The Ganoksin Project S i n c e 1 9 9 6 Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Techniques
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In This Edition:
- Metaphors in Metal - Manfred Bischoff's Structuralist Jewelry
- South Africa: The Big Picture
- Colored Karat Golds for Investment Casting
- Laser Welding - Making Soldering a Technique of the Past
- Making a Shield for a Foredom Handpiece
- Fold Forming - T-Fold with a Table Insert
- Repairing Freshwater Pearl Earrings Using Mini Pulse III 8. [Beginners' Corner] Simple Method of Forming Jump Rings
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In This Edition of Tips From The Jeweler's Bench
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- Metaphors in Metal - Manfred Bischoff's Structuralist Jewelry By Patricia Harris and David Lyon
Manfred Bischoff has a fascination with language. Like many Europeans of his generation, Bischoff is fluent in several languages, including German, English, French, and Italian. And, as an artist of his generation, he is similarly versed in aesthetic theory that arises from deep structure linguistics. Although he makes jewelry, he insists, "I am creating language. If I find a sentence or a theme I like, then the piece is done. I must only, search for how to do it."....
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- South Africa: The Big Picture By Beard Morgan
For the residents of South Africa's poorest neighborhoods, jewelry makes for a fresh start. Until 10 years ago, global economic sanctions against South Africa generally forced South African companies to keep their manufacturing in-house out of necessity. Post-apartheid, after sanctions were dropped, the rand remained relatively weak against most foreign currencies, again necessitating domestic manufacture. It comes as somewhat of a surprise, therefore, to hear that the consensus among South African jewelers is that there aren't enough of them in the first place....
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- Colored Karat Golds for Investment Casting By Damiano Zito
In modern melting and casting technology, the need for products able to front competition in the field of quality and price encourages the development of new alloys that can guarantee better performance. Most significant innovations have taken place in alloys for investment casting, to improve the quality of castings. Additions of many elements to gold alloys have been experimented, but only a few of them appear to be sufficiently effective and easy to use. In this paper, we describe work carried out to examine technical and practical performances of some yellow 18 carat gold with additions aiming chiefly at improving alloy castability. Alloys of different composition have been tested and the effects of the different alloying additions have been compared, in order to find the addition elements that show better performance and able to give a true improvement of the quality level of the castings....
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- Laser Welding - Making Soldering a Technique of the Past By James E. Gervais Crafford
When first starting to work with the laser welders, operators should experiment with five or six different alloys commonly used. It is also recommended to source different types of alloys in casting and strip/stamping form. This gives the operator a better understanding of the composition and thermal conductivity of the metals. Since close attention must be paid to the thickness or thinness, shape, and fit of the parts to be welded, operators should test-weld some parts together at different settings (voltage, pulse length, beam diameter), then cut a cross section of the piece to check the weld depth. This exercise provides the operator with a "feel" for the different alloys and how they react to various power levels....
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- Making a Shield for a Foredom Handpiece By Lee Epperson
This paper describes two simple methods of creating a shield to be used on the end of a Foredom handpiece. The shield will prevent grindings and dust from being slung into the face. Always wear eye protection when using the handpiece....
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- Fold Forming -T-Fold with a Table Insert By Charles Lewton-Brain
This page describes the steps to using a table insert in a T-fold. A table insert is an object, or a composition of a group of objects, inserted into the table when it is made, and then trapped. Items to try include, washers, shapes of 16 gauge iron binding wire, screws, shaped metal pieces designed for the purpose etc....
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- Repairing Freshwater Pearl Earrings Using Mini Pulse III By Mark B. Mann
14-karat yellow gold cultured freshwater pearl and diamond earrings will be repaired as a demonstration of the new Mini Pulse III. The connecting post and dangle jump rings were not soldered when originally made. One of the dangles has become unattached to the post....
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- [Beginners' Corner] Simple Method of Forming Jump Rings By Lee Epperson
This paper describes a simple process of forming jump rings. These jump rings were formed from 16 guage sterling silver wire. The links will be
1/2 inches in diameter and will be used to create a pottery shard link concho belt....Complete Story:
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