It seems that chain maille is something that runs in
the family. Patti says that a chain maille necklace that
her mother made for her was the piece that initially
inspired her to finally jump in and start making jewelry herself. Patti was exposed to all kinds of jewelry
making techniques by her mother. “When my parents
retired decades ago, they moved to a retirement community in Florida that was tailored to an active lifestyle
and offered many, many crafts and activities: woodworking, ceramics, painting, and most importantly,
lapidary. My mother joined the ceramics and lapidary
clubs. Everything she ever created was in multiples, so
that her daughters, daughter-in-laws, granddaughters,
etc. had options when choosing the perfect piece of
jewelry! I marveled at each new technique that my
mother mastered. After years of watching her create, it finally rubbed off on me.” She says that she’s
been working with metal now for about 7 years, and like most of us we shudder just a bit at
the thought of those first couple of attempts when we started out “I am not sure that what I
made in the beginning could be classified as jewelry, it was so bad!”
So I asked her if there was a technique that was particularly hard, that needed more practice?
“Every technique took time and practice! When I look back on images of the first jewelry
I made, I shudder at my wrapped loops! Not only were the loops not round, but the tool
marks left in the metal were awful! But, the technique that has taken the longest to learn –
and I am still in that learning stage – is soldering. Heating the metal at the right temperature
and finally seeing that solder get shiny and flow is a euphoria that is indescribable! It took
me a full year to perfect just soldering a jump ring – too much solder, not enough solder, too
much heat, not enough heat, not enough flux, jump ring was not flush, etc. I would get so
flustered and discouraged that I would put it down and not pick it up for a full month. One
day, it just finally clicked. I still make tons of mistakes, but the journey is much more enjoyable now that I have come to understand the relationship of the flame and the heat it produces to how reacts with a particular metal.”
So what technique is next for Patti? “In addition to perfect my soldering techniques (this is
ongoing!), I really want to try anticlastic raising – curving metal. I truly get goose bumps
when I see a piece a metal that has been shaped with flowing curves. I have also been thinking about trying precious metal clay. I have purchased a few good resource books and
watched quite a few videos and am totally in awe of these processes.”
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