlines the basic steps: modeling, copying, sprueing, and pouring.
JR Casting
http://jrcasting.com/
JR Casting is a metals studio in San Francisco. After I have poured all the different copies from molds of my original carved waxes, I will need to take them to a professional shop to be cast in sterling silver. After I bring them the models and the metal, they'll build a sprue-tree with all the wax rings. Next, they'll pour a liquid substance called "investment" around the tree that can withstand heat up to 1350 degrees Fahrenheit. When it sets, the wax will be melted out the bottom of the mold and we'll have a perfect, hollow copy of every ring inside. From that point, someone will melt the metal and we can pour. After everything cools I'll be able to snip off all the rings and do some final filing and finishing before setting a stone in each.
http://jrcasting.com/
JR Casting is a metals studio in San Francisco. After I have poured all the different copies from molds of my original carved waxes, I will need to take them to a professional shop to be cast in sterling silver. After I bring them the models and the metal, they'll build a sprue-tree with all the wax rings. Next, they'll pour a liquid substance called "investment" around the tree that can withstand heat up to 1350 degrees Fahrenheit. When it sets, the wax will be melted out the bottom of the mold and we'll have a perfect, hollow copy of every ring inside. From that point, someone will melt the metal and we can pour. After everything cools I'll be able to snip off all the rings and do some final filing and finishing before setting a stone in each.
Writer, Leaf Group, and Kristen Granata. "What Is the Tradition of Turning a Class Ring?" Our Everyday Life. Our Everyday Life, 17 June 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.
http://peopleof.oureverydaylife.com/tradition-turning-class-ring-10974.html
Turning your class ring is a very old and meaningful tradition. It’s especially interesting to me because of the personal choices you make in the process. Basically, before graduating you keep your ring turned backwards, the front of the ring on the palm side of your hand. Leading up to graduation, you choose people close to you to turn your ring around in a certain direction. The last person to turn your ring turns it in the opposite way, and once you graduate you turn it yourself so that that it’s facing up. The people and order of people you choose can be significant and as personal as you want, and I think that’s a very cool tradition for a graduating senior.
http://peopleof.oureverydaylife.com/tradition-turning-class-ring-10974.html
Turning your class ring is a very old and meaningful tradition. It’s especially interesting to me because of the personal choices you make in the process. Basically, before graduating you keep your ring turned backwards, the front of the ring on the palm side of your hand. Leading up to graduation, you choose people close to you to turn your ring around in a certain direction. The last person to turn your ring turns it in the opposite way, and once you graduate you turn it yourself so that that it’s facing up. The people and order of people you choose can be significant and as personal as you want, and I think that’s a very cool tradition for a graduating senior.
The Complete Jewelry Making Course: Principles, Practice and Techniques: A Beginner's Course for Aspiring Jewelry Makers
McGrath, Jinks. The Complete Jewelry Making Course. Hauppage, NY: Barrons, 2007. Print.
This book covers every step of the ring-making process: from creating original design concepts to fashioning professionally finished pieces of jewelry. It also lists all required tools and equipment, explains their uses, advises on safe working practices, and then guides readers through every stage of the jewelry making process in a series of carefully structured tutorials. There was instruction similar to what I've been learning from Mrs. Sullivan: methods of fashioning metals by heating, hammering, casting, soldering, riveting, polishing, finishing, and adding surface decoration. The three main points I took away from this book were how to start with an original idea, translate it into a workable design, and then use the design as a pattern to make wearable jewelry. I also learned more about how to work with precious and semiprecious stones, metals, glass, plastic, resin, and wood.
McGrath, Jinks. The Complete Jewelry Making Course. Hauppage, NY: Barrons, 2007. Print.
This book covers every step of the ring-making process: from creating original design concepts to fashioning professionally finished pieces of jewelry. It also lists all required tools and equipment, explains their uses, advises on safe working practices, and then guides readers through every stage of the jewelry making process in a series of carefully structured tutorials. There was instruction similar to what I've been learning from Mrs. Sullivan: methods of fashioning metals by heating, hammering, casting, soldering, riveting, polishing, finishing, and adding surface decoration. The three main points I took away from this book were how to start with an original idea, translate it into a workable design, and then use the design as a pattern to make wearable jewelry. I also learned more about how to work with precious and semiprecious stones, metals, glass, plastic, resin, and wood.
Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker's Guide to Styles & Techniques
Young, Anastasia. Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker's Guide to Styles & Techniques. Loveland, CO: Interweave, 2012. Print.
I used this book to learn more about techniques for creating gemstone jewelry, from basic bezels and prongs to pavé, carré, clusters, and numerous others—including cold joins, precious metal clay, settings for fragile stones, and settings that allow the stones to move. I also got a lot of detailed information about stones and metals—including their suitability, photos and illustrations for visual support, what makes a design wearable and durable, and detailed information on pre-made versus handmade settings.
Young, Anastasia. Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker's Guide to Styles & Techniques. Loveland, CO: Interweave, 2012. Print.
I used this book to learn more about techniques for creating gemstone jewelry, from basic bezels and prongs to pavé, carré, clusters, and numerous others—including cold joins, precious metal clay, settings for fragile stones, and settings that allow the stones to move. I also got a lot of detailed information about stones and metals—including their suitability, photos and illustrations for visual support, what makes a design wearable and durable, and detailed information on pre-made versus handmade settings.