Jewelry Making
The brief story of my jewelry making class and why I liked it way more than I thought I would…..
Senior year at Purdue I took a jewelry making class, which was my first real introduction to small, precision, manual manufacturing processes. My machine shop experience and projects up to this point prioritized function and realistic tolerances given the part’s application over beauty and accuracy for design’s sake.
The necklace was actually a side project destined to be a gift. Timing worked out perfectly though, since I had been sitting on the idea for the better part of 6 months before the jewelry class gave me the confidence to really start it. I kicked off the design in SolidWorks and 3D printed a few models to finalize the dimensions I was really just guessing on, like thickness, overall size, weight distribution, etc. Once happy with the design, I waterjet 316 stainless steel blanks (9 of them, to be precise, tweaking the waterjet parameters a bit each time) until I had a primary (and backup) that I would be happy with. It was then filed, sanded, and polished to final geometry. A small copper connecting ring and an off-the-shelf stainless chain finish it off. I couldn’t be happier; I learned a lot, the gift was well received, and it was honestly a fun time making it!
One of the other interesting projects that came of the Jewelry class was the “box” project. The requirements were pretty simple, it just had to be a cylindrical, friction fit container decorated in whatever style we desired. Naturally I went with the space theme, and ended up with an old-school rocket design pieced together with a copper body, brass nose, and nickel fins and smoke trail set atop a copper container. I lasercut the “SPACE” template out of cardstock and rolled it onto the base sheet before soldering everything together, sanding and polishing the two halves, and doing the final fit.
I’m hoping to eventually get back into jewelry making, as it really gives you a great appreciation of the fine details. Once I’m in a place with an actual workshop area, it’s definitely on the list of things I want to pick back up!
