how they're made


	Jan Webber Contemporary Jewelry (818) 991-7572 jan at janwebber.com

The studio

This is where it's all done. The table on the left is for soldering and hot work; the blue tank is for oxygen for the torch. The center desk is for assembly and shaping, and the table on the right is for cleaning and polishing. The colorful square on the hot table is a shield for the electric outlet. The turquoise rectangle above the center desk is the base of my tumble-polisher.

Removing excess solder

Wired for soldering

Cutting solder paillons

Cutting the pieces

I make a set of instructions for each ornament, and include a cutting guide for all the pieces. Here you can see the guide and the roll of 14 gauge sterling silver wire from which the new piece is cut. The roll contains about 100 feet of wire.

Bending the pieces

The cut pieces are shaped over a mandrel - in this case, a collet from a obsolete tool of my father's. One of the hardest parts of handcrafting wire ornaments is finding mandrels that are exactly the size and shape required for the design. The leather mallet bends the wire without flattening it.



	Marking centers For the 2006 ornament, all the pieces need to be bent exactly in the center; otherwise the outside edges of the piece wont be uniform. Using my CAD program, I made triangular graph paper to guide my snowflake ornaments. Permanent marker keeps the mark from rubbing off before the center is creased.